New York Knicks: Raymond Felton’s Arrest Yet Another Black Eye For Team
The New York Knicks couldn’t go any lower, right? Wrong. Raymond Felton was arrested on gun charges early Tuesday morning in New York. He’s being charged with second and third-degree criminal possession of a firearm — which are both felonies — as well as fourth-degree criminal possession of a firearm, which is a misdemeanor.
It has indeed gotten worse for the Knicks and for Felton on a personal level. Both the team, at 21-36 and losers of three straight, and Felton, averaging just 10.4 points, and 6.0 assists per game. He’s shooting just 40.3 percent from the field, 29.6 percent from the 3-point line and 70.6 percent from the foul line. All of those are below his career averages.
Felton didn’t go Plaxico Burress on us and shoot himself, but he was in possession of a gun that wasn’t registered to him. As we remember from the Burress case, New York is extremely tough with their gun laws and in the Burress case, he had to plea down to getting two years in prison.
It was his wife Ariane Raymondo-Felton that brought the gun to police in the first place, alleging that her husband had threatened her with it. Felton then turned himself in and remains in custody.
It’s unknown at this point as to what kind of sentencing he’ll face, since he’s been charged but not yet convicted. Suffice to say, the Knicks aren’t going to be able to use the full extent of his services, perhaps for a long time.
If the Knicks have to move forward without Felton, they may regret releasing Beno Udrih a few days ago. They can lean on Pablo Prigioni and Tim Hardaway Jr. but they may want to scour the free agent market to bring in another guard. Either way it’s a horrible situation for all parties involved and the Knicks, who were already as dysfunctional as can be, have gotten worse.