New Details About the Knicks' 2010 Pitch to LeBron James Have Emerged

Additional details have been revealed regarding James Gandolfini‘s efforts to lure LeBron James to the New York Knicks in 2010. In an attempt at bringing James to the Big Apple, the late Gandolfini reprised his role of Tony Soprano in a recruiting video.

Deadline recently reported that further details of the recruiting videos were revealed in a recent docuseries podcast titled Shattered: Hope, Heartbreak and the New York Knicks. Those familiar with the tale may remember that Gandolfini and co-star Edie Falco, who played Carmela Soprano, was called upon to try to help convince James to play for the Knicks, since he was a huge fan.

Producer Rocco Caruso, who was called to make the team’s video said, “They thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be funny if we could somehow start the piece with The Sopranos?’ because it had just more or less ended. And I said, ‘I know Edie…I could send her an email,’ and she said ‘Great. I’ll do it.’”

Falco also reflected on the situation stating, “I do remember doing it, and what is absolutely amazing to me is I didn’t know who LeBron James was. We got those requests all the time back then and Jim Gandolfini, he did nothing. And somehow he agreed to this thing, which I was shocked by. I thought it was a prank when someone said Jim’s going to do it.”

At the end of the day, the recruitment scene was filmed in Gandolfini’s own New York apartment, where Falco and Gandolfini were dressed in character ready to play the rewritten script that would include the Sopranos as James’ new friends hooking him up with a new place to live. The place in question would be of course, Madison Square Garden.

Falco reminisces the experience recalling, “There he was, dressed as Tony. … He must have been a bigger basketball fan than I realized.”

Elsewhere in the basketball world, Carmelo Anthony has officially announced his memoir Where Tomorrows Aren’t Promised.