Prep work done, sales pitch now biggest challenge for Knicks' WalshApril 7, 2010
By Ken Berger
CBSSports.com Senior Writer
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GREENBURGH, N.Y. -- It was a few days before July 1, 2008 when Donnie Walsh stood in his New York City hotel room, gazed at himself in the mirror and kept repeating the same phrase over and over.
Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. How could you be so stupid?
Walsh, a native New Yorker, had months earlier turned his back on retirement to come home and run the Knicks. It was the opportunity, and the challenge, of a lifetime: Restore the Knicks to their former greatness. Bring basketball excitement back to the most storied arena in the sport.
Three days after running his first draft with the Knicks -- he selected Danilo Gallinari with the sixth overall pick -- Walsh would take his final drag of a cigarette after decades of chain smoking. The next morning, July 1 -- "That's getting to be my day," he said -- Walsh went to the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and had a piece of his tongue cut out.
"You had every other part of your body checked that you could possibly check," he was telling himself in the mirror, "except the exact place where the smoke went in."
Walsh is now cancer- and smoke-free as he approaches the two-year anniversary of his surgery. But everyone in the basketball world views July 1, 2010 as significant for very different reasons.
Even Walsh.
"When I came from Indiana, it just blew me away," Walsh said during a recent interview in his Westchester County office. "... What I thought to myself was, if you were a great player, you gotta come here. This place is electric, and the opportunities here are gonna be great. And I'm not just talking about money. I'm talking about celebrity. I'm talking about everything."
Walsh has spent two years evaluating the roster he inherited, but it didn't take long to plot his strategy: Get under the salary cap by the third year and start adding pieces that could get the Knicks back on the path to contention -- responsibly. The seemingly impossible part -- creating enough cap space to lure two max players to Madison Square Garden -- has been accomplished. Now comes the part that's equally important and even harder to pull off: The sales pitch.
"It's constantly being reworked," Walsh said. "It'll be reworked for each individual player, so we're not ready to say what we're going to do. We're doing whatever we can within the rules, period."
By my count, we are now 405 words into this article and we've yet to mention the words "LeBron James." Walsh, of course, cannot talk about any player currently under contract with another team. And he likes to point out to the media types who surround him before every home game at the Garden that he's never once mentioned a specific player he's chasing. But you don't need nearly half a century of basketball experience to figure that one out.
"I just I feel that we'll be able to add players that make sense for this team," Walsh said. "I feel somewhat confident of that, even if we don't get what everybody is writing about. And that was also kind of part of the plan. If you can get to that point, I believe that the future of the Knicks is going to be to be able to manage their cap and keep themselves in a flexible position. So if an opportunity comes up -- whether it's free agents, trades -- they can do it. ... No matter what happens, I felt we had to do this."
The playoffs start in 10 days, but for the sixth consecutive year and eighth time this decade, the Knicks (28-49) will not be participating. Walsh, 69, believes that will change. Although he is making no promises about how quickly, he has never been shy about how high he is aiming.
"I'm not just trying to make it a little better," he said.
Will he get the players necessary to build a champion? Will he have to wait another year? Will his Earth-moving work with the Knicks' perpetually bloated payroll be viewed as an abject failure if he doesn't sign You Know Who?
"It isn't that I'm afraid of that," Walsh said. "But I don't think it's a correct analysis of what I was trying to do. ... What I think I'm saying pretty clearly is, it isn't about one guy. It's about a direction we had to go."
The Knicks haven't had cap room to spend on free agents in 14 years, since the summer of 1996, when they wound up signing Allan Houston and Chris Childs and arranging a sign-and-trade for Larry Johnson. The Knicks didn't get the ultimate prize that summer; Michael Jordan, Reggie Miller, and other superstars were free agents at a time when there was no limit on max contracts. They already had their franchise cornerstone, Patrick Ewing, and added enough pieces around him to allow an already successful team to continue its run, including a second trip to the NBA Finals in six seasons.
Walsh was running the Indiana Pacers at the time, an executive in a small market fearful that his own prized free agent, Miller, would seek the bigger stage in New York. He recalls a conversation with Miller's agent, Arn Tellem, that turned the tables in his favor. As the signing period began, Tellem asked Walsh what he was hearing. Walsh, in his understated way, casually said that he wasn't hearing much; only that Houston and Childs were on their way to New York to sign with the Knicks. Tellem's face blanched; he'd lost his biggest piece of leverage, and Miller ultimately re-signed with the Pacers.
