In a chat on the Roommates Show, Knicks owner/governor James Dolan revealed the shocking details of his canceled pursuit of Vince Carter. According to Dolan, the Knicks nearly had a deal for the NBA superstar but called it off after being told his Achilles was ready to burst.
“We were going to do the trade for (Vince Carter) and the medical team came back and told us that he had a 90% severed Achilles tendon and that it would never hold up, that once it ruptured he would never be the same player,” said Dolan. “For that reason, we didn’t do that trade. I kept waiting for his Achilles tendon to break, but it never broke. He was putting in 30, 40 a night.”
James Dolan has been a majority owner of the Knicks since 1999 and most fans still blame him for running the team into the ground. With very few playoff series wins under his leadership, Dolan has been tagged as one of the worst owners in the NBA, but it doesn’t mean he hasn’t tried to pull his team out of the gutter.
The Vince Carter trade talks are just another example of the Knicks’ mismanagement under his watch. Instead of taking a risk and trading for a superstar, Dolan took the word of his medical team and passed up the chance to add a Hall-of-Famer to the roster.
Dolan didn’t give a year for when they passed on Carter but it had to be near the beginning of his career, sometime in the early 2000s. After being drafted fifth overall in 1998, he played for the Raptors for his first seven years in the NBA, averaging 23.4 points, 5.2 rebounds, and 3.9 assists per game on 44.6% shooting.
After a falling out with the Raptors front office, Vince was traded to the Nets in 2004 where he went on to make two more All-Star teams. Whether it was that season or sometime before, the Knicks had an opportunity to trade for Carter but they were told that his Achilles tendon would not hold up.
Carter went on to play 22 seasons in the NBA and was an All-Star level player deep into his 30s. Second to LeBron James, Carter was a master of longevity and he would have helped the Knicks to a better standing in the East.
Instead, the Knicks elected not to acquire Carter and left their team without a leading star for decades. It wasn’t until the arrival of Carmelo Anthony in 2011 that the Knicks found their next star, and they tried for years to build around him.
Sadly, the Knicks’ efforts were in vain and they failed to make any kind of title run. Today, while New York is one of the top teams in the East, they have yet to win the title and still have some major regrets over their past decisions.
The only hope of redemption for Dolan is for the modern-day Knicks to somehow make a postseason run. With Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns, OG Anunoby, and Mikal Bridges, they have more firepower than ever before and are third in the East (42-23), but it remains to be seen if they can compete with the best teams in the league.
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