The Knicks officially signed draft pick Obi Toppin

The Knicks announced Monday that they have officially signed first round draft pick Obi Toppin, who will further the Amar’e Stoudemire comparisons by wearing number one on his jersey, and though the signing may have been a formality, it’s still something to celebrate.

Hooray! That’s how you celebrate, right? The team didn’t announce the financial terms of Toppin’s deal, although others are saying that, based on how rookie contracts work, he’ll make about $4.8 million this year and $22.1 million in total for his first four seasons.

The Knicks seem extremely excited about Toppin, and emotionally some of us are giving the new front office the benefit of the doubt until they do something disastrous, so it’s great for Leon Rose that he got the guy he was targeting. Toppin seems top notch, with the Knicks pointing out in their press release that he was the only player in the nation to average 20 points, 7 rebounds and shoot over 60% from the field last season and also noting that he had the best field goal percentage in the last five years of any Division I player who averaged at least 20 points per game. Pretty cool.

Newsday’s Steve Popper reported that Toppin will wear number one, so those of you who bought Bobby Portis jerseys should start making alterations so they’ll read ‘Toppin.’ Here’s what a Toppin Knicks jersey would presumably look like:

His jersey number also means there’s lots of potential for brand partnerships with Star Wars. Oh look, they’ve already started:

Speaking of the number one, one wonders if the following comes to us from branding guru Steve Stoute, and how many hours he put in to pull this quote from Latrell Sprewell:

Toppin’s choice to wear the number previously donned by STAT comes as no surprise, since the rookie wore that very number in college. Still, it’s notable that he’ll follow in the footsteps of Stoudemire, because the two players have received plenty of comparisons thanks to their ferocious dunking abilities (and lackluster defense).

“A lot of people say I play like Amar’e Stoudemire, so I’ve been looking at a lot of film on him and seeing how dominant and the hard work he put in through every game and every practice,” Toppin said in this article from SNY.

Here’s hoping Toppin become just as dominant as Stoudemire on offense (and more dominant than him on defense).