WASHINGTON – Think you’re the only one wondering what was going through the Knicks’ mind when they selected Frederic Weis with the 15th pick in Wednesday’s NBA draft? You’re not alone.
Hubie Brown, the former Knick coach now an analyst for TNT, has serious questions about the 7-foot-2 center from France.
“I haven’t seen him play but I know this: he played for the French [national] team and he didn’t dominate,” said Brown.
“He is 7-2, 240 pounds and like almost all European front-court players who don’t play college basketball in the United States, he’s going to have to come over here and change his physical approach to the game.”
“He’s going to have to add weight and upper body strength,” continued Brown. “He has excellent hands and he has a good outside shot – a soft shot. But if he’s not dominating in European play, he’s not going to dominate in the NBA.”
The Knicks had a chance to take St. John’s forward Ron Artest with the 15th pick and Artest made no secret that he wanted to play for his hometown team. After the Timberwolves used the 14th pick on William Avery, Artest got so anxious he said he tried to find a telephone to make a call but he had no one to call. His family and close friends were with him in the MCI Center.
“We were thinking about how great it would be if the Knicks took him,” said Artest’s sister LaToya. “We could just go over to the Garden and watch him play. When the Knicks didn’t pick him, we were all mad at first. But then the Bulls picked him and those are the two teams we like, the Knicks and the Bulls.”
When NBA commissioner David Stern announced Artest’s name, the 6-foot-7 forward from Long Island City looked down at the Knicks’ draft table and raised his arms as if to ask why he had been passed over.
“What we’re the Knicks thinking?” a member of Artest’s entourage asked yesterday afternoon before boarding a 1:05 train to New York. “Ron is happy to be a Bull, but when the Knicks didn’t pick him, I thought he was going to cry.”
Artest did cry when the Bulls used the 16th pick on him. He said they were tears of joy and certainly there’s a lot for Artest to be happy about.
Artest goes to a team with great tradition, one that is aching to rebuild after the end of the Jordan dynasty. He has a chance at immediate playing time and he’ll be reunited with his former Riverside Church teammate, Elton Brand, who was the No.1 player taken.
“At first I was mad,” said Artest. “But then I said, ‘Yo, I’m a Bull! Thanks Knicks. I hope that big guy can play because the New York fans will let him know.”
