The day before the 2017 NBA Draft, the New York Knicks asked guard Dennis Smith Jr. to conduct one last workout. With the team seemingly intent on drafting him, they wanted to do their due-diligence. Smith Jr. declined and was eventually drafted by the Dallas Mavericks, his preferred team. Prior to the All-Star Weekend festivities, Smith Jr. elaborated a little more about not working out for the Knicks prior to the NBA Draft.
“I wouldn’t say they (Knicks front office) made me feel uncomfortable,” said Smith Jr. via the New York Daily News. “That would be pretty difficult to do. But it was more that we had an agreement and they tried to change things around. It ain’t nothing personal.”
Dennis Smith Jr. went out to dinner with Knicks management in June, where he was oddly pressured by Phil Jackson to eat Octopus, with a workout scheduled the next day. That workout did not happen either, as Smith Jr. withdrew after the Knicks asked him for a physical. It is worth nothing that Smith Jr. tore his ACL in 2015.
“The vibe was different in Dallas to me,” Smith Continued. “The Knicks have some good guys on their staff, but the situation with them was funky at the time.”
That “funky” situation could have been a number of things, considering the state of the Knicks during that time. Then-team president Phil Jackson was getting heavy criticism for his job as well as the handling of Carmelo Anthony. Regardless of his exact reasoning, Smith Jr. appears happy and motivated down in Dallas. Meanwhile the Knicks are still trying to figure out what to do with the point guard they took instead of him, Frank Ntilikina.
