It is the offseason for the Knicks, and a bit of a down period as we wait to see what happens with the draft, and with possible trades. So I thought it would be a good time to share some of my favorite Knick moments, and to ask a few other well known bloggers who are Knicks fans (either current or former) for their memories.
I sent an e-mail to Seth of Posting and Toasting, Barnesgasm at Son of Dippin, Mike K. of KnickerBlogger, Mutoni of Bench Renaldo and The Fanhouse, the guys over at Father Knickerblocker, Jordi of The Serious Tip, and Big Daddy Drew of Kissing Suzy Kolber (okay, he's not really a Knicks fan, but I’m a big fan of BDD).
Even though a lot of us fans might be disappointed with how the Knicks have done over the past few seasons, especially those of us who lived through those great 90’s Knicks teams, it’s worth noting that there are a lot of young Knicks fans whose memorable moments will include stuff like watching David Lee’s tip-in with 0.1 seconds this year (or Eddy Curry’s three pointer at the buzzer against the Bucks, or Stephon Marbury’s full court layup for the win against the Jazz, or that great triple OT game between the Knicks and Pistons, or that one time Jerome James hit a layup). After all, most of my early memories aren’t of great teams, either – it’s made up of stuff like the Trent Tucker buzzer-beater, the Ewing-Cartwright Twin Tower lineup, Johnny Newman, Kenny “Sky” Walker the Slam Dunk champ, Bernard King with his amazing run on terrible Knicks’ teams, Greg Anthony mixing it up in the middle of a brawl with his suit on, stuff like that. Here are some of my favorite Knicks stories/moments:
-The first game I ever went to at MSG. I don't remember the year; it was like the early 90’s (I think I was in 8th grade), and a friend of mine got four tickets to the Knicks-Pistons game. We hopped the subway (literally: we jumped the turnstile, because that’s how we rolled in days), and off we went. The game was memorable for only one reason - Pizza Hut had a new promotion at the time - if the Knicks hold the opponent to under 75 points and win, everyone gets a free personal pan pizza.As it happened, the Knicks' defense was overwhelming (it was early in the Pat Riley Era), and with less than a minute left the Pistons were stuck on 70. Everyone in the crowd was getting excited, chanting “Piz-za, Piz-za” to the rhythm normally associated with “de-fense, de-fense”. After a quick layup by a Piston made the score a million to 72, there was around 35 seconds left. The Knicks ran their shot clock down, the Pistons grabbed the board and ran up court and immediately chucked up a three! The crowd booed wildly. The three missed.
Unfortunately, the
rebound was grabbed by a Piston, who tossed it out to Joe Dumars, who smoothly
hit a 3-pointer to break the 75 point mark as time expired. I haven't
been to a game since where the crowd was anywhere as pissed as they were
there. Aiyyo, I personally swore I would f*cking spit in Joe Dumar's eye
if I ever saw walking down the street.
I would still honor that vow, too.
-A random game against the Orlando Magic in 96-97. It took place the season after Nick Anderson bricked four key free throws in the Finals against the Rockets. After that Nick Anderson could no longer shoot free throws, with his FT% dipping to an NBA worst 40%.
With the Knicks trailing late in the fourth against the Magic, and
needing to foul, they sent Nick Anderson to the line. He missed two FTs, and the
Knicks scored quickly. Needing to again
foul, the Magic didn’t pass Nick Anderson the ball, but the NBA rules at the time allowed
you to foul anyone on the court. So
Charles Oakley goes running after a frightened Nick Anderson, chased him across
the court, out of bounds and finally wrapped his arms around him and shoved him
into the courtside seats! All this while
Penny Hardaway dribbled away untouched….
-Back in 2001, the Knicks were still a
hot ticket. The 1999 season had ended with the Knicks in the Finals, and
the 2000 season ended inIndiana; the Knicks were still
selling out the Garden every game. More importantly, it was almost
entirely season-ticket holders. The only way to get individual game
tickets was to stand outside MSG the night before they went on sale.
The Friday night before tickets went on sale, I went out partying after work, doing the happy hour thing, but I was aware that tickets went on sale the next day, so when everyone else finally called it a night (around 1:00 in the morning), I headed over to MSG to stand on line, and sleep on the sidewalk. The line was about 40 deep when I got there. Even better, about 10 minutes after getting there they gave out wrist bands with numbers on them, so we could all go home to sleep, then come back the next morning with our spot on line secure.
When I came back the next morning, the Knicks had a few “special”
guests to greet the fans. One was Lavor
Postell, a formerSt. John’sstandout and current
Knick rookie who was also a fan favorite. The other was former Knick Charles Smith. Yes, he of the Game 5 notoriety. I have no
idea whose it was to have Charles Smith greeting fans and signing “autographs”. I’m actually surprised no one jumped him,
though I guess being 6’10 helped. Anyway, I took one of his autographs, just so I could send it to my
friends:
Anyway, I'm passing the mic to Seth. Look for Seth's "Knick Recollections" at Posting and Toasting later this week, and hopefully he'll pass it on to another blogger, and so forth....
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One of the greatest memories I have was being at the Garden for the famous "John Starks dunk"...I happened to be fortunate enough to get a call from my uncle who had tickets to that Knicks vs Bulls game telling me that due to work constraints he couldn't make it. Boy was I hyped. Prior to that I had never been to a Knicks vs Bulls game because they were always sold out. I have to say, I've been to many Knicks games past and present. I had never and still haven't yet heard the garden crowd scream and cheer as loud as they did after the dunk. The entire place went BALLISTIC!!! And it gave every single Knick fan at that moment a reason to believe that the Knicks could finally get past the Bulls that year. Complete euphoria!!!! The dunk must've been replayed a million times that night on the local news, ESPN, Fox Sports Net, MSG and all the rest.