Knicks PR denies offering Richard Jefferson a contract and Twitter goes off about it

In the press release that literally nobody asked for, the New York Knicks denied offering Richard Jefferson a contract “for clarification purposes.”

The New York Knicks PR team is having a rough season. So are the Knicks themselves, at 4-13, which is the worst record in the Eastern Conference, but the public relations team hasn’t had an easy time in 2019 either.

In the last few months, the Knicks PR team has publicly apologized for a disappointing free agency period very early into the free agency process; held a press conference with the team president and general manager expressing their disappointment with the team and essentially throwing head coach David Fizdale under the bus; and now, issued a statement clarifying something that literally no one asked for clarification on.

On Monday afternoon, the Knicks PR account tweeted out the following:

This was in response to Richard Jefferson‘s remarks during the Knicks’ loss to the Brooklyn Nets on Sunday, during which he said the following on the Nets’ live broadcast:

"“I refused to play for the Knicks. Like, Jason Kidd and Kenyon Martin, they don’t really care. I was the one person that said, ‘Knicks? No, I’ll retire.’ That’s why I retired. They were the one team that offered me a job and I decided to retire.”"

It came off as an off-the-cuff remark that not many people really paid attention to, but when he was asked whether it was a true story on the broadcast, he confirmed it and finished the conversation with, “When the Knicks were looking for me to play for them, I knew my time in this league was over.”

Okay, so maybe the Knicks’ PR statement wasn’t completely unprovoked. But like, hardly anyone heard RJ’s comments, and they certainly weren’t worthy of a response. This is a classic James Dolan move, stooping down to the level of a comment that merited no response with an official statement from the organization. New York is the embodiment of those “No one: Literally no one: ” memes, and it’s embarrassing.

Just starting any press release with the phrase, “for clarification purposes” is laughable enough. Isn’t that exactly what PR releases are for in the first place?

As expected, NBA Twitter had a field day with the Knicks’ totally unnecessary release.

The Knicks have a head coach sitting on a piping hot seat, one of the most clueless owners in all of sports and half the league’s power forwards being held hostage, but damn it if they don’t find ways to continue to entertain.

We can only hope for more unnecessary press releases shutting down rumors and jokes stemming from former players who never even suited up for New York in the first place. Pettiness is always entertaining, but being unnecessarily petty despite being tragic? That ups the ante to a whole new level. Now we can only sit back and wait for the team’s official response to this article.