Dave Checketts was a few months into his job as Knicks president in 1991, having just pushed through his seismic hiring of Pat Riley. He was dining with agent Bill Pollak in Manhattan, with the purpose of negotiating an extension for Pollak’s client, Charles Oakley. When the conversation shifted to Patrick Ewing, Checketts learned about Golden State’s plot to poach his All-Star. Pollak explained that his other client — Chris Mullin — was urged by the Warriors to restructure his contract so more money was guaranteed on the front-end. Ewing was the reason. Because of a unique contractual clause, New York’s center would become a free agent if he wasn’t among the NBA’s top-4 highest-paid players for the 1991-92 season. Ewing’s deal left him at No. 4 in salary, behind only Cleveland’s John Williams, Houston’s Hakeem OIajuwon and Chicago’s Michael Jordan.
Tag: Dave Checketts
According to Checketts, Ewing desired a …
According to Checketts, Ewing desired a relocation to Golden State and his power agent, David Falk, was pulling the strings. Mullin agreed to participate but was apprehensive. “Pollak was basically saying, ‘Look, Mullin is from New York, he doesn’t want to cooperate, he doesn’t want to be the reason Ewing gets to leave New York,” Checketts said in an interview with the Daily News. “But he’s in this tremendous conflict situation. Because if he makes it happen and you have Mullin, Tim Hardaway, Mitch Richmond and Patrick Ewing on the Warriors — they’re winning a bunch of titles.”
“Yeah, and it comes back to I think …
“Yeah, and it comes back to I think that we had the right leadership,” Van Gundy told Krzyzewski. “(Former team president) Dave Checketts, who I’m sure you know. Great leader. And then we had unfortunately, at the end of my time there, we had a dilution of talent with the Knicks and it happened rapidly due to some just age, some injury. Patrick Ewing, one of the greatest all-time players, aged and got traded. Larry Johnson, a legendary UNLV player but just a terrific teammate and someone to coach who set an example every day, back injury. Then they traded for [Antonio] McDyess, he had a knee injury. Allan Houston had a knee injury. These are career-changing type of injuries.”