The fact is, in the end, you want what they want, and they want what you want. Sure, it’s always funny whenever a draft is held in New York and when the name announced causes visceral pain among the faithful in attendance.
At last count, the video of the Jets selecting Jeff Lageman with the 14th pick of the 1989 NFL Draft — and the resulting reaction of Jets fans at the Marriott Marquis that day — had been watched 1,709,795 times on YouTube. And, of course, there was Jordan, aka @cryingknicksfan, who famously wept when the Knicks picked Kristaps Porzingis three years ago.
The Jets weren’t trolling you with Lageman. The Knicks weren’t taunting you with Porzingis. Lageman turned out OK. Pozingis was headed for the All-Star Game before he blew out his knee. They wanted what you wanted. They want what you want.
So if your first inclination is disappointment the Knicks didn’t split their aces and double down Thursday night, didn’t go for broke and pick Michael Porter Jr. when he was still available at No. 9, you should probably remember: as invested as you may be in the Knicks being right in opting for Kevin Knox instead, it doesn’t compare to how much Scott Perry and Steve Mills need to be right about this.
“We like the talent,” Perry, the Knicks’ general manager, said after picking the 6-foot-9, 215-pound Knox, who averaged 15.6 points and shot 44.5 percent from the floor for Kentucky last year. “He fits what we’re going to be about. He’s long, athletic, can play multiple positions. And we know the talent is there.”
Added Mills, the team’s president: “At Kentucky they get thrown into the fire earlier than other places. It equips a player and gives him a better chance to play right away [in the NBA].”
And then this: “There are no perfect players in this league.”
That includes Porter, of course, who probably would have been the first or second pick in last year’s draft if he wasn’t forbidden from it, and if he weren’t forced to put in a year at Missouri, during which he hurt his back and instantly became a 6-11 question mark. He is certainly intriguing enough that he was the kid on the lips of most Knicks fans at Barclays Center on Thursday, chants that morphed into boos when commissioner Adam Silver announced Knox’ name.
As young Jordan quickly said on Instagram, talking on behalf of a lot of his fellow Knicks fans in the room in Brooklyn: “Nothing at all against Kevin Knox, I think he will be great in the rotation with Fiz as coach … it’s just we had the golden ticket, the guy that could have made such an amazing impact …”
Still, as one NBA source texted last night: “To your blackjack analogy … taking a gamble on a guy is like splitting 8s against the dealer’s 6. I fear Porter is doubling down when you have 7 and the dealer has a king. There’s a difference between taking a chance and being reckless.”
Of course, Porter might prove this insider, the Knicks and the 12 other teams who passed on him wrong, may make them pay the way Tom Brady has made it his mission to make the 31 teams that passed on him multiple times pay again and again and again.
But here’s the thing: The Knicks didn’t contain themselves in a box. They didn’t make the safe pick: That would’ve been Mikal Bridges (who endured his own personal soap opera by going to his hometown Sixers at 10, making his mother — who works for the team — weep for joy on TV, then getting shuttled out to Phoenix). Bridges is three full years older and far closer to whatever finished product he’s going to be.
Knox’s ceiling is enticing. And he clearly believes he can take himself to a higher place still. He heard the fans chanting Porter’s name, heard their disappointment. And despite still being two months shy of his 19th birthday, he understood.
“They can chant Michael Porter all they want,” he said, “but they got Kevin Knox, and I’m willing to work and I’m willing to get better.”
That would be a good idea for him. And a better idea for the men who decided to make him the first cornerstone of the new franchise foundation. They want what you want. Maybe even a little bit more.