L'Affaire D'Antoni has been like reading one of those choose-your-own-adventure books. You start with the fact that Mike D'Antoni has been given permission to talk with other teams....
Now, if you believe his destination will be Chicago, turn to Newsday, the Chicago Tribune and the Arizona Republic.
If you believe the Knicks are legitimately in play, turn to The New York Post, the Chicago Sun-Times and the East Valley Tribune.
And if you will believe anything someone tells you, go to ESPN.com.
Hey, like Buffalo Springfield said, Nobody's right if everybody's wrong.
Despite this reported anticipation of a "staggering offer" from the Knicks, D'Antoni is meeting with Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf this weekend, according to the Chicago Tribune.
This report backs up our story in today's Newsday which, according to a source, said that D'Antoni would be meeting a second time with the Bulls this weekend.
From the beginning this has been mainly about D'Antoni and the Bulls. They were the first to fly to Phoenix and talk to D'Antoni when the Suns gave him permission to speak with other teams. Donnie Walsh arrived the next day.
Walsh does have an interest in D'Antoni and, through people close to him, there is a sense that Walsh is confident that D'Antoni could be successful in New York. But is Walsh desperate to hire him?
He doesn't seem to be.
Not as desperate as the D'Antoni camp has in perpetuating the notion -- through the eager media -- that Walsh and the Knicks are holding a blank check to lure D'Antoni away from the Bulls, who are trying to be reasonable with their contract offer after regretting a long-term committment to Scott Skiles. As the Tribune reported, the idea that the Bulls won't pay because they still owe Skiles a ton of buyout money is factually incorrect.
Skiles is owed $3.5 million, but as per the agreement that number will be paid out over time. The Bulls will pay Skiles $1 million each in the next two seasons and then $750,000 each in the following two. That is hardly break-the-bank numbers for a wealthy team like the Bulls.
Bottom line, if they want D'Antoni, they can certainly match the remaining salary he has in Phoenix, which is $4 million this coming season and $4.5 million in 2009-10.
But if you represent D'Antoni and the New York market is involved with even mild interest, you wouldn't be a good agent if you didn't try to get your client more. The Bulls have no interest in getting into a bidding war with the Knicks.
And the Knicks have no interest in bidding against themselves, which is a refreshing change from the mindset of the previous regime.
More to come. Stay tuned . . . .
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Been making the radio rounds this week around the country -- we've been on in Los Angeles, Phoenix, Atlanta -- and on Friday we made our drivetime debut on the Michael Kay show on ESPN Radio. Go here for a listen.
And be sure you catch fellow Fixer Brandon Tierney's show from 7 - 10 p.m. weeknights on ESPN Radio.
Comments (13)
I just made a Jackass out of Trane on Hahns blog! Trane basically said I was lying about Mark Jackson
calling the Knicks fans “Rats on a sinking ship” he stated it was Richardson saying “The ship be sinking”
which was true but a different time period, I told him to look it up. He told me he didn’t have to…he cited it!
Well here’s the link to prove it, Note the date is on the extreme left hand upper corner 1989,
This is the reason Mark Jackson will never Coach the Knicks!
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DEEDE1239F937A25756C0A96F948260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=2
His arrogent ass is silent now! As it should be! LOL
Comment by Peaceman
Peace,
Did you really post that you backstabbing SOB!?!!?
I've been hard at work and I thought we were cool. To read this junk is really disheartening. I guess one can not change his stripes.
Alan, thanks for the meta look. Tracking who a columnist sources is getting more an more important. The NYpost sources in today's article were an unamed league source and D'antoni's agent. Yet the report made it look like a done deal. Since it's pretty clear no one KNOWS what's going to happen, I'll wait to make a final judgment. But for some reason, this coaching search feels more professional than any of the knick's previous searches. Heck, it feels more professional than Dolan's search for a Pres. I still wonder if Colangelo would have been a better pick but, I said I was okay with Walsh, and I'm not seeing any reason to change my mind.
Alan, it seems that no one has a good handle on the coaching search as all the reporters have a different view:
--Isola: Jackson is still the front runner, although he scares the politburo at MSG (Isola's hatred off all things Dolan is clear).
--Your sources tell you D'Antoni wants the Bulls and the Bulls want him and thus that looks like the destination.
--Berman's sources tell him that the Knicks are the front runner for D'Antoni and that deal could be done as early as Monday.
--ESPN's sources say that the Knicks are in deep talks with D'Antoni and are the front runners.
It will be very interesting to see who ends up being right.
