NEW YORK KNICKS HISTORY 

New York Knicks, professional basketball team and one of seven teams in the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The Knicks play in Madison Square Garden in New York City and wear jerseys of blue, orange, and white. The team was originally known as the Knickerbockers, but the name is now generally shortened to the Knicks. The name came from the style of pants worn by Dutch settlers who established New York City in the mid-1600s.

Charter members of the Basketball Association of America (BAA), which became the NBA in 1949, the Knicks are one of two founding teams that are still in their original city. (The Boston Celtics are the other.) The Knicks won the BAA’s first game in 1946, and they appeared in the NBA Finals in 1951, 1952, and 1953. The Knicks again reached the NBA Finals in the early 1970s, capturing titles in 1970 and 1973 with teams that featured six future Hall of Fame players: centers Willis Reed and Jerry Lucas, guards Walt Frazier and Earl Monroe, and forwards Dave DeBusschere and Bill Bradley. The Knicks also reached the NBA Finals in 1994 and 1999, but lost both times.

Ned Irish, who ran basketball operations at Madison Square Garden, started the Knicks in 1946 as one of the 11 original BAA teams. On November 1, 1946, the Knicks played the Toronto Huskies in the league’s first game, winning the contest 68-66, in Toronto.

Joe Lapchick was hired as head coach in 1947. He led the club to five consecutive playoff appearances after the founding of the NBA in 1949. The Knicks compiled a 36-30 win-loss record during the 1950-51 season and advanced to the NBA Finals, where they lost to the Rochester Royals. The Knicks brought one of the first black players into the league that year, forward Nathaniel “Sweetwater” Clifton, who became one of the NBA’s top rebounders. With guard Dick McGuire and center Harry “the Horse” Gallatin, New York again advanced to the NBA Finals in 1952 and 1953, losing both series to the Minneapolis Lakers.

After two more playoff years, the Knicks’ fortunes declined, and the team failed to post a winning record in 11 of 12 seasons from 1955-56 through 1966-67. During the stretch the club reached the playoffs twice and won only one postseason game.

Through a series of trades and draft picks, beginning with the selection of Willis Reed in the 1964 NBA draft, the Knicks built a powerful team in the late 1960s and early 1970s. During the 1968-69 season, Reed, Walt Frazier, Dave DeBusschere, Bill Bradley, and guard Dick Barnett combined tough defense with consistent scoring to win 54 regular-season games and reach the division finals in the playoffs.

The following season, 1969-70, the Knicks won 60 games and advanced to the NBA Finals against the Los Angeles Lakers. The series, matching teams from the country’s biggest cities, attracted enormous attention and stands as one of the league’s most fabled finals. Two of the contests went into overtime, and during the first four games, team captain Reed averaged 31.7 points and 15 rebounds per game. A serious thigh injury in game five caused him to miss game six, which the Lakers easily won. Despite his injury, Reed returned in game seven, scored the game’s first four points, and led his teammates to a 113-99 victory and the Knicks’ first NBA crown.

During the 1971-72 season the Knicks obtained Earl “The Pearl” Monroe and Jerry Lucas. The team finished behind the Celtics in the regular season but won the conference finals and returned to the NBA Finals. New York again faced the Lakers, but this time the Lakers prevailed, in five games. In 1972-73 the Knicks again met the Lakers in the NBA Finals. This time they defeated Los Angeles in five games.

Reed retired after the following season, signaling an end to the Knicks’ tenure as one of the league’s top teams. The team did not win a playoff series for the next nine years. High-scoring forward Bernard King led the team during the early 1980s, but during the 1984-85 season he suffered an injury, and the Knicks failed to win more than 24 games in three straight seasons, 1984-85 to 1986-87.

In the 1985 NBA draft the club selected Patrick Ewing, who proved instrumental in reversing the team’s fortunes. The Knicks won the Eastern Division in 1988-89. Before the 1991-92 season they hired former Lakers coach Pat Riley, and the Knicks became one of the NBA’s top teams. In 1993-94 they advanced to the NBA Finals, where they lost in seven games to the Houston Rockets. Riley left to coach the Miami Heat after the Knicks lost to the Indiana Pacers in the 1995 conference semifinals.

Former Milwaukee Bucks and Golden State Warriors coach Don Nelson then took over the Knicks’ coaching duties, but midway through the 1995-96 season assistant coach Jeff Van Gundy replaced him. In the lockout-shortened 1999 season the Knicks finished with the eighth-best record in the Eastern Conference, but in the postseason the team defeated the Miami Heat, Atlanta Hawks, and Indiana Pacers to advance to the NBA Finals. There the club lost to the San Antonio Spurs, four games to one. After the 2000 season the Knicks traded longtime icon Ewing to the Seattle SuperSonics.

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