NEW YORK, NY – MARCH 18: James Dolan, Executive Chairman of Madison Square Garden, answers questions during the press conference to introduce Phil Jackson as President of the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden on March 18, 2014 in New York City. (Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)
We are living in strange times
How do you conduct an expansive interview process amid a global pandemic?
New York City is a war zone, literally. As the novel coronavirus and its devastating disease, COVID-19, ravages the city, it’s impractical to believe any kind of business as usual can be conducted, including interviewing for a key basketball role.
I mean, James Dolan, himself, recently recovered from the virus. Nobody from any walk of life can be expected to operate independent of the pandemic. To expect the Knicks to complete an extensive interview process for a general manager during these difficult times is asking too much.
While you would expect Leon Rose to have a good idea of the NBA landscape of general managers, assistant GMs, and front office up-and-comers, and he could have counted on relationships he has built as an agent and augmented his knowledge of candidates with conversations over the phone, or Zoom, it’s not the same as a full-fledged interview process hosted in person.
With a deadline looming on Perry’s option in the beginning of May, Rose needed to decide if he was comfortable enough with the candidates he might have been considering, knowing he couldn’t complete a full interview process, or if it just made sense to stick with the status quo until he has more time to decide who should be in charge of day-to-day player decisions over the long run.
Of course, all of this assumes that Rose wasn’t just set on keeping Perry for another season (or longer) from the moment he took over, which brings us to the next point.
pic.twitter.com/UpcYGA8MiH
<p>— Ian Begley (@IanBegley) <a href=https://dailyknicks.com/2020/05/01/knicks-why-retaining-scott-perry-makes-sense-for-now/2/"https://twitter.com/IanBegley/status/1255590961587146754?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%22>April 29, 2020</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src=https://dailyknicks.com/2020/05/01/knicks-why-retaining-scott-perry-makes-sense-for-now/2/"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p></div>
<p>While Ian Begley <a href=https://dailyknicks.com/2020/05/01/knicks-why-retaining-scott-perry-makes-sense-for-now/2/"https://twitter.com/IanBegley/status/1255590961587146754?s=20%22 target="_blank" rel="noopener">suggests</a> Rose might keep Perry long-term, the two have a previous relationship from the Carmelo Anthony trade to Oklahoma City, don’t be surprised if Perry’s exercised option buys him months more than an entire calendar year.</p>
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<p>Whenever basketball returns to normal operations, and teams either finish or don’t finish the 2019-20 season, new candidates could emerge to take over the role of long-term GM of the Knicks. Right now, with everything on hold, perhaps making a long-term decision on the general manager of the team can wait a bit too.</p><!—pageview_candidate—>">
