Meet the Knicks I n New York basketball is considered the city game It is played played in countless gyms and outdoor courts by thousands of talented ented young men and women The New York Knicks are an important ant part of this picture When the Knicks are playing well the entire city is energized When they are struggling you can almost feel it on the streets The Knicks have built a tradition of smart unselfish basketball That means setting up teammates for easy shots helping out on defense and giving an extra effort on rebounds Today’s players try to live up to the example set by the stars of the past When they do the results are spectacular e This book tells the story of the Knicks They wear the de team’s orange and blue colors with a sense of history and pride Every time the Knicks take the floor they know that the hopes and es and dreams of millions of basketball fans are riding on their play Iman Shumpert gets some words of encouragement from Amar’e Stoudemire during a 2013 14 game 5
Glory Days N ew York City’s proud basketball tradition stretches back bk more than a century In the early part of the 1900s there were more players and fans in and around the Big Apple than in any other part of the country So when the Basketball Association of America BAA formed in 1946 people everywhere kept a close eye on the New York Knickerbockers or Knicks for short kC d b k b ll d h The Knicks turned out to be one of the best teams in the league They continued their fine play after the BAA joined forces with the older National Basketball League NBL to form the National Basketball Association NBA Much of the credit for New York’s success went to the team’s coach Joe Lapchick He had been a legendary player in the 1920s and a very popular college coach after that Lapchick demanded that the Knicks play as 6
a team As a result New York made it to the playoffs in each of Lapchick’s eight seasons They reached the NBA Finals three times in a row from 1950 51 to 1952 53 The stars of those early clubs included Harry Gallatin Dick McGuire Carl Braun Vince Boryla Max Zaslofsky Ray Felix Connie Simmons Ernie Vandeweghe and Nat Sweetwater Clifton Clifton was the first African-American star in the NBA In the years that followed many more good players wore the New York uniform including Richie Guerin Kenny Sears Willie Naulls and Johnny Green However the Knicks fell behind other NBA teams during the late 1950s and early 1960s At one point they suffered eight losing seasons in a row New York began to rebuild around a group of talented and unselfish players including college stars Willis Reed Bill Bradley Cazzie Russell Walt Frazier Phil Jackson and Dave Stallworth Trades for Dave DeBusschere Dick Barnett Jerry Lucas and Earl Monroe made the Knicks even better Under coach Red Holzman LEFT Coach Joe Lapchick turned the Knicks into one of the NBA’s best teams ABOVE Dave DeBusschere battles for a loose ball 7
