Right up until he accepted the Nets' offer, Kiki Vandeweghe, an ex-Knick whose dad also played in New York, was still trying to figure out a way to have a sit-down with the Garden's CEO and convince him that he could get this team righted.

"The job Kiki really wanted was the Knicks' job," said one of Vandeweghe's friends in the league. "He was really hoping that Dolan would do something, and he had a lot of people talking on his behalf. But they didn't even give him a whiff."