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Stefan Bondy: Gersson Rosas’s contract was up. Per league sources, Rosas — who played an important role in building the Knicks championship roster — felt like he needed to grow as an executive, which also meant exploring other opportunities. Left on good terms with Leon Rose and his staff.
Dwyane Bacon: "I didn't want to go to New York, but my my agent wanted me to go to New York. End up firing him, going into the office, telling Leon Rose and and Wes, I don't want to be here. I appreciate y'all. No, I said it was so respectful. Like I appreciate y'all. But I just came off a season of me playing every game and averaging double figures in the league, which is very hard to do. And I'm I'm just getting started."
Ian Begley: NYK was interested in Jonas Valanciunas in ‘24 offseason. "We had a lot of talks with different teams. New York (was) one of them,” he said then. NYK will have solid depth at center if Valanciunas, a former client of Leon Rose, chooses Knicks in his current free agency. He is among centers on their radar
Ian Begley: Leon Rose on Knicks re-signing Jose Alvarado: "Jose brought a toughness, competitiveness, and an unwavering commitment to winning from the moment he returned to his home in New York City. We're ecstatic to keep Jose home.”
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Roommates Show: The truth has been revealed. Leon Rose is not Jalen Brunson’s godfather. But, he did meet Jalen before Rick did @BetMGM
Leon Rose on the criticism, at the time, of aggressively pursuing Brunson: “I got killed about Jalen, and now everyone thinks I’m a genius. It’s about what we did in order to get you. Clearing space, at the time people thinking that it was so much money that we were paying you. … This was the first major move and I had all the conviction in the world. I’ve known him since he was born, I know what he’s all about, I know what a winner he is, I know that I was willing to ride with him.”
There is little left to debate about the decision to fire Tom Thibodeau last year and hire Mike Brown — it resulted in a championship. Since Rose never talks to the media, though, he never spoke publicly about the move. But he fulfilled a promise to Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart — that he’d go on their “Roommates Show” podcast if the Knicks won the championship. Rose was asked about the coaching change. “It was tough,” Rose said on the show. “Thibs is a great coach. Did so much for the organization. We were right on the doorstep. Just felt that, just needed a change in voice, a change in philosophy. It was a tough move. Mike is a guy that really fit what we were looking for. He’s somebody that I’ve known for a long time. I represented LeBron [James] when he coached him in Cleveland. Knew him and kind of followed him through his career. Didn’t know him that well, but he always was a guy that was a good guy, that you could talk to, that you really felt good about. That was just your gut.
One of the most important criteria was a coach who was collaborative — more so than Thibodeau. That is something that stood out to Rose and the front office about Brown. “First of all, just his openness and his willingness to share ideas,” Rose said. “And share ideas with the front office, his staff and the inclusion of everyone. I think you guys probably saw that. He really was open to things, open to people’s suggestions, open to ideas. I believe that’s what led to some of the changes that were made throughout the season. We started out a certain way, he may have had an idea about how something was gonna work and how he wanted it to work, but he kind of evolved throughout the season, as did our team. I think that all went into the fact that we went into another gear in the playoffs.”
Ian Begley: “That bothered the heck out of me. Because it had nothing to do with Mikal (Bridges). That was the price I was willing to pay.” Leon Rose on criticisms of Mikal Bridges based on the 5 first round picks Knicks sent to BKN to acquire him:
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But did it change how he views his other professional sports franchise, the New York Rangers, and what it will take for them to end their 32-year-and-counting Stanley Cup drought? “That’s a big thing,” Dolan said last week, when the subject of winning a title with the Rangers was broached during a radio appearance on WFAN. “I have many of the same people who are helping me with the Knicks are focusing on the Rangers, too — particularly my son Quentin, who does all the conditioning and wellness for both teams.”
He noted previous instances in which the Knicks “flipped up our strategy in order to get the shiny object.” The inference was that they got caught chasing executives and coaches who brought star power and reputations as great basketball minds, with host Craig Carton pointing to Phil Jackson’s dispiriting tenure as Knicks president from 2014-17 as one example. “That’s the temptation in New York,” Dolan said. “If you’re running a team and you’re under the gun in New York, you want to produce. Because if you don’t produce, guys like you are going to tear them apart. You’re afraid of doing badly and you’re dying to do great, and you’re hoping for a quick solution — a savior to come in, etc. I didn’t want to do that anymore.”
It was around then, Dolan said, that he had an epiphany. “I’m not going to worry about a GM who’s really good at strategy,” he recalled deciding. “What I need is somebody who’s the best collector of talent.” That led him to Rose, who fit the bill as one of the most powerful agents in sports and had spent decades cultivating relationships around the NBA. It was an outside-of-the-box hire, to be sure, but it gave the Knicks a proven dealmaker who could lure winning players to the Garden.
“Did I make mistakes? Of course I did,” he said. “Did I trust people that maybe I shouldn’t have trusted? You go into it as a new owner and if you’re dumb enough, you think you actually know what you’re doing. Believe me, you don’t. And all along, you have everybody whispering in your ear: Do this, do that. You have you guys, the press, telling us where we’re going wrong at every step. And, you can start to feel like a pinball. But …” He paused. “The thing is, is to learn. Right? That might be the thing I feel best about is, I felt, I feel, that now after 25 freaking years of doing this, I might actually have learned something.”