How Long It's Been: The Knicks Won an NBA Championship (UPDATE)

NOTE: This is an update of a piece I wrote on the 40th Anniversary, in 2013.

June 13, 2026: The New York Knickerbockers beat the San Antonio Spurs, 94-90 at the Frost Bank Center in San Antonio, Texas, winning Game 5 of the NBA Finals, and taking the NBA Championship.

This was a moment of great celebration for the New York Tri-State Area. It was the Knicks' 1st World Championship in 53 years:

May 10, 1973: The New York Knickerbockers beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 102-93, at the Forum in Inglewood, California, winning Game 5 of the NBA Finals, and taking the NBA Championship.

For the Knicks, this capped their greatest period ever: 1970 to 1973, 4 seasons, 3 trips to the Finals (all against the Lakers), 2 titles.

Their only 2 titles -- until this past Saturday night.

Hail the champions:

* William "Red" Holzman, head coach
* Eddie Donovan, general manager
* 6 Tom Riker, center
* 7 Dean "the Dream" Meminger, guard
* 10 Walt "Clyde" Frazier, guard
* 12 Dick Barnett, guard
* 15 Earl "the Pearl" Monroe, guard
* 17 Henry Bibby, guard
* 18 Phil Jackson, forward
* 19 Willis Reed, center, Captain
* 22 Dave "Double D" DeBusschere, forward
* 23 Luther Rackley, center
* 24 Bill Bradley, forward
* 32 Jerry Lucas, forward
* 40 John Gianelli, center
* 43 Harthorne Wingo, forward

Frazier, Barnett, Reed, DeBusschere and Bradley also played for the Knicks on their 1969-70 title. Jackson was in the organization at that time, but missed the entire season due to injury.

Members of the 1970 Knicks who were not also 1973 Knicks were center Nate Bowman (Number 17), forwards Don May (5), Dave Stallworth (9), Bill Hosket (20) and Jazzy Cazzie Russell (33); and guards Mike Riordan (6) and John Warren (16).

Frazier, Barnett, Reed, DeBusschere and Bradley would have their uniform numbers retired by the Knicks. Holzman would be honored with a banner with the number 613 on it, for the number of games he won as Knicks coach. Frazier, Jackson, Reed, DeBusschere, Bradley, Lucas and Holzman would be elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame. Frazier, Reed, DeBusschere and Lucas would be elected to the NBA's 50th Anniversary 50 Greatest Players -- though it should be noted that Lucas was elected for what he did with the Cincinnati Royals; he was a stabilizing veteran presence for the '73 Knicks. They were also selected for the 75th Anniversary 75 Greatest Players.

Bibby was the father of later NBA All-Star Mike Bibby. Bradley was elected to 3 terms in the U.S. Senate, representing New Jersey, and ran for President in 2000.

And, yes, kids, that Phil Jackson, the one who would coach the Chicago Bulls to 6 titles and the Lakers to 5. He was a decent player, not a great one. As was Pat Riley, who played for the Lakers against the Knicks in those Finals, and would later coach the Lakers to 4 titles, the Knicks into a Finals, and the Miami Heat to a title.

After one more year, Reed, DeBusschere and Lucas all retired, and the Knicks began to fall apart. Pearl, obtained from the Baltimore Bullets (forerunner of the Washington Wizards) after the Bullets beat the Knicks in the '71 Eastern Conference Finals, was the last to remain, in 1980.

The Knicks would have a mini-revival in the early 1980s with Bernard King, be stellar through most of the 1990s, reaching the Finals in 1994 and 1999, but be stymied, first by Larry Bird's Boston Celtics, then by Isiah Thomas' Detroit Pistons, then by Michael Jordan's Jackson-coached Bulls. Finally, the Knicks would collapse, because owner Charles Dolan and his son, team operator James Dolan, trusted Isiah to be general manager, and even coach.

Now, the Knicks are back, having won their 1st World Championship since 1973, 53 years. How long has it been?

*

The teams now named the Utah Jazz, the Dallas Mavericks, the Charlotte Hornets, the Miami Heat, the New Orleans Pelicans, the Orlando Magic, the Minnesota Timberwolves, the Toronto Raptors, the Memphis Grizzlies and the New Orleans Pelicans did not yet exist. The teams now named the Brooklyn Nets, the Indiana Pacers, the Denver Nuggets and the San Antonio Spurs did, in the American Basketball Association.

The Bullets were about to leave Baltimore for Washington, and were a long way from becoming the Wizards. There was an NFL team in Baltimore, but it was the Colts, not the Ravens. There was one in Houston, but it was the Oilers, not the Texans. 

The home of the Knicks and the NHL's Rangers was still being called "the New Madison Square Garden Center." It is now the only arena used by an NBA team then that are still used now -- although the Baltimore Civic Center (now the CFG Bank Arena), the Cobo Arena in Detroit (now the Huntington Bank Arena), the Milwaukee Arena (a.k.a. The MECCA, now the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena), the Kansas City Municipal Auditorium, the Hofheinz Pavilion in Houston (now the Fertitta Center), the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix, The Forum in Inglewood outside Los Angeles, the Oakland Coliseum Arena and the Portland Memorial Coliseum still stand, and are still being used.

The Islanders had just completed their 1st season, and the building they shared with the New York Nets of the ABA, the Nassau Coliseum, was a year and a half old. The Yankees, recently purchased by George Steinbrenner, and the Giants were terrible, and were still playing in Yankee Stadium, but only for a few more months, as the renovation would start in October. The Mets and the Jets were playing at Shea Stadium, and while the Jets were falling apart as Joe Namath's knees did, the Mets would have a lousy 1st 5 months -- and then a torrid September that would lead to a Pennant and very nearly a 2nd World Championship in 5 years.

The Devils' franchise had been created, but at this point it only existed on paper, as the Kansas City Scouts, to begin play in the fall of 1974. And there was the World Hockey Association's New York Raiders, playing at The Garden, but they were a mess and moved to South Jersey, fooling no one into thinking they were a Philadelphia team.

The biggest thing that would happen in New York Tri-State Area sports in 1973 was the Belmont Stakes, as Secretariat moved "like a tremendous machine" in winning by 31 lengths to clinch the Triple Crown.

1973 was the last season for NBA legend Wilt Chamberlain. Jerry West and Oscar Robertson, like Reed, DeBusschere and Lucas, would hang on for one more year. Lew Alcindor had just recently changed his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Julius "Doctor J" Erving would soon move from the ABA's Virginia Squires to the Nets. Bill Walton was still at UCLA, winning the recent National Championship, the 7th straight for coach John Wooden, in the middle of an 88-game winning streak.

Magic Johnson and Larry Bird were in junior high school. Michael Jordan, Patrick Ewing and Charles Barkley were in grade school. Shaquille O'Neal was a rather large baby. Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan and LeBron James weren't born yet.

The same day the Knicks won the title, the Montreal Canadiens won their 18th Stanley Cup, beating the Chicago Blackhawks in Game 6 of the Finals. It was their 6th Cup in the last 9 seasons. The New England Whalers, then based in Boston, had just won the 1st WHA title, the AVCO Cup, beating ex-Blackhawk star Bobby Hull and his Winnipeg Jets. The Indiana Pacers were about to win their 3rd ABA title in the last 5 years, beating the Louisville-based Kentucky Colonels.

The defending World Champions in the other sports were the Oakland Athletics, with future Yankee legends Reggie Jackson and Catfish Hunter beating the Cincinnati Reds of Pete Rose, Johnny Bench and Joe Morgan; and the Miami Dolphins, who had won Super Bowl VII over the Washington Redskins to complete the only perfect NFL season in the playoff era (1932 to the present).

The Heavyweight Champion of the World was the undefeated George Foreman, who had just demolished Joe Frazier to take the title. Muhammad Ali had recently been dealt a loss and a broken jaw by Ken Norton, so it looked like Ali and Frazier were finished, and Foreman would be Champion for a while. Looks were deceiving.

The designated hitter had just debuted, Willie Mays' career was coming to a strange close, Hank Aaron had begun his approach to Babe Ruth's all-time record of 714 home runs, and Nolan Ryan had just pitched his 1st no-hitter and his 1st 19-strikeout game, on his way to a single-season record of 383 strikeouts.

