EC: As a player, you realize it’s a business, but you want to feel some sort of stability and trust. When I got there, it was training camp. I went to my room, and there was a fruit basket in my room. It was partially eaten. It had the tag on there, and it was to Mike Sweetney. I get to practice the next day. I’m talking to Jamal Crawford, and he’s super hyped that I’m there. A lot of guys are hyped I’m there, but they’re sad Mike is gone. They told me he cried because they told Mike about the rumors, and they kept telling him, “We’re not going to trade you.” They traded him. It just messed him up and was tough on him.
I started developing a friendship with Jerome James. I remember one of the first things Jerome said to me was, “This city ain’t big enough for the both of us.” I’m like, “Huh?” As we developed a friendship, we talked along with Malik Rose, and he told me his viewpoint of it, which was that when he was in Seattle, he had a good playoff run with them. They used to call him the trash bag man or something like that because they were close to cutting him. He had that good run, and he signed a nice deal with the Knicks. When he signed the deal with the Knicks, he signed it thinking he was going to be the starting center, and it was going to finally be his chance to be that guy. That’s why he went there, but then they got me.
The first person I saw when I stepped off the elevator was Stephon (Marbury). I never really had a personal relationship with Steph. I was with William Wesley and Tim Grover. He (Marbury) was sitting right outside the elevator, and he welcomed me to New York. I was hyped. I grew up loving this guy watching him with KG. I still love Steph. He told me, literally the first thing he told me, “Welcome to the team. This is how this is going to work. When you get the rebound, you’re going to give it to me. Always look for me, even on an offensive rebound. Then, I’ll do my thing, and I’ll make sure that you get yours from time to time.”
I remember Zeke (Isiah Thomas) called me one summer. He said we had an opportunity to get Zach Randolph. That’s my guy. We go back to freshman year at Nike camp. I always loved Z-Bo. But I told Isiah, “I love Zach’s game. I think he’s incredible. But I don’t know how that’s going to work. He gets his around the same places I get mine. I don’t know how that’s supposed to work, but I’m going to trust you.” He said, “Alright, let me think about it. If something happens, I’ll let you know.” The next day, I heard about the trade.
Quentin (Richardson) was coming there from winning the Three-Point Contest. He has his own idea of what a successful team looks like and is supposed to be. Then you had the Larry Brown and Isiah Thomas dynamic. All of that kind of played into what we became as a team. I think it wasn’t as team orientated as it should’ve been.
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