The Hawks Will Reportedly Not Match The Knicks $71 Million Offer Sheet To Tim Hardaway Jr. Because They Know How Numbers Work
MotherFUCKER. I was hoping against hope that the Hawks would go typical Atlanta sports franchise and match this offer because they fuck up all the time in the ATL. But not this time. The Hawks probably got received the Knicks offer, read the suicidal Knicks fans tweets from the last 36 hours, laughed their balls off, then called Hardaway’s agent once the laughter stopped and politely declined.
Now the Knicks have Tim Hardaway Jr. at shooting guard for the next four years at the cool price of $17.75 million a year. On the bright side, I guess $71 million is less than the $72 million the Knicks are paying Joakim Noah’s corpse. Yeah I know the NBA’s salary structure has skyrocketed because of the league’s TV deals and Hardaway was #actuallygood for the Hawks after they sent him to the D-League. But lets not forget that Hardaway still isn’t viewed as even a good defender and the team that helped turn him around and saw him over the last two seasons was offering $20+ MILLION less than the Knicks.
The Hawks were willing to offer Hardaway a four-year deal in the $48 million range, league sources said. The Knicks blew that out of the water with a four-year, $71 million monstrosity
Trust me, I HOPE I am wrong about this deal and we all look back at this being a signing that turned the Knicks around because they saw a player about to really blossom at the age of 25. Seeing the Knicks become good again seems like a lot more fun than hoping they get contracted or move so I can stop rooting for them and they can stop ruining my life.
But I don’t think I will be wrong. You know why? Look at this graphic.
The highlighted seasons are the seasons Steve Mills was with the Knicks (He was COO and Sports Business President of MSG until he left in 2009. In 2013 he returned as Knicks GM and executive vice president).
How someone with that track record of awfulness could be allowed to be the interim GM during free agency let alone potentially ascend to Team President depending on who the Knicks hire as GM is loony toons. I can understand not hiring a GM during this time because other NBA teams don’t want their GMs leaving at the beginning of free agency and I guess David Griffin didn’t do enough to make the Knicks hire him instantly. But you can’t have your interim GM lock up players like Tim Hardaway Jr. to massive deals when you should be rebuilding.
While everyone was tap dancing on Phil Jackson’s grave after he was fired, I was being the killjoy reminding them that the problem starts at the top with James Dolan. Dolan’s the one that has hired Mills twice. Dolan’s the one that brought back Isiah (who Mills is credited with bringing in as well). Dolan’s the one that keeps paying them and allowing deals like this to happen so the Knicks can flirt with mediocrity instead of tanking, building through the draft, having flexibility with cap space so they can absorb contracts and other teams’ mistakes for the price of future picks. Instead just more of the same. And it will never change as long as Kazoo Jimmy is at the top of this tire fire organization.
FUCK. THIS. FRANCHISE.