Rick Kaplan, the agent for Marcus Camby, pounded the Knicks for their handling of former general manager Glen Grunwald, stripped of his duties four days before training camp.
The Knicks have brought back their former executive, Steve Mills, to be their new president/general manager after Grunwald retooled the club all summer. Kaplan goes way back with Grunwald, to when Camby was in Toronto.
“Steve is a great guy, but Glen’s firing is absurd,’’ Kaplan stated in a text message Friday morning to The Post. “He did a great job in a challenging environment. Turns out it was a thankless job.’’
Several league executives were genuinely shocked at the timing of the move, as was Carmelo Anthony.
“I was shocked,’’ Anthony said at a promotional event. “I never heard about it and nobody knew it was coming.’’
The Post has learned the Knicks would have made the announcement “a few days sooner’’ if not for Wednesday’s planned NBA press conference in Greenwich Village in which commissioner David Stern announced the All-Star Game was coming to New York in 2015.
Dolan was at the event and both the Knicks and NBA didn’t want the Mills-Grunwald shakeup to upstage the presser, according to sources.
But one NBA GM said Friday: “If you’re looking for logic within Dolan’s Knicks, you’re looking in the wrong place.’’
Contacted at the NBA offices, Stern defended the Knicks decision, lauding Mills, who worked with Stern in the 1990s. Stern said his inexperience running a club day-to-day is a non-factor because of his past experience as Garden’s sports president where he also oversaw the WNBA’s Liberty.
Dolan is also bringing in Mills to team with assistant GM Allan Houston to oversee a future overhaul that could begin this summer as they prepare for potential cap space in 2015 and make sure they re-sign Carmelo Anthony.
“Over the years, he has developed an enormous network of friends and colleagues of various teams,’’ Stern told The Post. “He’s dealt with a lot of players, a lot of agents. He’s a superior administrator who is going to help the team with its team business operations and I don’t mean just business.’’
“The Knicks are doing something specific and Steve fits the bill.”
Stern declined to comment on his involvement in Mills’ hire, citing “commissioner-owner privilege,’’ but acknowledged he knew of the hiring at the press conference. One league source said Dolan got Stern’s endorsement recently.
One league executive questioned Mills’ acumen, saying he hasn’t had a full-time job in sports since leaving the Garden, where some questioned his handling of the Anucha Browne Sanders situation before she filed a sexual-harassment lawsuit.
The league executive said Mills recently attempted to put together funds to buy a sports team to no avail.
Surprisingly, former Knicks president Donnie Walsh, who is a big fan of Grunwald’s, endorsed the Mills hire. Walsh has worked with both Mills and Grunwald.
When Walsh ran the Knicks, then Garden sports president Mills was demoted into more of a business than basketball role before resigning in May 2009. A source told The Post Garden chief Hank Ratner forced Mills’ exit.
Walsh disputes Mills had nothing to do with basketball decisions when he ran the show.
“I didn’t view it that way,’’ Walsh told the Post via phone from the Pacers’ offices in Indianapolis. “I felt at least with me, we talked basketball with Steve a lot. I don’t know what relationship he had with Isiah [Thomas], but we talked a lot about what I was looking at.’’
Walsh was the Pacers president last season and now is a “consultant’’ with Larry Bird aboard. Ironically, the Pacers’ second-round ouster of the Knicks partially led to Grunwald’s demise.
“He’s got a lot of ability,’’ Walsh said of Mills. “So did Glen. They’re both really smart. Steve has a lot of love and passion for basketball. He comes from a basketball world.’’
Mills, a former Princeton point guard, will forever be tagged with having hired Thomas amid an embarrassing era for the franchise.
“I was surprised because I didn’t know what was happening,’’ Walsh added. “It surprised me. First of all, I have a lot of feeling for Glen. But when I heard it was Steve I thought he’s a good guy. That’s how I reacted. I think he’ll do a good job.’’
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The Knicks announced the signing of veteran forward Ike Diogu, who has been out of the NBA for nearly all of the last two seasons.