http://www.nypost.com/sports/knicks/29627.htm

BAKER COULD BE KNICKS' CENTER

By MARC BERMAN

October 4, 2004 -- When Vin Baker held his charity golf tournament in August, Cablevision's James Dolan and Isiah Thomas schlepped to Hartford to attend. When the Knicks decided to re-sign Vin Baker for virtually all their $4.6 million mid-level exception, trashing their tiny hope of landing Erick Dampier, this was coming from the top.

Nobody is rooting for Baker harder than Dolan, a fellow recovering alcoholic and reason Baker did not sign with Cleveland.

"He's got a great support system here," Baker's agent Aaron Goodwin said.

The Knicks report for camp today and hold their first Charleston practice tomorrow. Baker, who had surgery to correct a rapid heartbeat in late June, is slimmer than he's been in years and Lenny Wilkens thinks he could be their starting center.

"You're going to be impressed when you see him, just in terms of his body, face," Isiah said.

Goodwin said his heart procedure will "Make a tremendous difference. He's able to circulate oxygen around his body better, you get tired quicker with that problem."

let's wait and see. if he happened to be close to his former self, he would be invaluable to us.

good plan to sign him, low risk, great if it works.

They signed Baker before Damps was off the market! Damps was willing to play here for the MLE! This is going to go down as the worst decision in Zeke's run (other than handling of Shan and Don). But it's not really Zeke's fault as much as it's Dolan for liking Vin for being a former alcoholic. The team is fine and will still win the division, but they could have been special and Dolan screwed up again. What an idiot.

Damps was never intending to play here for the MLE, or else he would have signed a long time ago...he went to DAL to have a better shot at a title & make double what he would be making had he signed w/the Knicks...i have no idea what makes anyone think we ever had a realistic shot at signing him for the MLE...a sign & trade was the only way we were ever going to get him, & Mullin wasn't interested in anything the Knicks had to offer.

no one's debating whether or not he was willing to come here...the fact that he didn't sign for the MLE is what i'm talking about...obviously he was holding out for more, & the Knicks didn't have what Mullin wanted in any sign & trades...so any chance we ever had of getting him was very slim to begin with, & as soon as that Crawford deal was made that we gave up all our expiring contracts, it pretty much erased any chance at all that we had of acquiring him.

Damps got a 73 mil contract in Dallas. I don't buy for one minute that he would have taken a 50% paycut to play here for the MLE. Also, the day after Dampier went to Dallas was the day that Baker was signed with most of the MLE. The timing is just too much of a coincidence. It looks to me like Isiah was doing everything he could to save the MLE for Dampier, with Baker being plan B.