KNICKS 101

Cuttino Mobley was suppose to become the New York Knicks starting guard when they traded for him.  Instead he was forced into retirement when doctors found a complication with his heart during this physical.  Now he's claiming he should have never been forced to retire.

The Knicks traded for Cuttino Mobley and Tim Thomas, sending Zach Randolph and Mardy Collins to the Los Angeles Clippers on November 21, 2008.  

During the physical the Knicks found out Mobley had a heart condition.  Apparently both Mobley and the Clippers knew about the condition and it hadn't effected his play up to that point.

The Knicks went through with the trade anyway, waiving the physical requirement, because they wanted to shed Randolph's salary to make a run at top talent in the 2010 offseason.  

The team however did make it known that Mobley's condition was career threatening.  In early December Mobley announced his retirement due to hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

Mobley never played a game for New York and retired seemingly having his life saved by the Knicks since they found he had the same disease that took the lives of Hank Gathers (1990) and Reggie Lewis (1993).

In July Mobley played in the Drew League and put on a show.  He played on a team with Toronto Raptor DeMar DeRozan and scored 37 points.  

According to Kevin Arnovitz of ESPN.com, Mobley is now claiming his heart is fine to play and he's having a hard time making a come back because of the perception the Knicks put out about him.

Mobley scored 37 points for Go H.A.M. (whose logo oddly resembles the Piggly Wiggly, if the pig had a basketball in its mouth). He beat defenders with his crossover, mercilessly posted up smaller defenders for easy buckets, drained rainbow 3s, hit ridiculous leaners, went right with a vicious drive and-1, pulled the chair out on his man to force a turnover, swatted the ball away on a one-on-one break, flew in to the basket area and followed a DeRozan miss, thread the needle in traffic to his big man, then iced the game with a big shot inside of two minutes.

If you watch the video in the article Mobley is not only attempting a come back at 37 years old but he's trying to open a marijuana dispensary and also says the lockout can't end until big stars like Kobe Bryant and Lebron James get involved.

Did the Knicks do the right thing or did they just use Mobley to shed payroll?  Did they ruin his career or did they save his life?  Likely, Mike D'Antoni would have loved to put Mobley into his rotation.  However, the answer to all of those questions is yes.

Tags: Basketball, Cuttino Mobley, Hank Gathers, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Los Angeles Clippers, Mardy Collins, Mike D'antoni, NBA, New York, New York Knicks, Reggie Lewis, Tim Thomas

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