If Knicks don't sign LeBron or Wade, apology and refunds should follow

When Donnie Walsh was hired as the President of Basketball Operations for the New York Knicks on April 2, 2008, the writing on the wall was clear as day.

In a span of four years, the Isiah Thomas regime had turned one of the marquee franchises in the National Basketball Association (NBA) into an object of derision both on and off the court; and it was the job of the former Indiana Pacers CEO & President to clean things up from top to bottom.

Walsh’s first broom sweep came with the signing of former Phoenix Suns head coach Mike D’Antoni, who won an average of 58 games per season in the previous four years as head man in the ‘Valley of the Sun’.

With the team millions of dollars over the NBA salary cap and the most anticipated free agent class in league history poised to hit the market in a couple of years, the task for the Walsh/D’Antoni tandem then became to rid a sinking ship of dead weight to place the Knicks in prime position to be major players in the summer of 2010. And for the next two seasons, they attacked this daunting project with unbridled ferocity.

During the 2008-09 season, the Knicks made the following trades for the purposes of freeing salary cap space:

Jamal Crawford (2009-10 Sixth Man of the Year) for Al Harrington

Mardy Collins & Zach Randolph (2009-10 All-Star) for Cuttino Mobley & Tim Thomas

Anthony Roberson, Jerome James & Tim Thomas for Larry Hughes

Malik Rose for Chris Wilcox

In addition, the Knicks bought out the contract of disgruntled point guard Stephon Marbury.

Prior to the beginning of this season, New York also acquired Darko Milicic in exchange for Quentin Richardson in a 2009 NBA Draft night transaction.

The Knicks were equally active this year with the following trades hitting the books to bring New York even further under the salary cap:

Darko Milicic for Brian Cardinal & cash considerations

Marcus Landry & Nate Robinson (3-time Sprite Slam Dunk Champion) for Bill Walker, Eddie House & J.R. Giddens

Jared Jeffries, Jordan Hill (8th overall pick in 2009 Draft) & Larry Hughes for Sergio Rodriguez & Tracy McGrady

So, in less than two seasons, Walsh accomplished the goal of bringing the Knicks under the salary cap so that the organization could sign no less than 2 players among the highly touted upcoming free agent class to maximum contracts.

But at what cost?

Essentially, by engaging in the aforementioned course of action, the Knicks front office, in deed as opposed to spoken words, told fans and the general public that last season and this season should be considered a complete wash; but the light at the end of the tunnel is either Dwyane Wade or LeBron James coming to Madison Square Garden, an enticing prospect by any stretch of the imagination.

However, if LeBron and Wade decide not to come to New York then essentially all the Knicks have done is fail to invest the hard earned dollars of their fans for the return of the sweet smell of success; which is what every single professional sports organization should be doing to the best of their ability.

Make no mistake about it, if the Knicks do not sign James or Wade then Walsh’s plan, as good intentioned as it was, will be a colossal failure.

And from the way things appear to be shaping up, New York could be out of the running for the services of James and Wade as well as Amar’e Stoudemire and Chris Bosh, who are all considered the cream of this year’s free agent crop.

Wade has publicly expressed that his heart is in Miami, Stoudemire is already in talks with the Suns about a contract extension, Bosh has been rumored to be headed to South Beach, and King James could wind up staying in Cleveland.

So it’s within the realm of the possibility that the Knicks, relatively speaking, could end up empty-handed by the end of the summer.

In that case, the organization would owe the fans a public apology and a significant amount of money in the form of ticket refunds because they got far less than what they paid for in terms of the anticipated 2010 product.

The past two seasons have been all about LeBron James or Dwyane Wade coming to New York. If this doesn’t come to fruition, money and time have been wasted and invested improperly. Therefore, some sort of restitution should be in order from the Knicks organization.

For now though, all that can be done is wait and see how things play out come July 1st. The book has yet to be written on the Knicks’ two-year gamble.