The Knicks have struggled to sign a superstar for years, a failure widely considered to be the most glaring demerit on a franchise that has battled irrelevancy for the past two decades.
But right before this run of consistent losing began, the franchise was apparently close to bringing in the type of mega-star that Knicks fans are now starved for.
Basketball Hall of Famer and seven-time NBA All-Star Grant Hill joined Moose & Maggie on Thursday afternoon and revealed an interesting story that nearly ended with Hill in a Knicks uniform.
Hill recalled his free agency following the 1999-2000 season, when the 27-year-old was coming off a campaign where he averaged a career-high 25.8 points per game and constantly fielded questions about his upcoming free agency, a craze that rivaled LeBron James’ season of “The Decision.” Hill found himself in a room with Knicks head coach Jeff Van Gundy and team president Dave Checketts that offseason, and had a desire to sign with New York, but a couple key factors led him down a different path.
“I flirted with playing in New York,” Hill said. “My circumstances were different. In 2000, when I was leaving Detroit, New York was in the mix. Obviously my ankle became a much bigger factor than people anticipated, but I remember Van Gundy, Checketts, they all came to Detroit and we had a great meeting.”
Hill’s ankle injury was a recurring issue down the stretch of his final season with the Pistons and went on to derail his career for years, almost ruining his Hall of Fame case. But another obstacle in joining the Knicks was the realization that the front office had plans to trade its biggest star, Patrick Ewing, in order to make room for Hill.
Ewing was coming off his age-37 season, but he still managed to play in 62 games and nearly average a double-double for the season, one which ended in a second straight Eastern Conference Finals appearance.
“They had Allan Houston and Latrell Sprewell, so they were going to move Patrick,” Hill said. “I had Patrick as one of my presenters at my enshrinement for the Hall of Fame. I grew up a Georgetown fan, I was a Patrick Ewing fan. I wanted to play with Patrick. I didn’t want to replace him.”
Hill admitted he may have accepted the Ewing reality and still come to the Knicks if he had been feeling 100 percent healthy, but his untimely ankle injury made him skeptical of coming into the New York spotlight, where expectations would weigh the heaviest.
“When you go to New York, you want all your weapons,” Hill said. “I didn’t think my ankle would be as bad as it was, but you don’t want to come in off of major surgery. I think the ankle part kind of scared me a little bit. I probably, even with trading Patrick and playing with Allan and Spree, if I didn’t have that ankle surgery and I was that player of that stature when I was a free agency, I probably would have been a Knick.”
Players now sign mega-contracts even after major injuries (look no further then Kevin Durant signing with the Nets after an Achilles tear), but Hill didn’t consider that possibility with the Knicks over two decades ago, when the mindset around the league was much different than it is today.
“I felt like my first year after the surgery, it was going to take me a while to get going,” Hill said. “I didn’t want to come to New York and take a minute to get going. It was a different time. It wasn’t like Durant taking a whole year off. It was a different era. It wasn’t rest and workload, it was just play. It was a different time in sports.”
Had the circumstances been different, Hill could have been one of the biggest free agent signings in Knicks history. Of course, the immediate aftermath of Hill’s career may have justified his reluctance, as he appeared in just 47 games over the next four seasons after signing with the Magic, continuing to battle the ankle trouble that began down the stretch of his final season in Detroit.
Hill was able to overcome those injuries and once again become a productive player with the Magic and Suns, but he always pondered joining forces with the Knicks, even after that 2000 offseason.
“I’ve always been infatuated with New York,” Hill said. “I flirted with it at the end of my career, but…I was in Phoenix and we had chances to contend. I was just a role player at the end. But I always wanted to play in New York and could never quite figure it out.”
Listen to Hill’s entire appearance on Moose & Maggie below!
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