Knicks Sign Jonathan Bender
by Seth on Dec 13, 2009 12:59 PM EST
in News
48 comments
The Knicks brought Jonathan Bender in for a workout last month, and it seems they liked what they saw. As the Pacers GM, Donnie Walsh traded for the multi-talented big guy after draft day back in 1999, only to see Bender's career derailed by chronic knee problems. Now Walsh is with the Knicks and Bender has been deemed healthy enough for a comeback. As Alan Hahn explains, there isn't much to lose:
It is a low-risk move for the Knicks, who signed him to a non-guaranteed deal through the remainder of the season at the veteran's minimum. There are no expectations whatsoever with him at this point, so it is not as if the Knicks need him to be an immediate factor. Mike D'Antoni's tight rotation is set right now and Eddy Curry must get minutes.
It saddens me to know Joe Crawford and Morris Almond are still biding their time in the D-League while moves like this one are made, but I suppose Bender's worth a shot. Walsh clearly knows his game well and was dying to give him another chance if he was up for it. I've never been a fan of comebacks, personally. I'll side with young, untapped talent 11 times out of 10, but I guess not everyone's as heartless as I am.
After the jump, a little video on Bender's early retirement and what he's been up to since then.
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seems like a nice guy
wish him the best. it’s pretty confounding to me too. so he just jumps right on to the knicks roster? he doesn’t get some d-league minutes? i wonder if he’s out of money.
twitter.com/aighttho
http://howmuchyouthink.tumblr.com/
i think he'd have to go there willingly
i don’t think the knicks can send him there because he’s not a first or second-year player
i read that he managed his money really well ...
… compared to other knuckleheads and pretty much set himself up for life from his rookie and next contract.
the new york pacers
who’s next: rik smits, derrick mckie and austin croshere.
antonio davis and jalen rose come out of retirment actually.
for real though. i don’t approve of all these pacerific moves.
twitter.com/aighttho
http://howmuchyouthink.tumblr.com/
ugh... i feel like francis the vomiting man
just got nauseous thinking about reggie and cheryl miller.
twitter.com/aighttho
http://howmuchyouthink.tumblr.com/
i just like using up those roster spots
be they on ex-high school busts or mo nuts. somebody out there could always put that money to better use than james dolan.
Bender said that as a kid
he and the neighborhood kids used to jump off his parent’s roof for fun. perhaps that could’ve factored into his degenerative knee condition?
Ewing with the step...YES! and the foul!
by Anthony Masons Haircut on Dec 13, 2009 5:12 PM EST reply actions
Sorry For double Post
I wanted to post this link:
Jonathan Bender #24 SF
Player Card | Career Stats:
Pat the Pacer?
I wandered away from that link to this: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=draftreview/090624 Which recaps drafts and says what the teams should have done (Kind of like SLAM’s draft remixes).
I’m mostly upset because this draft remix would have had the Pacers draft Pat and I don’t think I could take that.
to be fair
that article was written before this season started.
eh, it's kinda stupid.
Its interesting to reminisce who scored and who bricked their picks. Although, they obviously didn’t look at team’s rosters at the time of the draft, cus, well, you know, that like plays a factor. The obvious case in point is 2003, where they say Detroit should have taken Dwyane Wade instead of Milicic. Well…they kinda already had Billups and Hamilton in their backcourt, so, um… the consensus has kinda been Carmelo Anthony. I think I’d also have still taken Camby in 1996 (since Mighty Mouse was running PG), Baron Davis in 1999 (a far better choice than their recommendation of Andre Miller), and definitely Jason Richardson was a good actual pick in 2001 rather than the suggestion of Battier. Shit here i go….
But who cares, really. Its just a fun thing worth arguing pointlessly over. I’m a sucker for that shit i guess.
"you're the Rod Thorn in my Chris Bosh side."
by Chris Child's Fist on Dec 14, 2009 11:39 AM EST up reply actions
Cummings
was always my favorite Terry.
Ewing with the step...YES! and the foul!
by Anthony Masons Haircut on Dec 13, 2009 8:45 PM EST up reply actions
Thats Bobby Phils
Dun.
"But when he saw it, he just put his hands up and they couldn’t give it to him. It just fell to the ground, I-I don’t, you know … So, that showed me he had great experience..." - Jeff Van Gundy
by Anthony Bonner's Subpoena on Dec 14, 2009 2:17 AM EST up reply actions
i take back my original moderately positive thoughts
peep this sentence from the press release:
“The 7-foot Bender enjoyed his best season in 2001-02, when he averaged career highs of 7.4 points and 3.1 rebounds in 78 games.”
i can’t count the depressing things in that sentence on one hand.
by Rodger Sherman on Dec 13, 2009 10:01 PM EST reply actions
i got a feeling
that this is just Donnie throwing a bone to a good kid.
