With Amar'e in tow, Knicks jump a few levels in LeBron sweepstakes

The news of Amar'e Stoudemire agreeing to join the Knicks barely took a nibble out of the Big Apple on Monday. It wasn't the five-time All-Star's $100 million contract that led the 11 o'clock news, but the 99-degree temperature achieved in Central Park. New recommendations for osteoporosis testing and a naked intruder in Pacific Beach, Calif., came before Stoudemire and his crisp new Knicks hat posing outside Madison Square Garden.

Amar'e Stoudemire makes the Knicks a more attractive suitor in the chase for LeBron. (AP)

As colleague Sam Amico responded on Twitter, it's hard to beat a good naked intruder story. But make no mistake: This was an important day for the Knicks as a basketball franchise at this transformative time in NBA history. Stoudemire may not be the guy, but he's as big a guy as the Knicks have had since Patrick Ewing. And that's not necessarily the point anyway. By landing the first game-changer of this crazy free-agent summer, the Knicks pushed the story down Seventh Avenue, hoping to nudge it all the way to Akron, Ohio, before they're done.

As Stoudemire was wrapping up his three-day, whirlwind tour of New York -- attending a Broadway show and dining in the Meatpacking District on Saturday night, then hitting the Yankees game and Garden chairman James Dolan's Fourth of July bash on Long Island's North Shore on Sunday -- LeBron James was busy making an unscheduled appearance at his Nike camp in Akron. And the faces of the day in this free-agent summer -- James and Stoudemire -- were linked in the mind, imagination and blueprint of Knicks president Donnie Walsh. After all the scorn and ridicule it was Walsh, the dean of NBA executives, who called the first bluff of free agency.

It was Walsh who slid his queen diagonally across the chess board and said, in his gravelly voice and understated way, "Check. Your move."

James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh -- kids running amok in their own free-agency hysteria -- can't make a decision. Walsh, who has been running NBA teams longer than any of them has been alive, made the first move. A bold one. And whatever you think of Stoudemire, his suspect knees and surgically repaired retina, Walsh's eyes are clear and unwavering in the staring contest of 2010. If nothing else, it became clear Monday -- a sweltering day in New York -- that Walsh will not be the one to let them see him sweat.

Walsh's plan may not work exactly as he envisioned. Stoudemire, 28, who carried the Suns to the Western Conference finals and would've beaten the Lakers with one more superstar on his side, may be the best card Walsh is dealt in this high-stakes game of free-agent poker. But here is what Walsh did by getting a commitment from Stoudemire, a player who is at least on a par with the other power forwards on the market -- Bosh, Carlos Boozer, and the Knicks' own David Lee: He transformed the Knicks from a mirage of cap space and nebulous studies about turning basketball stars into billionaires into something else.

A basketball team. Or at least, the very real beginning of one.

"They're starting something," All-Star Carmelo Anthony is said to have uttered to confidants Monday upon hearing the news of Stoudemire's commitment to the Knicks. They've started something that will be finished this summer or next, when Anthony could be involved if he follows through on his instincts to pass on a three-year, $65 million extension with the Nuggets and take a chance on the uncertain free-agent summer of 2011 -- complete with the threat of a new collective bargaining agreement and lockout.

Anthony was just a kid in New York when the Knicks were in their most recent heyday, a time when they were the villains trying to take down Michael Jordan. According to friends, Anthony -- who is getting married in New York this weekend -- has thought about stepping into the superstar vacuum that has been Madison Square Garden since the ill-fated trade of Ewing to Seattle brought an end to more than a decade of successful basketball in New York.

And if he's thinking about it, you can bet that his close friends, LeBron and Wade, are thinking about it, too.

The best-case scenario for Anthony would be for James and Wade to spurn the Knicks and then arrive next summer as a conquering hero to join Stoudemire and whatever supporting pieces Walsh can assemble with the $17 million of cap space he has left. (Point guards Raymond Felton and Luke Ridnour, shooters Mike Miller and Ray Allen, and big man Andris Biedrins are believed to be on Walsh's radar.) The pie in the sky involves LeBron or Wade joining Stoudemire in the next few days, and then Walsh finding a way to transform what is expected to be between $11 million and $14 million in cap space next summer into Anthony a year from now. Nobody knows whether that will work because nobody knows what the cap will be or what the new CBA will say. But after carving $34 million of cap space from the rotting carcass left for him by Isiah Thomas, and then drawing first blood in this cutthroat free-agent conflict, have we learned yet that this is a man not to be underestimated?

Only a handful of people know what LeBron is thinking with the free-agent signing period less than 48 hours away. Brian Windhorst of the Cleveland Plain-Dealer revealed on Twitter on Monday that James is still undecided and is discussing his decision with only a couple of his closest confidants. His decision warrants further discussion after Monday. Until now, free agency has been controlled by James, Wade and Bosh, with their high-powered representation and back-channel deal-makers. On Monday, a 69-year-old native New Yorker -- the most respected and cunning of basketball men -- was running the game.

I've always been a believer in the intangibles offered by the Garden and Walsh's city in this free-agent sweepstakes. But it's also been clear that the top free agents would need something more. That is why the Knicks left about half their pitch session with LeBron last Thursday to coach Mike D'Antoni, who went one-on-one with James in that Cleveland office tower to explain the basketball reasons to join him. Stoudemire, who was at or near the top of James' list of players he wanted the Cavs to acquire at the February trade deadline, has become another one of those reasons.

It's anybody's guess how this turns out. If Stoudemire is the best the Knicks get this summer, they're OK with it. But James –- and let's not forget Wade -– now have reasons other than flashy biz-school studies to come play in the arena they always rave about. Now, signing up to run the pick-and-roll with Stoudemire and kick the ball to emerging sharpshooter Danilo Gallinari doesn't look like a joke compared to joining Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah in Chicago. If Wade winds up with Bosh in Miami -- or LeBron with him in Chicago -- those will be two formidable rosters as well. Yet there's plenty of data to suggest that whoever comes to play with Stoudemire will get the better end of the deal.

However this plays out, the Knicks are no longer the dark horse capable of transforming James into Warren Buffet Jr. but not a champion. The game has changed. The Knicks have been about aura and emptiness for too long. On Monday, Walsh turned them back into a basketball team. And despite the age difference, he was suddenly speaking LeBron's language.