The occasion that gathered a huge contingent of NBA power players — from NBA commissioner Adam Silver to the Knicks front office leadership Leon Rose and William Wesley as well as Tom Thibodeau, Julius Randle and a who’s who of Knicks history — was the groundbreaking of the Earl Monroe Renaissance Charter High School. It was an impressive showing, celebrating the ceremonial start to the building of the new facility for the school in the Bronx. But for Knicks fans, coming just days ahead of the start of camp, it was hard to avoid the other questions and hints.
Randle drove a shovel into the ground, hugged Thibodeau and did so with no hints of ill effects from his April surgical procedure to repair his dislocated right shoulder. Asked if Randle was healthy for the start of camp, Thibodeau said, “Yeah, I think so. We’ll see.
We open camp on Monday and we’ll get out there and get going. We’re looking forward to the challenge ahead.” The challenge is for the Knicks to live up to the expectations placed on them, to try to capture the first championship for the franchise since Monroe and Walt Frazier combined for the 1973 title.
Randle’s health might be the biggest factor, along with a subject that Frazier addressed — the sacrifice it took when the Knicks traded for Monroe, who was his nemesis while playing for Baltimore. “Compliments to the team,” Silver said of the Knicks front office. “We hear less about this big-small market dynamic than we used to, par.