Al Come To NYK
It appears that the Al Harrington sweepstakes have come down to three teams, that is if you believe what the man himself says.
Basketball News Services spoke with Al Harrington about his NBA future in an exclusive interview in Las Vegas on Monday, and despite some reports that a sign-and-trade deal is as a good as done with the Golden State Warriors, Harrington said not so fast.
"Right now, it's up in the air," Harrington said Monday night. "I've got Indiana, Golden State, the Knicks. You know, those are my top three teams pretty much, right now. Just trying to get a sign-and-trade done for me to get out of Atlanta. I'm not sure what's going to happen. Just keeping my fingers crossed, and whatever's going to happen is gonna happen."
The one thing that appears certain at this time is that Harrington's days in the A-T-L appear numbered. So does Harrington believe he's done in Atlanta?
"Right now, it seems that way," Harrington replied. "At the end of the day, they can still do the most for me. So, you know, it's up to them. Maybe, the next couple of days, they'll fall back in love with me. Until I sign, I don't know what's going to happen. I just know that I'm going to be somewhere, definitely in a winning environment."
Harrington, a St Patrick's New Jersey graduate,
also stated that just because the Knicks appear to be in turmoil, he wouldn't count out a return to his old stomping grounds.
"Come on man, there's no way anyone can say that they don't want to play for the Knicks," Harrington said with a smile. "It's always big playing in The Garden every night. If it's meant for me, it's going to happen."
Harrington indicated that one additional team that showed some interest in him was the Denver Nuggets, but apparently the interest was never enough to merit any serious discussions.
When asked if the Nuggets had voiced any interest, Harrington responded, "They have, but I guess not seriously enough that they're someone that we're talking about right now."
When asked if his versatility is worthy of a long hard look from a lot of NBA clubs, Harrington replied, "Yeah, but that's the way the game is turning, anyway. More versatile players, guys playing all over the floor. Yeah, it definitely helps me. There's pretty much no situation where the coach can say he can't have me on the floor."
And it appears that the coaches with the option of putting Harrington on the floor next season will be Rick Carlisle in Indiana, Mike Montgomery of Golden State, or the newly instated Isiah Thomas in New York.
While Harrington acknowledged -- albeit slightly -- that anything could still happen, expect a sign-and-trade to go down in the coming days between Atlanta and one of the aforementioned three teams.
More news as it becomes available.
Al Harrington To Knicks, Pacers or Warriors..
