The Top 75 Knicks ever: 75-66
Over the next few months, The Strickland will be unveiling its Top 75 New York Knicks of All Time, a compilation of votes and rankings by several staff writers. We’ll unveil the list in ascending groups of 10, culminating with the top five at the end. If you learn anything or have memories to contribute, please do so in the comments! There’s far less material to draw from on some of the older all-time Knicks; anything you can do to paint them more fully is dope.
75) Louis Orr (1982-88)
Orr, a combo forward who spent his first two years with Indiana, ranks in the Knicks’ top 50 in points and top 30 in games played. He averaged about 10 points a game during his time in New York, mostly off the bench, peaking at a shade under 13 in 1985. He was a part of the Knick teams that reached the Eastern Conference Semifinals in 1983 and 1984. Soon afterward, he was joined at Madison Square Garden by Patrick Ewing, whom Orr now works with as Ewing’s assistant coach at Georgetown. Orr has enjoyed success as a head coach at Siena and Bowling Green, and was the first Big East player ever to coach in the conference when he took the reins at Seton Hall.
74) John Gianelli (1972-76)
A member of the 1973 championship team, Gianelli was a valued bench big during his years with the Knicks. His per-36 averages of 11.6 points and nine rebounds in New York neared double-double territory. When a knee injury ended Willis Reed’s career before the 1974-75 season, Gianelli stepped up to play 80 games and 35 minutes a contest. One of his highlights: a 23 and 10 game in late March against then-Lew Alcindor and Milwaukee.
73) Rory Sparrow (1983-87)
Between Micheal Ray Richardson and Mark Jackson, the Knicks were led at the point by Sparrow, who averaged 12 points and eight assists per 36 minutes during his New York run. He ranks top-40 in games played for the franchise and is 11th all-time in assists. He is also a living reminder that before the Miami Heat became the evil Death Star franchise they’ve become, there were brighter times on South Beach.
72) Jim Baechtold (1953-57)
Baechtold was the second overall pick in the 1952 draft by the Baltimore Bullets. That draft turned out to be one of the most snake-bitten in NBA history, a rough outcome for everyone besides the Minneapolis Lakers’ Clyde Lovellette and the Rochester Royals’ Jack McMahon. The Knicks acquired Baechtold from Baltimore right after the 1954 season, the last without the 24-second shot clock. He joined a New York squad that had reached three consecutive Finals from 1951-53, and while the Knicks failed to hit those heights again, Baechtold played well. In 1955, he was the fourth-leading scorer on a team featuring four Hall-of-Famers as well as Ray Felix, who the year prior was an All-Star and the Rookie of the Year.
71) Al Harrington (2008-10)
Your view on life probably colors your memories of Al Harrington. On the one hand, Al, like most geniuses, was ahead of his time. In his brief time as a Knick, he averaged a little over six 3-point attempts per game, a shamelessness most of the rest of the NBA was still years away from accepting. Harrington is also one of only 35 Knicks to ever score 40-plus in a game. On the other hand, he’s pro’ly the only Knick ever to cost his team two wins against the same opponent in the same season for hanging on the rim after dunks. He always was into elevated states: today Harrington owns and operates Viola, a cannabis company he hopes to use to create more business opportunities for Black entrepreneurs.
70) Howard Komives (1964-68)
A member of the so-called Silent Generation who preceded the Baby Boomers, Komives arrived in New York as a second-round pick in 1964. The lefty guard impressed immediately, earning All-Rookie honors. Over his four-plus seasons as a Knick, Komives averaged 15 points and 5.5 assists, bridging the mid-’60s teams to the early Red Holzman years. Call Howie “Moses” for helping lead New York to the promised land without getting to see it himself. First he shifted from off-guard to the point to accommodate new arrival Dick Barnett in 1965-66; in a bit of symmetry, it turns out Knicks fans weren’t patient even back then, booing the man for struggling with a new position. Once Walt Frazier took the point guard reins, Komives was expendable, and on December 19, 1968, New York sent him and Walt Bellamy to Detroit for Dave DeBusschere.
Komives was a colorful cat. A guard who loved to press opponents, he worked for Hubert Humprey’s presidential campaign in 1968, putting him in conflict with teammate Cazzie Russell, a Richard Nixon supporter. A year later, in his first game back at MSG as a visitor, Komives roughed Frazier up under the boards a bit, actually hearing cheers from Knick fans who were pro’ly in a better mood than usual with the team having won 10 straight. After the game, a reporter asked Komives if he detected anything different about his old team. Komives responded: “It’s the same team. Only they don’t press as good as they used to.”
69) Eddy Curry (2005-10)
The Knicks paid a high price to acquire Curry before the 2005-06 season, including the lottery picks they sent the Chicago Bulls that became LaMarcus Aldridge and Joakim Noah. That’s what’s remembered now, but the Knicks took a gamble with reason.
The gambles were two-fold. An aspiring gymnast, Curry didn’t pick up basketball until later in life. He wasn’t obsessed with the sport the way so many professionals are; to be fair, Curry had far bigger things to deal with during his career. And so, despite being a 7-foot, 300-pound true athlete — Curry had soft hands and deft footwork — he didn’t impact the glass or the defensive end the way teams hope their Goliaths will. In New York, he never averaged more than seven rebounds or even a block a game.
Curry also came with a deadly serious medical red flag. In 2005 he complained of chest pain and lightheadedness during a game for Chicago. It wasn’t the first time he’d mentioned such symptoms, so the Bulls decided to sit Curry the rest of the season, including the playoffs. That offseason, Chicago’s front office asked Curry to take a DNA test to see if he were inclined toward hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a thickening of the heart muscle that can be deadly, especially in young athletes, as were the cases of Hank Gathers and Reggie Lewis. Curry, having been cleared by doctors and aware of the dark precedent he could be setting by volunteering his genetic makeup to his employer, refused. The Bulls shipped him to the Knicks that offseason.
Curry’s gifts were either maddeningly absent or tantalized in small does, with seemingly no middle ground. His first two seasons as a Knick saw growth and mild All-Star buzz in 2007. The last three were complete disappointments. But we’re here to celebrate the best the Knicks have ever had, and as far as pure talent, Curry is high on the list of most physically gifted Knicks bigs. It’s fair to wonder what might have been — even now, nine years into retirement, Curry is just 39.
68) Connie Simmons (1949-54)
Connie Simmons walked so Richie Guerin, Bernard King, and Carmelo Anthony could all run. Simmons spent the entirety of his Knicks career in the pre-shot clock era, a key player on the teams that reached three straight Finals. He led New York in scoring in 1955 and even now remains among the franchise’s top-50 scorers.
67) Campy Russell (1980-82)
Known as “Mr. Moves,” Russell enjoyed an early success with the Knicks that Immanuel Quickley must dream of: Campy was known for his floater game and led the NBA in 3-point accuracy in 1982. A knee injury in an offseason pick-up game would end his career prematurely; coincidentally, Russell would be succeeded by Bernard King, who would also see his Knick days ended by a knee injury.
66) Johnny Newman (1987-90)
Newman is, as far as I can tell, still the Knicks record-holder for most consecutive baskets made in a season. I can’t find the info anywhere, but trust me when I tell you he made like 18 shots in a row over multiple games. Newman is also top-60 in franchise history in points. A member of Rick Pitino’s famed “Bomb Squad,” he enjoyed a 16-year NBA career and currently serves on the board of the National Basketball Retired Players Association. His high-water mark as a Knick was Game 3 of 1988’s first-round matchup with Boston, where in a game featuring five Hall-of-Famers, Newman led all scorers with 34 in New York’s first playoff win in four years.
