Michael Jordan (coming off a 72-10 season after having won his 4th ring)
Shaquille O'Neal (at age 24, physically dominant as all hell)
Alonzo Mourning (would be at worst the 2nd best center in todays league)
Dikembe Mutombo (would be at worst the 2nd best center in todays league)
Tim Hardaway (one of the better PGs of his era, better than any PG in this class)
Reggie Miller (HOFer, I hate him but give him his due)
Juwon Howard pre-back problems (was in heavy demand and got 100+ mil)
Allan Houston
Horace Grant

Oddly enough, this also happened to be the last offseason that we had cap room. Lets just hope for better results this time

WOODMANnYk wrote:so why did he joined the wizards afterwards?

mj cant resist competition. i always hoped he retired the first time cuz he was burned out, however i kinda buy into the gambling thing... dude just cant stop trying to beat someone at something.

Solace wrote:

TMS wrote:

KnicksSince88 wrote:Something i hear over and over in the last couple of years since this has been hyped up the way it has is that "this is the biggest FA period in the history of the league." Um, no. Maybe now in this advancing technological era there is more hype about, but player wise this class does not approach 1996

Michael Jordan (coming off a 72-10 season after having won his 4th ring)
Shaquille O'Neal (at age 24, physically dominant as all hell)
Alonzo Mourning (would be at worst the 2nd best center in todays league)
Dikembe Mutombo (would be at worst the 2nd best center in todays league)
Tim Hardaway (one of the better PGs of his era, better than any PG in this class)
Reggie Miller (HOFer, I hate him but give him his due)
Juwon Howard pre-back problems (was in heavy demand and got 100+ mil)
Allan Houston
Horace Grant

Oddly enough, this also happened to be the last offseason that we had cap room. Lets just hope for better results this time

how could all those great names possibly pass up the chance to come to NY & take this franchise to the promised land?

To be fair, three of those guys were centers. What center would want to come to NY when we already had Patrick Ewing? Jordan was coming off a championship, so him leaving was unlikely. Not getting Reggie Miller was a disappointment, of course.

I think this is a good illustration, though, of why we won't see Wade and LeBron or Wade and two other top stars on the same team, in Miami. I think attracting two bigs stars is the maximum. Three gets to the point where the players will tarnish their own individual achievements for the good of a championship and I don't think they will do that since they've already had so much individual success.

i thought the entire idea of winning a championship in NY was supposed to be an irresistable drawing card for the bignames? at least that's what everyone around here's been saying... if that's the case, why wouldn't a guy like Shaq want to come to NY to play alongside Ewing... u telling me a frontcourt with those 2 guys wouldn't have won a championship guaranteed?... or what about Alonzo or Dikembe, 2 guys who looked up to Ewing, why would they pass up the chance to win championships side by side with their mentor in NY, the greatest city in the world?

i'll give u MJ, he just won a championship in Chicago so he already proved he could get it done... Reggie Miller turned us down but i thought Allan Houston was not that significant a stepdown in talent at the time, i'm not gonna go crazy about losing out on him even tho in retrospect Reggie obviously had the better career since.

my point is, all this stuff about winning in NY & how that's going to be the big drawing factor to woo these guys meant nothing back then, why do people assume it's going to mean everything now?

TMS wrote:

Solace wrote:

TMS wrote:

KnicksSince88 wrote:Something i hear over and over in the last couple of years since this has been hyped up the way it has is that "this is the biggest FA period in the history of the league." Um, no. Maybe now in this advancing technological era there is more hype about, but player wise this class does not approach 1996

Michael Jordan (coming off a 72-10 season after having won his 4th ring)
Shaquille O'Neal (at age 24, physically dominant as all hell)
Alonzo Mourning (would be at worst the 2nd best center in todays league)
Dikembe Mutombo (would be at worst the 2nd best center in todays league)
Tim Hardaway (one of the better PGs of his era, better than any PG in this class)
Reggie Miller (HOFer, I hate him but give him his due)
Juwon Howard pre-back problems (was in heavy demand and got 100+ mil)
Allan Houston
Horace Grant

Oddly enough, this also happened to be the last offseason that we had cap room. Lets just hope for better results this time

how could all those great names possibly pass up the chance to come to NY & take this franchise to the promised land?

To be fair, three of those guys were centers. What center would want to come to NY when we already had Patrick Ewing? Jordan was coming off a championship, so him leaving was unlikely. Not getting Reggie Miller was a disappointment, of course.

I think this is a good illustration, though, of why we won't see Wade and LeBron or Wade and two other top stars on the same team, in Miami. I think attracting two bigs stars is the maximum. Three gets to the point where the players will tarnish their own individual achievements for the good of a championship and I don't think they will do that since they've already had so much individual success.

i thought the entire idea of winning a championship in NY was supposed to be an irresistable drawing card for the bignames? at least that's what everyone around here's been saying... if that's the case, why wouldn't a guy like Shaq want to come to NY to play alongside Ewing... u telling me a frontcourt with those 2 guys wouldn't have won a championship guaranteed?... or what about Alonzo or Dikembe, 2 guys who looked up to Ewing, why would they pass up the chance to win championships side by side with their mentor in NY, the greatest city in the world?

i'll give u MJ, he just won a championship in Chicago so he already proved he could get it done... Reggie Miller turned us down but i thought Allan Houston was not that significant a stepdown in talent at the time, i'm not gonna go crazy about losing out on him even tho in retrospect Reggie obviously had the better career since.

my point is, all this stuff about winning in NY & how that's going to be the big drawing factor to woo these guys meant nothing back then, why do people assume it's going to mean everything now?

