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The Knicks 100: No. 23 - Mikal Bridges

One year ago, the KFS faculty decided to rank the top 25 players from the last 25 years of Knicks basketball. By the time all the votes were counted, six (then) current Knicks made the team: four of the five starters plus longtime reserve Mitchell Robinson, and sneaking in an No. 25, Deuce McBride.

The only starter (and really, the only key Knick) from the team that broke the 25-year conference finals drought not to make the list was Mikal Bridges.

This wasn’t a case of a few haters holding Bridges down, as not one faculty member had Mikal in their top 201. He finished 28th in the voting, sandwiched between two other one-season Knicks: Jeremy Lin at 27 and Jason Kidd at 29. Lin, lest anyone forget, parlayed a magical 17 days into becoming one of the most fondly remembered players of the 21st century. Kidd lost his starting job midway through the 2012-13 season and then shot 3-for-25 in the playoffs before retiring. This was the company Mikal Bridges kept just a year ago.

And now he’s here, at spot No. 23 on the list, not of Knicks from the last 25 years, but throughout all of franchise history. This placement begs a few questions.

First and foremost, what changed? The answer - duh - is that the Knicks won a championship, and Bridges played a key role in their run to a title. More than that, Mikal picked a great time to have the hottest shooting stretch of his eight year career. From Game 6 against Atlanta to Game 2 against San Antonio, Bridges averaged 18 points with a true shooting percentage of 70. In the more than 60 years the NBA has been recording those stats, only four players had previously put up an 11-game postseason stretch hitting those marks2.

(If you’re wondering why such a monumental achievement didn’t get more attention, it might be because the Knicks had two other players in this run - OG & KAT - who pulled off the same thing. Talk about a team getting hot at the right time.)

This just brings us to the next obvious question though: was that run - both from Bridges individually and the Knicks as a team - enough to warrant such a jump? Or did someone screw up, either me for having him this high now, or the KFS faculty for having him too low a year ago?

Let’s start by looking at Bridges’ 2025-26 season compared to his first in New York. Statistically, there’s little difference. His efficiency between the two years is nearly identical, and while he scored at a slightly lower clip on a per minute basis in year-two, he made up the difference in other statistical categories. Defensively, the metrics and the eye test improved in his second season, but that also came with a role change, as Mike Brown had him chasing around the other team’s best offensive player less frequently than Tom Thibodeau.

That coaching change was also supposed to come with a bigger offensive role for Mikal, but after the first few weeks of the season saw Bridges bringing the ball up more and even initiating offense on occasion, he eventually reverted back to a more complementary role.

This is all to say that he was, more or less, the same guy as a year ago, at least in the regular season.

So was one postseason really enough to make that much of a difference? If we rank players by importance during this playoff run, there is zero question that the top three are Brunson, KAT and OG in some order. After that, there’s a good argument that Bridges should be fourth ahead of Josh Hart. If so, it puts him in the same conversation as Earl Monroe and Dick Barnett as the fourth or fifth most important player on one title team. Both of those guys - spoiler alert - are quite a bit higher up the list, but they also have significantly longer track records in New York. Ditto for Bill Bradley, who was the 4th/5th man on two title teams. He’s even higher than Monroe and Barnett. But solely in terms of playoff ranks, Bridges is already 20th in postseason minutes, 22nd in postseason points and 28th in postseason assists. That’s quite an accomplishment for someone who has only been here for two years.

Of course, Bridges two most memorable playoff moments - his defensive plays at the end of Games 1 & 2 in Boston last year - barely registered on the box score. Those shots rescued his narrative from an otherwise underwhelming 2025 postseason, but they couldn’t fully wipe away the feeling that his first year in New York wasn’t what anyone was expecting.

That, more than anything else, is where I attribute the jump in his ranking. Just speaking for myself, a year ago, Bridges felt like empty calories. 90 percent of the time, his performance graded out somewhere between “surprisingly impactful” and “barely acceptable.” This was from a guy who was supposed to be the missing link - the rising tide that lifted the ships around him. We never really got there.

Given the cost to get him - and more importantly, the opportunity cost, with Giannis Antetokounmpo’s desired exit from Milwaukee hanging over this Knicks season before it even began - I definitely graded Bridges on a curve. In retrospect, even after just one year in New York, he was already one of the top 25 Knicks of the century, and probably something like a top-65 Knick ever. This championship not only wiped away that initial sour taste, but gave him the undeniable bona fides to jump head first into the top 25 ever.

How important was Bridges to this championship run? How many other wings in the NBA could have shot the ball with such efficiency while being decidedly a fourth option, almost never having plays run for them? How many could have effectively guarded so many different types of players from one series to the next? The Knicks don’t win Game 1 vs Cleveland without his shotmaking. Who knows how that series goes otherwise? Ditto for Game 2 against San Antonio, when Bridges carried a lineup missing both Brunson and KAT and somehow increased New York’s lead. It took almost two full years, but from Game 6 against Atlanta until the end of the playoffs, you couldn’t conjure up a better fourth option for this Knicks team than Mikal. What a turn that was from the end of Game 3 against the Hawks, when Bridges missed a potential game-winner that left many of us asking all the same questions about whether he was worth what Leon Rose paid.

He was. Without question, he was.

Should he be even higher? There’s only two names between him and the top 20, but both of those guys - each a beloved 90’s Knick - got the slightest of nods from me:

I said earlier that Bridges is 20th in playoff minutes and 22nd in playoff points. Larry Johnson ranks 13th and 17th, respectively, with a regular season resume that is twice as long and equally as good accounting for era. Like Bridges, he was the starter on an NBA Finalist and a conference finalist, plus two other teams that made the second round, including one that would have gone to the conference finals were in not for David Stern’s chicanery.

In that Game 6 against Miami - the one that Patrick Ewing, Allan Houston and Charlie Ward were suspended for - LJ had 20 points on 12 shots. Had he been allowed to play in Game 7, perhaps that outcome would have been different as well.

Speaking of “what if’s”, might the 1999 finals have been more competitive if Larry didn’t sprain his right MCL in Game 6 against the Pacers? In the playoffs up to that points, Johnson was averaging 13 points on 47 percent shooting and 35 percent from deep. He’d been having an outstanding series against Indy, highlighted by Game 3, when he put up 26 & 8 in addition to hitting one of the most famous shots in NBA playoff history. Against San Antonio, a hobbled LJ shot 14-of-49 overall and 2-of-18 on threes. I’d have given anything to see what a healthy version could have done.

It shouldn’t be viewed as a complete coincidence that New York’s two decades of despair began the season after Johnson hung it up, finally succumbing to the physical toll his body was never meant to withstand. In that sense, he’s the perfect pairing with Bridges, who never had Johnson’s talent but whose durability is nothing short of a superpower.

Speaking of durability, checking in at No. 21 is the man who holds the franchise’s single season record for most minutes played, when he logged 3457 minutes in the ‘95-96 season. He’s also the man New York traded to Charlotte to bring in the guy he’s one spot above here.

For my money, Anthony Mason for Larry Johnson is the single most interesting Knicks trade of my lifetime. On paper, the Knicks lost the trade. Johnson was younger, but his back was already becoming an issue, whereas Mase was a late bloomer who was just entering his prime at 30. The ‘95-96 season, Mason’s last in New York, was his first season as a full time starter, and arguably his best. Coming off a Sixth Man of the Year win, he put up a very Josh-Hart like 15, 9 & 4 as Don Nelson’s point forward. It didn’t fully translate to team success, but Mason did finish 10th in the NBA in win shares, easily leading the team in that and every other advanced stat.

Immediately after leaving, he made the All-NBA 3rd Team and All-Defense 2nd Team while getting MVP votes for the Hornets. He garnered DPOY votes in two other Charlotte seasons before making his first and only All-Star team with the Heat in 2001. His resume says he was Draymond Green before Draymond Green, just without some of the playmaking, and more importantly, with Dell Curry instead of his more famous son.

Would Knicks history have turned out differently if they never dealt him away? That’s tough to say, although we shouldn’t discount the positive impact of LJ’s shooting, even in an era where floor-spacing was still a novel concept. Johnson was also fully comfortable in his role here, whereas it seemed like Mason wanted more than what the Knicks were willing to give him at that time.

Regardless of how an alternative version of history might have gone, Anthony Mason remains an indelible figure in Knicks lore. In his five seasons in New York, he was always a guy you wanted on the floor more, not less. The fact that he ranks in the top 20 in postseason points, rebounds and assists while starting just eight playoff games as a Knick speaks to how indispensable he was once he got on the court.

Oh, and he had the best haircuts of any player in the history of professional sports.

And with that, we’ve arrived at our top 20, which kicks off on Wednesday with the modern day Mase, and someone who has always been worth far more than the numbers indicate.

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“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

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News & Notes

No, you didn’t miss a piece of Knicks news while you were (I pray) ignoring social media and basking in the championship afterglow of summer.

The last Knicks transaction indeed happened on July 10, when they inked Jordan Clarkson to a one-year veteran minimum deal. Before that, they made the contracts for Landry Shamet, Jose Alvarado, Mohamed Diawara and Andre Drummond official on July 6.

And that’s it.

Tomorrow will mark 50 days since the Knicks have made a move of any kind. In that time, there have been (if I counted correctly) 71 transactions on the official NBA ledger, with yesterday’s news of Miami signing big man Nick Richards being the 71st.

It’s not that Richards was the straw that broke the camel’s back and inspired me to touch on this issue, first because Nick Richards isn’t all that good, and second (and more importantly) because this isn’t a criticism of New York’s front office in the slightest. But Richards was, as far as I recall, the last name who the Knicks were reportedly interested in that was still available. The Knicks are also the only team in the NBA with all three two-way spots open, with most teams having filled every spot and the rest having filled two. They have, by far, the fewest rostered players in the league, and there’s been no news of any kind regarding extension talks for Karl-Anthony Towns, Josh Hart or Deuce McBride. The Knicks have had easily the quietest summer of any team in the NBA, and it isn’t particularly close.

Which begs the obvious question: what do they have up their sleeves? NBA teams are allowed to roster up to 21 players in the offseason, and they currently have 13. It’s one thing to retain a few open spots for additional flexibility, but eight open spots as we enter September seems like a bit much.

Again, this isn’t a criticism. After what the front office pulled off in bringing a championship to New York, with as much heavy lifting through savvy trades and signings as any title team in recent memory, they have a lifetime pass from me. More than anything, I’m just curious.

The answers that would be the most obvious under different circumstances - retaining flexibility to bring back many players in a trade in which they send out only one player, or signing and trading a bunch of players whose rights they’ve retained in order to balance out a larger deal for cap purposes, a’la the KAT trade - wouldn’t seem to apply here, first because they’re so close to the second apron, and second because all of their heavier salaried players seem like locks to return.

You could tell me that they’re waiting for other teams to release players as a result of impending roster crunches, but those cuts don’t usually happen until the end of camp. If they were waiting for better players to shake free, why not sign a bunch of warm bodies to Exhibit 10 contracts in the meantime? Those deals don’t count against the cap when a player is released before the season starts. You could tell me that warm bodies can be signed as easily on September 28 (the day before camp starts) as they can on August 28 or July 28, but again we’re left to wonder, why the delay?

I don’t have an answer, and I’d love to hear from anyone who does. The only thing I know with close to certainty is that Leon Rose values optionality as much any executive in the league, and in keeping so many spots open, they’ve certainly given themselves that.

But anytime this front office has left a door conspicuously open, they usually have some idea of what might later go through it.

Your guess is as good as mine on what exactly that something is.

A New York Legend You Knew: Malik Sealy

by Ray Marcano

I’ve teared up for two athletes when I learned they passed away.

The first one’s no surprise. I worked the night shift in the composing room at Westchester-Rockland Newspapers in 1978. I walked into the newsroom and saw some hard-scrabble editors trying to keep their composure, while others openly wept. One pointed to the television and that’s when I saw the news.

We had a few minutes of grieving before newspaper people do what they do --- they started planning coverage, asking for additional pages in the press run and adjusting deadlines.

The second time was in 2000, when a New York Sports legend, Mailk Sealy, was killed in a head-on crash by a drunk driver.

Sealy’s story starts well before he entered high school. The city basketball scene buzzed about the 13-year-old who played for the storied Riverside Hawks. That team routinely attracted the city’s best, including Tiny Archibald, Kenny Smith, Kenny Anderson, Chris Mullin, Rod Strickland and Elton Brand.

He attended St. Nicholas of Tolentine High School, where he developed as both a player and a leader. At Tolentine, in 1988, he led the team to the Catholic High Schools Athletic Association and state federation championships. The team finished No. 1 in the nation and Sealy led the way. He scored 26 points and grabbed 10 boards in the CHSAA win, and he put on a clinic at state: 21 points, 15 rebounds, two blocked shots, four steals and two assists.

He was the top city recruit, becoming known for leadership at a young age. He was class president and a member of the honor roll. Several stories credit his mother and father for instilling a strong work ethic.

“He personified a great person and a great athlete,” Adrian Autry, his high school teammate said.

And even with all of his early success, he said, while still in high school, “You just have to keep everything in perspective. You can’t let your head get big. You have to just go out and work hard every game. You take criticism from others and use what you can use, and what you can’t use, just put it aside…”

Literally every major college program, including Syracuse, Georgetown and North Carolina, recruited the 6'8" Sealy. But he decided to stay home and attended St. John’s.

His presence allowed the Johnnies to continue a run of post-season appearances. The team won the NIT in 1989 and then made three straight NCAA appearances with Sealy as the focal point. He got better every year and as a senior, he was a second-team All-American who averaged 22.6 PPG. He finished his career with 2,401 points, second all-time to Chris Mullin (2,440). He also scored in double figures in 102 straight games, still a school record.

Sealy had already answered one question when he transformed from a center in high school to a forward in college. But others remained. His scouting reports heading to the pros wondered whether his slight, 190-pound frame would hold up to the pounding.

But his other attributes, including a nice mid-range game and solid perimeter defense, made him a certain first-round pick in the 1992 draft.

The only question was, where?

The Knicks held the 20^th pick and wanted a perimeter shooter, a role that wouldn’t immediately fit Sealy because in college he was poor from long range. But that didn’t stop the media from hoping the New York kid would fall to the Knicks, who were looking for shooting and athleticism.

As a fan, I hoped Sealy would fall in the draft. I thought Sealy was athletic enough to play small forward and occasionally handle the two guard. But I really wanted him to drop because he was one of my three favorite college basketball players to that point (Chris Mullin and Notre Dame’s Toby Knight were the others) and it would have been nice to see him regularly in the Garden.

That wasn’t to be. The Indiana Pacers (damn them) took Sealy at No. 14.

