It’s been a while since the New York Knicks were relevant or a contending team. It seems like it’s always the same old story with them: Fans rave about potential top-tier free agents, and then they end up overpaying players who aren’t worthy of that much money.
Last summer, they were reportedly the frontrunners to land both Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant, while also having the highest odds to land Zion Williamson with the first overall pick. Fast-forward to today and they ended up with RJ Barrett, Julius Randle, and Bobby Portis.
Besides their bad luck, it seems like the New York Knicks just haven’t been managed well over the past two decades. As a matter of fact, Clutchpoints recently pointed out that the Los Angeles Lakers won more playoff games (9) this September alone than the New York Knicks in the entire century (7).
We’re talking about one of the biggest, most lucrative franchises in the world. Everybody raves about Madison Square Garden and how New York City is the mecca of basketball, yet it seems like this franchise is ages away from contending.
The Los Angeles Lakers hadn’t made the playoffs since 2013. They hit rock-bottom and started rebuilding, piled up assets, cleared the salary cap to sign LeBron James, traded away their prospects for Anthony Davis, and are now three wins away from an NBA Championship.
I know it’s easier said than done but c’mon, countless stars would kill for playing for the Knicks and leading them back to contention. There’s no reason to think they couldn’t go through a similar path in little-to-no time but the team’s management and ownership must get their act together. Right now.