This mid-2020s resurgence of the New York Knicks has a ton of fans forgiving and forgetting many of the egregious past blunders the club's previous regimes made over the last few decades. Hall of Famer Rick Pitino, however, has yet to adopt such a mentality.
During a recent edition of The Roommates Show, the current St. John's headman told hosts Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart that, prior to the 2017 NBA Draft, he had personally called the Knicks front office, urging them to select Donovan Mitchell, his standout player from his tenure at Louisville, with the eighth overall pick.
"I call them up and say, 'Hey, listen, take my guy Donovan Mitchell. He's going to kill it. Don't pay attention to what you think some of his weaknesses are. He's going to kill it. Take him,'" Pitino said.
While this revelation may come as earth-shattering and completely shocking news to those hearing it for the first time, the sad reality is, Pitino has almost made this an annual talking point of his over the years.
Rick Pitino once again reminds Knicks fans of Donovan Mitchell advice
Back during a 2019 appearance on SiriusXM NBA Radio, Pitino said that he "tried to get the Knicks to take" Mitchell. In 2022, he was found raving about just how much "Donovan loves the Knicks,’’ and how he'd "treasure" playing for the organization.
Now, in 2025, it appears he's back at it again, painfully reminding fans all about what could have been had the team taken the guard on draft night back in 2017.
As everyone remotely invested in the Knicks organization will vividly remember, the then President of Basketball Operations, Phil Jackson, opted not to heed Pitino's supposed advice and, instead, selected French point guard Frank Ntilikina with their pick, which then saw Mitchell slide to 13 overall, where, via a draft-day trade, he landed with the Utah Jazz.
Nine years removed from this fateful decision, it's easy to see just how badly New York messed up by passing on Mitchell, as he's become one of the brightest stars in the league, earning six All-Star nods along the way, while Ntilikina fizzled out of the league in seven years and is now playing out in Greece with Olympiacos
Over the better part of the past three decades, the Knicks have unfortunately seen their fair share of draft day misses.
From their decision to take French big Fredric Weis over New York's own Ron Artest back in 1999 and choosing Kevin Knox over Shai Gilgeous-Alexander during the 2018 festivities, to, more recently, selecting Obi Toppin over Tyrese Haliburton in 2020, the list is quite extensive.
Fortunately, thanks to the current successes of this new Brunson-led era, Knicks fans have managed to move on from these sore subjects.
Why can't Rick Pitino?