Let’s start here: This isn’t DeBusschere-for-Bellamy-and-Komives, OK? That was a trade that altered the very foundation of the Knicks. Without that trade, there might be no championship banners at all hanging from the ceiling at Madison Square Garden.
Without that trade, without the resulting fame that reflected on every member of those teams, it also is possible Phil Jackson might have become the most popular phys ed teacher in Williston, North Dakota, and not the mystical master of the NBA.
Still, the deal the Knicks agreed to Wednesday was notable for two reasons. More important: They are better Thursday morning than they were Wednesday afternoon. They shed two albatrosses in Ray Felton and Tyson Chandler. They immediately upgraded the point guard position with Jose Calderon, and the intriguing kid, Shane Larkin (and if he can bring his old man to town to play shortstop for the Mets, more the better). They get two second-round picks.
Sam Dalembert? Maybe at best he’s 60 percent of what Tyson Chandler can be, but then the Knicks rarely got more than 60 percent of the real Chandler while he was here. And Dalembert might well never play a minute for the Knicks, and that still would make this deal a winner. So there’s that.
But there’s also this:
This might well be the first substantial deal the Knicks have struck since Jan. 6, 1994, that won’t be met with at least sizable scorn from a fair faction of the team’s tortured fan base. Then, they swapped Tony Campbell and a first-rounder for Derek Harper. Forget that Harper led those Knicks to within a game of a title. Doc Rivers had blown out his knee, the Knicks needed a point guard, and the price was right.
These things are subjective, sure. And they don’t account for the fact that trades unpopular in the moment (Starks-for-Sprewell, Oakley-for-Camby, Mason-for-LJ) sometimes really do work out. But go back to the Harper deal. Move forward. Even the deal that brought Carmelo Anthony here was met with ample resistance both for the talent sent away and the belief that the owner was fleeced.
Maybe in the big picture, that’s an unimportant piece of trivia. But to a fan base that has been besieged over two decades by one hideous transaction after another, it sends a couple of messages. For starters, it means the Knicks haven’t decided to lie in state while awaiting Anthony’s decision on whether he’ll stay or go. They are open for business. That is as positive a narrative as Jackson could create right now (short of using a Jedi mind trick to convince LeBron James to come to New York and play for a veteran’s exception).
It is a clear sign, too, that Jackson (and, by association, Derek Fisher) truly is committed to building a triangle-friendly roster, because Calderon is a perfect fit for the offense. And even more simply, there is this: It proves Jackson really has been paying attention in his NBA exile. Dumping two problems would be enough. Acquiring helpful pieces is even better.
Yes, Calderon is due $7 million for the next three years, and by making the trade, it does prevent Jackson from simply letting Chandler’s salary fall off the books next year. But it’s also mitigated by the $3.8 million and $3.95 million Felton would have commanded the next two years. And while this is a plus trade, it is mostly a foundation trade. If Jackson truly does what he intends to do with the Knicks, this will be viewed as a small step forward.
But an important one.
And if that means that for the first time in over 20 years, Knicks fans can universally agree on something, then maybe it’s not as insignificant as you think. Twenty years of banging your head against the wall pondering the Eddy Curry Trade and the Andrea Bargnani Trade, the lack of trust that has developed through all the futility …
No. This isn’t Eddie Donovan fleecing the Pistons on Dec. 19, 1968. It isn’t Dave Checketts delivering Harper a little over 25 years later. But it sure beats so much of what has passed for progress in the 20 years since. A small step forward. An important one.