A King Thing? Knicks Named a Premier Destination for LeBron James
It's deja blue (and orange) all over again.
New York Knicks fans are no doubt used to royal denials by LeBron James. Like many great performers, James often saves his best stuff for Madison Square Garden, especially after the host team's ultimately futile attempt to acquire his services after his first departure from Cleveland in 2010.
James' roadshow has since worked its way through Miami and Cleveland again before settling with the Los Angeles Lakers for the last four seasons. There, James' business interests have mixed with his basketball endeavors, which include a 2020 championship in the Walt Disney World bubble.
Though James has kept his historic paces alive (notably averaging 30 points a game at age 37 last season), the Lakers themselves have struggled to maintain their championship pace, bottoming out last year with a 33-win showing, one partly egged on by injuries to James and Anthony Davis. With James still strong yet undoubtedly engaged in the latter stages of his career, there's a feeling that he could decline any long-term extensions if the Lakers don't reload and regain their contender status.
While it would likely lack the pomp and circumstance that surrounded James' transfer to South Beach, a James move would nonetheless attract a fair amount of attention. In terms of premier destinations, his constant metropolitan victims, the Knicks, have been ranked as the second-most attractive in a ranking from The Ringer.
New York has the runner-up spot (behind only Phoenix) in a list of nine teams compiled by Kevin O'Connor, who suggests that the Knicks might be reluctant to pull the trigger on a Donovan Mitchell because of the possibility of James taking his talents to Manhattan.
"It’d be an upside play to bring New York back to glory," O'Connor writes. "LeBron would be embraced by Knicks fans overnight in ways he’s never been by Lakers fans because of their love for Kobe Bryant."
Bringing in NBA legends at the tail end of their careers has been nothing new for the Knicks, who previously hosted some of the final endeavors of Jason Kidd, Tracy McGrady, and Dikembe Mutombo, among others. Bringing in James, who has made no secrets about wanting to play NBA basketball alongside his son Bronny, while he still has some apparent firepower left in the tank would undoubtedly be a significant move that could propel New York basketball into the future.
While New York has long been labeled an attractive destination for some of the NBA's brightest stars, their most recent, lasting superstar was likely the six-year Carmelo Anthony era that yielded only a single playoff series victory.
