It has been nearly 17 years since the final episode of The Sopranos aired and the world bid farewell to Tony Soprano as millions of viewers’ screens cut to black. To this day, people still wonder whether or not the Italian-American mobster ever made it out of that diner, and according to the New York Knicks, he did.
In a newly surfaced video from the Knicks’ 2010 pitch to LeBron James, the team convinced James Gandolfini and Edie Falco to reprise their roles in the hit HBO series in an effort to bring the NBA superstar to the Big Apple. While their attempt to recruit the league’s all-time leading scorer ultimately failed, the clip did evoke a nostalgic experience for fans of the show:
The video starts with a screen that says “Two Years Later (Somewhere in New York)” before showing Gandolfini as Tony Soprano in a cozy apartment reading a newspaper highlighting the Mets’ win over the Cleveland Indians. Then, Carmela mentions to Tony how glad she is that they moved to New York and that they should find a place for LeBron to live as well. The rest of the conversation was as follows:
Carmela: What’s he like?”
Tony: “He’s a modern guy, but he respects tradition.”
Carmela: “Could do something classy on the east side.”
Tony: “Is it big enough? He’s gonna be entertaining a lot of people in New York.”
Carmela: “It’s very expensive.”
Tony: “Oh, that’s not gonna be a problem. But you’ve gotta find something magnificent, something that there’s nothing in the world like it. One of a kind like he is.”
Carmela: “Here’s a place. It says it gets really loud there. Take a look.”
(Carmella opens an image of a New York Knicks game at Madison Square Garden on her laptop.)
“Oh yeah. Yeah, that’s it. That’s gonna be perfect for him.”
It turns out that MSG wasn’t perfect for James after all as he opted to take his talents to South Beach instead, joining the Heat and forming an elite trio known as the “Big Three” with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh that would eventually bring two championships to Miami. While the Knicks may have missed out on the grand prize of 2010 free agency, they did ink a deal that year with six-time NBA All-Star Amar’e Stoudemire. Stoudemire was an All-NBA Second Team honoree in his first year with New York before poor play and injuries derailed the rest of his tenure with the organization. The Knicks only managed to win one playoff series in the following decade, while LeBron James would add four NBA championships and four Finals MVPs to his resume in the same time frame.
Gandolfini and Falco couldn’t get the job done, but they aren’t the only ones to blame. Many other celebrities were featured in the presentation, including other Italian Americans like Robert De Niro & Rudy Guiliani, and anti-Italian director Spike Lee.
Now a member of the Lakers, LeBron James may find himself wishing he was on this year’s Knicks team after Los Angeles barely clawed their way into the 2024 playoffs. Meanwhile, New York secured the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference largely due to the stellar play of Jalen Brunson and Donte DiVincenzo, a three-point specialist of Italian heritage.
There is a slight possibility that LeBron could play for the Knicks one day if his son Bronny signs with the organization, which isn’t THAT far-fetched since they currently have the second-highest odds to draft him. However, King James will likely finish his career without playing a home game in “The World’s Most Famous Arena.”
Resources:
- Knicks’ unearthed 2010 LeBron James pitch video features The Sopranos, Trump and The Post [New York Post]