Current Knicks coach Mike Brown was 3 years old. Giants coach John Harbaugh was 10. Rangers coach Mike Sullivan was 5. Islanders coach Peter DeBoer was about to turn 5. Jet coach Aaron Glenn was 10 months old. Yankee manager Aaron Boone was 2 months old. Nets coach Jordi Fernández, Mets manager Carlos Mendoza and Devils coach Sheldon Keefe weren't born yet.

The Olympic Games have since been held in America 4 times, Canada 3 times, twice each in Russia, Korea, Japan, China, France and Italy; and once each in Austria, Bosnia, Spain, Norway, Australia, Greece, Britain and Brazil. The World Cup has since been held in America, Mexico and Germany twice; and once each in Canada, Argentina, Spain, Mexico, Italy, France, Japan, Korea, South Africa, Brazil, Russia and Qatar.

There were 26 Amendments to the Constitution of the United States. Title IX had recently become law, and abortion had just been nationally legalized. The feminist and gay rights movements were underway.

The President of the United States was Richard Nixon, but the Senate was about to convene a special committee to investigate what was then being called "the Watergate matter." Nixon was now the only living President, as Harry Truman and Lyndon Johnson had both died within the last 5 months. Their widows, and  those of Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy, were still alive.

Spiro Agnew as Vice President, but, in probably the most amazing thing about Watergate, Nixon's Vice President would have to resign his office, and it would have absolutely nothing to do with Watergate.

Gerald Ford was House Minority Leader. Jimmy Carter was Governor of Georgia. Ronald Reagan was Governor of California. George H.W. Bush was out of elective office, but had recently been appointed Chairman of the Republican National Committee, replacing a young Senator named Bob Dole. Bush's son had just been discharged from the Texas Air National Guard -- whether he had shown up for duty in the preceding year remains a mystery. Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham had just moved in together, renting a house in New Haven, Connecticut, where they were both students at Yale Law School.

Barack Obama was in junior high school in the city where he was born, Honolulu, Hawaii. Joe Biden was in his 1st year as a U.S. Senator. And Donald Trump and his father were about to be sued by the U.S. Department of Justice for racist renting practices. Melania Knauvss was 3 years old.

The Governor of New York was Nelson Rockefeller, although he would soon resign to run something called the Commission on Critical Choices for Americans. (It couldn't have been that critical, because until I first wrote this piece, in 2013, I'd never heard of it.) Lieutenant Governor Malcolm Wilson would assume the job.

The Mayor of New York was John Lindsay, whose 2nd term was limping to a pathetic close. Abe Beame, who had been City Comptroller when Lindsay beat him for the Mayoralty in 1965, held the job again and was running again, and would defeat John Marchi, a State Senator from Staten Island whose upset victory in the 1969 Republican Primary forced Lindsay to run for re-election as an independent -- and win. But Beame's Mayoralty would be even more troubled than Lindsay's, and pave the way for that of Ed Koch.

Another weird race was across the Hudson River in New Jersey. Governor William T. Cahill had proposed the State's 1st income tax. Not signed into law, merely proposed it. Charlie Sandman, a very conservative loudmouth who represented the southernmost portion of the State in Congress, ran against Cahill in the Republican Primary, and won. But he got slaughtered in the general election by Essex County Prosecutor Brendan Byrne, when it was revealed that a local mob boss was caught on tape saying Byrne was the one politician in the area who couldn't be bought. Byrne won 66 percent of the vote.

Then, the next year, he got the State income tax passed, and dropped to an approval rating of 17 percent. People began calling him "One-Term Byrne." Unlike Jim Florio nearly 20 years later, he shook off the stupid tax protests, and got re-elected in 1977 with 56 percent of the vote.

The Prime Minister of Canada was Pierre Trudeau. The monarch of Great Britain was Queen Elizabeth II -- that has now changed -- and the Prime Minister was Edward Heath, who, like Senator Edward Kennedy and the Queen's great-grandfather, King Edward VII, was nicknamed "Ted."

No Nobel Peace Prize was awarded in 1972, so its holder was still the 1971 recipient, Chancellor Willy Brandt of West Germany. The Pope was Paul VI. Pope Leo XIV, then Robert Francis Prevost, was 17 years old, and was about to graduate from St. Augustine Seminary High School in Holland, Michigan. It closed in 1977. There have since been 10 Presidents of the United States (11 if you count Trump twice -- I wouldn't even count him once), 13 Prime Ministers of Britain, and 6 Popes.

England's Football League was won by Liverpool in a close race over London's Arsenal. The FA Cup was won by second-division North-East club Sunderland in a shock over Yorkshire's mighty Leeds United. The European Cup, for the 3rd season in a row, was won by Johan Cruyff's powerful but beautiful Amsterdam club Ajax. Soon, Cruyff would move on to Spain's FC Barcelona, and build that club's system, and thus build significantly on the legend it already had.

The New York Cosmos -- not yet with Pele and Franz Beckenbauer -- were playing at Hofstra University's football stadium, now named James M. Shuart Stadium, across from the Jets' training complex and the Nassau Coliseum, and were dethroned as North American Soccer League Champions by the Philadelphia Atoms. Hardly anybody in North America cared.

Major novels of 1973 included Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon, Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut, The Princess Bride by William Goldman, Demon Seed by Dean Koontz (which would be made into a 1977 film in which Julie Christie plays a woman who gets impregnated by a computer), Rubyfruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown, and Postern of Fate, the last novel written by Agatha Christie.

Robert Ludlum published The Matlock Caper, but it wasn't about a lawyer in Atlanta who looked like Andy Griffith -- or one in New York who looks like Kathy Bates. In non-fiction, Hunter S. Thompson published Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72, Peter Maas Serpico (the film verison with Al Pacino as the real-life New York cop would premiere in December), and Flora Rheta Schreiber Sybil.

J.R.R. Tolkien would live another 4 months. George R.R. Martin was teaching at Clarke University in Iowa. Stephen King was teaching at a high school in Maine, and his 1st novel, Carrie, had been accepted for publication the next year. J.K. Rowling was 7 years old.

No one had yet heard of George Smiley, the Punisher, Lestat de Lioncourt, Rocky Balboa, T.S. Garp, Arthur Dent, Jason Bourne, Hannibal Lecter, Celie Harris, Kinsey Millhone, Jack Ryan, Forrest Gump, John McClane, Alex Cross, Bridget Jones, Robert Langdon, Bella Swan, Leroy Jethro Gibbs, Lisbeth Salander, Katniss Everdeen, Walter White, John Wick or Maggie Bell.

Major movies released in the spring of 1973 included the film version of Godspell, an updated version of Raymond Chandler's story The Long Goodbye with Elliott Gould as Philip Marlowe and ex-Yankee pitcher Jim Bouton as the killer, Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid with James Coburn and Kris Kristofferson in the title roles and Bob Dylan with a cameo, the Anthony Hopkins & Claire Bloom version of Henrik Ibsen's play A Doll's House, the blaxploitation/feminist films Cleopatra Jones and Coffy, and, released the day before the Knicks won the title, Paper Moon, with real-life father and daugther Ryan and Tatum O'Neal as Depression-era con artists. (Ryan died in 2023. I wonder if he ever paid Tatum the $200.)

Gene Roddenberry had just seen his project Genesis II flop on CBS. George Lucas was about to release American Graffiti. Steven Spielberg was working on his 1st feature film, The Sugarland Express. The cartoon Super Friends was about to premiere, meaning that George Reeves would be succeeded as Superman (sort of) by Danny Dark, and Adam West as Batman by Olan Soule. Shannon Farnon became the voice of Wonder Woman. Roger Moore was about to debut as James Bond in Live and Let Die. Jon Pertwee was playing The Doctor.

Bonanza finally went off the air, while Gunsmoke hung on a little longer. Johnny Carson had recently moved The Tonight Show from New York to Los Angeles. M*A*S*H wrapped up its 1st season, All in the Family its 3rd. CBS had recently revived The Price Is Right, and was about to revive Match Game, which had aired on NBC from 1962 to 1969. Paul McCartney's 1st solo TV special had recently aired on ABC, to coincide with his Wings album Red Rose Speedway.

