For the past four years, the New York Knicks may have circumvented NBA draft rules by conducting secret workouts of collegiate players throughout gymnasiums in suburban Atlanta, Yahoo! Sports has found.

Knicks director of East Coast scouting Rodney Heard coordinated and conducted the sessions, three players who were involved in some of the workouts told Yahoo! Sports – including one May 2007 session that resulted in a devastating knee injury to Kansas All-American Brandon Rush(notes). A tear of the anterior cruciate ligament in Rush’s right knee forced him to withdraw from the 2007 draft and required surgery plus six months of rehabilitation.

In addition to the Rush session – which was an apparent violation of NBA bylaws forbidding teams from working out players before the annual predraft camp – Heard may have broken more rules by conducting predraft workouts with additional players during restricted time periods in 2007 and for excessive sessions in 2009 and 2010.

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Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=aw-knicksdraft102610

Adrian Wojnarowski must truly hate the Knicks. Article is really long and I didnt finish reading it because I dont think it's that serious to be honest.

At the end of the day, I would hope that the Knicks players, the organization and the media would embrace this year as a clean slate fresh start. Maybe that can only happen when they pay out all of their future draft picks. But either way, right or wrong, the Knicks need to address this with the league and resolve it, whether it means we lose 2nd rd picks or fines-- whatever.

I don't want to be reading "Knicks still being investigated for cheating as they win their 5th straight game" as the headlines this year.

I think its funny that Isiah who has a trail of improper behavior is actually the head coach of an amateur NCAA ruled team.

They'll fine us and we'll fire the dude. Isiah will hire him to recruit. Great resume builder.

Paladin55 wrote:

BigDaddyG wrote:It looks like the worst thing that can happen is that the Knicks will get a really big fine. One thing that I can't get over is how this article describes Rush as a potential high lottery pick at the time of the injury. Embellish much Adrian?

The worst thing might be a loss of a draft pick. They are also looking into Wilson Chandler, and whether they had some kind of pre-draft deal with him- the red-flag being the fact that he did not seem to work out with any other teams prior to the draft, and the Knicks never announced any official workout date with him.

This all comes from Berman- take it any way you want- but the idea that Isiah might cost us the loss of a future draft pick is more than a bit ironic.

The irony is overwhelming... I think it will be multiple draft picks though. When Minny signed Joe Smith illegally, that cost them five first round picks. I think the Minny offense is far graver, but this is relates directly to the integrity of the draft. I am going to say I think this costs the franchise 3 first round picks.

Bippity10 wrote:Shadiness just follows isiah everywhere.

Andrew wrote:Seems a bit extreme to take away draft picks. In order to go to that level I think you need to link the improper behavior all the way to the GM or owner level. Right now its an individual scout that is accused of improper workouts.

How do make sure clubs maintain their draft integrity otherwise? If I'm the commissioner, I would take away picks. I wouldn't care that it was individual scout because I'd say that there should have been organizational controls in place to prevent this type of thing from happening. At the end of the day, the results of Heard's improper actions benefit and benefited the New York Knicks

SupremeCommander wrote:How do make sure clubs maintain their draft integrity otherwise? If I'm the commissioner, I would take away picks. I wouldn't care that it was individual scout because I'd say that there should have been organizational controls in place to prevent this type of thing from happening. At the end of the day, the results of Heard's improper actions benefit and benefited the New York Knicks

Fines perhaps. Something similar to what gets handed out to teams that violate the anti-tampering rules.

How do you put organizational controls in place that 100% guarantee that an individual doesn't have contact with a draft prospect on his personal time? Just doesn't seem reasonable.

Andrew wrote:

SupremeCommander wrote:How do make sure clubs maintain their draft integrity otherwise? If I'm the commissioner, I would take away picks. I wouldn't care that it was individual scout because I'd say that there should have been organizational controls in place to prevent this type of thing from happening. At the end of the day, the results of Heard's improper actions benefit and benefited the New York Knicks

Fines perhaps. Something similar to what gets handed out to teams that violate the anti-tampering rules.

How do you put organizational controls in place that 100% guarantee that an individual doesn't have contact with a draft prospect on his personal time? Just doesn't seem reasonable.

Yet how would you decide to draft a kid without any formal workout? Folks crucified Walsh for not seeing that much of Gallinari, yet the Knicks took Chandler without an announced workout and he never worked out with another team.

Too much circumstancial evidence, I think.

If he had had an official workout for us and not worked out for anyone else it would have been OK, IMO, but we could not even do it that way.

Andrew wrote:Let also take a look at historically what the NBA has done in similar situations.

10/18/02
The NBA fined Dallas $150,000 and suspended Don Nelson and Donn Nelson for
the first 2 games of the regular season for contact with players who were
ineligible for the NBA draft. The Nelsons attended private workouts in
Yugoslavia in June.

5/28/02
The NBA fined Cleveland $150,000 and suspended coach John Lucas for the
first 2 games of next season for including high school junior LeBron James
in a voluntary team workout. NBA rules prohibit teams from having contact
with players not yet eligible for the NBA draft.

7/7/00
The NBA fined Dallas and Milwaukee $50,000 each for violating league rules
governing the tryouts of draft prospects. League rules prohibit having 4
draft prospects on the court at the same time and having draft prospects
compete against veterans. [Dallas was fined for using a draft prospect in
a 5-on-5 scrimmage.]

What if we had a verbal aggreement with him that if he did not work out for anyone else we would draft him? I think that is what Berman's sources say might have been the case.

Andrew wrote:

Paladin55 wrote:Yet how would you decide to draft a kid without any formal workout? Folks crucified Walsh for not seeing that much of Gallinari, yet the Knicks took Chandler without an announced workout and he never worked out with another team.

I think you are referring to the article that stated: No formal workout between the Knicks and Chandler was ever announced to the media.

Not all workouts are announced to the media. Doesn't mean that the Knicks didn't have him in for a workout.

Paladin55 wrote:What if we had a verbal aggreement with him that if he did not work out for anyone else we would draft him? I think that is what Berman's sources say might have been the case.

This happens all the time in the draft (asking a guy to not work out for any other teams.

As I stated before, unless there is proof that the issue is linked to the GM/owner level, the penalty should be minimal.

This is one situation where I hope I'm wrong- I'm getting bad vibes, though.

Will they now have to find documentation of an unannounced workout?