Knicks Add a Well-Connected Player to Their Front Office

Wesley is occasionally seen at major sporting events, often spotted next to celebrities including Jay-Z, and he was on the floor in 2004 trying to protect Metta Sandiford-Artest, then known as Ron Artest, during the brawl that broke out between the Indiana Pacers and the Detroit Pistons in Detroit.

“My long history with and respect for Jim Dolan and Leon Rose, as well as the chance to be part of the New York Knicks, made this an opportunity I wanted to pursue,” Wesley said in a statement. “I look forward to joining the current staff and moving the organization toward a successful future.”

The most pressing decision currently for the Knicks front office brass is who will be the team’s coach next season. On this front, Wesley’s hiring may provide a signal. One of his former C.A.A. clients, Tom Thibodeau, has been heavily linked to the Knicks job in recent months.

But beyond that, Wesley and Rose, whose hiring was announced in March, just before the N.B.A. suspended its season, hope to leverage their relationships with players to lure them into making the Knicks a prime free-agent destination again.

In recent decades, the Knicks have had persistent problems attracting star players. Aside from trading for and re-signing a willing Carmelo Anthony in 2011 and 2014 and acquiring Amar’e Stoudemire in 2010, the Knicks have mostly swung and missed on many of their biggest targets.

Last year, Kevin Durant, who opted to go to the Nets instead of the Knicks, said in a radio interview that the “whole brand of the Knicks is not as cool as, let’s say, the Golden State Warriors.”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/24/sports/basketball/knicks-world-wide-wes.html