The New York Knicks have tried to land a superstar for years. From the pursuit of LeBron James in 2010 free agency to being linked to stars such as Donovan Mitchell and even Giannis Antetokounmpo, the Knicks look to be the home of one of basketball's biggest stars and be a perennial championship contender. But, that push to acquire a franchise-changing talent hampered the Knicks for several years.
In an interview with Fan Duel TV's Run It Back, former Knicks coach David Fizdale looks back on the 2018-2019 season, where New York went 17-65. According to him, the team was trying to tank to get either Zion Williamson or Ja Morant in the 2019 NBA Draft while also looking to be in the sweepstakes to land Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving.
“The plan that we came up with, I was all in on that, and I was like this is the deal and this is the way to go about it. It just didn’t come to fruition…Losing all them damn games, donating my record to get Zion Williamson or Ja.
He added, “That summer our people seem to have thought KD and Kyrie for sure was coming to us, that s–t didn’t work out.”
The Knicks did have some productive role players on the team such as Luke Kornet, who is thriving as a backup center with the Spurs this season. Tim Hardaway, Courtney Lee, and Enes Kanter have seen productive years in the league and Kristaps Porziņģis, though beset with injury, recently helped the Boston Celtics win the 2024 NBA title.
But Fizdale believed that the roster construction wasn't truly conducive to winning.
“When you look at that roster in totality, solid players throughout, but when you put them on the floor together, the pieces just wasn’t working…If I was doing it over again, I would have fought more to build a team early on and not cash in my record.”
Overall, Fizdale gave a different look into the conversation about tanking. The tanking discourse has been a huge discussion over the course of the season, and Fizdale offered a different perspective on it.
“That’s the hard part for coaches when you agree to the…tanking. When you tank, you’re supposed to build something bigger. It’s not supposed to be a tank to whatever happens….That’s not the formula.”
