Perhaps this all a moot point, what with the Knicks supposedly on the brink of signing PG Ramon Sessions, but upon surveying Donnie Walsh’s alleged interest in Allen Iverson — currently mulling over the same two year, $10 million offer from Olympiakos that Nate Robinson rejected — Newsday’s Barbara Barker admits A.I. “would be fun to write about for a season”, but adds he has “ugly sideshow written all over him”
The 23-year-old Sessions would be my top choice for the future of the Knicks, but I don’t have a huge problem with the Knicks giving a short contract to a past-his-prime point guard. I would have loved it if the team had brought Jason Kidd aboard for a couple of seasons. Tinsley is also not a bad stop-gap measure.
It’s one thing, however, to be past your prime. It’s quite another to be past your prime and a whiner and complainer who doesn’t like to practice.
In New York, he would be a poison. On a team of young guys who are starting to come together, who are finally developing some chemistry and trust, Iverson’s me-first, shoot-first attitude would ruin everything. I think the moment something didn’t go his way — and you know there would be that moment — he would throw a tantrum or throw in the towel like he did at the end of the year.
While I won’t argue there might not be enough shots to go around to satisfy Iverson and well, most other teams on the planet, never mind the Knicks, but who precisely are these “young guys who are starting to come together?” David Lee and Robinson are unsigned. Al Harrington will be 30 next February. Hopes are obviously high for Wilson Chandler but under what circumstances can Danilo Gallinari be said to be starting put anything together, except frequent flier miles to surgical specialists? There are sufficient basketball reasons why Iverson might be a poor fit at MSG, but I wouldn’t be too worried that his attitude problems might be an undue influence on such Joe Lunch Pail types as Darko Milicic and Eddy Curry.