Knicks: Tim Thomas knows pal Carter will make Nets a bigger threat Saturday, December 18, 2004
BY COLIN STEPHENSON
Star-Ledger Staff
PHILADELPHIA -- Lenny Wilkens, who had his differences with Vince Carter when he coached him in Toronto, didn't really want to talk about the shocking trade that brought Carter to the Nets yesterday for Alonzo Mourning, Aaron and Eric Williams and two first-round draft picks.
"I don't have any," Wilkens said when asked if he had a comment on the deal. "I'm trying to get ready for our game."
The Knicks had been trying all season to get Carter from the Raptors and rumors had swirled in local newspapers and the Toronto newspapers for weeks that Knicks GM Isiah Thomas had offered Tim Thomas and either Penny Hardaway or Allan Houston for Carter and Jalen Rose. So the trade hurts the Knicks in two ways; first by taking a player off the market whom they wanted badly, and second by delivering that player to one of their chief rivals -- who now figure to mount a greater challenge to the Knicks in the race to win the Atlantic Division.
"That helps the Nets tremendously," Hardaway said. "They don't have the best record right now, but they could put it together really quickly. They could run off a lot of games in a row."
Isiah Thomas was not at the game, but through a team spokesman declined to offer a reaction on the trade.
However Tim Thomas, who counts Carter as one of his best friends after the two got to know each other while playing together on summer basketball teams when they were in high school, said he was ecstatic for Carter, who had wanted desperately to get out of Toronto. He also is looking forward to the battle the Knicks now figure to have with the Nets the rest of the way in trying to win the Atlantic Division title.
"It's going to be great," Thomas said. "It's going to make that rivalry a little bit sweeter --
especially now, you have me going against somebody that I spend some time with in the summertime as far as vacation and traveling and hanging out and stuff.
"I can't lose to him now," he said with a laugh. "I definitely can't lose to him now." Thomas said he never worried that his name had been bandied about so often in the Carter rumors. He pointed out that he'd been traded before (from New Jersey to Philadelphia on the night he was drafted; from Philly to Milwaukee in 1999 and from Milwaukee to the Knicks last season). And, more importantly, he referenced the off-court worries he had been struggling with -- the death over the summer of his sister and his wife's cousin; a surgery his mother underwent early in the season and an illness his wife had to deal with -- that have affected his game on the court.
"I had too many other things going on to be worried if I'm going to be somewhere else," he said. "That's just the truth of the matter. The time I was going through my stuff, basketball wasn't even an issue for me."
Ex-Raptor Jerome Williams, whose name also was mentioned in some rumors, said Isiah Thomas had addressed the team about the rumors a week ago.
"I think Isiah said what he needed to say last week," Williams said. "I guess my relief was a lot sooner."
Tim Thomas, who grew up in Paterson, thought Carter would be happy with the deal.
"He always wanted to be in this area. He liked the area," Thomas said.
"No, it's not the Garden, but I mean, it's Jersey. He can go to my mom's house and eat. I know he knows that -- anytime."
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LOL! Is this guy even for real?
