The New York Knicks were considered the frontrunners to get Donovan Mitchell before he was signed to the roster of the Cleveland Cavaliers. For the duration of the summer, Donovan Mitchell was a player to watch.
The 6-foot-1 combo guard wanted to play for another club after spending the previous five years with the Utah Jazz. A number of clubs expressed interest in acquiring the three-time All-Star as soon as news of Don’s desire to leave Utah began circulating.
The New York Knicks may have been the frontrunners to sign the star player. Unexpectedly, Mitchell opted to leave the San Antonio Spurs and join the Cleveland Cavaliers, a team in the Eastern Conference.
The reasons Knicks passed on acquiring Donovan Mitchell, as revealed by Charles Barkley
On Friday, Charles Barkley, a former Knicks player and current NBA pundit for TNT, chimed in on the discussions, claiming to have “inside knowledge” from Knicks senior executive William Wesley, aka World Wide Wes. Barkley said that Wesley informed him that the Jazz were seeking far more compensation than was previously known.
“I’m gonna give you inside information. I actually had this conversation last night with World Wide Wes at dinner,” Barkley said. “I said, Wes, why didn’t y’all make the trade? He says, ‘Oh man. Don’t go by the media stuff. [The Jazz] wanted my wife, my kids.’
“… He says, ‘We wanted the deal, obviously,’ but he said, ‘They wanted my wife, they wanted my kids, they wanted my grandkids. They were just trying to rip somebody off.’ So he says, ‘Dude, we’re gonna have to pass on it.’ And I give those guys credit, because you can’t give away everything.”
