Isaiah Hartenstein struggled with the idea of leaving the Knicks but he couldn’t pass up the money and chance to play for another contender. That’s why he chose the Thunder in free agency, he told Stefan Bondy of the New York Post.
“I was going to make sure I was set for the rest of my life,” Hartenstein said. “But then at the same time, if it wasn’t a team like OKC, I would’ve taken a pay cut because I loved it (in New York). But I now have an opportunity to make that money, make that pay raise, and still compete. I think that was the main factor.”
The Thunder targeted Hartenstein to pair up with Chet Holmgren in their frontcourt. They signed him to a three-year, $87MM contract, which includes a team option in the third year.
Although the Knicks wanted to retain Hartenstein, they were limited to a maximum offer of approximately $72.5MM over four years, since they only held his Early Bird rights, which allowed for a raise of up to 75% on his $9.25MM cap hit from 2023/24. The Knicks offered him the max they were allowed.
Additionally, Jalen Brunson tried to persuade Hartenstein to stay put.
“They said whatever we can give you, we’re going to give you,” Hartenstein said. “I talked to Jalen a couple times, Jalen and the guys. They really wanted me back and I really appreciate that. But it was definitely a hard decision. I couldn’t say no to an opportunity like this.”
Brunson signed a team-friendly extension this month but Hartenstein wasn’t making big money most of his NBA career. He totalled $22.65MM in career earnings in his first six seasons. He also recently became a father.
“He’s kind of in a different situation than I’m in. Already made $100 million (in his career). He’s the star player, knows he probably won’t ever get traded. So it’s a different situation,” Hartenstein said. “But that also shows what kind of a leader he is to make those sacrifices. I don’t think a lot of people are making those sacrifices. I think our situations are a little bit different but I have a lot of respect for him as a player and a human being for doing that.”
The Knicks still haven’t replaced Hartenstein. Oft-injured Mitchell Robinson is penciled in as the starting center with Jericho Sims as his backup. All things being equal from a monetary standpoint, Hartenstein would have re-signed.
“It was hard. For me if it wasn’t a situation like Oklahoma City with a chance to win, I don’t think I would’ve left. But that money is — you have to think about it, I just had a child so. …But it was really hard,” he said. “I love New York. I love the front office, I loved my team. So It was definitely hard. If it wasn’t a situation where I felt like I really had a chance to win, I probably wouldn’t have left.”
$22.65m isn’t “big money”? Boy am I in the wrong line of work…
That’s not a lot of money…I wonder how he made ends meet….
It’s all relative. Compared to the typical NBA player of his caliber, for career earnings, is it?
Pretty sure nobody here would ignore that kind of cash just because teammates wanted them back. Especially if you ignore that you aren’t fans of specific teams in that hypothetical, you’re free agents.
To us, yeah, that’s more money than we’ll probably ever see. But it’s peanuts in NBA money. $22 million after taxes and agents fees is probably $12-14 million. Over six years that’s around $2 million per year.
Now he’ll get $15+ million a year after taxes. It’s big money.
To us commoners, lol. $2m a year for 6-7 years of playing a game. Again, I’m in the wrong line of work lol
He excelled with a small lineup around him. No interference in the paint, whereas Chet is going to get in his way at times. Should be interesting to see if it works out.
Why would Chet get in his way? Chet can operate on the perimeter. He can shoot, drive and make plays, if anything Hartenstein is going get is Chet’s way during the limited minutes they play together.
100% right. Chet getting in Hartenstein’s way is a poor take. Chet plays a ton of perimeter defense and OKC desperately needed a true big man to shore up the rebounding.
Watch the Mavs/Thunder Playoff Series. If the Thunder had one more legitimate big man, they had a real chance to make the finals.
“Limited minutes they play together.”
I don’t think OKC paid him that much to only play a handful of minutes with Chet. And if you’re insinuating that they won’t play much on the court together, then I’d also assume that they can’t function together, unless they want that kind of $$$ taking a seat and playing ~20 minutes a game.
My interest is seeing them play together on D. Chet can defend on the perimeter, but that doesn’t mean he’ll get caught on switches with a guard getting by him. He’s not fast enough, thus the paint.
And for the record, the Spurs attempted to do the same thing with Wemby and it didn’t work. Pops dropped him back in the post and everything aligned correctly. He was getting beat out on the perimeter.
@ Chuck Oh now you’re on board with OKC getting a centre and Chet playing the four SMH. The analytics you vomited inclined okc and chet didn’t need the extra muscle lol.
The real world is quite an abstract concept to some of these guys… “I was going to make sure I was set for the rest of my life,” Hartenstein said.
