5 things that cost the NYK over the last 30 years:
1) Bernard King injury on 3/23/85, blowing out his knee, and costing NYK fans years of King-Ewing combo.
2) Knicks had 2 lottery picks in the 1987 draft. GM made horrible deals for marginal vets (nobody would even be on the team by 1989).... those 2 picks could've been Scottie Pippen & Reggie Miller. The Knicks did get Marc Jax later in this draft, but imagine the 90s with this team:
Rod Strickland
Reggie Miller
Scottie Pippen
Charles Oakley
Patrick Ewing.
3) On 09/20/2000, the Knicks dealt Patrick Ewing....
(NY Times) "In return, the Knicks will receive the sharpshooting Los Angeles Lakers forward Glen Rice, the Lakers backup center Travis Knight and Phoenix Suns center Luc Longley.
In addition, they will receive several peripheral players -- guard Vernon Maxwell, forwards Lazaro Borrell and Vladimir Stepania -- and a first-round draft pick and two second-round picks in 2001 from Seattle, as well as the Lakers' first-round pick in 2001. The Knicks also sent Chris Dudley, their backup center, and a first-round pick in 2001 to Phoenix.
The blockbuster deal was Layden's first significant move with the Knicks... The trade represented the insuperable gap that had developed between the 38-year-old Ewing and the Knicks.
''Glen Rice has had a tremendous career and we are happy to have him,'' Van Gundy said. ''We look forward to Allan, Latrell and Glen forming a very dynamic perimeter.''
The gulf between Ewing and the news media and fans was never more apparent than last month, After he was criticized heavily by the media and fans, it seemed nearly impossible for Ewing to return for this season."
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Knicks could've drafted Zach Randolph & Tony Parker in that 2001 draft to make this trade memorable, but instead they made more trades and grabbed Michael wright and some idiot named Chenowerth.
The next year, NY drafts Nene (ahead of Amare) and dealt him to DEN for Mcdyess.
Go back to 1999, when Knicks took Weiss over Artest, and in 2000 when they tried to atone, and selected St Johns SG Lavar Postell over Michael Redd....
Well, that's how you screw up the post Ewing Rebuild....
Tony Parker
Michael Redd
Ron Artest
Zach Randolph
Amar'e
We were so close, again.
4) We can almost look at every draft since then.... especially the Curry trade in 2004 -- we did get a pick (Wilson Chandler) but gave away picks Lamarcus Aldridge and J-Noah.... we can look at foolish draft decisions.... but the biggest killer was not trading for Kyle Lowry when TOR dangled him.... instead we chose Bargnani.
5) not tanking the first 2 seasons when Walsh took over ruined NYK for a decade. Larry Hughes, Chris Duhon, Al Harrington were too good.... instead of winning only 18-20 games, vets like this pushed us close to 25-30 wins.... those first 2 drafts, when we ended up with Gallinati and Hill, we were 4 losses away from instead hitting draft lottery gold with a backcourt of Russell Westbrook & Steph Curry, playing together right now in the Mecca, reminding us all of Frazier and Monroe.
Dolan....Layden.... Walsh.... the fans.... so many villains in this sad story.