70 Fun Facts About New York Knicks

Which arena did the Knicks move into in 1968?

Madison Square Garden, the fourth arena of that name, was built over Penn Station; the outcry at losing the old station building led New York to create its Landmarks Preservation Commission.

The Knicks and which team are the NBA's only charter franchises still in their original cities?

Boston Celtics. Both clubs date from the league's first season in 1946; the third surviving charter team, the Warriors, started out in Philadelphia before moving west.

The 'Knickerbocker' name traces back to a pen name used by which American writer?

Washington Irving published his 1809 satire A History of New York as 'Diedrich Knickerbocker', and the name came to mean a descendant of the city's Dutch settlers, then any New Yorker.

Which big man joined the Knicks in July 2010 for about $100 million over five years?

Amar'e Stoudemire left Phoenix after eight seasons, and in his first year in New York the Knicks reached the playoffs for the first time since 2004.

The Knicks played the first game in BAA history on November 1, 1946, against which team?

Toronto Huskies. To sell the league's first game, the club let in free any fan taller than its tallest player, 6-foot-8 George Nostrand; the Knicks won 68-66.

Which Knicks executive fronts a blues-rock band that has opened for the Eagles?

James Dolan sings with JD & the Straight Shot; the band and the Eagles shared a manager, who was also Dolan's business partner.

Which St. John's coach took over the Knicks in 1947 and led them to three straight NBA Finals?

Joe Lapchick was the Knicks' choice from the start, but he wanted one more season at St. John's first, so Neil Cohalan coached the team's opening year as a stand-in.

Which 5-foot-7 guard, signed in 1947, became the first non-white player in the BAA?

Wataru Misaka, a Japanese American from Utah, played just three games before the Knicks cut him; he turned down the Harlem Globetrotters and went home to finish an engineering degree.

Which former Globetrotter nicknamed 'Sweetwater' joined the Knicks in 1950 as one of the NBA's first Black players?

Nat Clifton was driving a taxi in Chicago in his final years, long after his pioneering career; the Basketball Hall of Fame inducted him in 2014, 24 years after his death.

Wilt Chamberlain scored his record 100 points against the Knicks in 1962 in which town?

Hershey, Pennsylvania, was an occasional second home for the Philadelphia Warriors; that night Chamberlain, a famously poor foul shooter, made 28 of his 32 free throws.

Which Duke star did the Knicks draft third overall in 2019?

RJ Barrett went two picks after his Duke teammate Zion Williamson: the Knicks had the NBA's worst record that season but slipped to third in the lottery.

Which coach's 613 victories with the Knicks are honored by a retired 'number' in the rafters?

Red Holzman's 613 wins hang in the rafters among the retired numbers; two decades before coaching the Knicks to a title he beat them for one, as a guard on Rochester's 1951 champions.

Which team broke the 1969-70 Knicks' single-season record 18-game winning streak a year later?

Milwaukee Bucks. They won 20 in a row in 1970-71 with a center still known as Lew Alcindor, then took the title the Knicks had won a year earlier.

Which team did the Knicks beat in Game 7 of the 1970 Finals after their injured captain limped onto the court?

Los Angeles Lakers. The captain had torn a thigh muscle in Game 5, made the Knicks' first two shots of Game 7 and never scored again as New York won 113-99.

Which Knicks guard had 36 points and 19 assists in Game 7 of the 1970 Finals?

Walt Frazier dominated, yet the game goes by his captain's name: the injured center limped out, made the Knicks' first two shots and never scored again.

Which actor's on-screen fedora inspired the 'Clyde' nickname of the Knicks' Hall of Fame point guard?

Warren Beatty played the outlaw Clyde Barrow in 1967's Bonnie and Clyde, and a rookie's similar fedora earned him the name; by 1973 Puma had put it on a sneaker, the Clyde.

Knicks forward Bill Bradley later spent 18 years as a United States senator representing which state?

New Jersey sent Bradley to the Senate three times from 1978; the Princeton star and Rhodes Scholar then ran for president in 2000, losing the Democratic nomination to Al Gore.

Which guard nicknamed 'The Pearl' arrived from Baltimore in 1971 and formed the 'Rolls-Royce backcourt'?

