PHILADELPHIA — MSG president Scott O’Neil, not team president Donnie Walsh, was the one to push James Dolan into hiring former Nuggets general manager Mark Warkentien, The Post has learned.
The official announcement on Warkentien’s hire is likely was made Saturday.
Despite his fancy title, O’Neil is not part of basketball operations and is supposed to run the marketing end of the franchise. But, according to an NBA source, O’Neil pushed for Warkentien’s hire because he feels it is important for the Knicks to do business with CAA, the agency that represents potential free agents Carmelo Anthony and Chris Paul.
CAA’s William Wesley now represents Warkentien, who had a good relationship with Anthony in Denver. Wesley also has Anthony’s ear on his future destination. The consensus feeling is the Knicks will either trade for Anthony by the Feb. 24 trade deadline or sign him as a free agent in July.
Walsh said on Thursday that he hired Warkentien. It’s true they are longtime friends and Walsh initially interviewed Warkentien for the vacated general manager job in the summer of 2009. Warkentien has told confidants he considers Walsh his mentor and it is a dream to work for him. But the source said O’Neil’s influence on the Warkentien hire suggests the Garden power structure is cockeyed, since O’Neil is not supposed to influence basketball operations.