Walsh adds old fave to Knicks
Monday, December 14, 2009
BY STEVE ADAMEK
The Record
STAFF WRITER
A year after drafting Al Harrington out of St. Patrick High School in Elizabeth, Donnie Walsh went the same route in Indiana by grabbing Jonathan Bender out of Picayune (Miss.) High via a post-draft trade.
That didn?t work out as well, as chronic knee problems forced Bender (drafted fifth overall by Toronto then dealt to the Pacers for Antonio Davis) to retire ? until he told Walsh he thought he could play again and the Knicks? president decided to roll the dice by signing him.
A slender 7-footer, Bender averaged 5.6 points in seven seasons with the Pacers, but played only nine games his final two, the last 2005-06. Still, Walsh felt it worth the gamble to sign him after seeing him work out this summer.
"Because I had him before, I know what talent level he was at," Walsh told reporters Sunday after practice at the team?s Greenburgh, N.Y., training center. "So I thought it was worth the risk or chance to bring him in because if it works, he?s got a lot of talent, more than most guys that are just floating around out there."
Still only 28, Bender had built a post-basketball business around Hurricane Katrina recovery in his Mississippi hometown, buying damaged properties and hiring contractors to refurbish them before renting them out.
But Walsh said, "He just had the urge and wanted to come back on play" but "wanted to be not 100 percent sure, but 120 percent sure. ?
"He can play. He can put the ball on the floor. He used to be able to get to the basket on one dribble from half-court. There?s not a whole lot of guys who can do that. I don?t know if he can do that now, but he knows how to play."
Bender fills the Knicks? final roster spot, for the moment, although the team, via an appeal to the NBA, soon expects the retired Cuttino Mobley to vacate the spot he still holds and wipe his $9 million-plus salary off their cap. They still can use his contract in a trade prior to the appeal, but could not use his slot to sign or trade for a player afterward.
A year after drafting Al Harrington out of St. Patrick High School in Elizabeth, Donnie Walsh went the same route in Indiana by grabbing Jonathan Bender out of Picayune (Miss.) High via a post-draft trade.
That didn?t work out as well, as chronic knee problems forced Bender (drafted fifth overall by Toronto then dealt to the Pacers for Antonio Davis) to retire ? until he told Walsh he thought he could play again and the Knicks? president decided to roll the dice by signing him.
A slender 7-footer, Bender averaged 5.6 points in seven seasons with the Pacers, but played only nine games his final two, the last 2005-06. Still, Walsh felt it worth the gamble to sign him after seeing him work out this summer.
"Because I had him before, I know what talent level he was at," Walsh told reporters Sunday after practice at the team?s Greenburgh, N.Y., training center. "So I thought it was worth the risk or chance to bring him in because if it works, he?s got a lot of talent, more than most guys that are just floating around out there."
Still only 28, Bender had built a post-basketball business around Hurricane Katrina recovery in his Mississippi hometown, buying damaged properties and hiring contractors to refurbish them before renting them out.
But Walsh said, "He just had the urge and wanted to come back on play" but "wanted to be not 100 percent sure, but 120 percent sure. ?
"He can play. He can put the ball on the floor. He used to be able to get to the basket on one dribble from half-court. There?s not a whole lot of guys who can do that. I don?t know if he can do that now, but he knows how to play."
Bender fills the Knicks? final roster spot, for the moment, although the team, via an appeal to the NBA, soon expects the retired Cuttino Mobley to vacate the spot he still holds and wipe his $9 million-plus salary off their cap. They still can use his contract in a trade prior to the appeal, but could not use his slot to sign or trade for a player afterward.
