In New York, you know when basketball season is near; everyone speculates about which big star will pick up stakes and play for the Knicks. Now all we hear is that Giannis Antetokounmpo has his sights on being a New York Knick.
It’s a time-honored tradition in the Big Apple. LeBron James, Donovan Mitchell, Ricky Rubio, and many other stars were going to be Knickerbockers.
Problem is … it’s imagery from a dream. We’ve seen it unfold before, and it always ends the same: the supposed script never plays out, even if players wanted to do their thing in MSG. James didn’t come. Utah Jazz basketball boss Danny Ainge was not letting Mitchell get his way and go to the Knicks. The Minnesota Timberwolves had Rubio’s basketball rights, so they were not letting him get his way.
Graphic courtesy YouTube
It’s easy to understand why the Knicks and their starved fanbase are lusting for Giannis Antetokounmpo. It’s fun to imagine what Antetokounmpo could do with Jalen Brunson.
The pick-and-roll offense would be beautiful for the basketball purist’s soul. There would be plenty of victories and good vibes like the good ol’ days in the Pat Riley era, when the Knicks were really a big deal in this town. A Canyon of Heroes parade in the summer would be a beautiful event every year.
Besides that, playing in New York would be a boon for Giannis personally. Win a title and he’d never pay for drinks and food again. A statue of him in front of Madison Square Garden would be a sure thing. He’d be an icon in this city, and very likely beyond.
Maybe the Milwaukee Bucks will trade Antetokounmpo this coming offseason, but they will not send him to the Knicks. They will make a trade that is in the team’s best interests, which means they will trade him to a team that can give the best offer, and the Knicks can’t give the Bucks a fair trade. How so? In exchange, the Bucks will want young players to build around, along with draft picks.
Enter a team like the Houston Rockets. They have Amen Thompson and Alperen Sengun to satisfy the Bucks’ needs along with draft picks, which is why Antetokounmpo is likely going to be a Houston Rocket rather than a New York Knick.
Giannis (photo courtesy NBA.com)
It doesn’t matter if Giannis prefers coming to New York. That’s because the Bucks own his rights and Milwaukee isn’t going to be bullied into trading him to the Knicks. He still has two years to go with the Bucks, so there’s no incentive to trade him now or in the offseason. Besides, he is invested in getting the Bucks back to being a championship team.
The Knicks know they are good enough to reach the NBA Finals this year as the Eastern Conference champs, largely because the competition is hamstrung. The Celtics and the Pacers are without stars Jayson Tatum and Tyrese Haliburton, respectively. And even if the Knicks advance, odds are they’d fall to a team like the Oklahoma City Thunder that boasts two big guys in Chet Holmgren and free-throw merchant Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
So, there’s a lot to be said about being able to live in reality. We can’t get what we want. We don’t live in a perfect society. It is what it is. Moreover, talking about Antetokounmpo is a disservice to the players on the current roster. The Knicks are a solid team and could do great things.
The focus should be on what the Knicks have, not what they don’t.
But that seems out of reach for many Knicks fans and a lot of the local media.
