Apparently the Knicks nixed a deal that would have landed them Dikembe Mutombo for Kurt Thomas, Travis Knight, and Charlie Ward. Supposedly, they want Mourning and are offering Sprewell and either Kurt Thomas or Clarence Weatherspoon. http://espn.go.com/nba/news/2002/0808/1415649.html
that would be huge for NY. though i think houston should be sent out instead of sprewell...sprewells got more style. The knicks would get their center position back up to where it used to be with ewing...would be a good trade (but keep thomas and sent weatherspoon).
New York was stupid to turn down that deal for Mutombo; Ward and Knight are cap killers, while Mutombo is an improvement in play - if not position-wise - over Kurt Thomas. If they are holding him out for a deal to get Nick Van Exel, they're shooting themselves in the foot again. As for nabbing Zo - I bet Pat Riley wants nothing to do with Sprewell or Houston, considering he already has his SG and SF of the future in Eddie Jones and Caron Butler. Dealing for Weatherspoon, a player they let go once before, or Thomas would put them in the same position as they are now and were in 2000/2001: undersized up front. Most of it is probably dreamcasting from the New York media, though, so I wouldn't pay much heed to it.
NY should have just bitten the bullet... and let players go. But they keep thinking that somehow they're going to turn their aging, overpaid veterans into gold with a trade. Grow up. Dump them for anything with an expiring contract and picks (the picks if they're lucky) and get ready to rebuild.
It was front page in one of the papers here today. NYers love ZO, and furthermore I would love to see him in the garden. Kurt is one of my fovorites however, so that would suck, and spree is my favorite Knick. if only they never picked up so many dozen losers like that Shandon Anderson. too much money
It's a funny twist that the image most NYer's probably see when they think of Alonzo Mourning is the image of Zo and Larry Johnson getting ready to duke it out, with little Jeff Van Gundy hanging onto Zo's leg.
