For now, and for good, it doesn’t matter how close the Knicks came to signing LeBron James, if they finished second, third or sixth. For now, and for good, it doesn’t matter that James Dolan sent Isiah Thomas to do his final bidding before The King, a bald act of treachery that shows how little regard Dolan really has for the fans who fill his building, whom he hollowly called “the best in the world” Thursday afternoon.
For now, for good, it can’t matter that in a salary-capped world, the Knicks will never be able to use money as a sledgehammer the way the Yankees can in the lawless economic frontier of baseball, and that LeBron James will almost certainly never play one minute of his prime in Knicks’ colors.
If you are the Knicks, and if you root for the Knicks, the pursuit of LeBron is officially a part of yesterday, officially a part of the past. It serves no purpose to lament, to lick wounds, to shake an angry fist at that old master of Machiavelli, Pat Riley.
If the Knicks are ever going to become something other than a civic eyesore, then this must be remembered as much for the player who said “Yes” as for the player who said “No, thank you,” as much for the anticipated sign-and-trade with Golden State that will yield a haul of serviceable (and maybe more) players for David Lee.
“New York isn’t for everyone,” Stoudemire had said, during one of the spasms of “his” day that wasn’t preoccupied with thoughts of James. “But I think it’s perfect for me.”
We’ll soon see if it is, but what you need to do now if you care about the Knicks, hard as it may be, is to moisten your fingers and turn the page. Walsh did, wasting little time trying to close the deal with the Warriors. Mike D’Antoni did, flying to Las Vegas for summer league, not even bothering to rearrange his flight so he could watch James hijack sporting America for an hour.
Good for Walsh. Good for D’Antoni. Good for you to do the same. The mourning after is for losers. The quicker we all move on, the better.