Bill Simmons: Knicks were Lebron's First Choice in 2010

[Stannis]

From his Podcast:

“From everyone I’ve talked to in the know since then, it’s clear that the Knicks were the first choice,” The Ringer’s Bill Simmons said on his podcast. “It was basically the Knicks’ to lose, and they just couldn’t stay out of their own way. The stories are legendary.”

New York’s meeting with LeBron was described as a “disaster.” So much so, a second one didn’t even occur.

“Dolan was Dolan. they didn’t have anything prepared. It just couldn’t have gone worse by all accounts. It was a disaster. I think at that point, combined with the decade the Knicks just had, I think those guys were just like ‘f–k it,'”

[god shammgod]

man f*ck a bill simmons

[JXL]

Why is this a story? Cause it's Bill Simmons saying it?

[Stannis]

I think this is BS for a few reasons:

(1) Pretty sure there was a source few years ago saying LBJ and DWade thought they were going to the Bulls.
(2) Knicks already got Amar'e. Not sure what else could have been done to prepare. MDA was coach USA with a good relationship with James.
(3) There were rumors for like 3 years of LBJ doing to the Knicks. Everyone on the city and country knew this.

It came down to playing with Wade who was a top 5 player easily at the time.

Bill Simmons continues to have some kind of fascination with the Knicks. He honestly sounds like a closest Knick fan at times. VERY weird.

[Infinitimind]

Why is this a story? Cause it's Bill Simmons saying it?

I like Bill Simmons , but he’s like to poke Knicks fan. Fake news

[Strick]

If Bill Simmons is saying it, then I know what I already knew... LeBron wasn’t coming to NY and him saying we were the top of his list means we were never at the top of his list

[KnicksGod]

Probably.

[Clyde_Style]

[mpharris36]

it was said that they lebron/wade/bosh planned this out way before any meetings.

So BS...trying to get hits

[GONYK]

Lebron wasn't going anywhere by himself. We were just short of 2 MAX slots that summer.

Could we have made moves? Sure, but it seems unlikely Lebron would trade playing with 2 other all stars to play with just one.

Simmons is wrong that a 2nd meeting never happened. The Knicks met with Lebron's people one more time

The Knicks refuse to throw in the towel in the LeBron James sweepstakes and were granted a second round of meetings with his representatives Saturday in Cleveland, the Daily News has learned.

According to a Knicks official, Garden president Scott O'Neil and senior VP of basketball operations Glen Grunwald were dispatched to Ohio for the clandestine meeting after the Knicks received a verbal commitment from free agent Amar'e Stoudemire.

James, who held face-to-face meetings with six teams over three days in downtown Cleveland, was not present at the meeting, nor was his business manager Maverick Carter. Instead, James' agent, Leon Rose, met with the two Knicks executives on the same day that James' camp spoke with both the Cavs and Bulls.

https://www.nydailynews.com/sports/basketball/knicks/new-york-knicks-surprise-meeting-lebron-james-representatives-cleveland-article-1.463194

[moocow007]

Now had Dolan just conceded to and given Pat Riley some vested interests in the team, it would have been Riley working his "Pat the Rat" magic to get Lebron, Wade and Bosh to NY.

Wasn't this the infamous "wheelchair" escapade?

[SmoothLefty21]

We never had a chance. He took a meeting with us just to stroke his ego.

[Jay10]

Why is this a story? Cause it's Bill Simmons saying it?

He's trying to use the Knicks as a distraction from his bad coverage of their being no diversity at The Ringer.

[Chanel Bomber]

Donnie Walsh overplayed his hand, probably under pressure from Dolan to publicize or make it common knowledge we were creating capspace for two max free agents (thus promising a better future).

Walsh also got scared and half-assed his own plan by not clearing enough capspace for 3 max free agents. Riley did at the buzzer, and got what the Knicks wanted. Probably would’ve ended up with Amar’e and Joe Johnson in that scenario anyway.

No one can blame Walsh for being in a wheelchair, but to recruit someone as ambitious as LeBron, the optics were disastrous. It made us look weak. Who do you follow, an Italian suit-wearing champion who has more rings than he does fingers on one hand, or an old man on a wheelchair who’s never accomplished anything of significance in the NBA?

If I remember correctly, the Knicks used a dusty powerpoint presentation for the pitch. The Knicks were already living in the past in 2010. This organization is old-fashioned and decrepit.

I absolutely believe that we were James’s top destination in theory, meaning if we had been competitive with Miami or Chicago in terms of what we can offer. What we showed instead is that we were not willing to go all the way, and that we were not a modern franchise that is a step ahead of the competition and ready to contend.

Same happened with KD. Although I was actually happy he didn’t sign with us.

