Owner James Dolan decided yesterday to join the Knicks’ recruiting team in northeast Ohio on Thursday as the club delivers its first presentation to free agent LeBron James, The Post has learned.
The King of Cablevision apparently wants to look King James in the eye to assure him of the financial commitment he has always made to the franchise, and that he has never spared any expense in trying to restore the Knicks back to greatness.
Meanwhile, the Knicks are finalizing plans to meet with Joe Johnson on Wednesday in Los Angeles at 9 p.m. Pacific time, which is when free-agency courting begins, and possibly meet with Amar’e Stoudemire before flying to Ohio for Thursday’s 1 p.m. James soiree. A Knicks official confirmed the James meeting but would not say if the Johnson/Stoudemire extravaganza is definite yet or if Dolan would partake in other meetings.
Dolan feels he is most adept at explaining to James the Garden’s transformation across the next three years, in which the Knicks owner is spending between $775 to $850 million to beautify “The World’s Most Famous Arena.”
Dolan, coach Mike D’Antoni, Knicks president Donnie Walsh and assistant to the president Allan Houston will meet with James and his advisors in the Akron area.
While Dolan has taken the brunt of the blame for the Knicks failing to win a playoff game in 10 years, he actually serves as an advantage in this LeBron Race, even if he’s not as flamboyant or tall as 6-foot-8 Russian billionaire Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov.
Prokhorov will also head to the Akron area Thursday to lead the Nets’ brigade that includes minority owner/James buddy Jay-Z, whose presence likely scored the Nets the first meeting.
The Russian billionaire enters this free-agent sweepstakes having already announced to the media the firing of GM/coach Kiki Vandeweghe before telling Vandeweghe himself, and now losing well respected president Rod Thorn on the cusp of free agency.
League sources contend Thorn got low-balled on his new pact and the Vandeweghe mishap also is believed to have given Thorn a sick feeling on how the Russian conducts business. With the Thorn fiasco, Prokhorov still has an unproven track record on a willingness to spend on basketball operations.
Dolan is also going up against three other owners who have a notorious reputation for thriftiness in Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf, Heat owner Mickey Arison and Clippers owner Donald Sterling.
Reinsdorf and Arison have long been opposed to paying any luxury tax in building the roster. The luxury tax is the 100-percent tax levied on every dollar a team’s payroll soars over a preset luxury-tax threshold.
Dolan, unfortunately for Cablevision stockholders, became king of the luxury tax. In 1996 and 1997, Dolan wound up paying in excess of $50 million in luxury tax when the Knicks’ league-high payroll ballooned over $100 million.
While Dolan’s spending backfired, it does demonstrate to James that he would never pass on signing a future free agent because of luxury-tax concerns. Reinsdorf and Arison would be untruthful if they tried to make the same pitch.
“I think what people don’t understand is when you get to know him, you see how loyal and committed he is,” Houston told The Post. “I think the management team (of the free agents) will see that and that’s going to be huge. A lot of people don’t get to see his extreme commitment.”
The favored Bulls may have the more established roster but the coaching edge goes to D’Antoni over rookie Tom Thibodeau, the former Knicks assistant. James has raved about D’Antoni’s offensive style during their three summers together on Team USA.
Thibodeau has been a longtime, spectacular defensive assistant, but nobody knows if he will become a star head coach and be able to manage a team.