Earl Monroe's Bullets had knocked the Knicks out of the 1971 playoffs; months later New York sent Mike Riordan, Dave Stallworth and cash to Baltimore to bring him to New York.

Which forward on the Knicks' 1970s title teams had earlier pitched two seasons for the Chicago White Sox?

Dave DeBusschere threw a shutout against Cleveland in 1963 before giving up baseball; at 24 he was also the Pistons' player-coach, the youngest head coach the NBA has had.

Which Hall of Fame coach won two championship rings as a Knicks forward in the early 1970s?

Phil Jackson missed the whole 1969-70 title season after spinal fusion surgery, then was a top reserve for the 1973 champions; he came back as team president in 2014 and the Knicks went 80-166.

Which Knicks forward scored 60 points on Christmas Day 1984, only for his team to lose?

Bernard King had 40 by halftime, but the Nets won 120-114; he took the scoring title that season and wrecked his knee three months after the game.

Which commissioner drew the Knicks' winning envelope in the 1985 lottery?

David Stern pulled the envelopes on live television; theorists claim the Knicks' had been chilled so that he could pick it out by touch, since the prize was center Patrick Ewing.

Knicks great Patrick Ewing won a national title at which college, where he later coached?

Georgetown. Ewing won the 1984 title there, scored 23,665 points as a Knick, then went back to coach the Hoyas for six seasons until they fired him in 2023.

NBC broke into Game 5 of the Knicks' 1994 Finals to show which live event?

O. J. Simpson's Bronco chase shared the screen with the game on most NBC stations, with host Bob Costas passing viewers back and forth between courtside and the news desk.

Which point guard, drafted in 1987, won Rookie of the Year for the Knicks?

Mark Jackson, a Brooklyn schoolboy star who stayed home at St. John's, was still available at the 18th pick; he then handed out 868 assists, the most by an NBA rookie to that point.

Rick Pitino stunned New York in 1989 by leaving the Knicks to coach which college?

Kentucky was starting three years of NCAA probation when Pitino took the job; by 1993 he had it back in the Final Four, and in 1996 it won the national title.

Which coach left NBC's broadcast booth in 1991 to take over the Knicks?

Pat Riley had spent one season as an NBC commentator after leaving the Lakers; his rough, defense-first Knicks won 51 games in his first year, twelve more than the season before.

John Starks' famous 1993 left-handed 'Dunk' came over Horace Grant and which Bulls teammate?

Michael Jordan was the second defender at the rim in Game 2 of the 1993 conference finals; the win put the Knicks up 2-0, and Jordan's Bulls answered by taking the next four games.

Who beat the Knicks in seven games in the 1994 NBA Finals?

Houston Rockets. Hakeem Olajuwon got a hand to John Starks' last-second shot for the title in Game 6, and Starks then missed 16 of his 18 attempts in Game 7.

John Starks' 217 three-pointers in 1994-95 topped a record set in 1969 by Louie Dampier of which league?

The ABA used a three-point line from its first season, a dozen years before the NBA adopted one, and Dampier's 199 lasted until Starks became the first player to make 200.

Which Knicks forward, name-checked for his haircut in a Beastie Boys song, won Sixth Man of the Year in 1995?

Anthony Mason had been released by Portland and waived by the Nets, and was playing in the CBA and USBL the year the Knicks signed him; the season after his award he led the NBA in minutes.

In the 1997 playoffs against Miami, Ewing and other Knicks were suspended mainly for what infraction?

Leaving the bench during a fight meant a one-game ban even for players who threw no punch; with key Knicks sitting out Games 6 and 7, a 3-1 series lead slipped away.

Whose bouncing runner with 0.8 seconds left sent the Knicks past the top-seeded Heat in the 1999 first round?

Allan Houston's one-hander hit the front rim and the backboard before dropping for a 78-77 win; the Knicks, the East's eighth and last seed, rode it all the way to the NBA Finals.

After the 1999 Knicks, which was the next No. 8 seed to reach the NBA Finals?

Miami Heat, the top seed those Knicks had knocked out in 1999's first round, came through the play-in tournament 24 years later and, like New York, lost the Finals in five games.

Whose four-point play won Game 3 of the 1999 East finals 92-91 for the Knicks over Indiana?

Larry Johnson was fouled as he hit a three-pointer in the final seconds, and his free throw won it; the Knicks had just lost Patrick Ewing to injury, yet went on to take the series.