That began an eight-year NBA odyssey in which he played for four teams and was traded or released three times. He was a solid contributor at every step, with his best year for the Los Angeles Clippers in 1996-97. He was second on the team in scoring, at 13.5 PPG, and chipped in three boards and two assists per game. He also shot .356 from three, well above his career average (.292).

But his most impactful seasons were the last two of his career and life.

Sealy signed as a free agent with the Minnesota Timberwolves in 1998 after being released by the Detroit Pistons. The Wolves had a young superstar, Kevin Garnett, who at the time was shy and had a difficult time handling the fame that came with his on-court play.

In Sealy, he met a man he had admired since high school, where Garnett wore No. 21, Sealy’s number at St. John’s. They quickly become friends and more importantly, Sealy became a mentor.

“Malik was my guy, my big brother, someone I looked up to, someone who was always in my corner.” Garnett told the Basketball Network.

Sam Mitchell, who was also close to Garnett, said in an interview, “Malik and Kevin were brothers. Best friends. Kevin was still kinda shy. Didn’t go out much, didn’t do much because people would be on him. And Malik was just like, ‘Screw that, man. Let’s go.’”

He added, “Malik brought Kevin out of that shell. Malik taught Kevin how to be comfortable with being a superstar.”

While playing, Sealy started preparing for another career --- acting. He played the self-centered Stacy Patton, who wore No. 20 for the on-screen Knicks, in the basketball comedy “Eddie.” He also had small parts in a few television shows.

He also started a family. He had a son in 1997 and married his wife, Lisa, in 1999.

On May 20, 2000, Sealy and others attended Kevin Garnett’s 24^th birthday party.

“Every person that was close to me was in there, Sam (Mitchell) was in there, Malik was in there. After, I went home and I got into bed and I just sat there, man, God, thanks for this beautiful day and night,” Garnett said in a 2010 interview.

Driving home at 4 a.m. his car was hit head-on by a drunk who was driving the wrong way on a Minnesota highway. Sealy died on impact.

“I’ll never forget that my aunt damn near kicked my door in saying something happened to Malik… When she said it felt like time had stopped,” Garnett said.

Upon hearing the news, his college coach, Lou Carnesecca, told the New York Times, “This just hits you so hard. If you don’t have faith, this kind of thing would blow your mind because he was so young and he was such a good kid. I’m numb.”

Sadly, it was the second time that year an NBA player was killed in a car crash. In January, Bobby Phills of the Charlote Hornets died instantly when he lost control of his Porsche and slammed into another vehicle.

The accolades for Sealy poured in. More than 3,000 people attended his funeral on May 26, a gathering as curious for who attended than who didn’t. The Knicks and Pacers were locked in a duel in the Eastern Conference finals. The Pacers beat the Knicks the night before in Indianapolis and didn’t arrive back in the city until 3 a.m. The funeral was at 10 a.m. and the Knicks had a 2 p.m. practice, so the team didn’t send anyone to the service.

Yet, five Pacers showed up: Former Knick and St. John’s product Mark Jackson; Brooklyn native and St. John’s alum Chris Mullin; New Jersey’s Al Harrington; Dale Davis; and Reggie Miller, the tormenter of MSG.

I remember thinking at the time, how in the hell can Reggie Miller and the Pacers players show up but the Knicks can’t? Sealy didn’t play for them, but he was an icon of New York hoops. I thought it was sad.

The Timberwolves retired his No. 2 in November 2000, and he was posthumously inducted into the New York Sports Hall of Fame in 2004. He was inducted into the St. John’s Hall of Fame in 2014, and the No. 21 he wore there has been retired. As a tribute to his lasting legacy, several podcasters, newspapers and content creators paid tribute to him on the 25^th anniversary of his death.

Sealy, from an early age, knew that basketball was a part of his life, not the part. He knew there was more awaiting him. He just didn’t get there.

At his funeral, his young wife said: “He was a great dad — he cooked, he changed diapers, he did laundry — a great example... He never got the big contract, he never got the accolades in the NBA, so give him a standing ovation as he leaves us.”

Ray Marcano writes for some of the country’s biggest brands and has been named best columnist in Ohio two straight years (2025-26). You can read his free newsletter, the Bourbon Resource, right here on Substack.

🏀

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

The Knicks 100: No. 34 - Mitchell Robinson

I’m going to ask this question up front, in defense of myself for putting Mitchell Robinson as low as I did:

How often during Mitch’s eight-year stint in New York was he the best center on the team?

He wasn’t the best center in either of the last two seasons, playing behind All-Star big man Karl-Anthony Towns. He wasn’t the best center the year before that, in part due to injury - sadly a major recurring theme of his career - but also because Isaiah Hartenstein took the job and ran with it. He was very good in the #WeHere season, but he only played 31 games, and that year was really about the three-headed monster in the middle comprised of Mitch, Nerlens Noel and Taj Gibson (neither of whom made this list, I’ll note).

That leaves four seasons where Robinson was, arguably, the best big on the roster: his first two years in the league, during which he started just 26 of 127 games; the forgettable and regrettable ‘21-22 season; and last but not least, the ‘22-23 season, which culminated in perhaps the best playoff series of his career, and one of the most dominant postseason performances by a role player in Knicks history.

Robinson’s place on the depth chart throughout his time in New York was one of several factors I considered while I wrestled with where to properly slot him in, mostly because for much of this process, I knew I was putting him higher than I could justify.

Originally, I had Mitch in the 20-25 range, ahead of guys who helped lead the Knicks to the playoffs with All-Star games on their resumes. One of those players was Robinson’s longtime teammate, Julius Randle. Randle, I reasoned originally, had nary a standout playoff moment on his resume, while Robinson has quite a few. In the 2026 postseason alone, he’s responsible for two plays that I’ll be telling my grandkids about: the retribution dunk over Joel Embiid, and the offensive rebound that essentially secured the title.

Those plays embody Robinson to a T (or I guess to a D, at least when it comes to his legendary sense of humor that I’m sure will be sorely missed in the locker room). Those plays were confrontational. They were overpowering. They were unmistakably Mitch.

When Robinson was at his best as a Knick, he dominated stretches of games in a way that you swore no other player could. His offensive rebounding is right up there with Jalen Brunson’s floor game as something that cannot be game-planned for. If he was feeling frisky on the particular night your team was facing the Knicks, then your team was, well…fucked.

We had an inkling that Robinson would be special way back when he showed up to Vegas in 2018. The only issue - aside from turning all that raw ability into something useful - was whether Mitch would be here for a good time or a long time. Turns out, it was both. Between ditching college and bouncing from agent to agent, it wouldn’t have surprised anyone if Robinson last in an organization that was already chock full of disfunction. That he wound up being one of the longest tenured Knicks in history only adds to his legend.

All of this contributes to why I had Mitch slotted so much higher on first pass, as does the recency bias I had for a guy who I still can’t believe won’t be wearing orange and blue on opening night. There is, however, another side to the coin.

Robinson may be tied for 14th in total seasons played in New York, but he’s 30th in games played and 42nd in total minutes - below Jalen Brunson despite being here for twice as long. He had some incredibly impactful postseason moments, but also some very quiet ones, and we’re still talking about someone who started only 15 of 53 playoff games while averaging under 20 minutes a night, including 14 minutes during the title run.

The stat that gave me the most pause putting Mitch this low is his 41.0 win shares as a Knick, good for 15th in franchise history, and 11th among players who didn’t play in the 1950’s. Whatever you think of advanced numbers, all you need to know is that this places him just below Earl Monroe, Carmelo Anthony and Dick Barnett, and just ahead of Kurt Thomas, Bill Bradley and Anthony Mason. Where the fancy stats are concerned, Mitch stands among the greatest Knicks of all time.

Ultimately, this ranking is a reflection of the whole package. Mitchell Robinson was a vitally important role player on one of the greatest teams in franchise history, as well as someone who could change a game or even a series. He was also injured a lot, was somewhat inconsistent for long stretches of his career, and as loath as I am to admit it, was an extremely limited offensive player.

Thus, he looks up at the following group:

Read more

In the meantime, we continue on with our summer project: counting down the top 100 Knicks ever, with a focus on the players that have defined the Leon Rose era. In case you’re just catching up on the list, here are the Rose era players who have appeared thus far:

• 100. Alec Burks

• 85. Jordan Clarkson

• 81. Jose Alvarado

• 74. Derrick Rose

• 70. Isaiah Hartenstein

• 63. Immanuel Quickley

• 60. Landry Shamet

• 55. Donte DiVincenzo

• 50. RJ Barrett

And with that, we move to the last current bench player before we get to the current starters higher up on the list…

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The Knicks 100: No. 45 - Deuce McBride

Say it with me now…

DEUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCE!!!!!!

Find me another role player who had an opposing arena chanting his name in the NBA freaking Finals.

You can’t, because it’s never happened before.

MVP chants are a dime a dozen. But a custom chant that travels seamlessly from coast to coast? That’s the ultimate compliment.

Such is the legend of Miles “Deuce” McBride, the 36th pick in the 2021 NBA Draft who has done nothing but defy odds and opponents alike since his arrival five years ago.

I’d have called you a pie-eyed optimist if you’d told me in December of 2023 that the kid who shot 33 percent from the field over his first two years as a pro would go on to have the following lines on his resume:

• Be among the top 100 scorers in Knicks history by the end of his fifth season

• Shoot 40 percent from deep over the last three years

• Be on the court for over a thousand playoff minutes since 2024, and…

• Rank among the top 40 postseason scorers in Knicks history

But here we are.

Advanced stats, counting stats and everything in between all tell the same story. Year after year, Deuce McBride keeps getting better. He’s become one of the league’s elite marksmen, hitting 3.7 threes per 36 minutes at a 41.3 percent clip last season. Among rotation players, only Kon Knueppel, Sam Merrill and Isaiah Joe can claim to have done the same. Then in the playoffs, he overcame a lingering injury to be a co-sixth man (along with Landry Shamet) for the championship run. Even with a quiet end to the finals, McBride produced plenty along the way, adding to a postseason legacy that now includes an astounding 58 games, just two back of Allan Houston for 15th most in franchise history.

That lengthy playoff resume filled with steady production is why I separated McBride from the group of Stallworth, Meminger, Riordan, Gianelli and Shamet, who checked in at spots 56-60. He’s also a notch below the likes of Cazzie Russell, Jerry Lucas and Mitchell Robinson - other role players who made bigger contributions to title teams and/or had lengthier track records of significant contribution. We’ll get to them a bit higher on the list.

Because of that gap, we have 10 players to go through before we get to the next name on our list:

Immediately above McBride we have a foursome of big men who hold very different places in franchise lore.

Walt Bellamy (our third hall-of-famer to appear on the list, if you’re keeping track) is a player who will always be known more for his exit from the Knicks than for what he did while he was here. There’s a Julius Randle comp to be made in that Bellamy not only went out a better player, but a better fitting piece as well. Unlike Julius though, Bellamy didn’t make a single All-Star team in New York. Even so, he’s 31st all time in points and 13th in rebounds as a Knick.

One good hall-of-famer deserves another, which brings us to Amar’e Stoudemire, who was enshrined in Springfield just last weekend. Stoudemire has long been one of the most difficult Knicks to consider historically. If you’re doing a list of the five worst contracts in franchise history and wanted to include his name, I wouldn’t give you much of an argument. Truthfully, there isn’t a single moment from the last four years he was here that sticks out for me, at least not in a positive way. At the same time, the highs of that first season were so high, and even if we were the only team offering him a nine-figure deal without any failsafe for injury, he took on a responsibility that no one else wanted. That should carry a fair amount of weight.

Tyson Chandler’s resume speaks for itself: Defensive Player of the Year, All-NBA, All-Star, two All-Defense nods, and two playoff appearances. His underperformance in the 2013 conference semis will always be a part of his story, but he was the defensive anchor of a great Knicks team. More importantly, a lob to Tyson Chandler might have been the most exciting play MSG had going for it over a 20-year span.

Marcus Camby is my top pick among our foursome of centers for one reason: Larry Bird. During and after the 1999 Eastern Conference Finals, Bird, then the coach of the Pacers, called Camby the most dominant player on the Knicks. My recollection matches up. Averaging 14 points, 11 boards, three blocks and two steals, Camby had his way in one of the biggest series wins in franchise history. In Games 5 & 6 against Indy, Marcus was a +46, more than three times the total margin of victory. Between that and his role on another conference finalist the following year, he gets the nod over Bellamy, Stat and Tyson.

Checking in at No. 40 is Johnny Green, the highest ranked player on the list never to make the playoffs in New York. So why is he this high? Simple: Green made three All-Star teams as a Knick, and while the value of an All-Star appearance in the early 60’s isn’t what it is now, it was far enough into the NBA’s existence for those appearances to mean something. In 1965, for instance, Green was one of just four named All-Stars (out of 21) who didn’t go on to make the hall of fame. Should it matter that two of his All-Star nods came as a replacement for an injured player? A bit, but so does the fact that Green ranks 23rd in franchise history for points scored and sixth in rebounds.

In a similar vein, we have a player at 39 who was briefly one of Green’s teammates. Kenny Sears is probably the most unknown multi-time All-Star in Knicks history, in part because of when he played (from 1955 to 1963) and also because his teams only made the postseason once, and were eliminated in two games. Still, Sears got MVP consideration in four separate seasons in New York and he’s the first player on our list to rank inside the top ten in Knicks history for win shares, slotting in at 8th.

At 38, we have our third consecutive player from this era of Knicks basketball, the best of the bunch, Willie Naulls. Like Sears and Green, Naulls didn’t do much winning here, but he made the All-Star team in four of his five full seasons with the organization. He might have the least celebrated 25.0 point scoring season in NBA history, for three reasons:

• The Knicks were 29-51 and finished in last place

• He wasn’t even the leading scorer on his own team, trailing Richie Guerin’s 29.5 points per game

• His scoring average was half that of the NBA’s leading scorer that season, a guy by the name of Wilt Chamberlain

Naulls still has an impressive statistical argument for a top 40 spot, ranking 13th in franchise history in points scored and fifth in rebounds. He also holds the distinction of being traded for future Hall-of-Famers on his way into and out of New York1.

Next up, we have the second former MVP to appear on the list, Bob McAdoo. Jalen Brunson is currently in a dog fight with McAdoo and Bernard King for the highest career scoring average in Knicks history, but I wouldn’t count on him catching Mac, who had the benefit of a short mid-career stint to boost his numbers. McAdoo spent just one full season in New York, and to his credit, that one season was pretty good, leading the Knicks to a playoff series victory before falling hard to Dr. J’s far superior Sixers.

