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Keidel: Of Course Star Players Aren't Coming To The Knicks — Why Would They?

By Jason Keidel
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LaMarcus Aldridge agreed to an $80 million contract with the San Antonio Spurs. Maybe that's not news to New Yorkers as much as it is a microcosm, a fun-house reflection for Knicks fans who have been trying for 40 years to get where the Spurs have been for nearly 20.

Many NBA players are enjoying the flirtation of free agency, being wooed by teams with salary cap space, no state income tax, warm weather and more winning. Every day we log into our respective sports sites and learn of another promising player signing a Monopoly-money deal.

What do all of these gifted players have in common? None of them even considered coming to New York. And when you consider the corporate logic five years ago, you wonder why the Knicks are even worse than they were at their rock-bottom best.

You'll recall there were two reasons for acquiring Carmelo Anthony...

1) He would make the team infinitely better.

2) He would attract other players of his ability.

Name one star who even briefly orbited our city, and seriously pondered a career with the Knicks. Just one will do.

Sure, the Spurs got lucky in getting Tim Duncan. They tanked for a year, got the first pick, plucked Duncan and then David Robinson returned. It was a perfect confluence of timing and talent.

But the subsequent 18 years have been no fluke, and no joke. There's a reason the Spurs are always in contention and the Knicks are never in contention.

When your best player takes pay cuts, restructures contracts and spreads the monetary love like butter across the roster, it sends a message and says everything. How can you focus solely on yourself when your team monolith is so selfless?

You'll also recall that Anthony was a consolation prize for losing the LeBron James sweepstakes. The Knicks rolled out the radiant orange-and-blue carpet, with Broadway as the backdrop. James Dolan even tapped his arm and brought Isiah Thomas out of the bullpen for a last-ditch sales pitch.

But instead of bagging the King, the Knicks got what they thought was a prince. It turns out that Anthony, while wonderfully gifted, is woefully incomplete. When he hopscotched the nation, enjoying his moment in the free-agent Champagne Room, he saw Benjamins as the greatest benefit. The Bulls were way better, as were the Rockets. But getting paid was the priority. You never got the sense, throughout his career, that winning was Melo's primary objective.

So why would a high-end free agent freeze his buns off five months a year for a losing franchise, in a city that carves out extra boxes for extra taxes? He will know it's Melo's team, town and tempo. And we see how that's gone for the last five years.

So Phil Jackson's answer is Kristaps Porzingis, a player from a country we've never visited, averaging 8.2 points for a league we've never watched. (With all due respect to devotees of Baloncesto Sevilla of the Liga ACB.) Maybe the Latvian player is the best long-term solution. But that doesn't feel so hot for a fan base that has been hammered with the "Wait till next year" mantra for over a decade.

No, this isn't another Melo ad hominem. He's a symptom, not the disease. Anthony was a gunner, a mercenary, a scorer with an allergy to defense and assists long before he became a Knick. He's not the only one, just the local one.

Look how two icons of similar vintage are ending their careers. Duncan is remaining relevant, his Spurs as likely as any to win the title next year, while Kobe Bryant gutted the Lakers with this swollen, legacy contract. The Lakers are lost, and won't return to their ancestral perch atop the NBA until Bryant's jersey hangs from the rafters.

James attracts Kevin Love and Chris Bosh. Melo attracts Robin Lopez. It speaks not only to players but to the long-lost notion of big market inducements. Kevin Durant no longer has to worry about toiling in small towns while losing his market share. New Yorkers dream of Durant in MSG in a year, but why would he? What's the advantage? The Knicks can't offer him one thing he can't get somewhere else.

Boston, New York and Los Angeles no longer have that skyline prerogative. They can't flash more cash and cachet than flyover country. You can build a brand, and a champion, anywhere. Just look at Golden State, which hadn't been to an NBA Finals in 40 years and won it with a rookie coach.

Listening to WFAN this morning, host Kim Jones said the Knicks have a feel of a small-market team. She's right. The Knicks just aren't that big anymore, which means New York doesn't hover over the Hudson like it used to.

Not even the Yankees, the preeminent franchise in sports, can live on reputation. With local cable deals sprouting up like weeds, the Yankees can't just poach players from other teams and use the rest of MLB as its de facto farm system. If the Yankees can't lure the best, what can we expect from the Knicks?

They say there's no better place to win than the Big Apple. Tell that to a big-time basketball player who finds the weather and the winning much more palatable in the world west of the Hudson.

Follow Jason on Twitter @JasonKeidel

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