In both 1999 and 2026, the Knicks met which opponent in the NBA Finals?

San Antonio Spurs. Tim Duncan and David Robinson beat the Knicks in five games in 1999; 27 years later New York returned the favor, also in five, for its first title since 1973.

Before joining the Knicks, Latrell Sprewell had his Warriors contract voided for choking which coach?

P. J. Carlesimo was attacked at a Warriors practice in December 1997; the contract was later reinstated, but Sprewell never played for the club again and was traded to New York in 1999.

Patrick Ewing was traded in September 2000 to which team?

Seattle SuperSonics. It took a four-team, 12-player trade to end Ewing's 15 years as a Knick, and within two seasons New York had missed the playoffs for the first time since 1987.

Reggie Miller's playoff duels with which celebrity fan defined the Knicks-Pacers rivalry?

Spike Lee, courtside as always, traded words with Miller through a 25-point fourth quarter in Game 5 of the 1994 conference finals; the Knicks lost that night, then won the last two games.

Which point guard did new Knicks president Isiah Thomas acquire in a January 2004 trade?

Stephon Marbury, born and raised in Coney Island, came home from Phoenix in an eight-player deal; five years later the Knicks barred him from the team and paid him to leave.

Which Hall of Fame coach did the Knicks fire in 2006 after one season, at a cost of $18.5 million?

Larry Brown, a Brooklyn native coaching his hometown team, lasted a single 23-59 season in the job; team president Isiah Thomas then took over the bench himself.

The rule allowing only a tip-in with under 0.3 seconds on the clock is named after which former Knick?

Trent Tucker caught an inbounds pass with a tenth of a second left and hit a three-pointer to beat the Bulls 109-106 in January 1990; three years later he won a title as a Bull.

Jeremy Lin, whose 2012 'Linsanity' run rescued the Knicks' season, played college ball where?

Harvard. Lin got no athletic scholarship offers out of high school, went undrafted, and was let go by two NBA teams in December 2011 before the Knicks picked him up.

From which team did the Knicks acquire Carmelo Anthony in a blockbuster trade in February 2011?

Denver Nuggets. Anthony was born in Brooklyn's Red Hook, and after months of speculation the Knicks paid four rotation players and three draft picks to bring him back to the city.

Carmelo Anthony's 62 points in 2014 broke the Knicks' home-arena record of which visiting star?

Kobe Bryant scored 61 there in February 2009; Anthony beat it by one against Charlotte five years later, despite playing fewer than 39 minutes of a blowout.

Which Latvian big man did the Knicks draft fourth overall in 2015?

Kristaps Porziņģis was named an All-Star in his third season, tore a knee ligament days before the game and never played for the Knicks again; they traded him after a meeting convinced them he wanted out.

Which first-year coach led the Knicks to a then-worst 17-65 record in 2014-15?

Derek Fisher took the job days after his final game as a player, with no coaching experience; he was fired midway through his second season, and the 17-65 mark was matched in 2018-19.

Who was named NBA Coach of the Year in 2021, the first Knicks coach so honored since 1993?

Tom Thibodeau took over a team that had gone 21-45 and went 41-31, reaching the playoffs for the first time since 2013; four years later the Knicks fired him days after a trip to the conference finals.

Which team did the Knicks acquire Karl-Anthony Towns from in the 2024 off-season?

Minnesota Timberwolves. Towns, the first pick of the 2015 draft, had spent nine seasons there; the Knicks gave up Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo and reached the conference finals that spring, their first in 25 years.

Who won the NBA Finals MVP award when the Knicks claimed the 2026 championship?

Jalen Brunson scored 45 of the Knicks' 94 points in the road win that clinched the title, eight years after 32 players were chosen ahead of him in the draft.

At which college did the Knicks' 2026 Finals MVP win two national championships?

Villanova won the 2016 and 2018 titles with him in the backcourt, and several teammates from those teams later joined him on the Knicks.

Whose tip-in with 1.2 seconds left completed the Knicks' record 29-point comeback in Game 4 of the 2026 Finals?

OG Anunoby had just blocked a layup that his opponents, a point ahead, had no need to attempt; given one more possession, he tipped in a teammate's missed three for a 107-106 win.