Paul's fellow ex-Beatle George Harrison released Living in the Material World. Bob Dylan was about to release "Knockin' On Heaven's Door." Elvis Presley had released the soundtrack to his recent TV special Aloha from Hawaii via Satellite. Frank Sinatra was about to start recording his comeback album, Ol' Blue Eyes Is Back. The Jackson 5 had released Skywriter.

Led Zeppelin were on tour in the U.S., including the Garden concert that would be filmed for The Song Remains the Same. David Bowie released Aladdin Sane, Bob Marley Catch a Fire, the Eagles Desperado, Paul Simon There Goes Rhymin' Simon, the Carpenters Now & Then, Earth Wind & Fire Head to the Sky, Chicago Chicago VI, Aretha Franklin Hey Now Hey (The Other Side of the Sky), Carole King Fantasy, and John Denver Farewell Andromeda. The Number 1 song in America was "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree" by Tony Orlando & Dawn.

Robert Kardashian had just co-founded Radio & Records magazine, stepping aside from his legal practice. Bruce Jenner was training to better his 1972 Olympic performance in the decathlon -- 10th place. Kris Houghton was in high school. None of them had ever heard of each other.

Inflation was about to have its 1st big increase of the post-World War II era: What $1.00 bought then, $7.63 would buy now. A U.S. postage stamp cost 8 cents, and a Subway ride in New York 35 cents. The average price of a gallon of gas was 37 cents (but was about to soar thanks to the OPEC price hike), a cup of coffee 51 cents, a McDonald's meal (Big Mac, fries, shake) $1.47, a movie ticket $1.72, a new car $2,900, and a new house $35,100. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed that day at 939.34.

The portable telephone had just been introduced by Motorola. Cordless home phones and the desktop computer were still a ways off. Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Tim Berners-Lee were turning 18. Social media was the stuff of science fiction.

Skylab was launched, and became the biggest lemon in the history of space travel -- so far. Automatic teller machines were still a relatively new thing, and many people had never seen one. The very first home video game system, the Magnavox Odyssey, had been introduced the preceding September. There were heart transplants, liver transplants and lung transplants, and artificial kidneys, but no artificial hearts. There were birth control pills, but no Viagra.

In the Spring of 1973, the World Trade Center opened in New York, becoming the tallest building(s) in the world -- only to be topped just a month later by the Sears Tower in New York. The American Indian Movement ended their 10-week standoff at Wounded Knee, South Dakota. LexisNexis and Federal Express (FedEx) began operations. A military coup ended democracy in Greece. Mark Felt retired from the FBI -- and, at this point, only he, Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward, and Post editor Ben Bradlee knew he was Woodward's Watergate source, nicknamed "Deep Throat."

Noel Coward, and Pablo Picasso, and Jeannette Rankin died. She was the 1st woman elected to Congress, the Montana Representative who voted against America's entry into World War I, and then became the only member of either house of Congress to vote against America's entry into World War II. She lost her seat because of both votes, but was only able to come back the first time. Also dying in the Spring of 1973 were Robert Armstrong and Merian C. Cooper, the male lead and the director of King Kong.

Sasha Alexander, and Heidi Klum, and Neil Patrick Harris were born. So were sports stars Derek Lowe, Tedy Bruschi, Roberto Carlos and Haile Gebreselassie.

May 10, 1973. The New York Knicks were World Champions. It took them 53 years, 1 month and 3 days to do it again.

And now, they have overcome.

June 15, 2004: Larry Brown's "Double" Shocks the L.A. "Superteam"

Left to right: Larry Brown, Rip Hamilton,

Ben Wallace, Chauncey Billups, Rasheed Wallace

June 15, 2004, 20 years ago: The NBA Championship is awarded to the best team in the league. Not the best collection of players, but the best team.

From 1972 to 2010, Larry Brown coached 10 different ABA or NBA teams (a record), and also coached 3 different college basketball teams. He took UCLA to the 1980 NCAA Final, and the University of Kansas to the Final Four in 1986 and 1988, winning the National Championship in 1988.

Brown was from Long Island, New York. As a teenager, he was a camp counselor there, and one of his students was Tony Kornheiser, later a great sportswriter and, with Michael Wilbon, co-host of the ESPN show Pardon the Interruption. A lifelong friendship was formed.

Here's how Kornheiser once described Brown's genius for coaching: "He took the Clippers to the Playoffs! Nobody takes the Clippers to the Playoffs!" From 1976, when the Los Angeles Clippers were still known as the Buffalo Braves, until 2012, when a change in management made them a perennial Playoff team, the only coaches to take them to the Playoffs were Larry Brown in 1992 and 1993, Bill Fitch in 1997, and Mike Dunleavy in 2006. That's it: 4 times, and Brown provided 2 of them.

And it wasn't just the Clippers: He took the NBA's other "little brother team," the New Jersey Nets, to the Playoffs in 1982. That was the good news. The bad news is that he never seemed to stay in one place too long. He either didn't like the job, or he angered somebody in management. But somebody was always willing to hire him. He got the Denver Nuggets to the last ABA Finals in 1976, and the Western Conference Finals in 1978; the Indiana Pacers to the Eastern Conference Finals in 1993 and 1994; and the Philadelphia 76ers to the NBA Finals in 2001.

But Brown and the Sixers' top player, Allen Iverson, couldn't co-exist. So, in 2003, Brown resigned, and took the head job with the Detroit Pistons. Despite this, in 2005, Iverson admitted, "I love him as a man. The coach, that's totally different. Yeah, I like him as a coach. He's the best coach in the world. I can't say it enough. He's the best in the world."

Joe Dumars, the guard who had led the Pistons' defense in their "Motor City Bad Boys" period -- losing the Finals to the Lakers in 7 games in 1988, then winning back-to-back titles in 1989 and 1990 -- was now the general manager. He had built a team with guards Chauncey Billups, Richard "Rip" Hamilton and Lindsey Hunter; forwards Rasheed Wallace, Tayshaun Prince and Corliss Williamson; and center Ben Wallace.

The Pistons beat the Milwaukee Bucks in the 1st round of the Playoffs, the New Jersey Nets in the next round, and the Indiana Pacers in the Conference Finals. Now, the NBA Finals were in front of them. Standing between them and glory: The Los Angeles Lakers.

Coached by Phil Jackson, and led by center Shaquille O'Neal and guard Kobe Bryant, the Lakers had won 3 straight NBA Championships: 2000, 2001 and 2002. There had been discussion of the Lakers getting favorable, but incorrect, calls from referees, especially in the Playoffs.

In 2003, the Lakers lost to the San Antonio Spurs in the Western Conference Semifinals. Their general manager, former Laker forward Mitch Kupchak, was determined to get the title back. He decided to build a "superteam." He signed 3 free agents: Karl Malone, who built a career as one of the all-time great power forwards with the Utah Jazz; Gary Payton, who had been a superstar point guard with the Seattle SuperSonics; and forward Horace Grant, who had helped Jackson win 3 titles as a forward with the Chicago Bulls, and teamed with O'Neal to get the Orlando Magic to the 1995 Finals.

Everything pointed to the Lakers going through the league like a hot knife through butter. But first, Bryant needed knee surgery in the off-season. He went to Colorado to get it. At his hotel, he was accused of sexually assaulting a female employee. The case was dropped, and, eventually, NBA fans decided, pretty much the way baseball fans did with David Ortiz and his steroid cheating, that it simply never happened, and that the man in question was a wonderful guy.

Eventually. But not in the 2003-04 season. Bryant heard it from fans all over the league, and he missed a few games. While the Lakers' record of 56-26 was enough to win the Pacific Division, it was not historically notable, and they only finished 2nd overall in the Western Conference to the Minnesota Timberwolves.

They knew they would truly be measured by what they did in the Playoffs, and they did raise their game: They beat the Houston Rockets in the 1st round, the Spurs in the next round, and the Timberwolves in the Western Conference Finals, to set up the Finals matchup with the Pistons.

