At 10-32 this season, the New York Knicks remain one of the worst teams in the NBA. It’s just a continuation of what we’ve seen from this organization over the past near two decades.
New York has made a grand total of four playoff appearances since the 2000-01 season — having failed to make it past the conference semifinals each time.
Despite this, rumors around the Association continue to link big-name stars to the Knicks in free agency. That includes Kevin Durant this coming summer.
For his part, Hall of Fame center Shaquille O’Neal fully understands why.
“If I was a youngster, Madison Avenue would be turning into Shaq Avenue,” O’Neal told TMZ Sports. “People always talk about business and business after basketball. Knicks don’t have a star player, so any superstar that comes there, Madison Avenue is going to open up them doors.”
That’s certainly one way to look at it. Existing in the largest media market in North America, the Knicks offer stars opportunities almost every other NBA city can’t offer.
This is all fine and dandy. The issue here is that the Knicks have been so poorly managed over the past several seasons that Rucker Park, Madison Square Garden and the like have failed as recruiting pitches.
Whether that changes in the summer of 2019 remains to be seen. But Shaq certainly thinks it will.