<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">As a kid, Danny Grunfeld has attended ?every Knicks Basketball Camp, two, three, sessions every summer,? he recalls. ?Then one year I won the MVP award and everyone just shrugged. 'Who? Grunfeld? Yeah, right -- no wonder. Of course he won!'" In other words, the fix was in. Except it wasn?t. Danny, who literally spent the first fifteen years of his life around the team as the son of one-time Knicks forward, broadcaster, assistant coach, and General Manager Ernie Grunfeld, proved his hoops mettle at Stanford where he led the powerful Pac-10 Conference in scoring. Then he suffered a serious knee injury during his junior season. That has to be main NBA concern about the good shooting and deliciously aggressive Grunfeld -- yes, he IS quite a bit his father?s play-alike -- but ?my knee is a hundred percent,? he smiles. ?Someone asked which one of my knees was operated on -- and he actually guessed the other one. It was a fifty percent chance, and they were wrong. So I think my knee is good to go.? ?I was the biggest Knick fan growing up,? he laughs. ?And I mean, the number one biggest. Huge. I missed quite a few days of school after going to games. (Ex-assistant Coach) Tom Thibodeau and other coaches would work me out, teach me things. It was awesome. It was fun for a little kid, of course -- but now, looking back, it gave me a great feel for the game to be around guys like that my whole life.? ?Now, of course, I root for (Dad?s current team) the Wizards. And next year, hopefully, I?ll have my own team.? To get there, Grunfeld knows that ?number one, I have to show I?m healthy. NBA people had me under very high consideration -- then I hurt my knee, which is unfortunate. Understandably, people want to see if I?m the same player I was before I got hurt.? ?My thought is, that concern will be erased once NBA people see me,? adds Grunfeld. ?Bernard King, 20 years ago, he had the same injury. That was the Stone Age (medically), and he came back to be an All-Star. People have shown this type of injury doesn?t affect you long term, it?s just something you have to recover from. Baron Davis, Jared Jeffries, a lot of guys in the NBA had that injury and came back to be great players.? ?I would offer a team a good feel for the game and also versatility,? says Grunfeld. ?I know NBA coaches, especially Coach Brown, like guys who know how to play and are tough and hungry. I think I really fit that bill.? Hard-nosed as Grunfeld undoubtedly is, he?s got nothing over Hartford forward Kenny Adeleke when it comes to toughness. The 6-8 Adeleke, who started his college career at Hofstra, is power personified, thriving as a big-time board-monster and basic defensive intimidator. ?I grew up in South Jamaica, Queens, watching and loving all those great Knick teams with Patrick Ewing and John Starks,? he says. ?But my favorite of them all was Charles Oakley.? Of course. ?I think I showed today that I?m a great rebounder and a great hustle player,? says Adeleke. ?I?m an energy guy, the kind of player who will literally do anything to help a team win. (Knicks President, Basketball Operation) Isiah (Thomas) told me I definitely brought it, in terms of being a physical presence. And that?s what I like to hear.? Adeleke, of course, would follow recent Knick Vin Baker as a rare NBA player out of Hartford. ?We?d be the only two, ever,? he smiles at the very thought. ?I was a big fan of his growing up and then I had a chance to get to know Vin -- what a great guy! So, yes, that would be a great honor, to follow a guy like that.? In addition to Grunfeld and Adeleke, the Knicks worked out Cameron Bennerman (senior guard/forward, North Carolina State, 6-4, 205) and Yemi Nicholson (senior center, Denver, 6-11, 260). </div> link: http://www.nba.com/knicks/news/workouts_060531.html