At 36 we have a personal favorite of mine, Kurt Thomas. This might seem high for a role player whose time here was spent pretty equally between some very good teams and some…not so good ones. Zooming out though, Thomas was such a steady force for so long. He’s 14th all time in minutes played with the Knicks, one spot ahead of Dave DeBusschere. He’s also 9th in rebounds, 19th in playoff rebounds, 24th in points, and 16th in win shares. Unfortunately, his two best postseason showings came on two of the more forgettable playoff teams of the modern era, in 2001 and 2004. Like I said, he’s 36 here, but No. 1 in my heart.

Last but not least before we get to our next Leon Rose era Knick is Gerald Wilkins. Looking back on my attempt to do this exercise five years ago, Wilkins is probably the player I disrespected the most. I had him 40th back then despite the fact that he was a top-three scorer on a bunch of good Knicks teams, including three that made the second round. He never made an All-Star team and always lived in the shadow of his hall of fame brother, but he ranks in the top 15 for minutes, points and assists as a Knick, not to mention 25th in postseason scoring.

NEXT UP: RIDIN’ THE D TRAIN ALL THE WAY TO A CHIP.

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A Knick You Knew: Gene Conley

by Ray Marcano

This next Knick you Knew was one of the most talented overall athletes of his time, but his name and connection to New York has largely been forgotten.

Gene Conley was born Nov. 10, 1930, in Muskogee, OK. When he was young, his family moved to Richland, Washington, and that’s where his athletics prowess started to shine. He played basketball, baseball and ran track. As a senior, he won nine of 10 starts as a pitcher on the baseball team and hit nearly .500, according to the SABR.org. He was an all-state basketball player, averaging 15 points and taking his Columbia High School team to the state tournament for the first time. He was also state runner-up in the high jump.

He attended college at Washington State University where he played basketball and baseball. He was captain of the freshman basketball team and started his remaining three years for the varsity. He continued to excel at baseball, and in the spring of 1950, won five games on the mound, pitched two shutouts, and saved two more games. He also hit.417.

He was so good he had a pleasant decision. Should he play one sport or try them both?

At first, he tried them both.

The Boston Braves signed Conely as an amateur free agent in 1950, and he made his big league debut in 1952, the same year the Celtics drafted the 6'8" forward. The baseball season ended on October 7, and the basketball season started on October 31, so that allowed Conley to play both sports.

His first professional year didn’t go well. In baseball, he appeared in four games and went 0-3 with a 7.82 ERA. For the Celtics, he appeared in 39 games and averaged 2 points and 4 boards.

Beginning in 1953, Conley exclusively played baseball. The Braves wanted him to stick to one sport because they worried he would get hurt and paid him $1,000 to give up hoops. Playing only baseball, he had his best year in 1954, when he went 14-9 with a 2.96 ERA, made the National League All-Star team and was third in the rookie of the year voting, behind Wally Moon and Earnie Banks, and one spot ahead of Hank Aaron.

But pitchers break, and that’s what happened to Conley in 1955. He injured his rotator cuff and was never the topflight pitcher he could have been.

In 1958, he called Red Auerbach and said he wanted to play for the Celtics again. Auerbach agreed, and Conley played an important supporting role on a team that won three-straight titles with legends Bill Russell, Bob Cousey, Bill Sharman, Sam and K.C. Jones, and more.

The Celtics left Conley unprotected in the 1961 expansion draft, which suited Conley fine. Chicago selected him but he never reported to the team and instead played in the fledgling American Basketball league while pitching for his newest team, the Boston Red Sox.

Two seasons, 1962 and 1963, were banner years for Conley and New York-related sports. Chicago traded his rights to the Knicks, where he played a reserve role on the terrible 1962-63 (21-59) and 1963-64 (22-58) teams. There’s not much to say about those years except they deserved to be relegated to the black hole of atrocious Knicks seasons.

On April 27, 1963, Conley started for the Boston Red Sox in a game against the Chicago White Sox. Conley hurled four innings, which isn’t what’s notable. For Chicago, a young pitcher named Dave DeBusschere pitched 2/3 of an inning and gave up a hit and three earned runs.

It’s hard to see history when you’re living it, but this was truly unique. It’s the first --- and only --- time two active NBA players faced each other in major league baseball game (Conley played for the Knicks and DeBusschere the Pistons).

It also may have set a record at the time for the two tallest pitchers appearing in the same game. Prior to1963, there were only a handful of pitchers taller than the 6'6" DeBusschere and only one taller than the 6'8" Conley (Johnny Gee, 6'9").

By the time Conley retired from baseball (1963) and basketball (1964, his last season with the Knicks), he garnered another record likely never to be broken. He’s the only athlete to win a world series (1957) and has at least one NBA championship ring (he has three).

Statistically, his baseball career was more impressive. According to Baseball Reference, he was minor league player of the year twice, a minor league MVP once, and was a three-time MLB all-star.

Conley kept a low profile after retiring from sports. He and his wife founded the Foxboro (MA) Paper Company and operated it for 35 years before retiring and moving to Florida.

“When I look back, I don’t know how I did it, I really don’t...I think I was having so much fun that it kept me going. I can’t remember a teammate I didn’t enjoy,” Conley told the Los Angeles Times in 2008.

Conley’s most infamous sports moment may have come on May 15, 1960, when he played for the Philadelphia Phillies. Batting in the eighth inning in a game against the Cincinnati Reds, he got hit by a pitch and that triggered an old school basebrawl (not the running from the bullpen and standing around that happens today).

Billy Martin, the notorious hothead, played for the Reds and he went right at Conley, who threw one punch that knocked Martin down and shattered his jaw.

As recounted in this story, Conley said, “Boy, I let him have it. He did a full gainer... He turned around and said, ‘Conley, I’m going to get a stepladder and get you next time.’”

Gene Conely died on July 4, 2017, at the age of 86. He was the last living player who played with both the Boston Braves and the Boston Red Sox.

“He is the most incredible athlete in the country... the only one who spends the entire year competing under the heaviest pressure in two major sports,” Red Auerbach told the Washington Post. “The average athlete would crack under that strain in a hurry. He thrives on it.”

Ray Marcano writes for some of the country’s biggest brands and has been named best columnist in Ohio two straight years (2025-26). You can read his free newsletter, the Bourbon Resource, right here on Substack.

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The Knicks 100: No. 50 - RJ Barrett

Back when I first started podding and writing about the Knicks, a Twitter follower took particular issue with one of my takes about RJ Barrett.

I’ll give you a moment to get over the shock.

Anyway, the take compared RJ Barrett - then a Knick rookie - to 15-year vet and 2007 NBA champion Michael Finley.

When I made the comparison, I figured that if anything, I was being overly optimistic. Finley was a two-time All-Star and the second leading scorer on a Mavs team that might have won it all had it not been for Dirk spraining his knee in the 2003 western conference finals. RJ (at the time) was having one of the most inefficient high volume rookie seasons in modern NBA history1.

Nope. To this person, I was chugging haterade by the gallon. The mere suggestion that Barrett would have a career as pedestrian as Finley’s was blasphemous. RJ was quite clearly destined for far greater things than to be the second or third best player on a contending team. He was the prince that was promised.

Right up until the actual prince showed up.

I’m not starting with this story to take a victory lap (ok, mostly not for that reason)

I’m starting here to show that for almost the entirety of his tenure, there was a significant portion of the fan base who felt that Barrett would be the one to lead the Knicks back into championship contention, and any suggestion otherwise was unthinkable.

And to Barrett’s credit, he always gave the true believers just enough to keep believing.

In his second year, he was second leading scorer on a top-four seed. In his third season, he spread his wings down the stretch and put up All-Star numbers over his final 22 games. In his fourth season, he was an effective offensive engine alongside Jalen Brunson for eight consecutive playoff games. And then in his fifth year, while Julius Randle was getting off to the worst start of his career, RJ got off to the best start of his. At that moment, the doubters had to be reconsidering their positions.

But life in the NBA comes at you fast. In early November, Barrett missed a few games with knee soreness and then three more games with migraines. His shooting took a dive over the next six weeks, and with it, his positive impact took a dive as well. It all led up to the day before New Year’s Eve, when the front office parted ways with the young man whose contract extension they trumpeted so proudly just a year earlier. They haven’t looked back since.

Their resounding success since swapping Barrett and Immanuel Quickley for OG Anunoby clouds the legacy for RJ far more than IQ. Anunoby was instantly a seamless fit alongside Brunson and Randle, and just had perhaps the greatest playoff run of a 0-time All-Star in NBA history. Quickley always had the advanced stats to back up his bonafides as a winning player in any environment. RJ, not so much.

Ultimately, I slotted him smack dab in the middle of this list to split the difference between the two sides of an argument that never really got resolved. On one hand, there have been 150 players in Knicks history to play over 2000 minutes in the era when we calculate Value Over Replacement Player, or VORP. Of those 150, RJ ranks 141st2.

On the other hand, he ranks 28th in regular season points, top-50 in rebounds and assists, 45th in postseason points, and was the second best playoff performer on a team that went to the second round.

Ultimately, the biggest tiebreaker for me, and the reason why I feel so bad that I let my battles with RJ supporters overshadow my ability to objectively analyze his game and impact, was this:

A 19-year-old RJ Barrett was brought into the most dysfunctional organization in sports and was asked to be its face from day one. He did so with dignity and class, not to mention 18 points, five boards and three assists a night, usually while winning.

If that’s not a top-50 all-time Knick, I don’t know what is.

His spot on the list also signifies another step up in weight class, with four names ahead of him who all have a specific claim to their spot in Knicks history:

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News & Notes

🏀 Congrats to Amar’e Stoudemire, Mike D’Antoni and Doc Rivers on their entry into the Basketball Hall of Fame this weekend!

We’ll be getting to Amar’e shortly on the Knicks 100, so I’ll save my more extended thoughts for then, but in short, when he was at his best, there aren’t five players I’ve ever seen in a Knick uniform that were better. Congrats to him and the rest of the inductees.

🏀 Jordan Brink, the man behind New York’s incredible success rate on challenges over the last several years, has taken a job with the Chicago Bulls as an Assistant Coach and Director of Player Development. It’ll be a tough loss for the coaching staff, but congrats to Jordan on the promotion.

The Knicks 100: No. 55 - Donte DiVincenzo

When I was on stage with Deuce McBride at Fanatics Fest earlier this summer and I asked him which former Knick texted him first after winning the NBA title, it didn’t surprise me that his answer was Donte DiVincenzo1.

Donte, as much as any player I’ve ever watched in person, struck me as someone born to be a Knick. He’s not from the area2 like Mark Jackson or Jose Alvarado and his game doesn’t evince signs of a classic NYC street baller, but that’s not what mattered to those who watched him. DiVincenzo was destined to wear NEW YORK across his chest because he has moxie seeping out of his pores, with more than enough big game performances on his resume to back it up. Pound for pound, he’s as tough as any 90’s Knick ever was.

I might be a little biased on that last point because I was in the building when Donte gave Myles Turner the business after throwing down a put-back slam to send the Garden into pandemonium two years ago, but that was far from the only example. Show me a Goliath, and I’ll show you DiVincenzo waiting with a slingshot and a balled up fist. Victor Wembanyama would never have gotten away with his shenanigans if Donte was still here for the 2026 finals.

Alas, they expected one of us the the wreckage, brother.

It seems that for the fire to rise, the man who was destined to remain a Knick for life had to be sent to Minnesota after just 94 games in New York. But what a 94 games they were, broken down into acts that were not only memorable, but built neatly on the one proceeding it:

• Act 1: Coming off the bench for 18 of his first 20 games, DiVincenzo established himself as a key member of the rotation.

• Act 2: Moving into the starting five in place of Quentin Grimes, DiVincenzo fit like a glove, eventually solidifying an unstoppable five-man unit following the OG trade.

• Act 3: After Randle and Anunoby went down, DiVincenzo played the third most minutes in the league over his final 35 games3, scoring over 20 a night and hitting more threes than anyone besides Steph Curry.

• Act 4: DiVincenzo had a postseason for the ages, hitting one of the most iconic shots in Knicks history, playing 48 minutes in a closeout game, and giving the Pacers everything they could handle for seven games.

His final game as a Knick - 39 points on 21 shots - is among the best Game 7 performances in NBA history that came in a loss. Everything he had was left out on the court.

His story is eerily reminiscent of the only other man in the conversation for the greatest one-season Knick in history, who just so happens to lead the next four players on our list:

Xavier McDaniel only had season as Patrick Ewing’s enforcer, but boy was it a good one. The image of him going forehead to forehead with Michael Jordan will always define his tenure. It may not have been wise of him to upset the GOAT, but it solidified the X-Man as someone who fit right into the culture Pat Riley was trying to build. Unfortunately, due to circumstances that are still somewhat mysterious, the Knicks apparently never made him an offer to return for a second season.

Thankfully, in the one season we got, McDaniel more than left his mark. He started all 82 games for a 51-win team and wasn’t far behind Ewing as New York’s top postseason performer before falling to the Bulls in seven games. Perhaps most detrimentally, his departure necessitated the trade that sent out Mark Jackson for Doc Rivers and new starting small forward Charles Smith.

DiVo and McDaniel round out a motley crew that leads up to our top 50. Spencer Haywood is the second hall-of-famer to appear on the list, although as has been a theme for much of the franchise’s history, the Knicks missed out on his best days. They were about a .500 team over his three and a half seasons and made the second round one time. For as much as the McAdoo/Haywood duo stood in such stark contrast to the beautiful basketball played less than a decade earlier, Haywood was good for 17 & 9 a night and is still a top-50 scorer and top-40 rebounder in Knicks history.

J.R. Smith might be the ideal spiritual successor to Haywood in more ways than one, and unlike Haywood, was able to ply his trade for a winner. Of course, for as much as Smith’s 6th Man of the Year campaign was a big part of the success of #KnicksTape, his inconsistency over the years was also a reason why that house of cards eventually toppled. His suspension and subsequent underproduction in the 2013 playoffs is the biggest reason he’s not higher, but he provided far more positive memories than negative ones. May the baddies forever strive for that sacred pipe.

The last exclusion from the top 50 is also one of the last players on the list to never appear in a playoff game for the Knicks, and that’s David Lee. Some advanced stats paint Lee as a borderline top-20 Knick ever, and he got an All-Star nod for his trouble before moving on to Golden State. Only Dwight Howard amassed more double doubles than Lee over the last two seasons he spent in New York. No one who watched him during his half decade here ever thought he was part of the problem, even if his tricky positional fit made it equally unclear if he’d ever be part of a champion. This seems like the right spot to put him.

NEXT UP: From face of the franchise to matching salary, one of the most divisive Knicks of the Leon Rose era is next up at 50.

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News & Notes

The NBA has released the schedules for all 30 teams, and the Knicks got themselves a doozy:

Let’s start with the good news.

The Knicks are part of 13 back-to-backs, which is tied with 11 other teams for the least in the league, and only two of those back-to-backs include a time zone change. They also have 17 instances of three games in four nights, which is fewer than all but two teams. In terms of total distance they’ll travel this season, only the Raptors cover fewer miles.

