Amar’e Stoudemire is currently the NBA’s most untradeable player and the New York Knicks are stuck with him. (Flickr.com photo by Bryan Horowitz)
In terms of completely overpriced, high-profile free agents that grossly underperformed in relation to the contracts they received, the New York Knicks certainly take the cake over just about any other franchise in professional sports. During the Isiah Thomas regime, the Knickerbockers spent a decade as the Association’s laughing stock, acquiring players in both free-agent deals and trades that ranged from questionable to downright comical. It isn’t difficult to find 10 or even 20 downright nauseating signings throughout the recent history of this enormously dysfunctional franchise. Here are the five worst:
5. Patrick Ewing – Patrick Ewing is probably one of the two or three best players to ever wear an orange-and-blue uniform and one of the best centers in the history of the league. That being said, when the Knicks elected to extend him for four more seasons and $60 million total in 1997, the Georgetown product simply wasn’t the same player he once was. Years of wear and tear had robbed him of most of his unmatched athleticism and a physical breakdown may have been inevitable. After all, carrying a franchise for 12 consecutive seasons is hard on the knees. Just two seasons later, the Knicks would go all the way to the NBA Finals without him, as he sat the entire postseason due to an injury. If that $60 million was spent elsewhere, could New York have gotten over the hump and defeated the Spurs that season?
4. Jerome James – Throughout the first five seasons of his career, Jerome James never averaged more than 5.5 points or 4.2 rebounds in any single season. Then, the 2004-05 postseason happened. After the 7’1″ center averaged 12.5 points, 6.8 rebounds and 1.8 blocks in 11 postseason games for the Seattle SuperSonics (and leading the charge during a near upset of the mighty Spurs in the process), Isiah Thomas elected to give James a deal worth $30 million over five years despite an enormous sample size suggesting his recent play was an anomaly. The decision was, predictably, disastrous. James would never average more than 10 minutes per game throughout his New York Knicks tenure and his scoring average dipped as low as 1.9 points per game during year three of his massive deal. Yeesh.
3. Allan Houston – Ah yes, the player who spearheaded the amnesty idea (or Allan Houston Rule). Houston was a great shooter and an All-Star. He was also the best player on the New York Knicks during their NBA Finals run in 1999. As a reward, the front office elected to make Houston the NBA’s second-highest paid player with a six-year, $100 million deal. All well and good, except Houston began to break down physically in year three of his deal, playing just 50 games that season. The following year would be Houston’s last, as the sharpshooter would be limited to just 11 games. During the final two years of his contract, the Knicks were on the hook for $40 million and did not get a single minute from their franchise player. In a salary cap league like the NBA, situations like this proved to be completely crippling and forced the NBA to implement the amnesty clause, where NBA teams were allowed to essentially press the undo button on one of their bad contracts during the course of the new CBA.
2. Amar’e Stoudemire – No team would go near his knee injury and no insurance company would back his contract. That didn’t stop the Knickerbockers from giving Amar’e Stoudemire $100 million after they struck out on LeBron James in the summer of 2010. Even when Stat was good (he averaged in excess of 25 points per game his first season in New York) his poor defensive effort had many questioning the actual impact he had on wins and losses. We are now entering year four of the Amar’e era in New York and Stoudemire is no longer considered a key piece to the rotation and no longer expected to stay healthy after multiple knee surgeries over the last two years (among other health issues and a severe dislike for fire extinguishers). Now, his signing did lead to Carmelo Anthony landing in New York. But what good is having an elite talent like Melo when the Stoudemire contract prohibits the team from building a true contender around him?
1.Isiah Thomas- I mean, who else could it be? Most consider Thomas to be the worst general manager in the history of the NBA and it is extremely hard to argue otherwise after he oversaw a decade-long apocalypse at Madison Square Garden. A few highlights from his tenure in New York include:
-The Jerome James deal
-The Eddy Curry trade (an unprotected first-rounder was sent to Chicago, which turned into Joakim Noah)
-The Larry Brown fiasco
–Steve Francis and Stephon Marbury in the same backcourt
Vin Baker? Maurice Taylor? Where does it end? How about with a sexual assault lawsuit against a team employee as a cherry on top?! Yes, Thomas’ time with the New York Knicks is unforgettable for all the wrong reasons. Thankfully, he was let go in 2010 and likely will never get a front office job in the NBA again.
[slider_pro id=”20″]