Similar psychological warfare, mind-reading and head fakes will be in full effect come July 1. Though Walsh has never been involved in the pursuit of free agents on this scale, it can be argued that no NBA executive is more prepared for this moment. Walsh can lull you to sleep with his grandfatherly nonchalance, then close the deal with the ruthlessness of a poker player who always has more cards than he shows.
The analysis of Walsh's strategy has centered around James, who indisputably will be the greatest player of his generation no matter where he plays. He is the only one who can answer the biggest question of this summer: Does he want to stay home in Ohio, or does he yearn for a bigger platform to build his basketball resume and his stature as an international icon?
"I just think the opportunity that's here in New York right now is off the charts for somebody who really wants to have a big impact on the sport," Walsh said. "A lot of it got to do with what players want. I think there are players that might not want that. But the opportunity here is incredible."
Regardless of the timing of decisions by James, Miami's Dwyane Wade and Toronto's Chris Bosh to decline player options after the season and become unrestricted free agents, Walsh is preparing for all scenarios. In 2000, when the Knicks pursued free-agent Grant Hill, the team dispatched a star-studded entourage on MSG chairman James Dolan's private jet to meet with Hill in suburban Detroit. The recruiting pitch wasn't successful; Hill's agent, Lon Babby, wound up brokering a sign-and-trade to Orlando. Walsh wouldn't discuss anything the Knicks have in store for this summer, saying he would handle it based on each player's preference.
"We'll flat-out do what the player wants," Walsh said. "But I'd be curious who doesn't come to New York [for a visit]. There may be guys who've already made up their mind on certain things; I'm not counting them. But I'm saying once you get to that, I would assume that they'd want to come and see what we have -- if they're interested. Again, are they interested? I don't know the answer to that."
Whether they ultimately choose to sign extensions or new max deals with their current teams, or allow themselves to be courted in elaborate free-agent visits -- nobody knows. But we do know that a few things have changed since Walsh took office with the Knicks -- things that could tilt the playing field in his favor.
While he wouldn't give specifics because the information is confidential, Walsh said he believes he will have enough cap space to sign two max players without shedding any more payroll. When Walsh completed the purge by trading Jared Jeffries to Houston in the Tracy McGrady deal at the trade deadline, it was widely assumed that he'd need to negotiate a buyout with broken-down center Eddy Curry in order to clear space for two superstars. That analysis, however, was assuming the '10-'11 cap would be $52 million, a figure the majority of teams have been using since the league warned last summer that revenue declines could lower the cap to between $50.4 million and $53.6 million.
But multiple team executives have told CBSSports.com that they have raised their cap estimates to $53 million based on improving revenue data this season. Several expressed optimism that the cap could be north of $54 million. If true, that would give Walsh the extra $2 million he needs to fit two max players under the cap without dumping Curry. This is significant for reasons that go beyond dollars. Curry is close with power broker William "Wes" Wesley, who also is one of James' closest confidants. Until Wesley helped Curry lose more than 30 pounds last summer, Walsh said he'd never dealt with him before.
The other story that has progressed in lock step with Walsh's free-agent plan is a $775 million-$850 million renovation of Madison Square Garden that is expected to be partially completed by 2011-12 season. Essentially, everything but the iconic exterior and ceiling will be gutted and modernized, so that MSG's outdated amenities finally will measure up to its reputation.
"To continue to attract the greatest events in the world, the world's most famous arena will become the world's most state-of-the-art arena," MSG president and CEO Hank Ratner said.
It doesn't take much creative license to see that Dolan isn't spending nearly $1 billion because he wants the paying customers to be more comfortable. In addition to perks like widened concourses, windows opening up to city views, and better sightlines from both the upper and lower bowls, the transformation of the Garden will include something never before attempted -- something that will solidify it as the proper playpen for the sport's biggest star, should he choose to embrace it. The building will feature 20 court-level suites the size of Manhattan apartments -- and with a similar price tag. Each will have a living room and a fireplace and access to courtside seats, with the expected price to exceed $1 million for a year's worth of Garden events.
The facelift is being financed entirely by MSG, making it difficult to believe that Dolan expects Walsh's simultaneous renovation of the Knicks to be sidetracked by fickle free agents or a work stoppage that threatens to wipe out a good chunk of the first season in the renovated building.
"I can't imagine why free agents wouldn't look at this place and come here," Walsh said Friday night from his customary pre-game perch near the court at the unrenovated Garden.
Better players will come here; it's just a matter of who, when and how. While the target of the Knicks' affection is obvious to everyone, Walsh hasn't gutted the NBA's flagship franchise for a one-time shot at one player. He's created an opportunity to fill the Knicks' talent vacuum in any number of ways.
