New Spur LaMarcus Aldridge met with a cavalcade of NBA teams this summer in an effort to decide where he’d spend the next four years of his career. He even met with the lowly Lakers, twice. Late in the process, the Suns surprisingly became a serious contender after signing Tyson Chandler, a center, something that’ll make more sense later. However, a purported meeting with the Knicks — who had almost as much cap space as the Lakers — never materialized.
Aldridge was recently a guest on ESPN Radio’s Russillo Show where he talked about the feting of free agency, and the Knicks were brought up. Via ESPN’s Ian Begley, comes the real reason Aldridge and the Knicks never even spoke in person — and no, it wasn’t Melo’s brush-off.
Aldridge said on the Russillo Show on ESPN Radio that Phil Jackson and the Knicks wanted him to “strictly” play center. Aldridge didn’t want to solely play center. Thus, Aldridge and the Knicks agreed to cancel their scheduled meeting in free agency, Aldridge said.
“They didn’t want to meet with me,” Aldridge said. “Some people said it was me. But it was both parties agreeing that we shouldn’t meet.”
Initial reports stipulated it was LaMarcus who passed on the meeting, but Phil and Co. wanted Aldridge “strictly” as a center, which was enough of a hiccup — from both sides — right at the onset to cancel the meeting altogether.
Aldridge has been on the record as saying he doesn’t wanna bang down on the block as a center, and that’s part of the reason Phoenix even signed Chandler; it made their pitch sexier with the 2012 Defensive Player of the Year on board. Still, Markieff Morris is a better-than-servicable power forward, so Suns fans should be optimistic even if Kieff’s twin brother isn’t around anymore after the fire-sale to open up cap room for LMA.
But the Knicks wanted Aldridge as some sort of jump-shooting center Phil may have dreamed up in a mescaline hallucination on his ranch in Wyoming. Aldridge didn’t want to be put in that position at all. Instead, New York went with Aldridge’s frontcourt mate last season in Portland, signing Robin Lopez to a four-year, $52 million deal after DJ presumably fell off the board by agreeing to terms with Dallas…
The NBA free agency period seems to get wackier each year, and this wasn’t even close to the weirdest free agency episode we saw this summer.
(ESPN)
