Two former Knicks blasted the new front office, with Rasheed Wallace calling the hirings of Leon Rose and William Wesley “a brain fart” by the organization and Stephon Marbury labeling Wesley, in particular, a “world wide sucker.”
Marbury didn’t get into specifics during his social media rant, but Wallace said the executives carry baggage into their new jobs because of their dealings as agents and won’t have the respect of players because they lack a basketball background.
“I mean damn, it can get worse. We all think they’re going to hit rock bottom but [the Knicks] keep going lower and lower,” Wallace told hosts Bonzi Wells and Zach Gelb on CBS Sports Radio. “I’m just a little bit confused by it, if you ask me. It’s one thing to have a former agent and agency coming in and giving you their input here and there, but to hire them full time, you’re taking on a lot. Because now, unfortunately, [Knicks owner James] Dolan is taking on their baggage.
“Whoever they had beef with or problems with, now it’s going to come up and affect them. Now that they have those executive positions with the Knicks they might not get these certain players. Or just going through the grapevine because there could be other agents mad at Leon Rose for trying to do this and that when he was an agent. It’s going to be interesting man. My thought is more power to them, I was with them for a while but this is a just brain fart right here.”
Despite belief around the league that Dolan would chase Masai Ujiri to run the Knicks, he hired Rose as team president and Wesley as Executive VP of basketball operations. Those two were head figures at the CAA basketball division, representing, among many others, Carmelo Anthony, LeBron James and Chris Paul.
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The agents business gets messy, confrontational and, as alluded to by Wallace, it’s impossible not to create enemies. Whether that will affect Knicks operations is unknown. History suggests former agents are more susceptible to falling into the trap of signing and hiring too many old clients and connections.
In addition to his longstanding relationship with Dolan, Wesley was also a figure around the Pistons during their mid-2000s run while managing Rip Hamilton. Wallace, at the time, was Detroit’s All-Star forward. Just last season, Wallace served as a guest coach for the Knicks.
“Wes is my guy. I’m not talking bad about him in anyway. But for what’s needed with the Knicks, you got to have those basketball minds in there,” Wallace said. “And who are people going to trust? People are going to trust those who’ve walked that path. When guys are sitting up here, it’s going to blow up because that’s how it always is.”