If Walsh goes 0 for 2 on James and Wade, the backup plan is expected to be Joe Johnson, who is represented by Walsh's old friend, Tellem. But that likely would only come after exploring trades to bolster other weaknesses on the roster and make it more attractive to potential free agents. Using some of the space in sign-and-trades also would allow Walsh to maximize the flexibility he's created.
In addition to a primary scorer, Walsh believes coach Mike D'Antoni needs a shot-blocking center, more physical and defensive-minded frontcourt players, and perhaps a point guard -- depending on whether the scorer he lands is comfortable handling the ball and initiating the offense. The Blazers, for example, might be willing to include Andre Miller and/or Joel Pryzbilla in a sign-and-trade for David Lee, whose price Walsh may not be able to afford. (Former Blazers point guard Steve Blake also is a free agent.) There are plenty of other options in this free-agent class alone that would be viable alternatives to the two-max player scenario; Brendan Haywood, Marcus Camby, Rudy Gay, and Paul Pierce, to name a few, are players rarely mentioned among the marquee free agents. But all could fill needs and get the franchise back on solid footing. If Walsh doesn't get it all done this summer, he can hold back some money and wait until 2011, when Carmelo Anthony can become a free agent.
"You don't rebuild a team in one season," said agent David Falk, who represented more than a half-dozen superstar free agents, including Jordan, during the transformational summer of '96. "Whether he signs LeBron James and Dwyane Wade or signs three or four pretty good players not making the max, he's got the flexibility to do it."
The method teams like the Cavs and Spurs have used to build contenders -- through the draft -- wasn't an option for Walsh. His predecessor, Isiah Thomas, traded the team's unprotected 2010 first-round pick for Stephon Marbury, who is now playing in China. (The pick now resides with the Utah Jazz.) Walsh will have two second-round picks this summer, but he went all-in with his free-agent strategy when he agreed to swap 2011 first-round picks with Houston and send the Rockets a lightly protected 2012 first-round pick as part of the McGrady trade.
"To build a team through the draft is a long period of time," Walsh said. " ... It takes you four years to get the players -- if that's what you need, four prime-time players. And then it takes them three years to play together. So that's seven years. I just thought, 'I don't know if we can do that.'"
Skeptics of Walsh's strategy point to the paucity of marquee free agents who have left teams in their primes for shorter deals and smaller raises, a key part of the NBA's economic model that was collectively bargained to limit such mercenary-like movement. Shaquille O'Neal going from Orlando to the Lakers is the most prominent example on a short list that also includes Hill, McGrady and Steve Nash.
Then there is the notion that James can't get any bigger than he already is -- that the impact of market size has been diminished by the velocity of information in the technology age. Recent news that James' contract with Nike was being extended would seem to bolster this argument. According to published reports, James' initial $90 million deal with Nike included a clause -- since expired -- that would pay him a $5 million annual bonus if he played in New York, Los Angeles or Chicago. His extension does not include such a clause, a person familiar with the agreement told CBSSports.com.
"At the end of the day," the person said, "it doesn't matter where LeBron plays."
Additionally, James has been given everything he could ever ask for in Cleveland, including a steady flow of complementary talent ranging from Mo Williams to O'Neal to Antawn Jamison; GM Danny Ferry and owner Dan Gilbert have stopped at nothing to make him happy. The Cavs and Lakers are the favorites to meet in the Finals, presenting the very real possibility that James will be too busy celebrating a championship on July 1 to entertain pie-in-the-sky pitches from the cap space gang. The Knicks, Nets, Heat, Bulls, and Clippers have cap room and will make a run at James; the Thunder and Kings have space but are not expected to be in the chase.
"I'm not reading the guys that say they're optimistic about who we're going to get, nor am I reading the guys who are skeptical," Walsh said. "My feeling is nobody knows until you talk to the guy himself, and then you'll find out."
Two years ago, Walsh made a fateful career decision and was forced to take a long, hard look at himself in the mirror. Now, he is less than three months away from the moment that lured him here. The opportunity and the challenge of it are trumped only by the uncertainty, and by the desire to finally get the answer to questions he's been toting around instead of cigarettes for two years.
"No matter what happens," Walsh said, "I think it's better for New York to be in the position they're in. But time will tell."
For more from Ken Berger, check him out on Twitter: @KBerg_CBS
4/9/2010 12:48 AM LAST EDITED: 4/9/2010 12:50 AM
