Knicks Keep Baker, Lose Out On Dampier?



From ESPN.com:

Erick Dampier may be willing to take the Knicks' $4.9 million mid-level exception ... but is it already gone?

F Vin Baker's agent, Aaron Goodwin, told ESPN Insider Chad Ford on Thursday that Baker already has agreed to a multiyear contract with the Knicks that starts at $3.5 million -- eating most of New York's mid-level exception.

"Vin is done," Goodwin told Ford. "The [Knicks] mid-level is gone. ... Vin [contract] starts at $3.5 [million], which negates Dampier for mid-level."

While there had been previous rumblings about the Knicks' interest in re-signing Baker, talk of the team using part of its larger exception to get him comes as a surprise. There had been previous suggestions that Baker might take the Knicks $1.6 million veteran's exception instead. Thursday's The Journal News (Westchester/Putnam counties, NY) reported that a source confirmed that the Knicks had used the smaller exception to keep Baker for this season, with a team option for a second year.

Goodwin, however, dismissed that scenario as an option.

"I would never take $1.6 million for Vin. That is not negotiating, it is accepting, which I never have or will do without a fight," he told Ford.

The Knicks have yet to officially announce a deal with Baker. A phone call to the team for comment wasn't returned.

Those who aren't surfing for Vin Baker updates 24-7 might've missed the following item, courtesy of the Boston Herald's David Webber, detailing a lawsuit against Baker brought by his former personal trainer, Steven Gordon. Gordon claims he helped facilitate Baker's trade from Seattle to Boston and was promised large sums of cash by the player. If Gordon really is responsible in some way for said deal, perhaps the Celtics should be suing him?

Posted: Fri - August 6, 2004 at 01:27 PM      

©