Steve Mills was riding the bus with the Knicks from the arena to the airport last season after a 20-point loss to the Lakers, a mediocre-at-best team. He’d ridden these buses plenty of times, sat quietly after many losses. After all these years and in different roles, as he sat next to general manager Scott Perry, he knew this time was different.
“We just kept looking at each other and we said the Lakers weren’t particularly good at that point, but the athleticism differential when you watched our team play their team is alarming,” Mills said. “If we want to compete and build something we have to get more athletic.