One of the reasons why many Knicks fans have been appalled by the hiring of Leon Rose and William “World Wide Wes” Wesley to manage the front office was the rumor that the couple had long had a strong MSG voice in the past ten. years. If Rose and Wesley had secretly held the show while working as agents for the CAA, how much would it have changed with the Knicks now that their titles were more official?
While we don’t yet know all the details of Wesley and Rose’s influence in the past, a disturbing story emerged Sunday from Marc Berman of The Post. Apparently, Wesley was responsible for firing GM Glen Grunwald after the 2012-13 season, which was the last time the Knicks made the playoffs:
The Post learned that Wesley was a driving force behind Dolan who moved out of Grunwald after a 54-28 season four days before the 2013 training camp. Wesley recommended bringing Steve Mills back, citing stronger connections.
Grunwald did an excellent job as a GM, strengthening the roster around Carmelo Anthony with seasoned veterans and three-point shooters. The rumor at the time (which may still be true) was that Grunwald was against the Knicks’ disastrous efforts to trade with AAC client Andrea Bargnani in the summer of 2013, and was replaced by Mills shortly thereafter. Berman does not mention the Bargs trade, but confirms that Wesley pushed Grunwald to be replaced by Mills, who at the time had no experience in basketball operations.
In short, we saw how Mills’ “stronger connections” would help the franchise in the next seven years. Mills was sacked mid-season 2019-2020 and replaced with Rose, who brought Wesley on board in an official capacity.
So does this mean that the Rose / Wesley partnership is doomed to fail? Not necessarily. Rose has drawn on some quality basketball minds since she accepted the job. Hopefully he and Wesley have learned from the mistakes of the passage and trust those experts.