Even On Off Days, the New York Knicks Continue to Lose

Yesterday was another incredible day for the New York Knicks in the James Dolan era. Out of nowhere, businessman Steve Stoute showed up on First Take as the Knicks new brand consultant. It was something else.

Stoute explained that he was the Knicks' answer to Drake and made it sound like he would have a hand in personnel decisions. (The second and third clips from the interview are embedded at the bottom of the post.) This was a claim that the Knicks publicly denied a few hours later.

The entire interview is kind of bananas. Mostly because of the verbal beatdown Max Kellerman asked Stoute to pass along to Dolan, but also because what team besides the Knicks would ever promote a brand consultant? Drake was a "global ambassador" and his official arrival just happened to coincide with Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan entering their primes. The Knicks have nothing like that on the horizon for Stoute to latch onto. They're far more likely to act like Drake as he helped Kawhi negotiate with the Clippers at his home in Los Angeles than buy the team special championship jackets and become the beloved sideline meme factory he probably hopes to be.

Finally on Tuesday, while the Internet still reeled about the Knicks brand consultant, The Athletic reported that World Wide Wes would not be taking an official role with the Knicks. William Wesley was supposed to join his longtime business partner Leon Rose in the Knicks' front office. As some have pointed out, different rules apply to the famous NBA power broker if he isn't an official part of the organization. So this is either four-dimensional chess by the Knicks or they are destined to get nailed for tampering at some point down the road. Luckily, they have someone who can rebrand that.