For much of the 2000s, the Knicks didn’t have a reputation for winning. Until Tom Thibodeau got to town in 2020, the team hadn’t even made the playoffs since Carmelo Anthony led them there in 2013. That’s why, in the summer of 2019, the team was desperate to make a splash in free agency and get back to being relevant again.
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As Pablo Torre Finds Out has painstakingly found out, the Knicks went all out to land a trio of free agents that summer — Kevin Durant, Kawhi Leonard and Kyrie Irving. They commissioned a custom song and music video from the Wu-Tang Clan to “wu” Durant, then presented it to him on a key to the city that doubled as a USB drive.
For Kawhi, the Knicks brought in comedian Jay Pharoah to play him in an SNL-style skit that also featured celebrity Knicks fans like Ben Stiller, Tracy Morgan and Kenan Thompson. That tribute was built into a custom pizza box.
Kyrie’s project consisted of a custom TV with a built-in VCR, which played a streetball-inspired video that beckoned him to return to the mecca of basketball and become a New York City legend. Earl “The Pearl” Monroe and a host of famous Street ballers made an appearance, and the video envisioned a future in which Kyrie became the most popular baby name in NYC after he won big with the Knicks.
Big props to the Knicks for getting creative, but they were ultimately unsuccessful in landing any of the players they had their hearts set on. Kawhi went to the Clippers, while KD and Kyrie joined forces in New York, except it was to play for the Brooklyn Nets, not the Knicks.
Shockingly, the Knicks have had the last laugh in all of this. Kawhi’s tenure with the Clippers has been marred by frequent injuries and the Aspiration scandal which Pablo Torre Finds Out uncovered earlier this year. The KD-Kyrie-James Harden Nets imploded and eventually disbanded.
Durant went to Phoenix, where his luck wasn’t any better, and he’s now on the Rockets, the fifth team of his career. Kyrie ended up in Dallas, and though the Mavs did make the Finals in 2024, they made Knicks management look likes geniuses by comparison when they traded away Luka Doncic last year.
The Knicks pivoted to Julius Randle, and have made the playoffs four times since. They’re now led by Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns (whom they traded Randle for last year) and are the favorites to come out of the East after making the conference finals last year.
Who knows how Pablo Torre keeps unearthing these videos, but he’s doing God’s work for basketball fans everywhere.
