On the heels of the New York Knicks finally becoming champions of something for the first time in more than 50 years, leave it up to Pablo Torre to find a way of embarrassing them.
We’re in a new and unprecedented era of Knicks basketball — one where they’re expected to win. Hopefully, we’re also in an era where they’ve realized no big free agent is coming to New York because of some goofy recruitment video. Because last year, Pablo Torre proved they were goofy when he got his hands on the video the Knicks made [in their attempt at recruiting LeBron James](https://awfulannouncing.com/meadowlark/pablo-torre-knicks-lebron-james-recruiting-video.html) back in 2010. And now he made their recruitment attempts of Kawhi Leonard, Kyrie Irving, and Kevin Durant public.
Most of this episode of _Pablo Torre Finds Out_ was centered around the Leonard video. Which makes sense, because Torre spends a lot of time reporting on Leonard, and because it was the worst of this group of recruitment videos.
The video is a _Saturday Night Live_\-style sketch featuring Jay Pharoah, Kenan Thompson, Micheal Che, Ben Stiller, Tracy Morgan, Al Roker, and Jason Biggs. Because if Jason Biggs can’t bring Leonard to New York, no one can. It begins with what appears to be Leonard watching his own recruitment video. But then Leonard turns around, and you realize it’s Jay Pharoah playing the role of Kawhi Leonard, which was an interesting tactic by the Knicks.
We don’t know too much about Leonard because he attempts to keep his personality relatively private. But what we do know about Leonard would suggest there is no way he found any of this interesting or enticing. Amazingly, the video didn’t convince Leonard to join the Knicks. It didn’t even convince him to take a meeting with the Knicks. But rest assured, the Knicks still sent videos to Irving and Durant.
On the contrary to Kawhi Leonard, Kyrie Irving has probably let us know too much about his personality. And Irving definitely doesn’t seem like a person who will be swayed by a hype video or an admittedly really cool TV. But that didn’t stop the Knicks from trying.
Irving’s video was delivered on a Knicks-branded tube TV, which deserves some applause. The video features Rucker Park legends instead of a _Saturday Night Live_ skit. It then fast forwards to 2027 to forecast Irving’s influence on the city. And in the grand scheme of recruitment videos, this one was probably the least cringeworthy.
Durant’s recruitment attempt, which Torre previously revealed, was a song and music video by Wu-Tang Clan. Much like Leonard and LeBron, the Knicks failed to recruit Irving or Durant with their hype videos, as both stars opted to sign with the Brooklyn Nets back in 2019.
The era of the Knicks being perennial losers is thankfully over. Hopefully, the era of recruitment videos is over, too. Show free agents the money, show them a roster of talent, and show them a great place to live. But the goofy recruitment videos? Don’t show them that because Pablo Torre will eventually find those videos and share them with the world.