Last on the positive side, they play a very home heavy slate in the second half of the season. They get through with 21 of their 40 scheduled road games by Game 38, meaning they only have 19 scheduled road games in their final 44, and two of those are in Brooklyn. From Thursday, January 14 to Monday, February 1, they will only leave New York once, and it’s for a quick trip to Atlanta. They also have two other four-game home stands in the second half of the season, including coming out of the All-Star break. In other words, there will be ample opportunity to recharge their batteries before April.

They’ll need it. New York’s first half schedule is about as daunting as one can imagine. 11 of their first 18 games come against the Cavs (3 times), Sixers (2 times), Pacers (2 times), Raptors (2 times), Pistons and Celtics, arguably their six biggest competitors in the East assuming the Kawhi trade goes through. Six of those 11 are on the road and two of the home games are on the second night of a back to back.

Then, from December 1 to December 21, the Knicks currently does not have a home game scheduled. That may change depending on what happens in the NBA Cup group play games, but as of now, they won’t play at MSG for over three weeks. After a three-game home stand for the holidays that includes the Spurs on Christmas, they’re back on the road for a six-game western swing. Yeesh.

At the very least, they’ll get plenty of exposure with a league-high 34 national television appearances. Of their final 40 games, half will be available nationwide (depending of course on what services you get in your house, says Adam Silver from his Scrooge McDuck vault).

The biggest thing to remember, not just for the Knicks but for every team, is that tanking should significantly subside this season as bad teams try to stay out of the “relegation zone;” aka, the three worst records that will have their lotto odds sliced in half. The league also upped the odds for teams that make the play-in.

Taking that into consideration, I’d be bearish on many teams getting to high win totals, and it shouldn’t surprise anyone if the league only produces a handful of teams that win 50 games. That said, I expect the Knicks (who currently have the top East over under at 53.5 wins) to be one of those teams, and if I had to pick right now, I’d take a slight over.

I’d love to hear your predictions in the comments.

A Knick You (almost) Knew: Sherman White

by Ray Marcano

This next Knick You (almost) Knew was quite possibly the best player in college basketball and destined to play in Madison Square Garden before scandal ruined his NBA career.

Sherman White was born on December 16, 1928, in Philadelphia, PA. If there was anyone born to play basketball, it was White. He entered junior high school at 6-feet tall and was 6'5" by the time he was a sophomore at Dwight Morrow High School in Englewood, NJ, where his family moved when he was a child. Let’s put this in context. In the 1940s, the average 13 or 14-year-old stood less than 5 feet tall, and the average high school sophomore was 5'7".

So, it’s no surprise he dominated. His senior year in high school was most impressive. By then, he had grown another three inches, to 6'8", and was taller than most players on the pro and semi pro leagues of the time. He scored a then-record 49 points1 in a game, led his team to a 28-0 season and the Northeastern High School championship. He was also a unanimous first team all-state selection.

White signed with Villanova at the suggestion of his high school coach, and by all accounts, he hated the experience. He was the only Black athlete at a Catholic university, where he struggled academically and failed to fit in. He dropped out and enrolled at Long Island University.

It took him a while to show his skills, but by the time he was a sophomore, he grew into the team’s most important player. He was a second-team consensus All-American in the 1949 season. In 1950, he scored the most points in a single game in LIU history (63), a record that still stands.

He was a tall, fast player who could, as the cliché goes, leap out of a gym. The Knicks were thrilled because they owned White’s territorial rights, and as soon as his senior season was done, they would grab him. No doubt2.

But during his junior year, White became suspicious because his teammates weren’t performing as they should. Players started missing shots they would normally make. Eddie Gard, the point guard, threw passes at his feet, White told the New York Times. After one game that season, Gard and two other teammates --- Adolph Bigos and Dick Fuertado --- met with White and told him he could make some easy money by missing an inconspicuous shot here and there or helping rig games for gamblers.

White, who later said he bowed to peer pressure, agreed, and became a prominent figure in a point shaving scheme that is still the biggest scandal in college basketball history.

The scheme came to light in January 1951 when Manhattan College player Junius Kellogg refused to take a bribe to shave points and instead alerted his coach, who notified the New York District Attorney. From there it was as matter of time before the players were caught. The DA started arresting players, who began implicating others.

On February 19, 1951, White was named the Sporting News college basketball player of the year. The next day, he was arrested. As a co-conspirator, he made $5,500. He didn’t spend any of it and gave it to authorities when he was arrested.

“I knew it was a matter of time,” White later said. “I was in a fog. As far as I was concerned, my life was shot.”

Players from CCNY, Bradly, Toledo, and LIU, including White, along with an assortment of gangsters and bookies were arrested and jailed.

According to the book, The Scandals of ’51, White’s lawyer didn’t show up for his sentencing, and the judge lambasted him as “a hardened criminal and a semi-moron.” White received the longest sentence of 12 months at Riker’s Island (he served nine), a penalty that raised eyebrows because a number of the white co-conspirators received suspended sentences.

“I was a very defiant young man,” White told the Times, “and (Judge) Hogan didn’t like my attitude. I’ll never forget this as long as I live. He said, ‘You are going to jail.’ Right to my face: ‘You are going to jail. Your attitude is not the attitude of a college student. You act like you are an experienced criminal.’”

White was banned from playing in the NBA, and that was a tough blow for the Knicks. With White, New York could have rolled out a starting five of Nat “Sweetwater” Clifton, three all-stars in Harry Gallatin, Max Zaslofsky, and Dick McGuire, and White. Would that have been enough to beat the Lakers (Minneapolis, then) of George Mikan, Jim Pollard and Vern Mikkelsen, all-stars and either first or second team All-NBA?

White’s NBA dream was shattered like a cheap vase hitting concrete, but he did keep playing. Between 1953 and 1963, he played on the weekends in the Eastern Basketball League. He was the league’s most valuable player in 1955 and led the Baltimore Bullets to the 1961 league championship. He did that while selling cars and storm windows.

Over the years, White kept a low profile. He worked in sales to support his family and stayed involved with basketball, mentoring young men at the Newark and East Orange YMCAs. He declined to be interviewed for the 1998 HBO documentary on the scandal called “City Dump” fearing it wouldn’t tell the full story.

Still, he was lauded for his skill. In 1984, Madison Square Garden celebrated 50 years of hosting college basketball games. It named its all-college players and introduced White, one of the honorees, as “the virtuoso of New York basketball.”

In a Getty Images photo, White stood next to the giants of the game: Bob Davies of Seton Hall; George Mikan of DePaul; Tom Gola of LaSalle; Dick McGuire of St. Johns and Oscar Robertson of Cincinnati.

Bill Russell of San Francisco, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar of UCLA, Hank Luisetti of Stanford, Bill Bradley of Princeton, Maurice Stokes of St. Francis, Elgin Baylor of Seattle and Jerry West of West Virginia were also selected but couldn’t attend.

Talk about good company.

In 2007, The Draft Review called White, “the best player you never knew” In 2010, the basketball courts at Mackay Park in Englewood, NJ were named for White, honoring his work with young people.

White died on August 4, 2011 from congestive heart failure at his home in Piscataway, NJ. He was 81.

In 1999, Knicks great Dick McGuire told The Record of New Jersey, “Sherman would have put us over the top. We would have won championships with him. What you see now with Kevin Garnett, Marcus Camby and Lamar Odom, you saw Sherman doing back then. He was well before his time.”

Ray Marcano writes for some of the country’s biggest brands and has been named best columnist in Ohio two straight years (2025-26). You can read his free newsletter, the Bourbon Resource, right here on Substack.

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“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

News & Notes

🏀 The NBA’s annual schedule unveiling began yesterday, when we learned of three games the Knicks would be featured in:

• Tuesday, October 20 against the Sixers as part of the league’s first ever triple header on Opening Night

• Friday, October 23 in Boston for the league’s first Amazon Prime night

• Christmas Day at 12pm at home for a Finals rematch with the Spurs

More games will be revealed tomorrow before the full slate drops on Thursday at 3pm. I was initially surprised they went with Knicks Spurs on Christmas as opposed to an East team coming to MSG, but December 25 remains the NBA’s marquee day and there will be competing NFL games on from 1pm to midnight. No use saving your bullets I suppose.

🏀 Stephan Bondy had a discouraging tweet last night for those of us hoping to see a Deuce McBride extension happen this summer:

The tea leaves are increasingly negative where McBride’s long term future in New York is concerned, and this seems to be a matter of when, not if he gets moved. Very much hoping to be wrong for our newest friend of the pod.

🏀 Lastly, it’s not a news item, but an official shout out goes to KFS subscriber Nick L. When I announced the Knicks 100 countdown a month ago, I vaguely described four players who came in between 60 and 80 on the list and promised a shout to anyone who correctly guessed the four players based on my breadcrumbs. Nick was the only one to nail it, guessing Vince Boryla, Derrick Rose, Rory Sparrow, and today’s entrant, coming in at No. 60…

Landry Freaking Shamet

Mitchell Robinson. Bernard King. OG Anunoby. Landry Shamet.

What do those four men have in common? I’ll give you a second to think about it.

While you’re pondering, I’d like to remind everyone that for a nearly two-week stretch at the beginning of the playoffs, Landry Shamet lost his spot in New York’s rotation. After playing 17 minutes against the Hawks in Game 1 and making just one of the six shots he attempted, Shamet saw under 10 minutes in Game 2 and then just three minutes in Game 3, none of which came in the second half. Outside of a couple possessions, he played only garbage time in Games 4, 5 and 6 against Atlanta and Game 1 against Philly.

Then, seeing the Knicks down five with under five minutes to go in the first half against a frisky Sixers team missing Joel Embiid, Mike Brown called Shamet’s number. He only played eight minutes in the game and didn’t attempt a shot, but the eight-year vet helped change the energy in the building. His plus-six equaled New York’s eventual margin of victory.

And with that, the floodgates opened.

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Before we get to the main course, there was a report yesterday from Jared Schwartz of the Post that Tyler Nickel is expected to join the Knicks next season in some capacity. While many have pointed out that there isn’t currently enough room to sign Nickel and a third center to a vet minimum, it’s worth noting that there are many pathways to the necessary space involving moves that send out a lower salary player.

KAT’s Extension

I said on Friday that there was enough discussion about KAT’s potential extension that I’d be writing about it this week. Well, sure enough, Ian Begley wrote yesterday that “if I had to take a guess,” Towns and the Knicks will find common ground on a new deal. He added:

If I’m using the recent Rudy Gobert extension as a baseline, I could see an extension for Towns starting around $45 million. By signing this kind of deal, Towns would obviously lose the opportunity to make more money as a 2027 free agent. But given all of the factors at play (the state of NBA economics, teams’ approach to the second apron, the Knicks’ title), there are reasons for Towns to play it safe and sign an extension.

This, obviously, is great news, but I’m still curious: has the marketplace shifted so dramatically that a player of KAT’s caliber would be amenable to a deal that is so far below his max?

To answer the question, I figured the best thing to do was take a look at the current state of max and near max players around the NBA.

By my count, there are currently 32 “true” max contract players in the NBA - a list that includes Karl-Anthony Towns. What is a “true” max player? For me, it’s anyone who received either a 25 percent max, a 30 percent max or a 35 percent max from their incumbent team for the maximum number of years (with the exact percentage based on years of service time) and/or is on a max extension signed off of their original max. Here’s the full list:

• Donovan Mitchell, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Devin Booker, Jayson Tatum, Joel Embiid, Steph Curry, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Anthony Davis, Jaylen Brown, Jimmy Butler, De’Aaron Fox, Nikola Jokic, Karl-Anthony Towns, Cade Cunningham, Evan Mobley, Luka Doncic, Bam Adebayo, Jamal Murray, Anthony Edwards, Tyrese Haliburton, Paolo Banchero, Jalen Williams, Pascal Siakam, Franz Wagner, Scottie Barnes, Zach LaVine, LaMelo Ball, Tyrese Maxey, Des Bane, Darius Garland, Ja Morant and Michael Porter Jr.

There’s some variation within this group - player option vs no player option, as well as the number of years on certain extensions - but you get the gist. Notably, about a third are on what Windy refers to as the “fun max” of 25 percent. So really, if Towns looks around the league, he’ll only find about 20 other guys in his current weight class.

After this group, I have 10 additional players who are on what I’m calling a “fake max,” i.e., something that was probably reported as a max contract, but for one reason or another, it’s a “true” max. Some of these may be analogous to Towns, as I’ll get to in a bit. They are:

Zion Williamson - 5 years, $197.2 million. Zion signed a five-year rookie max, but with significant injury protections for the Pelicans.

Trae Young - 4/$212.8M (Player Option). Less than the maximum Young could have signed with Washington but equal to the max he could have signed for elsewhere. This deal, notably, was lampooned and questioned around the league as soon as it was reported.

Paul George - 4/$211.6M (PO). The max he could sign with a new team, but not the max he could have gotten from the Clippers before they let him walk.

Victor Wembanyama - 5/$252M (PO). Signed the 25 percent max. Deal did not include 30 percent supermax escalators that he was eligible for.

Chet Holmgren - 5/$239.2M. Like Wemby, this was a 25 percent max without the 30 percent supermax escalators he was eligible for, although it did included lesser escalators that could bring the deal up to 5 years and $250 million.

Lauri Markkanen - 4/$196M. Renegotiation and extension. Added $24.1 million to his original final year base salary, bringing him up to a 30 percent max in the final year of his old deal. His new deal also started at a 30 percent max, but went down in value in year-two before max raises set in for years three and four.

Jaren Jackson Jr - 4/$205M (PO). Another renegotiation and extension, adding $11.6 million to his original final year base salary. The resulting cap hit of the first year of the new contract was 29.7 percent of the cap, slightly below the 30 percent max he’d have been eligible for if he didn’t renegotiate and extend. The deal did not feature max raises, instead increasing by a flat $1.5 million each season.

Kawhi Leonard - 3/$149.5M. Started at a 35 percent max, but reduced slightly in value in years two and three.

Austin Reaves - 4/$184.8M (PO). Started at 25 percent max, with a four percent raise in year-two and close to max raises in years three and four.

Jalen Brunson - 4/$156.5M (PO). Extended for the maximum 40 percent increase over his previous year’s salary, which resulted in a first year salary of his extension that was 22.6 percent of the cap - significantly below the 30 percent he’d have been eligible to sign for if he hit free agency.

That’s it for group two. For whatever its worth, I think both Markkanen and JJJ are somewhat relevant comps, although I’m sure Towns sees himself as superior to both. Then again, KAT has also earned two max contracts in his career already. Both Lauri and Jaren signed deals that were well below the max following their rookie contracts, so each one was likely more incentivized for a big payday this time around.

