LeBron James has played for three teams in his 23-year NBA career, but the New York Knicks aren’t one of them. James has, in fact, passed on opportunities to go to New York on multiple occasions, and comedian and Knicks fan Tracy Morgan thinks he knows why. On ESPN’s Knicks: Celebrity Row, Morgan claimed the lights have been too bright for the 41-year-old.
“It’s New York,” Morgan said. “That’s why LeBron can’t play here, ’cause the lights are too bright and we too rowdy.”
That’s a bizarre claim. There is no stage that’s too bright for James. He has owned the Knicks over the course of his career, too. James has gone 44-18 in 62 regular-season games against them. That comes to about a 71.0% win rate.
As for road games against the Knicks, James has gone 23-9 at Madison Square Garden in the regular season. That’s about a 72.0% win rate. He has dominated on that stage, averaging 28.0 points, 6.9 rebounds, 7.5 assists, 1.8 steals, and 0.7 blocks per game at MSG.
James has even called MSG his favorite arena, so why did he never end up on the Knicks? Well, The Ringer’s Bill Simmons claimed on his Bill Simmons Podcast in 2020 that they were his first choice when he became a free agent in 2010, but they made a horrible impression in their meeting.
“From everyone I’ve talked to in the know since then, it’s clear that the Knicks were the first choice,” Simmons said. “I’m sorry, Knicks fans, earmuffs. But it was basically the Knicks’ to lose, and they just couldn’t stay out of their own way. The stories are legendary… They had the legendary meeting, Donnie Walsh was in the wheelchair, and Dolan was Dolan…They didn’t have anything prepared.
“And it just couldn’t have gone worse by all accounts,” Simmons continued. “It was a disaster. And I think at that point, combined with the decade the Knicks had just had, I think those guys were like, ‘F*** it.'”
James would end up joining forces with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh on the Miami Heat. That meeting with Knicks owner James Dolan and president of basketball operations Donnie Walsh was so bad that he didn’t even give them another chance. The Knicks even played a 10-minute video during the meeting that featured cast members of The Sopranos, which presumably didn’t go down all too well.
The Knicks’ second shot at James came in 2018, when he was leaving the Cleveland Cavaliers for the second time. He eventually opted to sign with the Los Angeles Lakers, though.
James’ agent and Klutch Sports Group CEO Rich Paul said the Knicks were an option in 2018, but they ultimately chose the Lakers. He would go on to win a championship with them in 2020.
It was after that season that the Knicks’ revival began. They made the playoffs in 2021 and then in 2023, won their first playoff series since 2013.
The Knicks would keep taking steps in the right direction in the years that followed. They made the Eastern Conference Finals in 2025 and are now in the NBA Finals in 2026. The Knicks are up 2-0 on the San Antonio Spurs and look set to win their first title since 1973.