[moocow007]

The reports were that Riley already had Wade as his mouthpiece working Lebron for at least a year prior to the "Decision". Riley knew it would take more than just "hey we are the Heat" to get guys in. He knew that not only did you need to figure out a way to add top talent, you needed to get top talent that were the target guys' BFF to close the deal. Riley was always the "deal closer" type. Dolan and Walsh were the "hey guys at least we gave it a good shot" type. It's why front office and connections and working every angle matters so much. No one is coming to NY cause it's NY if for no other reason they've seen what happens to guys that want to come to and end up playing for the Knicks. The rabid cat has already been let out of that bag. Riley figured out the loophole in the CBA and asked Wade to basically act as the GM for the team prior to him being allowed to actually be the GM in a deal like this. The Knicks were still stuck on cap clearing 101 and the notion that NY itself is a big enough selling point. Walsh was the good guy. What the Knicks needed was a fancy cat that could take on Pat the Rat. A Jerry West type guy for example.

[Stannis]

Walsh also got scared and half-assed his own plan by not clearing enough capspace for 3 max free agents. Riley did at the buzzer, and got what the Knicks wanted. Probably would’ve ended up with Amar’e and Joe Johnson in that scenario anyway.

How much more cap-space could they have cleared?

tbh, I'm surprised Knicks created the space they did at the time. Dumping ZBo and Ja without giving up assets was pretty decent. They both weren't sought after playing for the Knicks. Not many teams wanted them. It took them some time for them to find their niche.

Jarred Jeffries was hard to trade. I forgot the move, but there was rumors of trading Nate Robinson with Jeffries to shed some space back in 08-09 season I believe. They did not, and panicked later on for the McGracy deal in the 09-10 season.

Eddy Curry was un-tradeable unless we had two first round picks to offer (I don't think we did). So are you saying he should have tried packaged Gallo+Willy to dump Curry? That would have been interesting but I still don't think a team takes that trade.

I'm not sure if David Lee had any value either.

I think two stars was the only realistic option.

Heat only had to shed Michael Beasley's contract who was still young, serviceable, and only at 4.5 million. Knicks had 11 million in deadweight.

[moocow007]

Walsh also got scared and half-assed his own plan by not clearing enough capspace for 3 max free agents. Riley did at the buzzer, and got what the Knicks wanted. Probably would’ve ended up with Amar’e and Joe Johnson in that scenario anyway.

How much more cap-space could they have cleared?

tbh, I'm surprised Knicks created the space they did at the time. Dumping ZBo and Ja without giving up assets was pretty decent. They both weren't sought after playing for the Knicks. Not many teams wanted them. It took them some time for them to find their niche.

Jarred Jeffries was hard to trade. I forgot the move, but there was rumors of trading Nate Robinson with Jeffries to shed some space back in 08-09 season I believe. They did not, and panicked later on for the McGracy deal in the 09-10 season.

Eddy Curry was un-tradeable unless we had two first round picks to offer (I don't think we did). So are you saying he should have tried packaged Gallo+Willy to dump Curry? That would have been interesting but I still don't think a team takes that trade.

I'm not sure if David Lee had any value either.

I think two stars was the only realistic option.

Heat only had to shed Michael Beasley's contract who was still young, serviceable, and only at 4.5 million. Knicks had 11 million in deadweight.

The Heat traded former no.1 overall pick Michael Beasley who, at the time, looked like he was about the take the next step into starhood for basically nothing. So it costs. But it was easy for them to do this cause by most reports Lebron had already decided on Miami by that point.

So it wasn't so much about moving assets to land a top 5 all time talent, it was about doing all the other things behind the scenes to make sure that you were assured that you can afford to give all those assets up.

Put it this way, if the Knicks were guaranteed by Lebron that he's coming but that they needed to clear space for another max slot, they'd have assuredly included as many 1st round picks as they needed to move Jeffries or Curry. That they didn't was a sign that maybe Walsh heard something through the grapevine that Riley had already gotten Lebron (not impossible since Walsh is a old timer and had a lot of people in a lot of front offices and player agencies that he's worked with and had good relationships with that could have heard and decided to do Walsh a good one...that was probably the one benefit of Walsh over some other guy that didn't have enough heft to do what Riley did).

[NoLayupRule]

Geee
It was our game to lose with LeBron and again with Durant and we pooped the bed both times

Not shocking to read at all

[Stannis]

Put it this way, if the Knicks were guaranteed by Lebron that he's coming but that they needed to clear space for another max slot, they'd have assuredly included as many 1st round picks as they needed to move Jeffries or Curry. That they didn't was a sign that maybe Walsh heard something through the grapevine that Riley had already gotten Lebron (not impossible since Walsh is a old timer and had a lot of people in a lot of front offices and player agencies that he's worked with and had good relationships with that could have heard and decided to do Walsh a good one...that was probably the one benefit of Walsh over some other guy that didn't have enough heft to do what Riley did).

My question is say if LBJ to the Knicks was his #1 choice and it was just a matter of us clearing the space for 2 other stars, could we really have moved Curry?

Morey sucked everything we had left in the McGracy-Jeffries deal. So I don't think we could have traded more picks after that.

Only thing I can think of is trading Gallo + W.Chandler + Curry to a team. And even then, I'm not sure a team does that.
That's a boatload of salary (Curry still had 1.5 years).

[Stannis]

2026 headline: "Giannis wanted to go the Knicks, but said nahhhh"