1) He totaled $22.65MM in career earnings in his first six seasons. An awful lot of people would consider that being set for the rest of their life.
2) Although the Knicks wanted to retain Hartenstein, they were limited to a maximum offer of approximately $72.5MM over four years. An awful lot of people would consider that being set for the rest of their life.
Sure, but now he’s setter for the rest of his life, where he doesn’t have to worry about his kids or his kids’ kids, or his kids’ kids’ kids growing up poor… for the rest of his life. No worries. The extra $15 million he got from OKC? That money could feed a lot of kids, or pay for a new mistress or two, perhaps a second family.
Even as a Knicks fan, his move to OKC was a no-brainer.
* Knicks offer: about $18 million a year over four years, playing for a contender
* Thunder offer: about $29 million a year over three years, playing for a contender
So way more money per year, still gets to play for a great team, re-enters the FA market one year younger than if he’d signed the Knicks deal. Maybe “set for life” is a euphemistic way of saying “I wanted more money” but it was a no-brainer move for him.
Jalen Brunson took the maximum amount of money that was available to him this year, he gave no discount. He set himself up to make more in the future and also made sure that his great great grandkids will be rich. Can we stop pretending he is a martyr? Are Knicks fans so deprived of success that they are talking about a statue for a guy who hasn’t taken them past the 2nd round?
I have my reservations about Brunson, mainly size and health, but I’m not really hearing rumblings about a statue.
Your point is legitimate about taking the max money available right now, but your obstinance about what that means in the future for the NYK and their salary cap buries that valid criticism.
Knicks have their best roster in years. Outside of Bridges and Hart, everyone has missed significant time as a professional in the NBA. I would say Thibs, as great of a tactician and personality manager as he is, isn’t a great coach for an injury prone roster.
Stop with the hate. This was the best Knicks team in almost 25 years and the only reason they didn’t get “past the 2nd round” is that the entire team got injured. Brunson carried the team when Randle went down. Stop.
Lies. It’s about the money.
I honestly don’t know why any of these guys should take less then what the market bears. “He’s a team player!” That’s B.S. Get what you can while you can. These guys may be millionaires but there’s no reason they should be giving billionaires discounts. Taking less money doesn’t guarantee you a championship, players get hurt or there’s a better team that beats your team. The only thing it guarantees is you make less money.
Josh Hart said it best. IHART, you’re dead to me now. I understand completely that he took the money. It was a massive overpay, but he’s still dead to me. Precious, it’s up to you now to come back to the family. JB and Thibs are waiting for you.
“Josh Hart said it best. IHART, you’re dead to me now.”
He was joking. It’s what Hart does. I guarantee you there’s no actual bad blood between the two.
IMO OKC should have gone after Claxton instead with that kind of money and left IHART to stay with my team. IHART you’re dead to me now.
That would require Clayton to want to go there, which he didn’t. He still got paid.
Especially when fans are fickle. If Brunson and Bridges don’t perform in the playoffs not many are going to care about those discounts. Not saying they will, but ultimately you have to get it done.
I’m tired of the comments like the one from George C. above.
Next season, there will be at max 600 or so players that play a game in the NBA. I don’t know what you do for a living, but it is likely something that an exponential amount more people do. Also, are 15-20,000 people paying to watch you do your job live, and millions more watching you at home? Are they running out to buy the same shirt you wear at work? Do you have pressure from an agent and a worker’s association to take the most money you can for the betterment of all the other people that do your job?
You wouldn’t take the extra $15M and have the chance to make even more a year earlier if you had the chance? Come on, we all know the answer to that.
It’s basic capitalism. Since we all know socialism and communism are so evil, what’s the problem again? The league makes a ton of money and someone has to take home the cash. And we each contribute to that pool of money every time we watch a game, buy merchandise, or attend a game. If fans don’t like that there is no one putting a gun to their head saying they need to contribute to the machine.
More to your point, personally I would want to make as much money as possible so I could maximize the amount I could donate to causes I believe in, perhaps something to do with the foster case system or attempting to cure specific diseases. Not saying every penny would be spent on that because I am human, but there is nothing that says increased wealth has to be spent on selfish endeavors.
His decision didn’t really require another restatement of his reasons. But I think he’s frustrated that he didn’t have an option to stay in what was a great situation for him, and at least be paid what his existing team was willing to offer. Almost every other NBA free agent has that option. His situation just fell within a rule designed to prevent a salary cap end run on the front end (which his initial signing wasn’t). I think it’s a big loss, but hopefully one that isn’t made worse by the FO trying to eliminate it by a trade for anything currently available.