One final thought, why do so many reporters insist on discussing the Knicks roster and its compatibility with the new coach. The Knicks roster is awful, is not compatible with any sane coach, and will be dismantled as soon as possible.
One final, final thought, it is quite possible that Walsh would like to wait post lottery for his coaching selection . . . if they somehow get the first or second pick, their rebuilding is accelerated. If they end up with fifth or sixth, its a longer term project.
Alan, I'm wondering if Jackson is indeed the front-runner but Walsh is going to wait until after the playoffs so there is no conflict of interests with Jackson's announcing duties with ESPN/ABC?
I agree with NHW, this search has been more thorough than any in recent years and that's refreshing. Walsh knows that he can wait it out, hoping that Jackson will still be on the back-burner. That is, unless Atlanta makes a push for him.
Ha! David - exactly what I've been thinking: why do reporters keep talking about the roster and styles and coaches.
What's been killing me is the endless talk of Marbury's relationship to the new coach; how Jackson can reach him since they are both christians and NY point guards. How he'll play great because he's in the final year of his contract, blah, blah, blah.
Marbury can play great whenever he wants - he's a great player. But only as long as his narcissitic, psychopathic, self is pleased. He has no problem at all destroying a team, a coach, his family, interns, whomever, in his pursuit of whatever vision it is he has of his Splendiferousness and the proper service thereof. Remember Zeke was the PG who would bring out the best in him, best buddy, neighbor, confessor - how'd that turn out?
Brothers, its silly season, nothing to write but speculation, and all the old tried and true story lines get trotted out regardless of how discredited or ridiculous they are. We might as well be discussing Lindsay Lohan as far as current events concerning the knicks.
To me, still, the real question is who will be the GM? This is the most important thing because he will be the person who brings in the talent that fit into Walsh's salary dumping mandate. This will have much more bearing on the success of the knicks than the coach in a rebuild. Remember, its a player's league. Just ask Doc Rivers - he went from Baby Sitter to General Eisenhower in a handshake.
Not about the Knicks.......
Catching up on some reading. Just read on May 8 WSJ the 'Pat Riley Factor' article which I thought was interesting.
* Riley led his high school team, Linton High, in defeating heavily favored Power Memorial, 74-68 on Dec. 1961. Yes, the same Power Memorial that was led and powered by Lew Alcindor.
* Small world
* On a slightly similar but different level: Phil Jackson and Bill Fitch
Big MAK
First...that's not TRANE posting! He remember's his rebuttel!
I would repost his very reply....but it's not worth it!
Trane made his statement known!
2ND...thats not the origional Troll posting....it's a former Blog host
who's crying in his beer over losing his NBA STORE,NET FLEX
Sponsers! KD Grow Up.........Close it down!
Congrats, Alan!! Looks like you not getting Murdoched.
I think I'm beginning to take to the idea of D'Antoni. I keep flashing back to last summer when our youth, under Hanners, did an outstanding job of run and gun.
First, teach offense. Then when the wheeling and dealing is done and we know who we have to live with, we can start tweaking towards defense.
It will be much more entertaining than watching a no offense thug ball team.
Q thrived under D'Antoni. He probably would be motivated to lose weight and polish up his three point shot, again.
We could run Randolf and Curry off the court until they could keep up. Hell, they would have all summer to lose some weight. Run and gun is fun. Why wouldn't players want to put themselves in position to play that way?
Guess you were wrong Alan something had to be going on the whole time... Cuz D'Antoni took the job...I like this Walsh guy already, this guy has something... How do you get a coach to leave his current job, to come to NY? Crazy! Shows you what you can do in NY if you really wanna make change and use all your resources... This will definitely make free agents wanna come here, most players would wanna play in Mike's style....
Trane, use your mind. When did Peaceman ever post the same thing twice, or more often, by simple cutting-and-pasting? There's someone else I'm thinking of, and not Drossman, who repeats his insults endlessly. That particular post, claiming "Post by Peaceman", has appeared in what, the last three blog threads of Hahn's? Agree or disagree with the man, but one thing you can definitely say about Peaceman: he comes with something a little bit different every time. And another thing: Peace is usually pretty funny. The first poster on this thread, no humor in his soul. Agree?
I'm not 100% sure, mind you, just going by what I know...only Hahn and his administrator know for sure, since they can see e-mails and IP addresses...furthermore, if it's really Peaceman, you can expect at least one misspelling. : ))
Alan, I'm definitely staying out of this. But would you please confirm that the post at 08:17 did not come from me? Thanks very much.
Mike -- that wasn't me at 08:17.