The Undefeated’s Marc Spears has some nice things to say about the Knicks’ front office

Earlier today, The Undefeated put out a really insightful profile on the Knicks’ front office. You ought to get your due diligence on and check out Marc Spears’ latest. In a game dominated by people of color, it seems almost laughable that it is groundbreaking to have a front office populated in the same way. The article has great quotes from Steve Mills, David Fizdale and the big kahuna, Scott Perry.

Spears accidentally wrote that Emmanuel Mudiay was a “talented young guard” but to be fair, it was in the spirit of enthusiasm for the collective youth and exuberance flowing through the organization since Scott Perry slid over to the driver’s seat. Maybe you’re new around here, but it don’t usually feel like a smooth ride. With players, executives, coaches and media pulling in opposing directions.

“We’re going to do everything we can to try to attract free agents, as long as they’re the guys that buy into what we’re trying to do as an organization,” Mills said.

That’s a waxy thought bubble. What the Knicks are trying to do has rubber banded as the year crept along. Stretching and relaxing, sometimes snapping on their fingers. What has stayed consistent is the need to grow both as individuals and as a collective.

That has been the case for the youth movement and has been the hope with respect to adding an established star free agent. Kevin Durant’s untimely and career-altering injury threw the chess board on the floor, but the game of creating a championship contender is a much larger series of events.

“The African American front office, that doesn’t get lost on guys,” Mills said.

Nor should it. With the commissioner, Adam Silver, recently revealing that the NBA has long since pivoted to the use of “governor” in place of “owner”. It feels poignant to see Steve Mills and Co. comment on the long and short of the Knicks’ state of affairs. From where they’ve been to where they intend to go, and what it means historically, everyone was very candid.

Whatever happens in this upcoming free agency period, the Knicks have cleared the deck to give themselves as much leverage as possible. Scott Perry, has been the nonplussed general manager the Knicks have been pretending to have for almost two decades.

For so many years, there have been detoured paths. ‘Oh, there is a shiny object over there. There is an aging star over there. Go grab the name.’ “No. We are trying to build a basketball team that will be good for a long time. - Scott Perry

There will be a media monsoon if the Knicks don’t get two marquee free agents. It will double on itself if the Nets do, and the Knicks don’t. The Nets, to their credit are simply further along on the path. Nevertheless I can already feel Howard Beck’s breath on this situation’s neck.

With any luck, this executive group, admittedly the latest in an extensive lineage, has the staid demeanor to keep from making rash, reactive, self immolating decisions. Hopefully they don’t sign any two divas to the max. We can all be thankful that driving a Bugatti with a broken axle into a demolition derby just doesn’t seem like a Scott Perry move. In fact it just doesn’t seem like something the Knicks do at all these days.