You know, I just want to go shave off this week-old beard and run some errands, but the stories keep piling up. While we're still digesting injury and lineup news, Adrian Wojnarowski thinks it's okay to drop this bomb on us:
For the past four years, the New York Knicks may have circumvented NBA draft rules by conducting secret workouts of collegiate players throughout gymnasiums in suburban Atlanta, Yahoo! Sports has found.
Knicks director of East Coast scouting Rodney Heard coordinated and conducted the sessions, three players who were involved in some of the workouts told Yahoo! Sports – including one May 2007 session that resulted in a devastating knee injury to Kansas All-American Brandon Rush(notes). A tear of the anterior cruciate ligament in Rush’s right knee forced him to withdraw from the 2007 draft and required surgery plus six months of rehabilitation.
I'm no expert, but something tells me that's less than ideal. Check out the rest of that piece for some additional reports regarding familiar names like Wilson Chandler and Joe Crawford. I have no idea what consequences this story might have, but the fact that Donnie Walsh is already willing to go on record about it is reassuring. I suppose we'll have to wait and see how much attention this gets from David Stern and friends and whether there are penalties to be handed down. This sounds like the kind of thing that could lose a team a draft pick or two, but the Knicks don't really have those to give up (Update: As our friend KSJ49 points out, the article mentions a number of instances in which coaches and/or GMs have been fined or suspended for infractions of this nature.) In any event, this is a nuisance.