Finally, we have the group that Karl-Anthony Towns may join: True sub-maxes. This group obviously includes countless players, but I’m listing five as potential comps in increasing order of relevance, followed by the contract I think we’re likely to see KAT sign:

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Rest in Peace, Don Nelson. Nelson’s brief stint as head coach in New York didn’t work out great, but he still had one of the league’s great coaching careers after a stellar stint as a player with the Celtics. He is as memorable a character as the NBA has ever seen, and his legend only seemed to grow over time. He will be missed.

Bye bye Jack Kayil (for now), but maybe not Tyler Nickel. Kayil, the 39th pick in the draft, announced he’s staying in Europe on a new five-year deal, presumably with a reasonable buy-out should the opportunity arise for him to play in the NBA. Meanwhile, there’s no update on Nickel, taken 47th, possibly returning back to college, but Ian Begley reported that Nickel is “all in on starting his pro career.” James Edwards III reported that New York tendered qualifying offers to both Kayil and Nickel, thus retaining their draft rights.

Finally, we have 3 confirmed preseason dates for New York: Thursday, October 8 vs the Wizards; Tuesday October 13 at Toronto, and Thursday October 15 vs the Raps at home.

Before we get to No. 63 on the Knicks 100, a quick refresher on who from the Leon Rose era has appeared on the list thus far: 100. Alec Burks, 85. Jordan Clarkson, 81. Jose Alvarado, 74. Derrick Rose, and 70. Isaiah Hartenstein. Which brings us to…

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The Knicks 100: No. 63 - Immanuel Quickley

Let it not be forgotten that in Jalen Brunson’s debut season with the Knicks - one in which New York won a playoff series for the first time in a decade and Brunson proclaimed himself a potential franchise savior - the most memorable game was one that Brunson watched from the sideline.

With Jalen nursing an injury he suffered two nights earlier in Miami and the Knicks riding an eight-game winning streak, the 45-19 Celtics awaited, looking for revenge after falling in MSG the previous week. In the previous matchup, Immanuel Quickley was pretty good, scoring a team-high 23 points off the bench to further solidify his status as 6th Man of the Year front-runner.

Turns out, we hadn’t seen anything yet.

Playing 55 out of a possible 58 minutes (more than anyone has played in an NBA game since, by the by), Immanuel Quickley strutted, danced and dined out on the Boston parquet. Putting up 38 points, eight rebounds, seven assists, four steals and two blocks, Quick issued a proclamation: Whatever future awaited this burgeoning Knicks core, he was going to play an instrumental role.

He was right. Just not in the way we thought.

Less than a year later, IQ was the newly minted starting point guard of the Toronto Raptors, the jewel of a trade that would also send RJ Barrett to his home country and bring OG Anunoby to the Big Apple. That summer, Quick signed a contract that would make him one of the highest paid point guards in the NBA - $7.5 million higher in the first season, in fact, than the man he once played understudy to in New York.

On the surface, Quickley finally had everything he’d been seeking. He got his own team, a massive payday, and the freedom to pen his narrative without anyone or anything standing in the way.

I wonder if it was all worth it.

Among the top “What If’s” of the last five years, the Quickley one is near the top of my list.

Namely, how would the future have unfolded if he accepted the contract the Knicks wanted to give him?

Reporting at the time stated that the front office wanted to extend him, with fair market value pegged between $16 million and $20 million annually. I distinctly remember hearing that the Knicks were willing to enter that range, and Quickley seemed to love being a Knick.

Instead, he was flipped for Anunoby, who will appear much closer to 6th on this list than 60th despite playing nearly 100 fewer regular season games as a Knick than Quickley. Could they have still gotten Anunoby with a package that didn’t include IQ? If so, the draft capital required to sweeten the pot wouldn’t have allowed the Mikal Bridges trade to happen. In this alternate universe, would Quick have eventually graduated to the starting two-guard spot, likely under a different coach? Or would he have been the outgoing salary to get Mikal, and we’d now be watching him spread his wings across the river?

Quickley’s decision to bet on himself was arguably the singular pivot point of the Brunson era other then Brunson himself joining the franchise. The toughest part for IQ? His departure was lamented for all of 72 hours, right up until we all got a look at Anunoby’s picture perfect fit and the juggernaut these new Knicks threatened to become.

It doesn’t change Quickley’s role in the larger story though. His resume is too filled with games that gave Knicks fans goosebumps - that rare feeling of watching a star grow and develop before our eyes. The Boston game may be his masterpiece, but he painted enough memorable works of art to fill a wing in the MET. There was something about an Immanuel Quickley Game that just felt different.

Is 63 the right spot for him on the list? Off the vibes alone, some would argue that he’s deseving of a top 50 spot. The absence of any notable playoff performances would suggest something around 75, or maybe even lower. I split the difference, and put him just below two other scoring guards who will always be joined at the hip:

I mentioned a few newsletters ago that Nate Robinson and Jeremy Lin were two of the three players on the list who never made either the playoffs or an All-Star game as a Knick. Jamal Crawford is the third.

It’s funny…amidst the dreary stretch from 2004 to 2008, when the Knicks won an average of 28 games over four seasons before Donnie Walsh took over and began preparing for a run at LeBron, Crawford is one of the few players who emerged unscathed. Even then, fans pegged him as someone who could have been part of the eventual solution, which is what made Walsh’s decision to salary dump his contract 11 games into the Mike D’Antoni era so interesting. Crawford was off the best season of his career, averaging an efficient 20 points for a team that was a game over .500 when he left.

He’d go on to establish himself as one of the great reserves in NBA history, winning the first of three 6th Man trophies in his first season after leaving the Knicks and making the second round four times. In New York though, there was far too much turmoil for his scoring to have a positive impact. Still, he’s one of two players from the post-Ewing/pre-Melo era to rank inside the top 30 all-time in franchise scoring, slotting in at 29th.

The other, naturally, is Stephon Marbury, who comes in 30th.

Should Marbury be higher than Crawford on the list? Other than scoring, Marbury has Crawford beat in every category. He was more efficient, dished more assists, and accumulated far more win shares, ranking 28th in Knicks history in that metric (J. Crossover is 49th). He was also the best player on a playoff team, which isn’t a title that a ton of folks can lay claim to, even if that 2004 series against New Jersey was the ultimate exercise in futility.

And yet to this day, he remains a controversial figure. Stefan Bondy got in some hot water over this tweet during the playoffs, but Bondy isn’t alone. A significant portion of the fan base has few positive memories associated with the man who would go on to have a hall of fame second act on the other side of the world. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: no player in history could have “saved” the Knicks in the state they were in for much of Marbury’s tenure. Even if Steph didn’t always help matters, he was far from the biggest issue. That’s why I have him just ahead of both Quickley and Crawford.

Next up: we get back to the 2026 Knicks, and a player whose legend grew exponentially over the course of this playoff run.

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“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

A Knick You (almost) Knew: Wilt Chamberlain

by Ray Marcano

Photo from YouTube

There’s no need to recap the career of one of the greatest and most athletic big men of all time. I’ve always been fascinated by the number of teams that chased Wilt Chamberlain long after he retired, believing that a nearly 50-year-old man could compete against the likes of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Moses Malone, and Hakeem Olajuwon.

That list of teams includes the New York Knicks, who chased him twice.

Chamberlain retired at the age of 36 in 1973, and he seemed to have a lot left in the tank. He played all 82 games that year and averaged 43.2 minutes per contest, 13.2 points and led the league with an amazing 18.6 rebounds. He was an All-Star, second team All-NBA, came in fourth in the MVP voting and first-team all-defense.

And he retired to play volleyball.

Remember that?

In 1975, he was the player-owner of the Southern California Bangers and played five games in the team’s lone season in the co-ed International Volleyball Association.

“When you play against Wilt, obviously it was intimidating,” Jay Hanseth, a former IVA player, said in a YouTube video. “He’s 300 pounds. He’s 7-2. He had so much power, he was tremendously strong, it was just awe-inspiring. A lot of people hit the ball 100 miles an hour, but it seemed to me that he was hitting it 200 miles an hour. He hit the ball hard, blocked well, and for a while led the league in attacking efficiency.”

The year 1975 was also the first time the Knicks tried to lure Chamberlain out of retirement. According to a New York Times story, Eddie Donovan, then the general manager, and Mike Burke, president of the Knicks, flew to Los Angeles, ostensibly to meet with Chamberlain and his lawyer, but Wilt never showed. Turns out he was in Hawaii.

“I’m annoyed,” Burke told the Times. “We have come here on a fool’s errand.”

It wouldn’t be the last time the Knicks would try. In his book, “A View from Above,” Chamberlain wrote on page 98: “The New York Knicks tried to get me to play in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and I must admit this was tempting. I would have loved playing in New York because the fans are so knowledgeable.”

The Knicks romancing Chamberlain made sense given the times. Willis Reed, the victim of failing knees, retired following the 1974-75 season, which he missed in its entirety due to injury. That left New York with John Gianelli and Neal Walk at center, so it’s no wonder the team finished 38-44 and missed the playoffs for the first time in nine years. With a then 39-year-old Chamberlain, the team likely gets to the playoffs, where anything can happen.

The Knicks also needed help in the middle in the early 80s, when the team went to the playoffs three of four seasons. In those seasons, between 1980-81 and 1983-84, Bill Cartwright and Marvin Webster manned the middle. At the minimum, Chamberlain could have shown the young and growing Cartwright the ropes while pushing Webster down the depth chart.

Other accounts claim Chamberlain met with Red Holtzman at some point, but there’s no date attached to when. The Bulls, Nets, 76ers, Mavericks, Suns and Clippers were all linked to Chamberlain and each time a report surfaced about his potential comeback, New York media hyped a possible Knicks return.

The last known flirtation came from the New Jersey Nets in 1986, when the team offered Chamberlain $362,500 for the last seven games of the regular season. Chamberlain said no.

“I did not consider it at all,” Chamberlain told the Los Angeles Times. “It was not a fair proposal. They didn’t ask what kind of shape I was in, whether I had a cold or a toothache. I respect pro basketball players too much to think I could go out and be competitive with them after they’ve been playing all season, doing what they do better than anybody else in the world.”

Chamberlain was intrigued, he noted on page 99 of his book, by the offers because he would have been the first NBA Hall-of-Famer to come out of retirement and play again. “Coming back would have been a great, fun challenge for me. I had a feeling I could help these teams and I will always wonder, ‘What If.’ He said he had “no doubt” he would lead the league in rebounding, but in the end, he didn’t have a strong desire to play.

In his later years, Chamberlain had an eclectic life. He took a role in Conan the Destroyer movie opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger. He played with the legendary Meadowlark Lemon and his new team, the Bucketeers. He was a staple of radio and television programs, and famously told Conan O’Brien he slept with 20,000 women.

He also excelled at telling stories, including one about his legendary game on March 2, 1962, when he scored 100 points against the Knicks. He said the thing he remembered most about the game was the trip back, when he rode with Knicks players back to New York, where he had an apartment.

“I wanted to ride with a good friend of mine, Willie Nauls” he wrote in his book. “Willie drove and I took the front passenger seat. In the back seat sat two other Knicks. Within a mile, I was fast asleep and snoring. Every now and then I would stir and hear the same conversation: “Would you believe that son-of-a-bitch scored a hundred points against us?! A hundred points!” They kept telling each other all the things they did to try to keep me from scoring. Then they’d repeat, “Can you believe that son-of-a-bitch scored a hundred points on us!” I’d go back to sleep with a smirk on my face.

“When they let me off at my apartment on ninety-seventh street and Central Park West, I said to them, “You guys are sure nice to this S.O.B. Letting me score a hundred points, then giving me a ride all the way back to my apartment. Thanks, fellows.”

Wilt Chamberlain died in 1999 from congestive heart failure at the age of 63, and it took him until later in life understand the impact he had on people.

“I can remember driving to the beach one day and pulling up next to a truck at a red light. As I often do, I said hello to the driver: “What’s happening, my man?” He said hi back, then did a double take before blurting out, “Wilt Chamberlain! I can’t believe it! And you said hello to me! What a great day this is! I’m going to have a smile on my face the rest of the day. Thank you!

“Well, when I’m able to do that for a person just by saying hello, it makes me realize that all the inconveniences of being famous, of being a foot or two taller than the average Joe, are small in comparison to the smiles I can bring to people just by being me.”

Ray Marcano writes for some of the country’s biggest brands and has been named best columnist in Ohio two straight years (2025-26). You can read his free newsletter, the Bourbon Resource, right here on Substack.

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“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

News & Notes

🏀 As first reported by Michael Scotto but hinted at on his Instagram, Senior Vice President of Basketball Operations Gerson Rosas has left the Knicks. According to Stefan Bondy, the departure came on good terms after Rosas’ contract was up. Per Bondy, Rosas “felt like he needed to grow as an executive, which also meant exploring other opportunities.”

It’s hard to know exactly what impact this will have on operations within the front office because there’s little first hand knowledge of who does what under Leon Rose. With that being said, I’ve long been under the impression that Brock Aller pulls the strings on all of the most complex endeavors, whereas Rose and Wes are the relationship experts. Regardless, we thank Gerson for his service and wish him the best of luck in his future endeavors.

🏀 Also out the door is former two-way big man Trey Jemison III, who signed the same type of contract with the Toronto Raptors. There were many times last season when we wondered whether TJIII should have been playing ahead of Ariel Hukporti, but other than a few appearances, he was never really a factor.

New York’s roster remains at 13 players with all three two-way spots open.

🏀 Mohamed Diawara is back on the court just a few weeks after getting his left ring finger surgically repaired. Hopefully a poor shooting stint in Vegas was the result of that finger and nothing more.

🏀 Finally, in the wake of a recent court ruling that gives players from the high school class of 2022 a fifth year of collegiate eligibility, there’s a report that Tyler Nickel is “known to be exploring returning to college basketball.” Given the fact that he could receive far more in NIL money than he’d get on a two-way contract, this probably shouldn’t come as a surprise, although given his performance at Summer League, I wonder if there’s been some thought to giving him the 14th roster spot. Even if he does go back to college for a year, the Knicks would retain his rights.

The Knicks 100: No. 70 - Isaiah Hartenstein

Head versus heart.

Or I guess in this case, head versus Hartenstein.

That’s what today’s entrant forced me to reckon with.

The toughest part about doing this list is that I haven’t been around long enough to watch 80 years of Knicks basketball. Even if I had been, I surely wouldn’t remember it all. Over the last few weeks I’ve written about the likes of Greg Anthony and Hubert Davis, whose careers I watched as a young fan but who never left me with a defining memory. In their cases, that void served as a demerit, perhaps unfairly so.

