John Calipari Says Leon Rose Will Turn The Knicks Around, But ‘It May Take A Year Or Two’

John Calipari is an old friend of Leon Rose, so it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that he has the back of the new Knicks President.

Rose, the former top agent at Creative Artists Agency, officially took over the Knicks earlier this month before the NBA shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic. He has yet to address the media or the fans publicly, but Calipari says Rose is the right man for the job.

“He’s a gatherer and I believe that’s what the Knicks need right now,” Calipari said Tuesday on a conference call. “A gatherer who can bring things together and make it a culture that players want to be in because they know this is about all of us.

“And it’s rough place to be. New York is not easy. It’s kind of like Philadelphia, it’s all good if you’re winning. If you’re losing, hard places to be as an athlete. But if you win, if you compete for championships, if you win a championship there’s no better place to do it than in New York. And I think he’s going to bring those people together and you’re going to see…”

Calipari said the Knicks, who have won one playoff series since 2001 and will miss the playoffs for a seventh straight season (assuming there are playoffs), have what they “need” to get it done.

“If you make a mistake personnel-wise, it’s hard because people know your mistake and they’re not taking your mistake but you’re in New York, you’re playing in the Garden,” he said. “You have what you need to do it.

“I believe he’s going to do a great job but it’s not going to be in the first month. it may take a year or two for everyone to say, this is the path we’ve been waiting for, this is it.”

Knicks fans would surely sign now for turning things around in a year or two, but of course there are no guarantees.

Calipari has two former players on the Knicks in Kevin Knox and Julius Randle.

As with Rose, Calipari said it will “take time” and patience with Knox, who was the No. 9 pick in 2018 but averaged 6.4 points and 2.8 rebounds this season.

“He was so young, he was the youngest player in that draft but he was also young,” he said. “But you’ve got to conquer yourself before you can conquer anybody else…

“It’s going to take time. What you don’t want to do, and teams have done this in that league, is they give up on a young, young player too soon, and now all of a sudden the whole thing in New York would be, well what if we had him? We gave him away. We should’ve held on longer, why did we do that? Young guys take longer to develop, especially when they’re big. Guys with his size and skill, the game is going to him.”