Few people gave the Pistons the chance. The Lakers were considered a team of destiny. They forgot that a collection of players can be beaten by a team. The Pistons won Game 1 in Los Angeles, 87-75, despite 34 points from Shaq, and the basketball world was stunned. They pushed the Lakers to overtime in Game 2, with the Lakers winning 99-91, with Kobe scoring 33.

But getting a split in L.A. energized the Pistons. At The Palace in the Detroit suburb of Auburn Hills, Michigan, the Lakers never had a chance. The Pistons won Game 3, 88-68. The Lakers were never in the game. Shaq had 36 points and 17 rebounds in Game 4. But Rasheed Wallace had 26, and he and Ben Wallace (no relation) each had 13 rebounds. The Pistons won, 88-80. Malone did not play in Game 5, and he retired after the Finals, so this was the last game for "The Mailman."

Game 5 was played at The Palace on June 15. The Pistons led 25-24 after the 1st quarter, but pulled away in the 2nd, pulled away further in the 3rd, and the Lakers simply couldn't come back. The Pistons won, 100-87, and the World Champions were, as the chant echoing through Auburn Hills said, "DEE-troit BAS-ket-BALL!"

The Pistons had done this despite not having a single player on their roster who was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame until Ben Wallace was elected in 2021. Billups was named the Most Valuable Player of the Finals. Brown finally had his 1st NBA Championship, as either a player or a coach, at the age of 63. (He had won the 1969 ABA Championship while playing for the Oakland Oaks.) He remains the only head coach to win championships in both the NCAA and the NBA.

The Lakers? They were now the biggest flop in NBA history -- or, at least, since their 1969 edition, when Wilt Chamberlain was added to Jerry West, Elgin Baylor and Gail Goodrich, and lost Game 7 of the Finals at home.

And after the season, Bryant told the team's owner, Dr. Jerry Buss, that he could no longer coexist with either O'Neal or Jackson. Jackson told Buss that Bryant was "uncoachable." So Buss told Kupchak to appease Bryant. He did: O'Neal was traded to the Miami Heat. And Jackson resigned.

With Bryant as "The Man," The Lakers fell apart. And Shaq, along with Dwyane Wade, helped the Miami Heat win the 2006 NBA Championship. In 2007, the Lakers got knocked out by the Phoenix Suns in the 1st round. Shaq was recorded rapping in a nightclub, saying, "Kobe, tell me how my ass taste!" (The implication was not that Kobe could kiss Shaq's ass, but that he already had.)

Sportswriter Dave Zirin wrote, "Kobe did to the Lakers what Jimmy Hoffa did to the Teamsters: Both made them a national force & ruined them forever." (Ironically, when Hoffa disappeared, it was in the northern suburbs of Detroit, at a restaurant in Bloomfield Hills, then Machus' Red Fox, now named Andiamo, just 14 miles from where The Palace would be built.)

Well, not forever, as it turned out. Shaq's teasing was the wakeup call that Bryant needed. He made peace with Jackson, who returned. The Lakers got Pau Gasol. Together, they got back to the Finals in 2008, and won the title in 2009 and 2010. Meanwhile, O'Neal never won another. The final total: Bryant 6 titles, O'Neal 5; separately, Kobe 2, Shaq 1.

Kobe and Shaq made peace with each other before Kobe's death in a helicopter crash in 2020.

How Long It's Been: The Chicago Bulls Won the NBA Championship

June 14, 1998, 20 years ago: The Chicago Bulls defeat the Utah Jazz 87-86 at the Delta Center (now the Vivint Smart Home Arena) in Salt Lake City in Game 6 of the NBA Finals, and win the NBA Championship. It is their 3rd straight title, and their 6th in their history, all in the last 8 years.

It did not seem like Da Bulls would win "forever." There was already talk that general manager Jerry Krause was going to accept that certain contracts were running out, and that he would rebuild the team. So this was being called "The Last Dance."

Ron Harper, Toni Kukoc, Keith Booth, Randy Brown, Dickey Simpkins and Bill Wennington would be the only 6 holdovers from the previous season -- and only Harper had been a starter, although Kukoc was the 6th man. The next season? Only Simpkins was left, although B.J. Armstrong and Will Perdue from the 1991-93 "threepeat" had returned.

The effect? After going 62-20 under Hall of Fame head coach Phil Jackson in 1997-98, they went 13-37 under Tim Floyd in the lockout-shortened 1998-99 season, which extends to 21-61 over the standard 82 games. In 1999-2000? 17-65.

But no more Jackson, Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman, Luc Longley and Steve Kerr; Armstrong, Bill Cartwright and Horace Grant were already dumped after the 1st threepeat.

There was reason to believe that Krause could rebuild. After all, the only 2 guys from both threepeats were Jordan and Pippen.

But he couldn't, because Jordan -- and Jackson -- were key. His weight rising even further led to Krause's retirement in 2003. He died in 2017, having failed in the most ambitious building program in NBA history.

The Bulls didn't make the Playoffs again until 2005, and didn't win another Playoff round until 2007. They won their Division in 2011 and 2012, and got to the Conference Finals in 2011. But they have since fallen apart again, and were just 27-55 in 2017-18.

That title won on June 14, 1998 remains their last. That's 20 years. How long has that been?

*

Of the NBA's 50th Anniversary 50 Greatest Players, 9 were then active, 4 of them playing in the Finals: Jordan and Pippen for the Bulls, and Karl Malone and John Stockton for the Jazz. The others were Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing, Hakeem Olajuwon, David Robinson and Shaquille O'Neal. Another, Clyde Drexler, had just retired. Of those 50, Wilt Chamberlain, Dave DeBusschere, George Mikan, Paul Arizin, Bill Sharman, Dolph Schayes, Nate Thurmond and Hal Greer have since died.

Allen Iverson was in his 2nd season with the Philadelphia 76ers, Kobe Bryant his 2nd with the Los Angeles Lakers, Tim Duncan his 1st with the Spurs. Dirk Nowitzki was still playing in Germany. Dwyane Wade and Carmelo Anthony were still in high school. LeBron James was in unior high. Steph Curry and Brook Lopez were 10 years old; Kevin Durant, Derrick Rose and Russell Westbrook 9; Kyrie Irving 6, Anthony Davis 5, and Kristaps Porzingis 2.

The San Antonio Spurs, the Miami Heat, the Dallas Mavericks and the Cleveland Cavaliers had not yet won their 1st NBA Championship. The Spurs, the Heat, the Mavs, the Cavs, the Indiana Pacers and the New Jersey Nets (now the Brooklyn Nets) had not yet appeared in their 1st NBA Finals. The Seattle SuperSonics had not yet moved to become the Oklahoma City Thunder.

The Vancouver Grizzlies had not yet moved to become the Memphis Grizzlies. The Charlotte Hornets had not yet moved to become the New Orleans Hornets and then the New Orleans Pelicans. The Charlotte Bobcats had not yet been founded, eventually becoming the new Charlotte Hornets.

Atlanta, Brooklyn, Charlotte, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Indiana, Vancouver/Memphis, Miami, New Orleans, Seattle/Oklahoma City, Sacramento and San Antonio have since opened new arenas. Milwaukee and Golden State are working on new ones.

In 1998, Barry Trotz of the Islanders had just become the 1st head coach of the Nashville Predators. Pat Shurmur of the Giants was the offensive coordinator at Stanford University. Todd Bowles of the Jets was the defensive coordinator at Grambling State University in Louisiana. David Fizdale of the Knicks was an assistant coach at the University of San Diego. John Hynes of the Devils was an assistant coach at Boston University. David Quinn of the Rangers was an assistant coach at the University of Nebraska at Omaha (not to be confused with the main campus in Lincoln). Aaron Boone of the Yankees was playing for the Cincinnati Reds. Mickey Callaway of the Mets was playing in the Devil Rays' farm system. Kenny Atkinson of the Nets was playing in the Spanish basketball league.

Speaking of Spain, Domenec Torrent of NYCFC was managing Palafrugell in Girona, Catalonia. And Jesse Marsch of the Red Bulls was helping the Chicago Fire go from MLS expansion team to MLS Cup and U.S. Open Cup "Double" winners in just 1 season.