Even guys like Pablo Progioni, Iman Shumpert and Ray Felton - players who left me with vague outlines of strong impressions - never gave me a single moment that stood the test of time.

In other words, they weren’t Isaiah Hartenstein.

Maybe in 10 or 20 years, I’ll forget about the game against the Cavs in late January 2023 when, after a disappointing first three months in New York, Hartenstein held up Donovan Mitchell at the basket to secure an important win. Maybe by then, I won’t remember how that game seemed to turn his season around, and with it, his Knicks career.

Maybe I won’t recall how he was the backbone of the January 2024 Knicks, averaging 9 & 14 while playing 36 minutes a night over one 10-game stretch. Maybe I’ll forget that after Julius went down, he became even more important, with on/off numbers that turned the Brunson-Hart-DiVincenzo core from ordinary to extraordinary.

Maybe I’ll forget all of it.

But for as long as I’m breathing, I’ll never forget the feeling of being in the building for Game 5 against the Indiana Pacers, when Madison Square Garden transformed from a basketball arena into a rock concert, with I-Hart playing the role of Eddie Van Halen. It was somewhere around his 10th or 11th offensive rebound that I began levitating off the floor and gained a new appreciation for that group of warriors.

I’ve heard older fans talk about Willis Reed’s toughness for decades. That night, Hartenstein gave me something to pass on to the next generation.

The ironic part, of course, is that each additional core memory only further sealed his ticket out of town. Oklahoma City saw a missing piece to their championship puzzle, and were willing to do anything necessary to get him. A year later, they were proven right.

But when one door closes, another opens. In making Hartenstein an offer he couldn’t refuse, the Thunder forced the Knicks to take a chance on a very talented but very expensive big man who would require some getting used to.

Turns out, that gamble paid off as well.

The end result is that everybody won. Hartenstein secured his place in franchise lore before nabbing a bag and a title, and the Knicks got their first championship in 53 years.

Does it happen without the series of events that eventually resulted in Towns coming to New York? For about 18 months, I was convinced that their odds would have been better had Hartenstein never left. That was my heart talking. If I was using my head, I’d have realized that the Knicks were better off with a 6-time All-Star than a career backup who barely started a third of his games here.

In trying to figure out I-Hart’s place on this list, I’m again confronted with the same conundrum.

Hartenstein has the numbers to back up a high spot, ranking 45th in postseason minutes, 34th in postseason points, and an impressive 73rd in regular season win shares considering he’s just outside of the top 120 in minutes. The on/off metrics for that ‘23-24 team say he was the straw that stirred the drink from late January on.

He was also incredibly human on many nights, and his Knick averages of 6.3 points and 7.4 rebounds across two seasons are what they are.

Putting that all together, I slotted Hartenstein at 70, below a group of role players whose accolades are unquestionably superior. Do I have memories of any of them? Not a one. But that’s not their fault, and their career accomplishments more than justify a a top 70 spot.

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News & Notes

First of all, big thanks to the Knicks for not doing anything newsworthy while I was in the Bahamas for the last week. We did, however, get another departure from the championship squad, with Jeremy Sochan signing a one-year deal with the Portland Trail Blazers.

Sochan never caught on in New York, but I did wonder whether he’d be in the mix for the 14th roster spot, if only because he could offer some theoretical versatility as both a third big and a backup wing. Apparently whatever the Knicks saw since signing him in February wasn’t enough for them to pencil him into their future plans.

Thus, the roster remains at 13 players - the only team in the NBA to have so few, as Jeremy Cohen noted last week. The attempted Moussa Cissé signing was two and a half weeks ago, and since then…crickets. There was some thought around the league that once LeBron James picked his team, there would be a second wave of summer transactions, but so far that hasn’t been the case. Is the front office waiting for a certain domino that hasn’t fallen yet? I suppose we’ll find out soon enough.

The other issue that remains unresolved pertains to Karl-Anthony Towns and his potential contract extension. There’s been some reporting surrounding his desire to stick around, but thus far nothing concrete. I’d be very, very surprised if something didn’t get done before the season, but I’m also assuming KAT is willing to work with the front office on a deal that everyone can live with. We’ll see if I’m proven right.

The Knicks 100: No. 74 - Derrick Rose

For 937 minutes in the 2020-21 season, Derrick Rose transformed the Knicks from a fun story into the best team in basketball.

That’s not hyperbole. At least not according to the numbers.

Before Rose’s Knick return (we’ll get to his first go ‘round shortly), New York had outpaced expectations, but with a record of 11-14 and a negative scoring margin, the spunky upstarts were still fighting for a play-in spot. No one viewed them as a legitimate team.

That all changed following the D.Rose trade.

After the former Bull made his debut, the Knicks went 24-11 in games he played - a 69 percent winning clip that trailed only Utah and Phoenix that season. Their net rating in his 937 minutes was a positive 10.6, well above the best mark in the league. In the minutes he didn’t play, they were outscored.

In the playoffs, as Julius Randle was turning into a pumpkin, Rose was turning back the clock. Before he finally ran out of gas in Game 5, the 2011 MVP averaged 23 points on a 50/50/100 slash line in 37 minutes over the first four games. Along with New York’s two other oldest rotation players, Taj Gibson and Alec Burks, Rose was responsible for the only signs of life we saw against Atlanta. Randle may have made All-NBA, but for the last three months of the season, D.Rose was New York’s most important player.

And then, just like that, it was over.

Rose played 53 more regular season games as a Knick, none of which were particularly memorable.1 Nor, for that matter, were any of his first 64 games in New York - the result of Phil Jackson’s ill-fated attempt to reunite the Rose/Joakim Noah tandem that had such success in Chicago2. Those stints helped Derrick climb up the franchise leaderboards (88th in points, 65th in assists), but that’s not why he’s here. If anything, his first stint was a demerit most remembered for Rose briefly going AWOL amidst an unraveling season.

No, Derrick Rose is here because of #WeHere, the team that really got this thing out of the muck and above sea level. Leon Rose signed Jalen Brunson to get the Knicks back on track after a down season, but ‘21-22 was only down because ‘20-21 was up.

Would Jalen have been as willing to come to the Knicks if he was staring at nine consecutive years of futility? #WeHere was a reminder that, yes, it is possible to play winning basketball in New York. More importantly, it confirmed that if you gave a starved fan base something to cheer for, they will consume it with the voracity of pride of lions.

None of it happens without Derrick Rose, who Knick fans surely have deeper affection for than the three players immediately above him on this list:

So…I’ve been pre-writing these pieces to give myself a bit of a break this summer, which I’m telling you to preface the following true story:

Several days after I wrote the newsletter you’re now reading, I woke up at 4:30 in the morning with one name on my mind: Charles Smith. I was tormented by the fact that I put him on this list at all, let alone as high as I did. This is a player who I know full well not a single person reading this has an ounce of affection for. He was a disappointment almost as soon as he got here, and that was before the thing that happened in Game 5 of the 1993 Eastern Conference Finals. You know…the thing that no longer torments us but we would still be wise not to bring up in polite company. That thing.

Smith represents the folly of making this list in the first place. As a Knick, he’s 21st in postseason minutes, 26th in scoring, 24th in rebounding and 30th in win shares. There is no universe where someone with those accolades can be left out in the cold. That win shares ranking is a smidgen behind Mikal Bridges (27th), who for much of the last two years stood to go down in history as the unfortunate bearer of Smith’s torch, not because of a single play, but because of a larger unfulfilled promise.

Bridges righted his ship in spectacular fashion this postseason and helped the Knicks win a title. Smith never had any such redemption arc following his incident against the Bulls, but he was more than respectable during their ‘94 finals run. Does that count for nothing? I struggled with the answer.

Put another way, if any one of those four shots goes in (or, for that matter, if Starks’ three doesn’t get tipped by Hakeem in Game 6), Smith is a top-50 all-time Knick, no questions asked. Can one five-second sequence really make that much of a difference?

Expending the conversation to Davis and Childs, I’d understand anyone who argues that none of the three should be anywhere near a ranking that places “Greatest” and “Knicks” in the same sentence. Childs was supposed to be the long awaited answer at point guard who wound up starting just 68 of 303 games and never beat out incumbent Charlie Ward. Davis is most famous for a blown call that went the Knicks way, but never had a “moment” of his own.

And yet, like with Smith, they’re also deserving.

Davis remains the all-time franchise leader in 3-point marksmanship at 45 percent, with a respectable 37.3 percent hit rate in the playoffs. As a second-year pro, he started the first seven games of the ‘94 Finals run for an injured John Starks and did a decent enough job in place of an All-Star guard. He still ranks inside the top 50 for all-time postseason scoring.

As for Childs, he’s 19th in playoff minutes as a Knick, which by itself warrants some respect. He was a tough player who fit well with that group. The ‘99 Finals will always be a blight on his resume (23 percent shooting, yikes), but he’s far from the only player on this list who struggled in a big spot.

That brings us to the top 70, which we’ll tee off later this week with my favorite Leon Rose-era Knick who wasn’t on hand for the championship run.

🏀

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News & Notes

by Ray Marcano

As fans have heard by now, the MSG and YES networks have dumped the much-maligned Gotham Sports app to move to the sports streaming platform DAZN (Da Zone).

That’s where you can soon see these guys:

That’s enough to make fans cheer. The Gotham app had more bugs than my apartment in the James Monroe Housing projects. The app would regularly freeze and buffer during a pivotal moment in a game. It could be hell to try to login. So, good riddance.

DAZN was originally part of Perform Group, founded in Britain in 2007. Perform was rebranded the DAZN group in 2018, the year it started offering service in the United States.

Fans should be optimistic about the switch because DAZN has a history of streaming success. Reuters reported it has 300 million users across 200 markets worldwide. A press release noted the platform streams more than 140,000 live events yearly. It’s heavy on soccer, motorsports, boxing, wrestling and MMA. It offers National Football League games but only to viewers who live outside the country.

The move strengthens DAZN in the United States, with the world champion Knicks and the baseball’s most valuable franchise, the Yankees, now on their platform. Subscribers can also see the Rangers, Nets, Devils, Islanders, and Sabres.

DAZN pricing will be “consistent” with current costs, a source told the Hollywood Reporter. Consistent could mean a little lower, but I would bet higher, given there’s a team seeking back-to-back titles on the platform. For comparison, the Gotham/MSG bundle cost $300 a year, though you can buy them separately (Gotham: $210; MSG, $280) and make monthly payments to cover the cost.

The agreement takes effect at the start of this year’s NHL and NBA season, which begins September 29 and sometime in October, respectively. (The press release doesn’t say whether the agreement starts at the beginning of the pre-season or regular season.)

Goodbye Gotham app. I’d like to say it was nice to know you, but, nah.

5 Questions With…Ed Sasportas

by Ray Marcano

Ed Sasportas isn’t a name widely known in New York City basketball, but it should be.

Ed grew up playing basketball in the city and is a lifelong basketball historian. He was a member of NYU’s last Division 1 freshman team and a mainstay at the Rucker Park/Harlem Pro League where he saw greats like Julius Erving and Nate Archibald compete against streetball legends like Joe Hammond and Earl Manigault (regarded by some as the greatest player never to play in the NBA). He wrote “Echoes from Rucker Park: Memories of The Golden Era of the Rucker/Harlem Pro League,” his personal journey watching games on the asphalt courts.

A Bronx native, he now lives in Savannah, Georgia where he still coaches youth basketball.

What was your first game like?

The first game I ever saw live was on a Saturday night in February 1967. It was a doubleheader at the old Madison Square Garden on 8^th Avenue. My brother and I, along with a couple of neighborhood friends, used our junior high school GO discount cards and we sat in the upper level. I remember the old Garden Marquee and Nedick’s hot dogs next door. The Baltimore Bullets played the Detroit Pistons in the first game, and the Knicks played the Cincinnati Royals in the second. I remember the Knicks won by one point and Dick Barnett suffered a season ending injury1. After the game we got autographs from several players including Willis Reed and Oscar Robertson.

Who are some of the famous players you saw at Rucker?

The “Rucker” was actually the Harlem Pro League that played on the Rucker playground court. Among the NBA and ABA pro players that I saw during my time were Willis Reed, Fred Crawford, Julius Erving, Nate Archibald, Dave Cowens, Charlie Scott, Billy Paultz, Ollie Taylor, and Dean Meminger. Some of the legendary playground players include Pee Wee Kirkland, Earl Manigault, Joe Hammond, Herman “Helicopter” Knowings, and Pablo Robertson.

You’ve seen a lot of basketball. Who’s your all-time starting five and why?

Basketball has gone through so many different eras and changes that’s it’s very difficult to pick an all-time starting five. You have to consider all the rule changes, the way the game is now, superior training methods, more favorable equipment, traveling conditions, etc. There are so many great players. If I had to pick a team, it would be based more on complimentary styles. I would have Micheal Jordan as the shooting guard and Oscar Robertson as the point guard. My frontcourt would be Bill Russell, Kareem Abdul Jabbar and LeBron James. Jabbar would play on the post, and I think Russell had the defensive quickness and rebounding to compliment him. LeBron James would be more of a point forward. All these players had superior basketball intelligence.

What, to you, was most special about watching the Knicks win the title?

For me, the most special thing about watching the Knicks win the title this year is the way that it galvanized and uplifted the entire city. These Knicks all seem very likable and relatable, and they developed exceptional team chemistry. They brought back to life the prideful tradition of New York City basketball and it was very special watching the pure joy and emotion coming from so many people. I remember the earlier championships but, as you get older, you appreciate the moment even more – especially after such a long time coming.

There’s been recent debate on the greatest Knick ever --- Walt Frazier or Jalen Brunson. As someone who’s seen them both, what do you say?

You can make a case for Willis Reed, Patrick Ewing, Walt Frazier or Jalen Brunson as the greatest Knick ever and you wouldn’t be wrong with any of them. If you’re picking between Frazier or Brunson, then I would have to go with Frazier based on longevity and winning two championships. Brunson does have the greatest overall playoff series performance and his time may come.

Bonus Question: Who is the best streetball player never to make it to the NBA?

For me, in my era, the greatest streetball player never to make it to the NBA was Joe Hammond. His nickname was “The Destroyer”. He was about 6'3" and had an array of playground moves and an uncanny bank shot from all angles on the court.

Ray Marcano writes for some of the country’s brands and has been named best columnist in Ohio two straight years. You can read his free newsletter, the Bourbon Resource, right here on Substack.

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“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

The Knicks 100: No. 81 - Jose Alvarado

How much is nine minutes and 40 seconds of basketball worth?

Before we get to that answer (and why I’m asking the question in the first place), a quick list of names to consider:

Kevin Seraphin. Lavor Postell. The Travii (Knight and Wear). Lee Nailon. Alexey Shved. Cleanthony Early. All of Jerome James. DeAndre Jordan. And of course, the immortal Bob Cluggish, aka, “Sluggish Cluggish” of the inaugural 1946-47 New York Knickerbockers.

