Is it true that RJ Barrett deserved better from Knicks this summer?
New York Daily News’ Stefan Bondy believes that RJ Barrett deserved better from the New York Knicks this summer despite signing the largest contract in Knicks history. Bondy thinks the Knicks should have done better by RJ Barrett this summer, and I agree.
Okay, I get that me writing for a Knicks fan page and agreeing with a guy who is bashing the Knicks probably is going to create a war zone in the comments with people calling me stupid, but I really do not care because Bondy was right and we as a whole should agree on this.
Has RJ Barrett deserved better from the New York Knicks?
The Knicks recently signed Barrett to a massive four-year extension that is worth up to 120 million dollars. I am very confident Barrett will live up to every last dollar of this extension, and I was happy to see it get hammered out.
Bondy seems to think that Leon Rose dangling Barrett in trades for Donovan Mitchell, and then putting him in a stat class with LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Kobe Bryant, and Luka Doncic is incredibly strange… and he has a point.
Leon talked so highly of Barrett in his interview with Alan Hahn where The Godfather continued to show his mob-boss vibes, hence why I call him The Godfather. Rose backed every player on the Knicks extensively.
Marc Berman voiced his opinion of Barrett also after talking to an anonymous NBA personnel member, and the article and personnel member basically said the contract is bad and that RJ is just a starter-level player, but Berman is a Negative Nancy and needs to relax.
Berman’s thoughts are understandable, but he disregarded all the great things that Barrett has done, while Bondy was more on the side of Barrett, saying that Rose should not have dangled him in trades and then announced his extension mere minutes after Donovan Mitchell was traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers.
My biggest issue with Leon Rose is that he reportedly offered a trade of RJ Barrett, Mitchell Robinson, Quentin Grimes, and three first-round picks for Mitchell, which would have been a classic Knicks trade.
I agree with Bondy that hyping Barrett up after hesitating to extend him and then offering him in multiple trades for Donovan Mitchell is really strange. Barrett has been consistently disrespected, and it is bad that it feels like New York has done the same thing.
The disrespect continued on the ESPN Top 100 where Barrett was ranked at 63, lower than Jalen Green, Tyler Herro, Kyle Lowry, Jordan Poole, Scottie Barnes, Klay Thompson, and Tyrese Haliburton. At this rate, call it “The ESPN Top 100, ranked by casual fans who do not think RJ Barrett is good and thinks LeBron James is no longer a top-five NBA player because we only care about what social media thinks.”
Bleacher Report gave RJ his flowers for being a clutch player for the absolutely unreal crunch time numbers that Barrett has put up. It would be nice to see more respect given to him, as he certainly deserves it.
All in all, Bondy is right, RJ Barrett is potentially the most disrespected player in the NBA because he is on the Knicks. It would be nice if his own team would respect him more.
