… “you don’t just throw players on the court and expect them to be a cohesive unit overnight.” ERNIE GRUNFELD
As the team he assembled continues to forge ahead in the NBA playoffs, Ernie Grunfeld, the deposed Knick president and GM, insisted that it is “absurd” to think any problems he might have had with Jeff Van Gundy had compromised the team’s chances to qualify for the postseason.
“We didn’t agree on everything,” Grunfeld said yesterday from his New Jersey home, “but we had a lot of success together and it’s absurd to think that had any effect on team performance.”
That was the contention of Garden president Dave Checketts, who on April 21 fired his friend and ally, and assumed day-to-day control of a team that was 21-21 and floundering in its attempt for a 12th consecutive appearance in the playoffs.
Fast forward to today, with the Knicks, having already outlasted the Pat Riley Miami menace in the first round, poised for Game Two in the second round, sitting pretty after wresting the home-court advantage away from the Hawks. The oft-criticized Grunfeld Plan is in high gear, even if the architect has been reassigned.
Van Gundy is in the process of saving his job, deservedly so, while Grunfeld – someone equally as responsible for the startling Knick resurgence – has already been cast aside. Checketts portrayed the Grunfeld outster as a sacrifice that had to be made to ensure organizational unity and preserve any chance of a Knick playoffs run.
Despite the tumult of the regular season, Grunfeld said he always believed the moves he made – shipping out John Starks and Charles Oakley in exchange for Latrell Sprewell and Marcus Camby – would pay off.
“I’ve been around this league a very long time,” he said, “and I understand you don’t just throw players on the court and expect them to be a cohesive unit overnight.”
Starks and two role players (Chris Mills and Terry Cummings) brought back a three-time All-Star in Sprewell, albeit an All-Star with baggage. Oakley may have been the Knicks’ emotional centerpiece for a decade, but his worn body was slowing down and he would have been a free agent after this season. In Camby, Grunfeld landed a player skilled at shot-blocking who at 6-11 provided a jolt to the transition game.
“The plan was to get younger, more athletic, to play more up-tempo style and to bring more weapons in to take some of the burden and pressure off Patrick,” Grunfeld said.
Signs that the plan Grunfeld planted would bear fruit were evident against the Heat and those same signs Tuesday night all but exploded inside the Georgia Dome. With Ewing saddled with foul trouble and a creaky body, Sprewell and Houston – another player Grunfeld acquired – combined for 65 points.
The firing was a shock to Grunfeld and his family, which was engrossed in the Knicks, so much so that the family dog is named Nicky.
“I keep on trying to change it, but she won’t respond,” Grunfeld’s wife, Nancy, said, laughing.
It is nearly impossible to dispose of an allegiance that has been so enduring. Grunfeld, 44, has been employed by the Knicks since 1982, first as a player and later as a broadcaster, assistant coach and front-office executive. His two children, Rebecca (a freshman at Emory University in Atlanta) and Daniel (a freshman in high school) know no other existence than the one that combined the family and the Knicks.
“This is a very good learning experience for my children,” Nancy Grunfeld said. “I think the hard part for them is that it wasn’t just a job, it was an identity and an association, and that hurts.”
The Grunfelds continue to pull for the Knicks – “I’d be thrilled if they win, because this is Ernie’s team,” Nancy Grunfeld said – but there are some relationships that cannot be salvaged. Grunfeld and Checketts were friends on more than a professional level.
“Our kids were the best of friends,” Nancy added. “And we were the closest of friends.”
Notice the past tense.
“That has changed,” she said. “But you can’t focus on that. You have to let that go. The kids get older and will have great memories of our lives here, and [the Checketts family] was a big part of that for a long time.”
It is doubtful Grunfeld will remain in limbo for long, as his 22-year involvement in the NBA has been defined by hard work and basketball acumen.
“I’m a basketball guy,” he said, “and something will pop for me.”