In a move that surprises no one, the Knicks have fired Steve Mills as team president.
Rumblings of Mills’s departure began last Sunday after reports surfaced of him leaving Madison Square Garden upset, presumably following a meeting with team owner Jim Dolan.
Mills previously had several stints with the Knicks, first working with the organization from 2003 through 2009, and working with then-president Phil Jackson in 2014. Mills was elevated to president of basketball operations following Jackson’s firing in 2017.
“Steve and I have come to the decision that it would be best for him to leave his role as president of the New York Knicks,” said Dolan. “We thank Steve for his many years of service to our organization and look forward to continuing our relationship with him as part of our board.”
Current general manager Scott Perry, who worked closely with Mills, will lead basketball operations in an interim role.
Per ESPN, Dolan has already spoken with an unnamed candidate. The Knicks are also rumored to be targeting current Raptors president Masai Ujiri.
“I will always be grateful to Jim for giving me the chance to represent this franchise and I’m disappointed we were unable to achieve success for New York. I would like to thank the staff and players for their hard work during my tenure. I will always be a Knicks fan.”
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While I prefer this was a package deal with Perry (they both put this clunky roster of ill-fitting parts together), I have a feeling more hammers will drop.
Still, I’m not exactly optimistic with Thursday’s trade deadline looming. Was Mills ousted for pushing a bad deal (like trading for Andre Drummond or giving up Mitchell Robinson and picks to the Warriors for D’Angelo Russell?) or was he fired for not going along with one?
We have about 48 hours to find out. Meanwhile, we might as well call this season the Knicks 2019-2020 Fire Sale.
NEW YORK KNICKS LOYALIST 