The defending World Champions, in addition to the Bulls, were the Florida Marlins, the Denver Broncos, the Detroit Red Wings, and D.C. United. The Heavyweight Champion of the World was Evander Holyfield. Arsenal had won England's Premier League and its FA Cup, for a Double, while Real Madrid broke a 32-year drought to win the UEFA Champions League.

The Olympic Games have since been held in America, Australia, Greece, Italy, China, Canada, Britain, Russia, Brazil and Korea. The World Cup had just been won by France, on home soil, and has since been held in Japan, Korea, Germany, South Africa, Brazil and Russia.

Only 4 Justices then on the U.S. Supreme Court are still on it now: Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer. The idea that corporations were people, and entitled to the rights thereof, was ridiculous -- but then, so was the idea that people of the same gender could marry, and get all the rights and protections thereof.

The President of the United States was Bill Clinton, and he was under an impeachment inquiry for things far less serious than Donald Trump is under investigation for now. Trump was then married to his 2nd wife, Marla Maples. Barack Obama was a State Senator in Illinois. George W. Bush was running for re-election as Governor of Texas. Former Presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, their wives, and the widow of Lyndon B. Johnson were all still alive.

The Mayor of San Diego was Susan Golding, the city's 1st Jewish Mayor, a Republican but one who was pro-choice, pro-environmental protection, pro-affirmative action and pro-gay rights, flying in the face of a previous Mayor, then running out the string as Governor of California, Pete Wilson, about to be succeeded by Gray Davis. She is now the CEO of the Child Abuse Prevention Foundation.

Current Mayor Kevin Faulconer was then a public relations executive -- which helps in governing, and definitely in elections. Jerry Brown, about to leave the Governorship for the 2nd time, was launching his political comeback, about to be elected Mayor of Oakland.

The Governor of the State of New York was George Pataki. The Mayor of the City of New York was Rudy Giuliani. The Governor of New Jersey was Christine Todd Whitman. As for the current holders of those posts: Andrew Cuomo was U.S. Secretary of Housing & Urban Development, Bill de Blasio was one of his aides, and Phil Murphy was running the Asia office of Goldman Sachs out of Hong Kong.

There were still living veterans of World War I, the Bolshevik Reovlution, the Balkan Wars of 1912-13, and the Mexican Revolution of 1910-20. There were still survivors of the 1900 Galveston Hurricane, the 1904 General Slocum fire, the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, and the sinkings of the Titanic and the Lusitania.

The Nobel Peace Prize was then held by landmine-removal activist Jody Williams.The Pope was John Paul II. Pope Francis, the current Pontiff, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, was the Archbishop of Buenos Aires. The Prime Minister of Canada was Jean Chrétien, and of Britain Tony Blair. The monarch of each was Queen Elizabeth II -- that hasn't changed. There have since been 4 Presidents, 4 Prime Ministers of Britain, and 3 Popes.

Major novels of 1998 included Blood Work by Michael Connelly, About a Boy by Nick Hornby, and Giles Foden's dramatization of Uganda's dictator Idi Amin, then still alive, The Last King of Scotland. All would be made into major motion pictures. Alexander McCall Smith's The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency would become a TV series. Stephen King published Bag of Bones, J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, and George R.R. Martin A Clash of Kings.

No one had yet heard of Ash Ketchum, Robert Langdon, Master Chief, Rick Grimes, Wynonna Earp, Lisbeth Salander, Bella Swan or Katniss Everdeen.

Notable films of the late Spring and early Summer of 1998 included Spike Lee's basketball-themed film He Got Game, Deep Impact, Bulworth, The Horse Whisperer, A Perfect Murder, The Truman Show, Can't Hardly Wait, Out of Sight, Buffalo '66, Eddie Murphy's awful remake of Dr. Dolittle, a film sequel to The X-Files, and a new but very bad version of Godzilla.

George Lucas was working on Star Wars, Episode I: The Phantom Menace. If anyone told him, "Wait a minute... " about any part of it, he didn't listen. Steven Spielberg was about to release Saving Private Ryan. The Next Generation cast was filming Star Trek: Insurrection.

Pierce Brosnan was playing James Bond, Dean Cain had recently wrapped up playing Superman, George Clooney (with help from director Joel Schumacher) had nearly ruined Batman, Lynda Carter was still the last live-action Wonder Woman, and Nicholas Hammond still the last live-action Spider-Man. And Paul McGann's one-shot deal was the only appearance of The Doctor since 1989.

Sex and the City and Celebrity Deathmatch had recently premiered. Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, Singled Out, The Larry Sanders Show, and iconic shows Murphy Brown and Seinfeld had recently been wrapped up. New York Undercover and Step By Step were days away from doing so.

No one had yet heard of Tony Soprano, Jed Bartlet, Jack Bauer, Omar Little, Leroy Jethro Gibbs, Michael Bluth, Michael Scott, Don Draper, Walter White, Jax Teller, Richard Castle, Leslie Knope, Sarah Manning or Jane "Eleven" Hopper.

The Number 1 song in the country was "The Boy Is Mine," a duet by (or perhaps a battle between) Brandy Norwood and Monica Arnold. Both went by only their first names, and, by this point, Arnold was the only Monica anyone wanted to hear about.

Frank Sinatra had recently died. So had Linda McCartney, wife of ex-Beatle Paul. Bob Dylan was touring in support of his album Time Out of Mind, and Michael Jackson had just become the father of Paris Jackson. Geri Halliwell left the Spice Girls, effectively ending their phenomenon after 2 years. Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera were both recording their debut albums.

Inflation was such that what $1.00 bought then, $1.55 would buy now. A U.S. postage stamp cost 32 cents, and a New York Subway ride $1.50. The average price of a gallon of gas was $1.12, a cup of coffee $1.86, a McDonald's meal (Big Mac, fries, shake) $5.69, a movie ticket $4.58, a new car $20,238, and a new house $181,500. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed the preceding Friday at 8627.92.

The tallest building in the world was the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Mobile phones had become common, but they didn't yet have Internet connections. There was no Wikipedia, no Skype, no MySpace, no Facebook, no YouTube, no Twitter, no Tumblr, no Pinterest, no Instagram. There was no iPod, no iPhone, no iPad. The Nintendo PlayStation was the leading home video game system.

In the late Spring and early Summer of 1998, India and its neighbor and arch-rival Pakistan each successfully tested nuclear devices for the 1st time -- "joining the club." In neighboring Afghanistan, an earthquake killed over 5,000 people. Riots killed over 1,000 people in Indonesia, and the dictator, Suharto, resigned after 32 years.

A civil war broke out in the African nation of Guinea-Bissau. A train derailed between Hanover and Hamburg, Germany, killing 101 people. New airports were opened in Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The 1st euro coins were minted.

Justin Fashanu, the 1st British soccer player to come out as gay, hanged himself over accusations he had molested a teenage boy. And former Saturday Night Live star Phil Hartman was shot and killed by his wife Brynn, who then killed herself.

Alice Faye, and Roy Rogers, and football pioneer Sid Luckman died. Jaden Smith, and Markelle Fultz, and Dani Olmo were born.

June 14, 1998. The Chicago Bulls won their 6th NBA Championship in the last 8 years. They have never come close to winning another.

Might another one be soon in coming? They were 16 games out of the last Eastern Conference Playoff spot this season, so it doesn't look likely.

Top 10 Athletes From North Dakota

November 2, 1889: For the only time in the nation's history, 2 new States are admitted to the Union on the same day. North Dakota becomes the 39th State, and South Dakota becomes the 40th State.

Top 10 Athletes from North Dakota

Honorable Mention to Cliff Cushman of Grand Forks. At the 1960 Olympics in Rome, he won the Silver Medal in the 400-meter hurdles. He later enlisted in the U.S. Air Force, and became a pilot, but his plane was hit over Bac Giang, Vietnam on September 25, 1966. Captain Clifton E. Cushman was only 28, and his body has never been recovered.

Honorable Mention to Cliff Purpur of Grand Forks. The 1st North Dakota native to play in the NHL, "Fido" was a right wing for the ill-fated St. Louis Eagles of 1934-35. After playing in the minors, he played 4 seasons with the Chicago Blackhawks, helping them reach the 1944 Stanley Cup Finals. He later returned to the University of North Dakota, and was their head coach from 1949 to 1956.