Which team did the Knicks sweep in the 2026 Eastern Conference finals?

Cleveland Cavaliers. The sweep was part of a 13-game playoff winning streak, and the title that followed ended a 53-year championship drought.

In which city did the Knicks win the 2025 NBA Cup final, played on a neutral court?

Las Vegas staged that year's semifinals and final; the first two Cup winners both lost in the first round of the playoffs, but the Knicks went on to win the championship.

Who was hired as Knicks head coach in July 2025?

Mike Brown had been the NBA's first unanimous Coach of the Year in 2023 and was fired by Sacramento less than two years later; in his first season in New York he won the championship.

Which former Knicks enforcer was arrested in 2017 after scuffling with security near the owner's seat at a home game?

Charles Oakley, the bruising forward of the 1990s teams, was led out in handcuffs and barred from the arena; within a week the NBA commissioner had brokered a truce and the ban was lifted.

Which NHL team ended a 54-year Stanley Cup drought during the Knicks' 1994 NBA Finals?

New York Rangers. They won Game 7 in the arena they share with the Knicks, on a night between two Finals home games; the Knicks could not complete the double, losing their series in seven.

Which Knicks center was voted the NBA's Defensive Player of the Year in 2012?

Tyson Chandler won it in his first season in New York, a year after anchoring Dallas's title team; oddly, the same spring he made only the second All-Defensive team.

Which Knicks coach ended up clinging to Alonzo Mourning's leg while trying to break up a 1998 playoff brawl?

Jeff Van Gundy fell to the floor and hung on to the big center's leg as the melee went on around him; both brawlers were suspended, and the Knicks won the deciding game without them.

Which broadcaster, a fill-in on Knicks radio in 1963, was the team's voice from 1967 to 2004?

Marv Albert was a 21-year-old Syracuse student when he stood in for his mentor, the Knicks' regular announcer; decades later his son Kenny filled in on Knicks broadcasts too.

Which New York nickname was on the roundel of the Knicks' 2020 alternate uniform designed with Kith?

'The city never sleeps' circled the player's number on Kith's black jersey, and the tie-up lasted: Kith came back to design the Knicks' City editions in the seasons that followed.

The Knicks' 2017-18 'City' uniform paid tribute to which group of New Yorkers?

It featured a ladder, a hydrant and a helmeted silhouette, and was designed with the Uniformed Firefighters Association.

In which city did the Knicks lose a then-record 16th straight game in January 2015, at an NBA Global Game?

London hosted the 95-79 defeat; the Knicks finally won four days later against New Orleans, and the mark stood only until the 2018-19 team lost 18 in a row.

In the 1996 comedy Eddie, which actress plays a limo driver who becomes head coach of the Knicks?

Whoopi Goldberg's heckling superfan sinks a halftime free throw to become honorary assistant coach, and when the head coach quits, the team's new owner gives her the job.

Which 5-foot-9 Knicks guard won the NBA Slam Dunk Contest three times?

Nate Robinson won in 2006, 2009 and 2010, and on the way to the first of those titles he leapt over Spud Webb, the 1986 champion.

Which center, drafted in 1964, was named NBA Rookie of the Year for the Knicks?

Willis Reed lasted until the second round of the 1964 draft, then made the All-Star team as a rookie, the first of seven straight selections.

Which Knicks center was traded to Chicago in 1988 and became the starter on the Bulls' first three title teams?

Bill Cartwright had been relegated to the Knicks' bench behind Patrick Ewing, and the Bulls, short of a center, gave up the NBA's leader in total rebounds two years running to get him.

Which player did the Knicks receive from the Toronto Raptors in a draft-day trade in 1998?

Marcus Camby began as Patrick Ewing's backup, then averaged a double-double off the bench in the 1999 East finals after Ewing was hurt, as the Knicks upset Indiana.

A 2007 jury found that Isiah Thomas had sexually harassed which Knicks executive?

Anucha Browne Sanders, a Knicks senior vice-president fired after she complained, was awarded $11.6 million by the jury and settled with the team two months later.

In which New York suburb did the Knicks' own D-League team begin play in 2014?

White Plains became home to the Westchester Knicks after the club bought its own D-League team in March 2014, ending its affiliation with a team in Erie, Pennsylvania.