What do they have in common, you ask?

All 10 are among the 322 individuals who have scored more regular season points in a Knick uniform than today’s entrant on our list, Jose Alvarado.

Even in playoff scoring, Alvarado doesn’t rank all that highly. His 75 postseason points slot him 91st all time, a few spots ahead of Anfernee Hardaway (yes, that Anfernee Hardaway, who scored 66 points in the most forgettable playoff series in Knicks history).

It’s not that Alvarado didn’t have #meaningful moments during his first four months in New York following a midseason trade with the Pelicans. His Super Bowl Sunday debut in Boston was solid, followed two days later by the pre-All-Star explosion in Philly. Right after the break, he had three of his five steals in the fourth quarter of a comeback victory over the Rockets.

After that, Alvarado went nine straight games without hitting a three. He had a few nice starts in place of Jalen Brunson against tanking teams over the final month, but lost his spot in the rotation right before the playoffs and didn’t see the court in the Knicks’ Game 1 win over Atlanta.

And then, with the Knicks down 2-1 to the Hawks, everything flipped. Jose connected from downtown in seven straight games, regaining his spot in the rotation in the process. He had a quiet Eastern Conference Finals but became more valuable than ever when the calendar flipped to June. In a series the Knicks wound up outscoring the Spurs by a total of 12 points, they outpaced San Antonio by 20 points in Alvarado’s 60 minutes.

None were more important than the nine minutes and 40 seconds he played in the fourth quarter of Game 4. His role in that comeback begs two questions:

1. Do the Knicks win Game 4 without him?

2. Do they win the championship without winning Game 4?

The answer to the first question, confidently, is no.

Alvarado was a perfect 3-for-3 from the field, and every basket was massive in its own way. His first three cut the deficit back under 20 after San Antonio’s counterpunch. His spinning layup past his former high school rival came right after a De’Aaron Fox triple seemed to give the Spurs some momentum. And finally, his 3-pointer with 3:07 to go got the Knicks back within four after a Wemby make. Fittingly enough, he assisted Jalen Brunson on his triple over Wembanyama on the very next possession, pulling the Knicks within one.

He also chipped in two boards and two more dimes, including a pump fake-and-drive dish that pulled in Wemby on an OG corner three. His presence as a second trusted ball-handler was arguably the most significant tactical adjustment of the entire series.

So…do they win the series without winning that game? Who knows, but I’m sure happy we didn’t have to find out.

That uncertainty is enough for me to slot Alvarado 81st here, ahead of his fellow bench guard Jordan Clarkson, who was also in and out of the rotation but didn’t have a moment on the level of Jose’s fourth quarter in Game 4.

As for the six names immediately ahead of him…

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Before we get to the next entrant on the Knicks 100, we have to start with the last piece of significant NBA news this offseason…

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News & Notes

Well this is going to be interesting.

In what he says will be the final decision of his illustrious career, LeBron James shocked the NBA world by opting to spend his final year(s) in the City of Brotherly Love. He says his choice was motivated first and foremost by winning, which of course means going through the team that just won the whole damn thing.

There are no shortage of questions in the wake of this move, both where the Knicks are concerned and otherwise. Before we even get to how the Sixers match up with other top teams, two big issues need to be sorted out:

1. What will the pecking order be among four players used to having the ball in their hands a majority of the time (not to mention second-year guard VJ Edgecomb, who was probably looking for more shots, not fewer).

2. Can a team built around two small guards, a 41-year-old, and a center with chronic knee issues ever approach championship-level defense?

The second question arguably makes Joel Embiid the most interesting man in the NBA this season, both as a player and a trade candidate. Oft cited as the worst contract in the league, is there a world where the Sixers end the Process for good and ship Embiid and draft assets to Washington for unhappy Klutch client and former LeBron running mate Anthony Davis? If the Sixers are truly all-in on ending a title drought that’s older than their newly signed forward, it can’t be ruled out.

One step at a time though. First, the Sixers have to navigate an offense that now features two of the top five scorers in the league last year, not to mention two former MVP’s. Even with some spacing and usage concerns, my guess is they’ll figure things out eventually, although as we know here in New York, making everyone happy isn’t always a smooth process. Defensively, I don’t see a workable formula that doesn’t involve moving on from Embiid, but maybe LeBron can show him a few tricks to turn back the clock.

Putting aside the specifics, this move only adds intrigue to what was already shaping up to be a fascinating title defense. Indiana, New York’s fiercest rival, will be back, and arguably better off with Ivica Zubac in place of Myles Turner. Kawhi (we think) will join old friends RJ and IQ in Toronto. The Pistons still think they have the Knicks’ number. Mitchell Robinson is a Celtic. The Cavs are still hanging around. The Hawks have improved. Giannis had to settle for South Beach after access to Manhattan was closed off.

And now, LeBron James has given the Sixers the second best odds to win the East.

It’s fitting that James returned to the conference he used to call home just in time for New York’s repeat bid. He has been linked to the Knicks more than any franchise in the NBA except those he’s played for, often as a tormenter and sometimes as a potential savior, but rarely as a rival. He is now, except for the first time, he won’t be holding the upper hand.

We won’t have to wait long for the fun to begin. Opening night is less than three months away.

The Knicks 100: No. 85 - Jordan Clarkson

“Some very questionable shots from Jordan Clarkson…”

“Clarkson, just heaving them up there. He has taken some bad shots here in the first half…”

“Clarkson’s gonna shoot, no question about it. Comes up short…”

“Clarkson steps back, throws up a brick…”

“Clarkson, just a lot of dribbling tonight…”

For anyone who watched the game between the Knicks and Jazz on New Year’s Day 2025, those calls from Mike Breen will remain forever etched in our brains.

In three decades of listening to Breen call games, I’ve never heard him as aggrieved as he was that night. It was as if Clarkson had desecrated the temple of the sport he loved and he didn’t quite know how to respond.

In fairness to Clarkson, he was playing for a 7-25 Utah team that intentionally tanked away their season from opening night. This is a man who had played in the NBA Finals and later won 6th Man of the Year for a top seed. Now here he was, plying his trade for a team doing everything they could to lose. It was like asking Michelangelo to apply primer to drywall.

Fast forward a little more than a year. For as much as his signing in New York was celebrated, there were still questions about how the 11-year vet would fit in. Perhaps we shouldn’t have been surprised when Clarkson lost his rotation spot by MLK Day. Maybe it was one too many bad habits that set in over those last few years in Utah. Maybe age had finally caught up to him. Or maybe the Knicks were just too deep and didn’t need his skill set as much as they originally thought.

Whatever it was, with New York mired in a 2-9 slide and Clarkson posting a 44 effective field goal percentage in the first nine January games, he was benched. JC didn’t see the court until the fourth quarter against the Nets on January 21, and that was only because the Knicks were up by 32 points. One night later, he was a DNP-CD.

Clarkson would play sparingly over the next seven weeks, but only when someone ahead of him was banged up. Then, after giving him just 28 minutes of action over the previous 11 games, Mike Brown decided to dial double zero with the Knicks in Jordan’s old stomping grounds and Josh Hart nursing a sore knee.

On March 11 in Utah, Clarkson turned back the clock, scoring a season high 27 points on 10-of-15 shooting as New York won handily. Far more importantly, he tied a career-high with five offensive rebounds and began to pen an alternate future for himself - one Mike Brown (or Mike Breen) probably wouldn’t have believed possible earlier in the season.

We know what happened next. Over the final 16 games, Clarkson posted the highest individual net rating of anyone in the rotation, but that wasn’t the most impressive part. Their defense improved by over seven points per 100 possessions when he played, and they grabbed over 40 percent of their own misses whenever he was on the court - more than any of his teammates, including rebound fiend Mitchell Robinson. During their playoff run, Clarkson pulled down 3.3 offensive rebounds per 36 minutes, which was second among rotation guards throughout the NBA, trailing only the uber-athletic Ausar Thompson. He also provided the Knicks with a necessary release valve, getting them a key bucket or two in almost every victory, including Games 4 & 5 of the Finals1.

It was an impressive enough run to beg the question: is a three-month stint as a vitally important 9th/10th man on a championship team enough to rank Clarkson among the 100 greatest players in franchise history? I say yes, for a few reasons…

First, this single postseason already places Clarkson within the top 100 for postseason minutes (93rd), postseason points (83rd) and postseason offensive rebounds (an astounding 47th, tied with Allan Houston despite playing about nine percent as many minutes), so it’s not like he’s unqualified.

Second, I think there’s a fair argument that the Knicks don’t win the championship without him. Not only was he a vocal leader who was beloved within the locker room, as Fred Katz noted to me on Katz & Shoot a few weeks ago, but they didn’t really have anyone else on the roster who brought his specific skill set. They needed his tough buckets, his hustle, and his fearlessness when it mattered most.

Which brings us to the third point: has any player in NBA history ever reinvented himself this deep into his career, in the middle of a season, to the extent that Clarkson did? It’s like he transformed from Michael Beasley into Dennis Rodman overnight. He had every right to mail it in once he found himself at the end of the bench, but the alternate ending we got instead is a testament to both Mike Brown and Clarkson himself.

Finally - spoiler alert - every other player who played at least as prominent a role as Clarkson on New York’s three championship teams appears higher on this list. Should a lack of service time really matter within a franchise where so many meaningless minutes have been played over the last 80 years?

As for the players in Clarkson’s range on the Top 100…

Readers may only be familiar with one of the names immediately ahead of JC, but it’s as good a time as any to get familiar with two of the notable forgotten men in Knicks history.

Ray Felix had the misfortune of coming along right after the franchise’s early heyday from 1951 to 1953, but they were still a .500 team during his five and a half year tenure2. He even got a rogue MVP vote in 1957, placing him one spot behind his nemesis Bill Russell. Felix is without a doubt the most anonymous player to rank within the top 40 for win shares as a Knick (he’s 32nd), but because of the era in which he played and the fact that he was part of a single playoff victory, the big man finds himself down here.

A similar fate befalls Tom Gola, the first hall-of-famer on our list. Unfortunately for the Knicks, the majority of his career was spent in Philly, where he won a title as a rookie in 1956. He was still good when he arrived in New York (via trade that sent Willie Naulls and Kenny Sears to the Warriors), and was named a 1964 All-Star in his first full season here. It didn’t help the Knicks much though, who stunk to holy hell for the entirety of his three and a half year tenure.

Speaking of putrid basketball, Nate Robinson is the last former Knick before we get to our next entry at No. 81. All things considered, Robinson was among the handful of toughest players for me to rank. On one hand, he’s within the top 50 for all-time franchise minutes (48th) and points (43rd). It’s also not like his contributions didn’t contribute to wins, to the extent that anyone’s contributions could have helped those moribund teams. One thing I’ve taken to doing in ordering this list is looking at where a player ranks in win shares compared to minutes. Typically, this stat favors big men far more than guards, so for Robinson to rank 61st in win shares in fairly impressive.

On the other hand, he played in as many playoff games here as you and me. That makes him one of only eight players to appear on this top 100 without ever having made the postseason as a Knick, and five of those eight made at least one All-Star team in New York3. I gave Nate a few bonus points for finishing third in 6th Man of the Year voting one season, but mostly he’s here because he gave fans something to get excited about when there was so much negativity around him.

Was 312 games of Nate Robinson playing mostly meaningless basketball worth more than 33 games4 of this version of Clarkson helping lead the Knicks to a championship?

By the slightest of margins, I think so.

COMING WEDNESDAY: Another newly crowned champion checks in at No. 81.

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“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

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A Knick You Knew: Sid Tanenbaum

by Ray Marcano

This next Knick you Knew was one of the best players in the early NBA who came to the team in, for the times, a blockbuster trade, and later became a neighborhood mainstay whose kindness resulted in tragedy.

Sid Tanenbaum (sometimes spelled Tannenbaum) was born October 8, 1925, and grew up in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn, a neighborhood with one of the county’s largest communities of Eastern European Jewish immigrants. His father was a pattern maker in the garment industry, an occupation plentiful in his neighborhood.

He started his career at the now-closed Thomas Jefferson High School and attended New York University, where he prospered. He led LIU to the 1945 NCAA national championship game, where his team lost to Oklahoma A&M 49-45. He was a first-team All-American in 1946-47, twice won the Haggerty Award as the top male Division I player in the New York area, and was named the nation’s best Jewish athlete in 1947, winning the Bar Kochba Award. He also graduated as NYU’s all-time leader scorer (at the time). Before he left college, he was known for his two-hand set shot.

New York Sun sports editor Wilbur Wood called Tanenbaum “the finest all-around basketball performer ever to don Violet livery.”

He joined the Knicks in 1947 and the 6'0" guard averaged 10.1 points, good enough for fourth on the team. He was lauded for his ball handling and leadership, and it looked like he would be an important cog for years to come.

But in the 1948-49 season, the Knicks made a number of changes. They dealt the promising Tanenbaum to the Baltimore Bullets for a player to be named later. That player, the 6'8", 222-pound center/forward Connie Simmons, played six seasons with the Knicks and was an important piece of a team that went to three straight finals between 1951 and 1953.

Tanenbaum played just 14 games for Baltimore and averaged 9.6 PPG and 3.9 assists per game for a team that had just won the finals in 1948.

At the age of 23, Tanenbaum had enough. He was tired of the arduous bus and train travel and being away from his family. For example, it took as much as 18 hours to take a train from New York to play the Chicago Stags. It took as much as seven hours on a bus to reach Washington D.C. for games against the Capitals. Besides, he didn’t think the league had much of a future, according to the Peach Basket Society.

He went to work for his father-in-law’s metal shop, and when he died, Tanenbaum took over the business in Far Rockaway, according to the New York Times. The neighborhood was one of many that saw change and decline following World War II. The Housing Act of 1949 poured federal money into developing massive projects (including the one I grew up in, James Monroe in the Bronx).

Far Rockaway wasn’t immune from change. The working class, low-crime neighborhood of the 1950s mirrored the changes in the city. Crime rates dramatically rose. Crooks killed cops, took hostages during a bank robbery, a man was killed in a racially motivated killing, and more.

The societal background is important to understand Tanenbaum and how he met his terrible death. He rode his bicycle to work until the neighborhood became so dangerous that he started driving his car. He was a neighborhood benefactor who willingly helped those in need. ‘’If you put a halo over his head, you would be right,’ a family friend told the Times.

On September 4, 1986, police say Tanenbaum refused to give $25 to a woman who wanted to use the money to rent a television in her daughter’s hospital room. Molly Dotsun stabbed Tanenbaum in the neck, and he collapsed and died at nearby St. Joseph’s Hospital. Ironically, it was the same hospital Dotson’s daughter had been admitted to. Dotson was found unfit to stand trial and committed to a mental institution.

