Who Wore it Best? Knicks #16

As we foretold last week, this week’s segment of “Who Wore it Best” promises to be a riveting one—last week delivered Earl “The Pearl” vs. Dick McGuire. This week, we get Steve Novak vs. Bo Kimble. Or perhaps Novak vs. a different McGuire as in Alfred (who wore the number from 1952-1954) or Allie (who wore it in 1974.)

I’m going to go out on a limb and predict Novak will walk home with this one. After all, he is Novakaine!

There has been a total of 17 players who have donned the #16 for the Knickerbockers. Astonishingly, 13 of those 17 players wore the number for a mere season or less. To add to the obscurity of well-known players to have worn the number for the team, the number was most recently worn twice in 2022 by Tyler Hall and Feron Hunt.

While #16 hangs up in the rafters of Sacramento for Peja Stojakovic, it seems like the Knicks always have their equipment manager handing this jersey number out to the comings and goings of roster fillers.

We will keep this week short and sweet, but brace yourself for next week: it’ll be time to relive Linsanity!

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Bo Kimble

Kimble made a name for himself as one of Loyola Marymount’s star players from 1988-1990. As a senior, Kimble was named a consensus second-team All-American as well as the West Coast Conference Player of the Year. In 1985, Kimble began his collegiate career for USC along with fellow recruit Hank Gathers. After the team’s poor finish to the season, new head coach George Raveling was brought in for the subsequent 1986 season. Upon his arrival, Raveling gave his star players an ultimatum on whether they would commit to playing for him. Both players failed to respond and ultimately had their scholarships revoked.

The two players, who formed a close friendship off the court, transferred to Loyola Marymount. After sitting out the 1986-87 season, the pair became one of the most exciting duos in NCAA history. In 1990 Kimle led the nation in scoring, averaging 35.3 points per game. Loyola Marymount led D1 in scoring from 1988 through 1990.

Photo by Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE via Getty Images

During the 1990 WCC tournament, Gathers collapsed during a game against Portland due to a heart condition. The tournament was suspended, and Loyola Marymount was given the NCAA’s automatic bid into the NCAA tournament as the 11th seed thanks to their regular season championship. During the team’s run to the Elite 8, Kimble (who was right-handed) shot his first free throw of each game left-handed in Gathers's honor and made all three of those attempts.

The Clippers drafted Kimble eighth overall in the 1990 NBA draft. The Knicks acquired him as part of the trade that sent Mark Jackson out west. His lone season in New York was the last of his NBA career, playing the remainder of his career in the CBA and overseas until 1998.

Photo by Chris Trotman/Getty Images

Steve Novak

Although Novak only spent two seasons with the Knicks, he remains a cherished all-time fan favorite. In the 2011-12 season, Novak led the league in 3-point percentage and tied with Kevin Durant for the third-highest number of made threes. The crowd at the Garden was electrified nightly as “Novakaine”, following every successful three-pointer, signaled for a championship belt to be metaphorically wrapped around his waist.

Throughout the Knicks’ 2012-13 season, finishing with an impressive 54-28 record, Novak played a crucial role coming off the bench, participating in 81 regular-season games while maintaining a 42.5 shooting percentage from beyond the arc. This contributed to the Knicks reaching the second round of the playoffs for the first time in over a decade.

Novak would go on to play with four more teams after his two-year stay in New York up until he retired in 2017. Over a decade later, Novak received one of the loudest ovations during this year’s Legends game and he will always be remembered as one of the greatest three-point shooters in Knicks franchise history.