There’s a fair amount of hype centered around Brooklyn-based basketball this summer.
Though the New York Knicks are no longer affiliated with the New York Liberty, they could take interest from a different point of view.
The Indiana Pacers’ Monday elimination officially tipped off another summer of speculation for Borough of Churches native and former Knicks Obi Toppin, who briefly addressed his Indianapolis mortality following a 105-102 sweep-completing loss to the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals.
“I’ve just been focusing on these games,” Toppin said on Monday, per Dustin Dopirak of Indy Star.
“Now that it’s over, we’re just going to be chilling, right?”
An obvious decompression period awaits Toppin and the Pacers after their unexpected run to the conference final, but Toppin himself faces a potentially career-changing offseason.
Indiana did not offer Toppin the extension on his rookie contract upon a July trade with the Knicks.
At 26, he’s perhaps running out of chances to reclaim the narrative on his NBA career, especially when it comes to fulfilling the potential the Knicks saw when they made him the eighth pick in 2020.
With the Knicks having an extra week-plus to process their elimination.
thanks in part to the Pacers … it’s at least somewhat fair to wonder if management has at least somewhat entertained the idea of a Toppin reunion.
