Knicks Roster Seeing Large CAA, Univ. Of Kentucky Presence

Leon Rose was previously an agent with CAA prior to joining the Knicks in MarchNBAE/GETTY IMAGES

Roster construction for the Knicks took on a "distinctively familiar look" for team President Leon Rose and his staff, with CAA clients and Univ. of Kentucky products "dominating the franchise," according to Steve Popper of NEWSDAY. But Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau, a CAA client himself, "pushed aside that criticism." Thibodeau: "I think more coincidental. I think obviously the Kentucky piece, they have one of the best programs in the country ... CAA is one of the biggest agencies out there, and there's a lot of arms to CAA. There's a number of agents who work for the agency and so it just so happened that quite a few of the guys are represented by CAA, but I think that probably holds true for most teams." He added, "There wasn't anything said like, 'Well, we got to have Kentucky players' or 'We have to have CAA players'" (NEWSDAY, 12/2).