Knicks Under Max Pressure

Well there is no question how much pressure is on the Knicks front office and mainly GM Donnie Walsh and Head Coach Mike D’Antoni (shown above) to deliver in this 2010 NBA Free Agency period.

The Knicks come into this offseason with 35 million dollars to spend on free agents. While there are several top players available in the FA pool, such as Chris Bosh, Joe Johnson, Amare Stoudemire, Carlos Boozer and others, many analysts and Knicks’ fans share the same sentiment that it is:

LEBRON JAMES

OR BUST

The problem is Lebron James is being courted by almost everybody in the NBA. The recent top candidates to land “King James” have been the:

-Clippers, Heat, Bulls, Nets, Cavaliers and the Knicks

The Knicks front office, including owner James Dolan and former player Allan Houston, met with James on the afternoon of the first day of free agency and seemed semi-confident coming out of it. D’Antoni smilingly said after the meeting that he can finally refer to James when talking about their plans. “I can say that now without getting fined for tampering,” joked D’Antoni.

Walsh after the meeting went on to say, “There was no commitment; it was a non-committal meeting.” And while James declined to comment after the meeting, Houston said that he thought the Knicks had a good presentation.

The Knicks cleared all this cap space to be ahead of the game and the competition. Ironically enough sources continue to say that the Knicks are actually behind most of the candidates, even though besides them only the Miami Heat have enough cap space to sign two max free agents.

Experts continue to cling onto the statement that James made months ago about his priority going into the off-season, which was “winning”.  Along with this the majority of people believe that the Knicks “situation” (not Mike from the Jersey Shore) was not good enough for James to win now.

Regardless most Knicks’ fans will not be forgiving if Walsh cannot bring in the King. Across radio waves, blogs, social networks and throughout the streets of NY the feeling is that without Lebron James, the Knicks wasted the past two years clearing space and won’t be a championship team.

If James denies the Knicks’ pitch will Walsh and D’Antoni be on the way out? The man who won’t be gone will have to make that decision—-James Dolan. We shall wait and see…STAY TUNED!

Frank “Da Tank” Qasim

-Live & Think Outside the Box