10. Steve Myhra of Wahpeton. A guard and linebacker at the University of North Dakota, he probably would have been recruited by a bigger school had he come along now. He was drafted by the Baltimore Colts, and became better known as a placekicker. He kicked a field goal to send the 1958 NFL Championship Game against the Giants at Yankee Stadium into overtime. The Colts won it, and beat the Giants again the next year.

9. Phil Jackson of Williston. Yes, you know him as a basketball coach. But he was a good player, too. What we would now call a power forward, he was a 2-time First Team Division II All-American at the University of North Dakota. Drafted by the Knicks, he made the All-Rookie First Team in 1968.

Back surgery and his recovery from it kept him out of the Knicks' 1969-70 NBA Championship season, but he was a key reserve when they took the 1972-73 title, still the team's last. He wrapped up his playing career with the Nets in 1980.

8. Carson Wentz of Bismarck. He quarterbacked North Dakota State University to the FCS (Football Championship Subdivision, formerly Division I-AA) Championship all 4 years, 2012 to 2015. He is now in his 2nd year as the starting quarterback of the Philadelphia Eagles, and they're 7-1 and leading the NFC Eastern Division.

But he's not Number 1 on this list -- even among Philadelphia Eagles. At least, not yet.

7. Travis Hafner of Jamestown. Known as "Pronk," a combination of "Project" and "Donkey," the 1st baseman hit 213 career home runs, and helped the Cleveland Indians get to within 1 win of a Pennant in 2007. He closed his career with the Yankees in 2013.

6. Dave Osborn of Cando. A veteran of 12 NFL seasons, he helped the Minnesota Vikings win their only NFL Championship, in 1969, although they lost Super Bowl IV. He was named to the Pro Bowl the next season. He rushed for 4,336 yards, including 29 touchdowns, and caught 173 passes for 1,412 yards.

5. Rick Helling of Lakota. Pitching for the Texas Rangers, he led the American League in wins in 1998, and helped them win the AL Western Division title in 1998 and 1999, and the Arizona Diamondbacks to win the National League West in 2002. He was a member of the Florida Marlins when they won the 2003 World Series, but, as a Yankee Fan, I don't like to talk about that.

His career record was 93-81. He now coaches at a high school in the Minneapolis suburbs -- not baseball, but football.

4. Darin Erstad of Jamestown. He kicked a 50-yard field goal in high school, but the University of Nebraska was more interested in him as a baseball player. He won 3 Gold Gloves with the team now known as the Los Angeles Angels, made 2 All-Star Games, and was a member of their 2002 World Champions. He is now back with the Nebraska baseball team, as head coach.

3. Virgil Hill of Williston. He won his 1st boxing title, the WBA Light Heavyweight Championship, in 1987, when he was 23. He held his last, the WBA Cruiserweight title, in 2007, when he was 43. Think about that: He held title belts 20 years apart. Not too many boxers have done that. He is a member of the International Boxing Hall of Fame.

2. Roger Maris of Fargo. He's known for "61 in '61." But he was a terrific all-around athlete, starring in baseball, football, track and swimming at Bishop Shanley High School in Fargo. He was a 4-time All-Star -- 7-time, if you count the fact that 2 All-Star Games were held every year from 1959 to 1962. He won a Gold Glove for right field and the American League Most Valuable Player award in 1960, and won the MVP again in 1961 -- meaning the writers couldn't have been that much against him.

He won Pennants with the Yankees in 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963 and 1964, and with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1967 and 1968. He won the World Series in 1961, 1962 and 1967. Injuries led him to retire at age 34, and limited him to 275 career home runs, so he's never going to be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. But the Yankees did retire his Number 9 and give him a Plaque in Monument Park, and they did it while he was still alive to appreciate it.

1. Pete Retzlaff of Ellendale. A star in football and track at South Dakota State College (now University), he was a 5-time Pro Bowler as what we would now call a tight end with the Philadelphia Eagles. He was a key figure on their 1960 NFL Championship team, still their last. In 1965, he received the Bert Bell Award as NFL Most Valuable Player.

He had 452 career receptions for 7,412 yards and 47 touchdowns, big totals for the pre-merger era. The Eagles retired his Number 44, and he is a member of their team Hall of Fame -- but not the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.

He is 86 years old. What are they waiting for? Is it because he was the president of the NFL Players Association, the players' union? Is that being held against him? That can't be: If it was, the Eagles wouldn't have named him general manager in 1969, a post he held for 4 seasons. Also, former Oakland Raiders guard Gene Upshaw also held that post, and he's in the Hall of Fame. So why not Retzlaff?

Phil Jackson Fired, Joe Girardi and Brian Cashman Still Have Jobs

This morning, Knicks executive chairman James Dolan fired team president Phil Jackson, finishing off, at least in terms of hype divided by competitiveness, the biggest fiasco in NBA history.

Hank and Hal Steinbrenner continue to keep Brian Cashman and Joe Girardi in jobs for which they continue to show an appalling lack of competence.

Unbelievable.

*

Me, yesterday:

Last night, the Yankees began a series against the Chicago White Sox, their 1st visit to the former new Comiskey Park since its name was changed from U.S. Cellular Field to Guaranteed Rate Field.

And it almost became one of those games that makes me say, "If the Yankees end up losing the American League East (or missing the Playoffs completely) by 1 game, I want you to remember this game."

Cliche Alert: Almost only counts in horseshoes. And hand grenades.

Last night, Joe Girardi made sure there would be no "almost."

Luis Severino started, and he pitched brilliantly: 7 innings, 6 hits, no walks, 12 strikeouts. The only run he allowed was on an RBI double by Yolmer Sanchez in the 3rd inning.

But the Yankee bats went cold, and as the 8th inning dawned, that 1 run made the difference: It was 1-0 to the South Siders.

Finally, with 1 out in the top of the 8th, the Yankees did something about it. New callup Tyler Wade drew a walk. Jacoby Ellsbury reached on an infield single. Chase Headley struck out, but Aaron Judge singled Wade home, and Gary Sanchez (no relation to Yolmer) almost hit one out, settling for a double that brought home Ellsbury and Judge. 3-1 Yankees.

That should have been the spark Severino needed to pitch the 8th inning, and nail down the win with help from Dellin Betances in the 9th -- or maybe finish the job himself.

But because Joe Girardi is an idiot who doesn't know how to manage a bullpen, and Severino had already thrown 105 pitches, he brought Domingo German in to start the bottom of the 8th.

Cliche Alert: Walks can kill you. And he pitched to 2 batters, and walked them both.

Girardi took him out, and brought in a reliever. But because Joe Girardi is an idiot who doesn't know how to manage a bullpen, he brought in Tyler Clippard.

Tyler Clippard.

Cliche Alert: Noooooooo!

And the batter was ex-Yankee Melky Cabrera. Because, of course it was.

Clippard wasted no time: He threw a wild pitch to move the runners over, and then walked Melky to load the bases with nobody out. As he does.

Clippard got a strikeout and a flyout, then walked home a run, then got another strikeout. We were very lucky to escape that jam with only 1 run.

You would hope that the 3rd strike would turn out to be the last pitch that Clippard ever throws in a Yankee uniform.

But because Brian Cashman is an idiot who doesn't know how to build a roster -- the 1996-2003 dynasty was the work of Gene Michael and Bob Watson, and the 2009 title was because Hank and Hal Steinbrenner chose to spend for what remains the only time -- Clippard will probably be back.

The Yankees got runners on 2nd and 3rd in the top of the 9th, but did not score. So we had a 1-run lead going to the bottom of the 9th. Right: Bring on the best closer in baseball, Aroldis Chapman, to finish it off. After all, as we've seen, Dellin Betances is no closer.

But because Joe Girardi is an idiot who doesn't know how to manage a bullpen, he brought Betances on instead.

Groundout. So far, so good. Then, walk. Then, another walk. Cliche Alert: Walks can kill you. Then, he hit a batter, to loaded the bases. Then, a pop foul. One more out. Then, a cheap single that brought home the tying and winning runs.

White Sox 4, Yankees 3. WP: Dan Jennings (3-1). No save. LP: Betances (3-2).