Well, as much as players like to talk about championships, and I do think they're very important, I think a player is unlikely to take much off his individual achievements in achieving them, if the player is truly among the elite. Of course, a combination of Shaq and Ewing would've been utterly dominant and unstoppable, but perhaps each player drops 3-4 points and 1-2 rebounds, due to less touches and less opportunities.

I think NY is a big drawing card. But, most elite players will have a bit of selfishness. To an extent, I think the selfishness is kinda required in order to be on that elite level.

TMS wrote:do you really think shaving 3-4 points & 1-2 rebounds off their career totals would really effect their standing in the HOF if they won multiple championships together? come on bro... i get the point about egos & i agree, that's the reason why these guys will pass up the chance to play with each other, but that's beside the point... people think that winning in NY is going to lure Lebron here, but what proof do we have that it's appealed to other bigname NBA FA's?

I just think some players want to be "the man", so to speak. I think in the NBA it's tough, because in the scenario you gave, whatever center had joined the Knicks would've been technically playing out of position. I think those guys are good enough to overcome it, but not every player wants to do that. I think NY does have allure. Whether it will affect LeBron enough to want to play here is unknown. Like any city, New York has its positives and negatives. I think at this point, we have more questions than answers. We should have some answers soon.

KnicksSince88 wrote:Don Nelson swears that we had a deal on the table during the 95-96 season to trade Ewing to Orlando for Shaq. He said he spoke to Shaq and Shaq told him he would re-sign here that offseason, and that he was going to either NY or LA regardless. Somehow Ewing caught wind of these talks, it created a massive clash between them, and Nelson got the boot before years end. He said this in a NY times interview a few years ago. Nelson flat out claimed the reason he got the boot is that Ewing got wind of the Shaq talks

Here is the article http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9401E6D71631F931A35750C0A9619C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all

Depressing.

Solace wrote:

TMS wrote:do you really think shaving 3-4 points & 1-2 rebounds off their career totals would really effect their standing in the HOF if they won multiple championships together? come on bro... i get the point about egos & i agree, that's the reason why these guys will pass up the chance to play with each other, but that's beside the point... people think that winning in NY is going to lure Lebron here, but what proof do we have that it's appealed to other bigname NBA FA's?

I just think some players want to be "the man", so to speak. I think in the NBA it's tough, because in the scenario you gave, whatever center had joined the Knicks would've been technically playing out of position. I think those guys are good enough to overcome it, but not every player wants to do that. I think NY does have allure. Whether it will affect LeBron enough to want to play here is unknown. Like any city, New York has its positives and negatives. I think at this point, we have more questions than answers. We should have some answers soon.

i agree w/u on guys wanting to be "the man" on their teams... all these athletes have super huge egos, especially the biggest name stars... it's a big part of what makes them great, that supreme confidence in their own abilities & wanting to take on any challenge & shine... & i do agree that NYC does hold allure because of the stage & the marketing possibilities, but to pretend like we hold such a huge advantage over other cities when it comes to getting bigname stars to want to come here when it hasn't really happened in the past (at least from an NBA standpoint) is kinda empty speculation at best IMO.

TMS wrote:

Solace wrote:

TMS wrote:do you really think shaving 3-4 points & 1-2 rebounds off their career totals would really effect their standing in the HOF if they won multiple championships together? come on bro... i get the point about egos & i agree, that's the reason why these guys will pass up the chance to play with each other, but that's beside the point... people think that winning in NY is going to lure Lebron here, but what proof do we have that it's appealed to other bigname NBA FA's?

I just think some players want to be "the man", so to speak. I think in the NBA it's tough, because in the scenario you gave, whatever center had joined the Knicks would've been technically playing out of position. I think those guys are good enough to overcome it, but not every player wants to do that. I think NY does have allure. Whether it will affect LeBron enough to want to play here is unknown. Like any city, New York has its positives and negatives. I think at this point, we have more questions than answers. We should have some answers soon.

i agree w/u on guys wanting to be "the man" on their teams... all these athletes have super huge egos, especially the biggest name stars... it's a big part of what makes them great, that supreme confidence in their own abilities & wanting to take on any challenge & shine... & i do agree that NYC does hold allure because of the stage & the marketing possibilities, but to pretend like we hold such a huge advantage over other cities when it comes to getting bigname stars to want to come here when it hasn't really happened in the past (at least from an NBA standpoint) is kinda empty speculation at best IMO.

Yeah, I kinda agree with what you're saying. I think NYC does have an edge, but the edge is on an individual level and it may not affect every player. Is it a huge edge? If we're comparing to Memphis, yes. If we're comparing to Chicago, maybe not so much. Plus, a lot of NBA players like warm weather, which is a downside of NYC.

It's tough to compare it, though, because we haven't really been in this situation, except for '96. Because of the reasons I listed, I don't think '96 was a good indication. Now, on the flipside, if you look at the Yankees, a lot of big name players have come to the Yankees over the years. Some couldn't handle the pressure, but I do think the allure is there. Although, it may be unfair to compare to the Yankees, because that is a legendary team. Maybe the Meuts would be a better comparison. Ugh!