The Top 75 Knicks ever: 65-56
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.
65) Chris Childs (1996-2001)
Kemba Walker looks more New York than any Knick ever.
One of the greatest compliments one can pay Chris Childs is that the Bakersfield, California native’s vibe is also straight NYC. Some of that was where he played as a pro: four-plus seasons as a Knick in a career bookended by first and final years in New Jersey. Some of that was his position, the city’s position — the undrafted point guard lived strictly below the rim and put others before himself, averaging nearly as many assists per game in New York (4.6) as shot attempts (5.6). Some of that was he took no shit: Childs is possibly the only player ever to drive Michael Jordan to wanna fight and get in a quick bop bop on Kobe Bryant. If he’d faced off with LeBron he would’ve given him the business, too.
Childs earned his place in Knicks lore in Game 7 of the 2000 Eastern semis against Miami. He scored 12 straight for New York from the third quarter into the fourth, a quarter where for the first nine minutes no other Knick scored. Childs holding the fort paved the way for a comeback and a final blow against the Riley Heat, as fierce a rivalry as the franchise has known.
64) Sly Williams (1979-83)
There’s just something right about a lefty named Sly. Williams’ best year as a Knick was 1981-82, when he averaged a hair under 14 a night while finishing 14th in the league in field goal percentage. When Sly played alongside Campy Russell and Marvin Webster, the Knicks had arguably the greatest troika of nicknames ever in “The Garbage Man,” “Mr. Moves,” and “The Human Eraser.”
63) Quentin Richardson (2005-2009; 2013)
There’ve been two Quentins in NBA history and both have been Knicks. Before Grimes came Q-Rich, who arrived in New York as part of a draft-night trade with Phoenix that included Nate Robinson headed east and Kurt Thomas going west. Richardson was “pissed” about the deal – understandably, given that with no say in the matter he was being moved from the league’s best team to its worst.
A four-year starter, Richardson ranks 11th on the Knicks in all-time 3-pointers made.
62) Toby Knight (1977-82)
A Bronx-born lefty forward whom the Knicks stole in the second round, the 6-foot-9 Knight’s story is brief, brilliant and brittle. In his second season he averaged 16.6 points and 6.7 rebounds a game; a year later, he scored 19 a night. And then, like so many Knicks of that era, a knee injury knocked a rising star from the sky.
61) Marvin Webster (1978-84)
Webster is third among all Knicks in blocked shots, one behind Bill Cartwright. That’s impressive. It’s more impressive when you consider Webster played about half as many minutes with the Knicks as Cartwright.
A tall, long center, Webster was a force on the glass and defending the rim as the pivot for the 1978 Seattle Supersonics, who lost in Game 7 of the Finals. The Knicks acquiring him was kind of a big deal — then-coach Willis Reed publicly campaigned for the Knicks to sign Webster. Sports Illustrated featured him on its cover.
Things didn’t work out as well as anyone hoped. Webster would miss two seasons dealing with complications from hepatitis, make a brief comeback with Milwaukee, and then retire.
60) Ray Felix (1954-59)
Felix averaged double figures in scoring his first five years in New York; two of those seasons also saw him average double figures in rebounding. Among all-time Knicks he ranks 15th in rebounds, 34th in points, and top 40 in minutes played. In the 1957 season, Felix finished tied for eight in MVP voting, one spot below Bill Russell.
59) Charles Smith (1992-96)
Smith averaged 20-plus points twice in four years with the Clippers before being traded to the Knicks. His fit with those Pat Riley teams was always awkward, in design and execution: why trade for him when they already had Charles Oakley at power forward, signed a very different kind of forward in Harvey Grant to an offer sheet, and had Xavier McDaniel looking to return? What role did the franchise have in mind when they brought Smith in? The Knicks didn’t put him in a position to succeed; couple that with a deteriorating knee and Riley’s grueling practices, and history cuts a more sympathetic figure than some care to admit. In each of his three full seasons in New York, Smith averaged double-figures in scoring and more than a block a game.
58) Trent Tucker (1982-91)
Those of us who grew up on the post-Patrick Ewing Knicks remember Trent Tucker as their 3-point specialist back when that was a thing. But Tucker was kind of a big deal when New York drafted him sixth in 1982. In a class with Fat Lever, Ricky Pierce, and Sleepy Floyd, all of whom went on to become All-Stars, Tucker was the first guard selected. He started most of his rookie season but was mostly a reserve the rest of his time in New York.
That time was more productive and dramatic than most players can claim. Tucker is seventh all-time in Knicks history in games played and sixth in 3-pointers made. He’s arguably the greatest long-distance shooter in franchise history, making 41% of his 1231 attempts as a Knick. Hubert Davis and Steve Novak had better percentages, but took 500-600 fewer 3-pointers each; no one else with a better percentage attempted even a third as many as Tucker.
And drama? Every year Knicks fan still celebrate his 0.1 miracle to beat Chicago, but before that there was another miracle, albeit one more Endy Chavez than Jeffrey Maier. In Game 6 of the 1989 Eastern semis against the Bulls, the Knicks trailed by four with nine seconds left. All the Bulls had to do was not foul or give up a three, or even more so, not foul and give up a three.
The two best parts of that clip: the disbelief in Marv Albert’s voice when he says “fouled”; when even he sounds that incredulous, you know it’s good. And don’t miss Michael Jordan under the basket as the shot falls and he realizes there was a foul.
57) Tim Hardaway Jr. (2013-15; 2018-19)
There are those who call him “[son of] Tim.” It’s not easy making a name for yourself in the NBA; it’s even harder when you share that name with your Hall of Fame pops, harder still when your pops is infamous to the fans of your employer. But THJ fit in from day one: he made All-Rookie First Team, with only J.R. Smith and Carmelo Anthony making more 3-pointers.
Hardaway Jr. averaged as many as 19 a game one year in New York, but while he’s been a useful player for solid teams in Atlanta and Dallas, his time as a Knick often saw him miscast as a No. 1 or 2 option on bad teams. We likely never saw him at his best. Still, he stands seventh in franchise history in 3-pointers made and top-50 in points. If not for Mark Jackson and Kurt Thomas, THJ could be the best two-term Knick ever. And if not for Hardaway and Langston Galloway going core-of-the-sun hot one night in Atlanta late in the 2014-15 season, Karl-Anthony Towns would be a Knick.
56) Phil Jackson (1967-78)
Jackson – true to his nature – is one of the odder Knicks to try and quantify. On the one hand, how does one evaluate him as a player without being influenced by his place in the pantheon of great head coaches? On the other, Jackson the player was nowhere near as accomplished as Jackson the coach, which could lead one to underrate him by comparison. We’ll never know how good a lawyer Gandhi was. We’re better for not knowing.
Phil cut his teeth on the 1968 pre-DeBusschere Knicks, missed the playoffs the next year and the entirety of the 1970 title-winning season with an injured back, then returned and completed a 10-year Knick career. The long-armed hippie was a defensive pest, a solid rebounder and was sometimes called The Happy Hooker – and not because he was a body-positive sex worker in the offseason.
While Jackson never came close to being an All-Star, he holds a significant place in Knicks history, and not only for being allowed to draft Frank Ntilikina days before being fired. Only four players have played more games for the Knicks than Phil; all four are Hall of Famers. Phil’s also fifth all-time among Knicks in fouls, with the three ahead of him Hall of Famers and Charles Oakley, who if there were a Hall of Fame for fouls, would be their Wilt Chamberlain.
