dodger78 wrote:Man, I remeber thinking drafting Maciej Lampe was THE game changing move for my team!!!

It was the early 2000’s. Any unknown obscure European player 6’8 or above was the next Dirk according to media, Scott Layden and the internet.

Lampe was the next Dirk, so was Darko Milicic and then Gallinari was Dirk but he could also defend the perimeter. So many Dirks. There was a guy, Pavel Podkolzin, not drafted by the Knicks but he was drafted in the first round his draft workout that so impressed the media and scouts was him posting up and playing HORSE with his agent who was a 40 year old guy who was 5’5.

blkexec wrote:We haven’t won a chip since I was in diapers. But the journey from then to now is filled with great hope, high expectations and lots of posts trying to fix this team. When I came on this board I was in my basketball prime saying this team is missing a player like me. Well we that player and more. Deuce game is similar to mine but JB is the more we needed to take us over the top.

Leon Rose is the real hero that made this all happen. James Dolan gets a lot of credit for hiring an nba agent to be his GM.

Dolan spent money trying to give us something to hope for so I thank him for that. He gets credit for stepping away and letting the professionals run the team. There’s a laundry list of failures from Larry brown, Isiah Thomas and Phil Jackson. But Dolan didn’t give up. He finally found the perfect GM in Leon rose.

Also I’ve been hard on Thibs but he has grown as a coach, as well as the players he leans on. Fans have changed as well. We are more optimistic than ever and for good reason.

ECF here we come. We said this season is a success for Thibs and company if we get out of the second round.

Well we need new goals now, Let’s Make history fellas.

Congrats to the fans who stuck around all these years.

This is for us OLD TIMERS

LETS GO

well said!

True turn around began after we traded our pick for Bargnani. This was Grunwald era and one has to assume Isiah was lurking. I think he was running the Liberty then for Dolan. Funny thing is Barg's was way ahead of his time and if not oft injured might have been the prophet so many been clamoring for. 7 footer with mobility and range! Sound familiar??
There was an idiotic idea to have McKinsey come in and revamp the organization. You can't run a basketball club as they attempted when they bought in Mills to replace Grunwald. 5 months later Phil was hired and Mills sort of demoted. While we all know this never really worked it stopped the starphuching and was stopped trading picks. Phil had just 2 or 4 1st round picks in his tenure but he did not trade any after. Phil tried to go sideways and be reasonably competitive while rebuilding. He never executed his plan well, but he wanted to trade KP before he got hurt. Mills also did not execute after Phil but he did hire Perry who proved to be the adult in the room and helped navigate some difficult occurrences.

Leon has done a great job and perhaps he does not come if knicks did not have the foundational ability with picks and cap space to move forward as he did. Not taking anything away from the job he did. He used the assets well and was patient. Just saying that organizationally we made some changes that moved the franchise in the right direction and and not panic as had in regimes previously. Isiah was a disaster but when it was apparent Phil was not effective Dolan ate the 24mil extension without impunity or panic and simply moved on. Mills was a smart guy but lacked a presence in the basketball world. Leon while accomplishing great things in his career was a bit of a gamble but has proven to be a solid beyond most fans vision. He keeps it close to the vest and has surprised us time and time again. I hope someone writes a book about his tenure. So much we don't know!!!

So to go from that, and the wild ride through the 90s, to Latrell Spreewell turning into Keith Van Horn and then turning into Tim 'Fugazy' Thomas, to Marbury eating some Vaseline, to David Lee, to Chris Duhon, to Alexei Schved, to Raymond Felton, to The Rooster, to the Mayor, to Melo, to Jeremy Lin, to Raymond Felton again, to Charles Oakley getting banned for llife, to Julius Randle Flipping me off, to T-Mobile commercials featuring White Jordan, Josh Hart, Mikal Bridges, and Jalen Brunson, to Starbury returning and sitting courtside, to the Big Bodega Kat wearing t-shirts of Knicks fans cursing off the Celtics -- been a ****ing wild ride to get back here

WhoooooooooooooooooooooHooooooooooooooo we're halfway there

Alpha1971 wrote:I recall back when I started watching the Knicks, they traded for Ray Williams, who they had previously ( when I was too young to watch )
I looked him up and he had a bad life after basketball. Would have been nice to see him celebrating with other former Knicks at the game. RIP to the late Knicks, like Anthony Mason, Dick Barnett, Willis Reed and many others.

Drafting Ray Williams it was thought he'd be Gus. Kid had the tools but not the head. We drafted Michael Ray Richardson who by some accounts could have been an all time great had he not run into the white powder.
Knicks in the post Clyde Era was a series of picks that did not pan out as hoped. Add Lonnie Shelton to the list.
The Blunder? Greedy MSG owned by ITT then took the money instead of DR. J. I can't tell you what other dominoes would our would not have fallen had they done that. I think we enter the Sonny Werblin era whose great cred was signing Joe Willie Namath to the biggest NFL contract at that time. Spencer Haywood and McAdoo was a nice idea but not executed as hoped.

Dean Memminger also had a tough post career life and was instrumental in the 73' team.

1971-72 team, or Earl's first year as a knick his Pt avg dropped heavy from 21 pts per to 11!!! That year was the Lakers finally breaking thru and while knicks made finals Lakers had a monster year with a 33 game winning streak and won 67 games! Goodrich and West was incredible.

Earl had knee issues. The next chip year, 72-73 his avg got up to 15pts per but for the most part he and Clyde did sacrifice stats for the greater good and they could go off which was a massive weapon and fun to watch.
Earl's stats got better and he returned to Allstar form when Clyde got traded.

SupremeCommander wrote:the absolute highlight of the, uh, lean years for me was going to Radio City Music Hall for the NBA draft. I got to witness history and the Knicks selecting Renaldo Balkman.

In fairness that did lead to a real highlight, when he said live on tv after a summer league game that he was gonna go get lifted.