Another loss that can be directly blamed on Girardi's bullpen idiocy.

And, since the Boston Red Sox won last night, they now lead the Yankees by 1 game in the American League Eastern Division, although the teams are still level in the all-important loss column, 43-34 to 41-34, with the Yankees having 2 games in hand.

The series continues tonight, Masahiro Tanaka starts against Carlos Rodon.

*

This morning, Knicks executive chairman James Dolan fired team president Phil Jackson, finishing off, at least in terms of competitiveness multiplied by hype, the biggest fiasco in NBA history.

Hank and Hal Steinbrenner continue to keep Brian Cashman and Joe Girardi in jobs for which they continue to show an appalling lack of competence.

Unbelievable.

Jerry Krause, 1939-2017

Within the last 24 hours, I've learned that San Francisco 49ers great Dwight Clark has ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease), that Chicago Bears legend Gale Sayers has football-induced dementia, and that Jerry Krause, who built the Chicago Bulls' dynasty, has died.

Not a good last couple of days for a sports fan.

Jerome Krause was born on April 6, 1939 in Chicago -- no site I can find mentions a middle name -- and grew up in Albany Park on the city's Northwest Side. His 1st job in sports came in 1961, after his graduation from Peoria, Illinois' Bradley University, getting $65 a week (about $530) as, as he put it, "a flunky" and "a glorified gopher" for the Chicago Cubs. After college, he got a job with the NBA's Chicago Zephyrs, but moved with them in 1963, as they became the Baltimore Bullets. (A previous NBA team with that name had played from 1946 to 1954.)

He became a scout with them, and in 1965 he talked them into drafting University of Evansville guard Jerry Sloan. After just 1 season, Sloan was traded to the expansion Chicago Bulls. Sloan and Krause would become legends with the Bulls, but not together.

In 1967, Sloan urged Bullets management to draft Winston-Salem State University guard Earl Monroe and University of North Dakota forward Phil Jackson. They did draft Monroe, but not Jackson. The Knicks drafted Jackson instead, and the Knicks and Bullets played each other in the Playoffs in 6 straight seasons, 1969 to 1974. The Bullets won only in 1971. The next season, the Bullets traded Monroe to the Knicks, who won NBA Championships in 1970 (with Jackson injured) and 1973 (with Jackson and Monroe both contributing).

Krause worked as a scout with the Phoenix Suns, under general manager Jerry Colangelo. He also scouted for the Philadelphia 76ers, the Los Angeles Lakers and the Bulls. In 1980, Jerry Reinsdorf and Eddie Einhorn bought the Chicago White Sox from Bill Veeck, and they brought Krause back to baseball.

That didn't last long. In 1985, Reinsdorf bought the Bulls, fired general manager Rod Thorn, and replaced him with Krause. This was after Michael Jordan's rookie year with the team, and the Bulls had never been to the NBA Finals to that point. Jerry Sloan had become their 1st great player, but was now into coaching.

Krause began to build. In 1987, he drafted 2 guys that much of the NBA had missed: Scottie Pippen of Central Arkansas and Horace Grant of Clemson. In 1988, he made what Jordan initially considered a mistake, trading Charles Oakley to the Knicks to for Bill Cartwright. That trade did work out for the Knicks, but it worked out even better for the Bulls. (You'll notice that Jordan hasn't done too well as an NBA executive. I guess he didn't learn from Krause.)

In 1987, he hired Doug Collins as the Bulls' head coach, and Jackson as his assistant. But the Bulls couldn't get past the Detroit Pistons, in their "Motor City Bad Boys" phase that got them 3 Eastern Conference titles and 2 NBA Championships.

In 1989, Krause fired Collins and promoted Jackson, who became the NBA's greatest motivator since Red Auerbach took the Boston Celtics to 9 titles in 10 years (1957-66); hired Tex Winter as Jackson's assistant; and drafted B.J. Armstrong out of Iowa, completing (with Jordan, Pippen, Cartwright and Grant) the starting 5 that would take the NBA by storm in the 1990s.

After falling to the Pistons again in 1990, the Bulls beat the Knicks in the 1st Round of the Playoffs, then the 76ers, and then dethroned the Pistons in the Eastern Conference Finals. They faced the remnants of the Lakers' dynasty in the Finals, losing Game 1, and then taking 4 straight to win their 1st World Championship. The Bulls had to fight the Knicks off again in 1992 and 1993, but won the title again, defeating the Portland Trail Blazers and then the Phoenix Suns in the Finals.

Just before the 1993-94 season, Michael Jordan "retired." We may never know the full story, but he would be unavailable for that season and most of 1994-95. Krause had already prepared, drafting Croatian sensation Toni Kukoc and trading for Ron Harper and Luc Longley, replacing Grant, Armstrong and Cartwright, respectively. They lost to the Knicks in 1994 and, despite Jordan's return (probably too soon), to the Orlando Magic (with Grant, for whom it was especially sweet) in 1995.

Before the 1995-96 season, Krause pulled off the most audacious NBA trade since the Knicks got Monroe, sending Will Perdue to the San Antonio Spurs for Dennis Rodman. Many thought Rodman, the NBA's top rebounder but a weird guy and a disciplinary problem, uncoachable. They didn't know Phil Jackson: He found a way to reach "The Worm."

The Bulls went 72-10 in 1995-96, setting a new NBA record for victories (since broken by the 2016-17 Golden State Warriors, who, alas, did not win the title). They beat Grant, Shaquille O'Neal and Penny Hardaway's Magic, and went on to beat the Seattle SuperSonics in the Finals, finishing perhaps the greatest NBA season ever. In 1997 and '98, they reached the Finals and, though both were struggles, beat the Utah Jazz, coached by... Jerry Sloan.

But the 1997-98 season became known as "The Last Dance" in Chicago. Contracts were running out. Rumors ran rampant: Player A would only come back if Player B did, Player B wouldn't come back if Player C did, Jackson might not stay on, etc.

And Jordan and Krause didn't get along. Jordan called his drafts easy, and called the obese (5-foot-6 and generously listed as 230 pounds) Krause "Crumbs." Jordan had to be The Man. The problem was, "the greatest of all time" (no, he wasn't, Wilt Chamberlain was) may have been The Man, but, on the Bulls, he was not The Boss.

And Jackson and Krause weren't getting along, either. Jackson was telling the media that his coaching, not Krause's dealing, was the reason for the Bulls' 5 titles to that point. Gee, Phil, wasn't one of those dealings to hire you? On the Bulls, Jackson was not The Boss, either.

Krause was. He had already told Iowa State coach Tim Floyd that he would coach the Bulls in the 1998-99 season. He told Jackson, "I don't care if it's 82-0 this year: You're fucking gone."

But Krause's ego turned out to be as big as Jordan's and Jackson's. Krause -- and, to be fair, Pippen, too -- wanted to prove he could win a title without Jordan. So he let the contracts run out, and he let Jackson and Jordan leave. Of the 15 players on the Bulls' 1997-98 roster, under Jackson, only 7 were still there under Floyd in 1998-99: Harper, Kukoc, Keith Booth, Randy Brown, Rusty LaRue, Dickey Simpkins and Bill Wennington. And aside from Harper and Kukoc, these were not guys you could use as building blocks for a new champion. The Bulls fell from a 62-20 in the 6th and last title season to 13-37 in the strike shortened 1998-99 season (a pace for 21-61).

In the 19 seasons since Jackson left, the Bulls have had 9 head coaches. They didn't even make the Playoffs again until 2005, have won just 5 Playoff series, have reached 1 Conference Finals (in 2011), and have not reached the NBA Finals. Their stars have been Elton Brand, Ben Gordon, Luol Deng, Brad Miller, Ron Artest (Metta World Peace), Jamal Crawford, Tyson Chandler, Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah. None of those men is with the Bulls any longer.

Bulls fans were furious: He had broken up perhaps the greatest NBA team ever to satisfy his own ego, and turned it into the worst team in the NBA, an absolute laughingstock. He became the most hated man in Chicago since Abbie Hoffman.

But a 2005 ESPN Top 5 Reasons You Can't Blame... episode showed that much of the blame lay elsewhere, including with Jordan, Jackson, and Reinsdorf, who, as owner, was the one man who could have overridden all of it and put a stop to all the nonsense going on during and after The Last Dance, but didn't.

