Drafted by the New York Knicks in 1999, Fred Weis told L’Équipe how difficult it was to establish himself in the American franchise.
While Guerschon Yabusele has been going through a difficult time with the Knicks for several months, Fred Weis, former player drafted by the New York franchise, recounted some moments of his time, including his catastrophic arrival. “The guys who chose me in the draft got fired quickly: I found myself with a franchise whose coach didn’t necessarily want me, I was coming out of my cocoon in Limoges… it was a bit complex! » he began.
Greater pressure than elsewhere
For Weis, whose knowledge of American basketball was limited in an era before the Internet, the pressure was difficult to handle: “It was another world for me, and I arrived with the label of a European drafted very high without having gone to high school or university there. It wasn’t common. There was such pressure there. Media first: we sent an impossible crowd to interview you for the Summer League! You feel at that moment that in New York, you are a target”.
The situation of Yabusele, sidelined despite an arrival this summer in New York, echoes the situation of Weis at the end of the 90s. For the former pivot, Yabusele deserves much better than the New York franchise: “If Guerschon was not good, there would be no discussion. But we don’t even give him a chance. And the coach said it, it seems to me: he doesn’t plan to play him anymore. I wish him one thing: to leave. Let him go to a franchise that needs him. There are some. (…) But the difficulties of each are not linked, because we are talking about different times. They just got bigger because New York will always be like that: everyone will always put pressure on you. »