He DOES have talent in there, althogh I doubt it ever comes out.
Seeing a guy, that has taken advantage of his situation, and continues to work hard just to get one more shot at the NBA can only have a positive effect on the young guys and even some older ones.
If bender ends up getting any playing time it means that a) he is awesome or b) we are fucked.
so whatever. Play tough in practice bender and stay a solid landlord.
John Bender
had some seriously fragile knees. I remember liking his game, but he was Odenesque in his propensity to shows signs of life followed by season ending surgery. Hopefully his Y had a bunch of mobile 6’10" dudes with step back jumpers playing on Sunday mornings so he could stay in game shape.
"But when he saw it, he just put his hands up and they couldn’t give it to him. It just fell to the ground, I-I don’t, you know … So, that showed me he had great experience..." - Jeff Van Gundy
by Anthony Bonner's Subpoena on Dec 14, 2009 2:22 AM EST reply actions
Pardon Me
Jon* Bender
"But when he saw it, he just put his hands up and they couldn’t give it to him. It just fell to the ground, I-I don’t, you know … So, that showed me he had great experience..." - Jeff Van Gundy
by Anthony Bonner's Subpoena on Dec 14, 2009 2:22 AM EST up reply actions
maybeeee. uh...
hes a jared jeffries clone?!.. and this means jared is going to be traded soon? fantastic!!
this IS great news lol.
another thought
if hes a jj clone.. and jj gets traided taht means j hill will get some time finally. the only reason jj is getting playing time is becuase, well…he’s jj and his contract is cancer to the knicks summer of 010
he also has
been playing quite well during this streak.
so that may be a reason he is playing too…
Darko/Jeffries 2.0
Blah, I don’t see much in this at all. We had our hopes up that Darko will be our Center and block shots, and improve our interior defense pre-season. That perhaps D’Anthoni will free Darko, but now he’s on the bench with N8. Any hope I can muster from this signing is that he won’t play or perhaps Jeffries is some how getting traded away and this fills the bench a bit.
Either way, I just have to see what happens. In Donnie we Trust
Tyrus Thomas
Does this mean Thomas talks have dried up? Clealy the Knicks want a ~7 ft young-ish shotblocker who can run, as part of Utopia 2010 Darko didn’t work out, Bender is a long shot, but what about TT? I’m not watching the Bulls closely, but their recent record has me wondering if TT is more valuable than I used to believe.
Maybe they'll trade Harrington and Bender to the Bulls for TT
and then Harrington can complain like hell.
Anyways, TT is a really, really good basketball player. He’s not as valuable as the record would have you believe, mainly because the players we have to sub in for him are crap, a, and because we’re not as good as we were in the start of the season, b.
But he is valuable. IMHO we’d probably have an extra win or two with him there.
I support the Tornado Release ... and Young Bucks.
Good point
I didn’t think of Bender as a trade chip, but you’re right. The physical similarities between TT and Bender are too great to be a coincidence.
One way or another, Jon Bender shows just how much Tyrus Thomas is on the mind of the New York Knicks.
(and I personally think TT would look good in orange and blue)
Just what the knicks need another underachieving 6’9ish supposedly 7ft tall forward….with injury problems. Wouldn’t sign white chocolate when we need a pg, but grab this gentleman off the streets? Im curious to see how this move turns out.
+1
good point. we have plents of forwards on the team. if this is a plan to add as a trade chip like stated ^^then ill shutup… but i have a feeling this was Walsh being nice to bender and giving him a chance to bring his career back.
dont know why he would do that.. so hopefully im wrong.
Seriously, what harm does this do?
If he’s suddenly first choice there’s a problem but otherwise we get a high character guy and another tall body for practice. Would you guys really prefer Courtney Sims or Morris Almond as the 15th man? What difference would it make?
Bender's a Knick
And I’m rooting for him. Slay all non-Knicks, Jonathan! You don’t need a knee to kick Chris Bosh’s ass!
I like this move!
I dont think Donnie would bring JB in if he didnt look good, he wanted to bring him in for trainning camp so that tells me that he was looking good in sept. hopfully he has been working hard, 2 adays 6 days a week.
and maybe, just maybe we can get a little lucky! what surprised me was when Dantoni was asked about JB, he said he looked good, he moved well and he shot the ball well! then he went on to say he may dress for the next game??? I think he musthave left some inpression!!
by FreejordanHill!!! on Dec 14, 2009 7:02 PM EST via mobile reply actions
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