New York Knicks president Leon Rose put together a team that reached the NBA Finals all while rarely interacting with the media, and he earned the admiration of another notable sports executive in the city in the process.
“Not in this town,” New York Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said when discussing whether he could do the job without speaking to the media, per Ian O’Connor of The Athletic.
“But the bottom line isn’t how you communicate publicly. It’s not what you say, it’s what you do. And what Leon Rose has done is transformational.
“He made really impactful moves with [Jalen] Brunson and [Karl-Anthony] Towns, and other quality moves with [Mikal] Bridges and [OG] Anunoby, and now the Knicks are knocking on the door for a championship that the city is desperate for.
“Being a GM, your job is to get your team in a position to win. You’re not a player, but you put together a program that improves the roster, the coaches, the scouts, and it’s a whole ecosystem designed to deliver consistent winning. … And nobody can be more proud of what they’ve accomplished with that than Leon Rose.”
Rose was a player agent for years and was the former co-head of the basketball division at CAA Sports when the Knicks hired him in 2020.
Towns was among the players he previously represented from a list that also included LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Joel Embiid and Chris Paul. And he has answered any concerns or questions about his hiring in resounding fashion given the success the Knicks have enjoyed.
New York has made the playoffs in five of his six seasons after missing the postseason entirely in the seven campaigns before his arrival. It reached the Eastern Conference Finals last season for the first time since 2000 and took the next step this season.
This is New York’s first trip to the NBA Finals since 1999, and it has the opportunity to win its first championship since 1973 thanks in large part to players Rose acquired such as Brunson and Towns.
Cashman would know much better than most how much pressure executives face when trying to put together championship teams in New York, as he was hired as the Yankees general manager in 1998.
They have four World Series titles with him in that position, although the last one came back in 2009.
They are in early playoff positioning in the 2026 MLB season, though, so perhaps both New York franchises can win titles in a year that would be remembered forever in the Big Apple.
