David Griffin removes himself from Knicks’ front office consideration

Ex-Cavs GM David Griffin has pulled his name out of the Knicks' GM and president search after he couldn't come… https://t.co/H4oStS2yd6

— Marc J. Spears (@MarcJSpears) July 9, 2017

David Griffin has withdrawn himself from consideration for a front office role with the Knicks, Marc Spears of ESPN reports.

This development doesn’t come as much of a surprise, given how slowly things appeared to be moving by both sides. New York needs an executive to help frame this team right away, and if they weren’t pursuing Griffin aggressively enough, there’s a good chance he sensed that he wasn’t their guy. New York didn’t show that they wanted him badly enough.

Griffin is an NBA executive with over two decades of experience. He also received the outpouring of public support from LeBron James upon his departure from Cleveland. He has what it takes to run an NBA team and obviously has a proven championship-worthy resume thanks to his success with the Cavaliers. Someone of his caliber might not necessarily be comfortable with personnel like Steve Mills or even James Dolan breathing down his neck. He’s earned the right to be trusted and be given freedom to carry out a vision for a winning culture.

Serving as General Manager would have forced Griffin, in theory, to answer to Mills. It also likely wouldn’t have given the autonomy to put together his own support staff. Thus, the Knicks’ situation is less than ideal. It’ll be interesting to see who the team targets next, and if that same aforementioned target will agree to such tight and limited terms.