Tanenbaum was inducted into the New York City Basketball Hall of Fame (1993) and the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame (1997).

Starting in 1986, the Sid Tanenbaum Memorial Basketball Tournament was held at North Woodmere Park in Nassau County. The tournament honored a generous man who cared for his community in the best way possible --- by raising money for scholarships for local children. The competition celebrated its 30^th anniversary in 2016; there’s no record of games held after that date.

The games may be over, but a plaque at the park keeps his memory of basketball and a benefactor alive.

“Sid Tanenbaum Memorial Courts. NYU All-American, New York Knicks. He touched us all.”

Ray Marcano writes for some of the country’s brands and has been named best columnist in Ohio two straight years. You can read his free newsletter, the Bourbon Resource, right here on Substack.

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“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

The Knicks 100: No. 100 - Alec Burks

Alec Burks, or “Alex Burk” as Clyde lovingly called him, was no one’s idea of a future top-100 Knick when he signed here in November 2020.

And honestly? He probably wasn’t at the forefront of anyone’s mind when I announced this project earlier in the week.

That makes him a curious choice to be our first entrant on the list, which is fitting, because Burks as a player was always a bit of an odd duck.

Odd or not though, when I think back to this era of Knicks basketball, Burks will always have a special (if small) place in my heart.

Drafted 12th overall out of Colorado in 2011, Burks spent seven and a half injury-riddled years with the Jazz before a flurry of moves left him without clear NBA future. In the two years before signing in New York, he’d been traded from Utah to Cleveland, then traded from Cleveland to Sacramento, then signed by Golden State for the minimum, and finally traded from Golden State to Philly. He ended his brief time with the Sixers by shooting 33 percent in four playoff games, including 3-of-16 from long range. That Leon Rose gave him a one-year, $6 million deal tells you everything you need to know about how desperate the Knicks were for semi-competent two-way players.

By the end of training camp that year, Tom Thibodeau quickly established a starting five of Elfrid Payton, Reggie Bullock, RJ Barrett, Julius Randle, and Mitchell Robinson. Beyond that though, there were only questions. How much could either Obi Toppin or Immanuel Quickly provide as rookies? Did Austin Rivers or Nerlens Noel have any bloom left in their roses? Could former lottery picks Frank Ntilikina or Kevin Knox be redeemed?

This was the muddled morass Burks found himself in, but it didn’t take him long to emerge from the pack. Not only did Burks prove himself to be a steady hand on both sides of the ball, but he quickly became New York’s most versatile player. An argument could be made that the Knicks were a better team with Burks in place of Payton, Bullock or Barrett in the starting five, all of whom had more defined strengths but also undeniable weaknesses. Even if it was just in faint pencil, Burks checked all the boxes Thibs needed (and those chickens would indeed come home to roost a year later). As a result, Burks finished the season averaging more minutes than Payton and eventual starter Noel.

His efforts off the bench were soon overshadowed by midseason acquisition Derrick Rose, who turned the Knicks from a solid team into a briefly unstoppable one. It all led up to arguably the most anticipated home game in 20 years. With the country still emerging from the COVID pandemic, Game 1 against the Hawks would feature a packed MSG for the first time in over a year. That moment turned out to be too big for almost all of New York’s key players, and they lost a heartbreaker.

It wasn’t too big for Burks though. He shot 9-for-13 and led the Knicks with 27 points on a day the rest of his teammates shot 33-for-81 from the field. Along with Rose, Burks almost snatched victory from the jaws of defeat for New York.

Fast forward four years.

If Game 1 against the Hawks was the biggest Knick home game in decades, Game 7 against the Pacers in 2024 was right there next to it. The Knicks were banged up beyond recognition, but they had overcome all the odds for four straight months. Could they do it one more time against their most hated rivals?

Not only were they unable to, but the game was never really close. OG Anunoby lasted just a few possessions on a bum hammy, Josh Hart wasn’t himself playing through an injury that should have kept him out for weeks, and Jalen Brunson broke his hand midway through the third quarter. Once again though, the unheralded Burks showed up to try and make it a fight, netting an almost identical shooting line as he did four years earlier: 26 points on 13 shots.

It may not have cemented Burks as a big game player, but he did end the series averaging 18 points in just 24 minutes over the final five games. Believe it or not, he’s just inside the top 70 all-time NBA playoff scorers on a per minute basis, right behind Dr. J and his old teammate, Derrick Rose.

That turned out to be Burks’ last game as a Knick, as he’d sign in Miami the following offseason. It meant he’d never get to see the fruits of what he helped establish over two different stints in New York, but that isn’t even the most unfortunate part of his story as a Knick. More than his role on the #WeHere team and more than his efforts in those two big playoff games, he’ll be remembered by many as the man Thibs stubbornly stuck with ahead of Immanuel Quickly throughout the entirety of the lost 2021-22 season.

Here’s the thing though: that was unquestionably the best individual season of Burks’ career. It should add to his resume as a Knick, not detract from it.

It’s one of the reasons he gets the last spot on this list over guys like Taj Gibson, Reggie Bullock and Quentin Grimes, all of whom I considered in his place as a representative of the Leon Rose Knicks who will likely be forgotten a few decades from now.

Speaking of forgotten Knicks, let’s check in on the Knicks ranked 86th to 99th, and why each player slots in where they do…

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This week will officially kick off the summer schedule for the KFS Newsletter, which means three editions per week instead of the usual five for the next two months (barring additional newsletters for breaking news, of course). As for what this summer will entail, I’ll have full details on that below. First though, some news…

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News & Notes

🏀 Moussa, we hardly knew ya.

After signing Dallas Mavericks’ restricted free agent center Moussa Cisse to an offer sheet on Saturday afternoon, the Mavs matched it late Friday night.

Not that it matters now, but this was a nifty little bit of business by the front office. The offer sheet didn’t contain much guaranteed money (partially guaranteed for the first year; non-guaranteed in year-two) but paid Cisse like a veteran with at least two years of service time (hence the $2.45 million salary in 2026-27). That’s about $265,000 more than Cisse’s minimum would have been coming off his rookie season, hence the incentive for him to sign.

The gamble that the Knicks made and ultimately lost is that the Mavs wouldn’t match the offer sheet because they already had 15 guaranteed contracts on their books, including full time centers Daniel Gafford and Dereck Lively II and recently acquired big man Santi Aldama. Now, they’ll need to waive someone (thus incurring a dead cap hit on their books) or make a trade.

It’s possible Cisse is the player they ultimately decide to waive, at which point the Knicks (or any other team) could sign him. Unless that happens though, New York is barred from trading for him for one year. For the Mavs, the move isn’t exactly a vote of confidence in Lively III, who has appeared in just 43 games over the last two years and hasn’t yet progressed to running as he recovers from multiple right foot surgeries1.

For the Knicks, the biggest takeaway is that they’re still very much on the hunt for a third big man who they’ll be able to get for the vet minimum. Oscar Tshiebwe is a name to keep an eye on (h/t to the great Jeremy Cohen). It’s also possible they don’t fill the 14th roster spot this summer and hold an open competition in training camp.

🏀 New York concluded it’s Vegas residency much in the same fashion they began it, with a 110-88 loss to the Mavs. By the numbers, the Knicks were the worst team at Summer League, getting outscored by an average point differential of 13.6 across five games. They shot the lowest field goal percentage by a wide margin and were also last in 3-point percentage and free throw attempts, resulting in a scoring average of just 73.0 points - more than eight points below the next worst team.

On an individual level, no one really popped on Friday, although Pacome Dadiet did score a team-high 19 points. He finished as New York’s top scorer in Vegas at 15.3 points, but made just 16 percent of his threes. Tyler Nickel ended a bit cold (3-for-11 from deep), but leaves with the second most total 3-pointers at Summer League (19) on a 41.3 percent hit rate. I’ll take it. Jack Kayil played just 10 minutes and missed both of his shots, while Liam Robbins scored 14 points in 20 minutes. I’m still pulling for the big guy to get a camp invite.

🏀 Last but not least, it was a pretty cool weekend for your boys (and girl) at KFS.

Big thanks to our friends at Fanatics Fest and Knicks Twitter Day for hosting two outstanding events. Both saw Knicks fans out in full force, proving yet again that we are the best fan base in all of sports. The KFS spots from FF should be available soon, but in the meantime, I’ll say here that Deuce confirmed what has been my sneaking suspicion for months: he was never fully healthy after returning from sports hernia surgery. I’m now biased, but please sign that man to a contract extension.

Oh, and I hear there’s a pretty good documentary streaming now on Peacock called “The Effect: Knicks in ’26”. Highly recommend to anyone with the service.

The Knicks 100

Chugging an entire gallon of milk.

Walking from one hotel to another in the middle of cloudless Vegas afternoon.

Slighting Jalen Brunson.

Life is filled with bad ideas, and this summer is a perfect opportunity to add my own fraught one to the list: Ranking the Top 100 Knicks of all time.

Or should I say, re-ranking.

As long time readers of this newsletter may remember, I celebrated the NBA’s 75th season five years ago by counting down the Top 75 Knicks ever, from Pablo Prigioni at No. 75 all the way up to Patrick Ewing at No. 1.

On one hand, the experience was a fruitful one. Making the list not only forced me to learn more about Knicks history than I ever thought possible, but its also made me reconcile what exactly “greatness” means in the context of one team’s entire existence.

On the other hand, the entire project only reinforced my inherent belief that list-making is nothing more than fun fodder for discussion and debate. There is no possible way to definitively rank the greatest players in the history of a franchise any more than there’s a way to rank the top 100 soft cheeses or native birds of Madagascar.

And yet, I pored over this goddamn thing. Oh did I pore.

I ranked, and re-ranked, and then re-ranked another three dozen times, and then after I started writing the first entry and attempted to justify my order, I realized I’d completely botched the last third of the list, so I scrapped that part and basically did it from scratch.

And that was all so I could justify the list to myself. Forget about proving its worth to anyone else.

But I promise you: it was totally worth it. At the end of the day, stuff like this is fun. It’s a way to spark conversation, and better yet, the perfect opportunity to honor all of the important players who helped break a 53-year title drought. There’s also a few mistakes from the first time around that I’m looking forward to correcting.

Before we get to that, a word on what exactly I’ll be doing. Twice a week for the next nine weeks, I’ll be writing about a different Knick from the Leon Rose era. Most of these players weren’t here the last time I did this list, and few have either come and gone since I did the Top 75 or have joined/moved up in the rankings over that time. I’m expanding the list from 75 to 100 because I want to get to as many Knicks from the current roster as possible. Every time I write about a new Knick, I’ll include the ranking of the players immediately above them, right up to the next Knick I’ll be writing about (so for instance, if the first Leon Rose era Knick I’m writing about is ranked 100th, and the next one is ranked 85th, I’ll reveal the list up to 86 when I write about the 100th ranked player. I hope that makes sense.)

On that note: it should again go without saying that this is not an exact science. I did, however, compile a statistical database of where all 100 players ranked all time in certain categories throughout franchise history. Those categories are:

• Playoff minutes

• Playoff points

• Regular season minutes

• Regular season points

• Regular season win shares

• Regular season and postseason rebounds and assists where relevant

I also noted how many times each player started or came off the bench for a playoff team, and then how deep those teams made it into the postseason.

The goal of all this legwork wasn’t to come up with a points system that would spit out a list based on these specific inputs, but merely to give me a broad strokes idea of how much these players produced while they were Knicks, and more importantly, how much of that production occurred in the highest leverage games.

The end result - and here’s where we get to why this was a fraught idea to begin with - forced me to ask impossible questions with no right answers. For instance, how does one compare the following four players:

• Player 1: an 8th man on a Knick title team who elevated to 6th man by the end of the finals thanks to hitting several massive postseason shots, but because of injuries and lack of service time, barely ranks in the top 200 for regular season minutes and points

• Player 2: a 4th or 5th starter on multiple teams that made the second round who stuck around long enough to rank inside the top 60 for regular season minutes and points

• Player 3: a bench player who was arguably New York’s top dog when he was at his very best and who helped lead them to one postseason appearance, only to get smoked in the first round, with regular season minutes and points rankings around 100.

• Player 4: a key starter on multiple finals teams, including one season in which he made the All-Star team, but whose entire career took place before 1955.

In case you haven’t figured it out, these are the descriptions of four actual players who I ranked between 60 and 80 on the list (anyone who correctly guesses all four will get a shout out in the newsletter at the appropriate time).

Is there a right order for them? To heck if I know. Mostly, I just went with my gut, and that includes putting certain players higher or lower simply based on anecdotal evidence that may not be totally rooted in data.

With that caveat, four final notes on this process, and then we’ll kick off the list on Wednesday with our first entrant who (as of now, unless I change my mind) will check in at No. 100:

1. This time around, I was not as kind to players whose careers started in the 40’s or early 50’s and/or did not last far into the 60’s. This isn’t my way of agreeing with JJ Redick’s “plumbers and firemen” comment, but I do think less deference should be given to players who a) played before the league was fully integrated and b) didn’t treat the NBA (or BAA in some cases) as a “profession” as we now understand it. My justification is simple: when the NBA did their top 75 list five years ago, only five of the 75 entrants had careers that ended before 1969. If the voters for that list gave a slight demerit to the accomplishments of the NBA’s pioneers, I will too.

2. Speaking of eras, for reasons I can’t really explain, I was far too ignorant of many prominent Knick role players that came along after the title teams but before Riley arrived. There were some lean years in there and they never made the conference finals, but New York did make the playoffs in half of the 16 years from 1976 to 1991. I’ve worked hard to correct that this time around.

3. Playing and producing for teams that made it deep into the playoffs (and even simply into the second round) mattered more to me this time around. Postseason accomplishments mattered a lot to me last time, but five years ago I also found myself deferring to gaudy if ultimately meaningless regular season numbers (hello, Al Harrington at No. 61. Oof). This time around, only eight of the 100 inclusions never made the playoffs in a Knick uniform, and all had good reasons for consideration over and above simply putting up numbers (sorry, Al). Call this my recency bias of having not only watched the 2026 playoffs, but the last four postseasons, all of which reinforced how playoff basketball truly is a different sport with exponentially more pressure. That should be appropriately rewarded.

4. I gave more preference to players who were, to use a colloquial term, “dudes” on their respective teams. I.e., if someone did his fair share of heavy lifting for a successful team, I bumped them up a bit. If I was able to parse out whether they drove that winning, all the better, but I’m also not comfortable being the arbiter on such things. I tried to lean on advanced stats an appropriate amount for this.

That’s about it. There’s only one thing left to do, and that’s get to my highly imperfect ranking of the 100 greatest Knicks of all time.

The fun starts on Wednesday.

🏀

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”