The New-Look Knicks Look Imposing

Despite ample publicity, the sight was imposing. The new-look New York Knicks had completed their first practice. The players had showered. One by one, they entered a hallway in the College of Charleston gym and were surrounded by reporters.

Doc Rivers leaned against one wall. Tony Campbell stood nearby. Rolando Blackman talked with a TV reporter. Charles Smith came out of the locker room. Then Patrick Ewing.

We all have said this is a team of great talent. But there it was. Very real.

It made you grasp the enormity of what Dave Checketts and Ernie Grunfeld have accomplished. By trading two No. 1 picks, two No. 2 picks and a 6-foot-3 point guard who had no trade value except to one team, the Knicks have built a team that can win a title.

You read that correctly. We’re talking about Mark Jackson. It was nice to see the positive publicity he received when he left town. But it was a little overdone. Some of the odes were so hyperbolic and sentimental that I thought I was reading about Walt Frazier.

This is a fact: Jackson had no trade value except to one team--the Clippers, who are coached by native New Yorker Larry Brown, who loves New York point guards. Brown disrupted a San Antonio team that could have won a title by trading for Rod Strickland, who wore out his welcome with the Spurs and was released. And Brown was the only coach in the league willing to depart with something significant for Jackson.

The Knicks continually talked to several teams about Jackson. The coach of one of those teams said, “I can’t stand Mark Jackson. He wouldn’t play for Stu Jackson. He wouldn’t play for John MacLeod. It took a guy like Pat Riley to make him play. We don’t all have the experience of Pat Riley. But we are coaches and we work hard. Would Mark Jackson play for us? I don’t want to take the chance.”

Last year, many of us wrote the Knicks would have trouble acquiring good players because, except for Ewing, they had no one with trade value. Many of us wrote the Nets had more marketable players than the Knicks. Yet the Knicks have significantly improved their talent base.

That’s not to take away from what Jackson did last season. I was a guy who supported Jackson over Strickland. I wrote that he got shafted by MacLeod. Forget about what he did as a player last season. What he did as a man after going through so much adversity was much more important.

But he had no trade value. The fact that the Knicks got what they got is a tribute to their organization. They got a lot for nothing.

It’s good to see that Nets GM Willis Reed is in midseason form spouting cliches. When asked if the Nets can challenge for the Atlantic Division title this season, Reed said, “We’re still babes in the woods. We’re still wet behind the ears.” Two sentences, two cliches. Willis is the leader in the cliche clubhouse. . . . And Chuck Daly, the noted Prince of Pessimism, fully indoctrinated Nets owners in a meeting last week. When one owner asked what Daly’s goal is this season, Daly responded with a straight face, “I just hope we win one game this season.” That’s our man Chuck. At this point, 2-80 looks like a good season to Daly, the man who has succeeded because of a hysterical fear of failure. . . . Gerald Wilkins settled for $500,000 from the Cavaliers this season because he wanted to play for a contender, and because he has the option of becoming a free agent after the season. But he turned down more money--a three-year, $3.022-million offer from the Rockets.

Dennis Rodman, upset about the departure of Daly, has told the Detroit Pistons he will participate in training camp. But he said, “I’m going to act like Mark Aguirre.” I don’t think he’s suggesting he will act like a model citizen.

The Dallas Mavericks have been ripped savagely in Dallas for getting so little for Blackman, which is one of the reasons Derek Harper has not been traded. The Mavericks have to receive a No. 1 and a player for Harper, or there will be more negative press. They have problems if they don’t trade Harper, however. Harper wants out, or he wants to be the highest-paid player on the team. The Mavericks will have to pay rookie Jim Jackson nearly $3 million, which is $1 million more than Harper makes. If they don’t satisfy Harper, he has threatened to “act like Mark Aguirre.” I don’t think he’s suggesting he will act like a model citizen.