For a long time now, there have been rumors of many players signing with the Knicks in free agency.
They haven’t gotten a single one of them. The rumors won’t stop, though.
Many people thought the player that would sign with the Knicks was LeBron James, who obviously never signed with them, and former Knick Charles Oakley knows why.
In his book, Oakley talks about a conversation he had with Lebron where he tells him that owner James Dolan wouldn’t shake his hand, and LeBron responded by saying that was why he wouldn’t ever go to New York.
So there it is. It’s James Dolan’s fault that LeBron never went to the Knicks, so that’s who Knicks fans came to blame.
There have always been random rumors why LeBron didn’t sign with the Knicks, including this one.
LeBron James, according to one report, planned to sign with the Knicks until a disastrous meeting with them in 2010. Instead, he signed with the Heat.
Did LeBron also initially favor the Knicks before signing with the Lakers in 2018 free agency?
Lisa Robinson of Vanity Fair on the “Brian Windhorst & The Hoop Collective” podcast:
We heard that LeBron wanted to come to New York. And I have really good sources about this, that he was thinking about coming to New York but that his wife wanted to be in Los Angeles, wanted the kids to go to school in Los Angeles, and that just kiboshed the whole thing.
Robinson has connections throughout the entertainment industry, which overlaps with sports. Her reporting deserves consideration, even though she doesn’t directly cover the NBA.
Who knows if any of these stories are true, but what we do know is LeBron went to the Lakers and won a ring in the bubble.
It has been rough going since then, but he doesn’t seem like he will be slowing down any time soon.
Flip the page for Oakley speaking on Dolan being the reason he didn’t sign with the Knicks.
