Knicks Dip Into Past and Bring Back Mills as President and General Manager
By NATE TAYLOR and HARVEY ARATON
In an unexpected move just days before the opening of training camp, the Knicks disclosed Thursday that they were bringing back one of their former executives to serve as team president and general manager.Steve Mills, one of the highest-ranking officials at Madison Square Garden before departing in June 2009, will replace Glen Grunwald, who had spent the past three seasons helping to transform the Knicks into a competitive team. Grunwald will remain with the team as an adviser. He had been the Knicks’ general manager and executive vice president.
Mills, 53, was the president of Madison Square Garden Sports from 2003 to 2008, a period in which the Knicks were in disarray on and off the court. It was Mills who recommended that Isiah Thomas be hired as the Knicks’ president in December 2003.
The move came to haunt Mills when another team executive he had hired, Anucha Browne Sanders, sued Thomas and the Garden in January 2006, charging sexual harassment. Browne Sanders and the Knicks settled the case for $11.5 million in 2007.
A year after the trial, Mills was replaced as M.S.G. Sports president by Scott O’Neil. Mills had previously ceded authority over the Knicks when the team named Donnie Walsh as team president in April 2008.
Mills, once viewed as a possible successor to Billy Hunter as the executive director of the N.B.A. players union, has never been a general manager. That raises questions about whom he will rely on for input when it comes to personnel decisions.
Because Mills brought Thomas to the Knicks, there is certain to be speculation that Thomas, who has maintained a relationship with Dolan since leaving the Knicks, will have a major voice in the organization, advising Mills regardless of whether the Knicks give him a title.
In August 2010, the Knicks announced that Thomas would return to the team as a part-time consultant while continuing to coach Florida International University. The N.B.A., however, said that such an arrangement would violate its rules.
Thomas has since been dismissed by F.I.U., so that conflict no longer exists. A person with ties to Madison Square Garden and with knowledge of the Knicks’ situation maintained that the hiring of Mills would not set the stage for Thomas to have an influential role with the team.
“This is not an Isiah story,” said the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The decision to replace Grunwald, 55, with Mills may be an effort by the Knicks to position themselves for the pursuit of stars.
Dolan may have concluded that Mills, who also worked a number of years for the N.B.A. in addition to his decade with the Knicks, and who got to know a significant number of agents and top players as he vied in recent months for the union job, will be a good person to lead the team’s free-agent efforts.
Those efforts could include finding a way to shed the final part of Amar’e Stoudemire’s contract after this season to create cap maneuverability and possibly even make another run at LeBron James when he becomes eligible for free agency next summer. Mills could also lead an effort to lure another star player to the Knicks after this season, in part to persuade Carmelo Anthony to stay in New York. Anthony can opt out of his contract next summer.
It seems possible that the Knicks, feeling the pressure of a much more visible and competitive Nets team nearby in Brooklyn, have concluded that their team needs a more accessible public face and that Mills would do well in that role.
Since joining the Knicks in 2006 from the Toronto Raptors and taking over as general manager in June 2011, Grunwald has infrequently engaged with reporters, although he has only been following the Dolan playbook, which has generally restricted media access to team executives, including himself.
In his time in charge, Grunwald made some adept moves, taking a chance on Jeremy Lin, a journeyman who became a phenomenon, albeit a short-lived one.
He also signed Tyson Chandler, a steady presence in the middle for the last two seasons. One of his most recent moves was to sign the talented, and sometimes combustible, veteran Metta World Peace to a two-year deal.
Grunwald will now advise Mills, at least to some extent. But Mills, who played college basketball at Princeton, can also turn to two Knicks front-office executives — John Gabriel and Mark Warkentien — who were previously N.B.A. general managers, Gabriel with Orlando and Warkentien with Denver. In addition, Mills will work with Allan Houston, a former Knicks star and the current assistant general manager.
Mills most recently was working as the chief executive of Athletes and Entertainers Wealth Management.
In a statement, Dolan said Mills was the “right person to help us reach our ultimate goal of winning an N.B.A. championship.”
That might eventually happen, although in the immediate future Mills might be happy just keeping the Knicks ahead of the Nets.