(It would have been easy to blame Reinsdorf: White Sox fans already hated him, and he'd demolished two beloved venues and replaced them with soulless corporate sports palaces: The Sox' Comiskey Park, and the Bulls' and Blackhawks' former home, Chicago Stadium.)

In 2003, Reinsdorf asked Krause to leave as Bulls GM. He did so, and was replaced by John Paxson, a player from the 1991-93 threepeat. Reinsdorf raised a banner for Krause to the rafters of the United Center, as if it were a retired uniform number. Eventually, Krause and Jackson made peace with each other. By that point, though, Jackson had won 5 more NBA titles, coaching the Los Angeles Lakers, his 11 surpassing Auerbach's 9.

Of course, Auerbach was also an executive, and he oversaw 16 titles. Jackson would be named president of the Knicks in 2014, and he publicly said that Krause's model for building a team -- the model that was realized in 1991, not the one he tried after 1998 -- would be his own. But, just as Jordan, now owner of the Charlotte Hornets, has been a bust in management, so has Jackson: The Knicks are no closer to a title now than they were when they were facing the Krause-Jackson-Jordan Bulls.

Krause returned to baseball when George Steinbrenner asked him to scout for the Yankees. The Mets hired him away soon thereafter. In 2010, Reinsdorf brought him back to Chicago -- with the White Sox. In 2011, Jerry Colangelo hired him to scout for the baseball team he now owned, the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Jerry Krause retired last year, as his oft-mocked eating habits began to catch up with him, and his health would no longer allow him an active role. He died this morning, March 21, 2017, at the age of 77. He is survived by his wife Thelma, his children Stacy and David, and his grandchildren Colette, Josh, Mia and Riley.

Although the Bulls honored him with a banner, he has not yet been elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame, unlike Reinsdorf, Jackson, Winter, Jordan, Pippen, Sloan and Colangelo. It should have been done while he was alive.

UPDATE: Krause's final resting place is not publicly known. Following the Basketball Hall of Fame election of 2019, he is still not in.

How to Go to a Knicks Game -- 2016-17 Edition

The Major League Baseball and Major League Soccer seasons are coming to their respective closes. Football season is well underway. Hockey season is in its early stages. Now, basketball season is about to arrive.

The New York Knickerbockers, or Knicks for short, open away to the defending NBA Champion Cleveland Cavaliers on Tuesday, October 25; and have their home opener on Saturday, October 29, at 7:30 PM, against the Memphis Grizzlies.

The team formerly known as the New Jersey Americans, the New York Nets and the New Jersey Nets, now the Brooklyn Nets, open on Wednesday, October 26, away to the Boston Celtics; and have their home opener on Friday, October 28, against the Indiana Pacers.

Since the Knicks are the more popular club, I'll start with them.

Before You Go. In New York and North Jersey, anything is possible as far as the weather goes, but since you'll be mainly indoors, and you'll probably be taking the Subway to The Garden, it won't be nearly as much of an issue as it would be going to Yankee Stadium, Citi Field or MetLife Stadium.

It's the Eastern Time Zone, so you don't have to worry about fiddling with your timepieces if you actually are a Knicks fan, or a fan of any of the teams in the East visiting them. It's 1 hour ahead of the Central Time Zone, 2 hours ahead of Mountain, and 3 hours ahead of Pacific.

Tickets. This is a big question mark. Of course, you should have your tickets purchased online before you go. Buying a ticket from a scalper in front of The Garden is nearly always a bad idea. Even if you can afford it, the principle of the thing should prevent you from doing so.

That said, the Knicks up-and-down recent history means that tickets could well be available to most games. You're going to find it tough to get seats to see LeBron James and the Miam-- I mean, the Cleveland Cavaliers. And to see Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers. But most other teams shouldn't be automatic sellouts. And, thus far, the Nets' move to Brooklyn hasn't drummed up much interest in a rivalry with the Knicks, so even those games (at least, at The Garden) should be available.

The Knicks averaged 19,812 fans per game last season, a sellout, but a lot of those tickets sold late. And, since I'm doing this a few days before the regular season starts, and you have 41 home dates from which to choose, you should be able to get to see a good game or two, if not the specific games you want.

Even without scalpers getting involved, Knicks tickets are notoriously expensive. Courtside seats run $772 -- and that's on Ticketmaster, not from a scalper. 100 Level seats run $306 between the baskets and $158 behind them. 200 Level seats cost $152. 300 Level seats are $141 between the baskets and $130 behind them. 400 Level seats -- once known as "the Blue Seats" for the color of their paint, the color of the air due to all the cigarette smoke that used to be allowed inside but is no longer, and the color of the language that tended to emanate from the patrons -- go for $74.

Getting There. For reasons that will soon become clear, I'm advising you to get to New York/New Jersey by a means other than driving: Plane, train, bus. Hotels in the City are ridiculously expensive, and you may be better off getting a hotel outside, in New Jersey or Westchester or Long Island; adding the cost of public transportation -- New Jersey Transit, Metro-North or the Long Island Rail Road -- will still be cheaper than most Manhattan hotels.

Madison Square Garden was built on top of Pennsylvania Station, the northern (or eastern) anchor of the old Pennsylvania Railroad. If you live near any Amtrak station, you can get to The Garden. This is especially true if you live in a city on the Northeast Corridor, from Boston to Washington: In 5 hours or less, you can get from your hometown to The Garden.

7th Avenue entrance to Penn Station and The Garden

Because of its attachment to Penn Station, The Garden is also accessible by commuter rail, both New Jersey Transit and the LIRR; and by multiple Subway lines: The 8th Avenue lines, the A, C and E; the 7th Avenue lines, the 1, 2 and 3; and, a block away at 6th Avenue, the 6th Avenue lines, the B, D and F; the Broadway lines, N, Q and R; and the Port Authority Trans-Hudson (PATH) system from New Jersey.

If you came into The City on a Greyhound bus, Port Authority Bus Terminal is at 42nd Street and 8th Avenue, just 1 stop on the A, C or E train from The Garden, whose station is listed as "34th St - Penn Station."

Once In the City. The city of New Amsterdam, and the colony of New Netherland, was founded by the Dutch in 1624. In 1664, the English took over, and named both city and colony New York, for the Duke of York, brother of King Charles II. As none of Charles' many children were legitimate, when he died in 1685, that brother became King James II -- and his reign did not end well, and let's leave it at that.

New York County, a.k.a. the Borough of Manhattan, was also named for James. "Manahatta" was an Indian word meaning "island of many hills." Kings County was named for King Charles, but the Dutch name Breuckelen stuck, and it became the City, and after 1898 the Borough, of Brooklyn. Queens County, or the Borough of Queens, was named for King Charles' Portuguese wife, Catherine of Braganza. Richmond County was named for one of Charles' sons, Charles Lennox, Earl of Richmond, but the Dutch name Staaten Eylandt stuck, and it became the Borough of Staten Island. And Jonas Bronck settled the land north of Manhattan, which became known as Bronck's Land, which somehow morphed into "The Bronx." Apparently, the "The" became attached because of the Bronx River that passes through it, as rivers are still frequently called that: The Hudson is, although never "The Harlem" or "The East." Anyway, it's the Borough of The Bronx and Bronx County.

When the British occupied Manhattan after driving George Washington's Continental Army out in 1776, they burned it, and this is why there are very few remaining pre-19th Century buildings anywhere in the City (unlike such other Revolutionary-era cities as Boston and Philadelphia). After the British went home, the City's port, and location between 2 rivers, made it the richest in the Western Hemisphere, and was a big reason why America became a world power over the next 200 years.

New York has been the most populous city in America since surpassing Philadelphia in the post-Revolutionary period, and now has about 8.4 million people living in the Five Boroughs. About 23 million live in the New York Metropolitan Area, a.k.a. the New York Tri-State Area.

The City is also part of "the New York Metropolitan Area" or "the New York Tri-State Area," which includes parts of New York State not in the City (such as Long Island, Nassau and Suffolk Counties; and the Lower Hudson Valley, such as Westchester County) and the States of New Jersey and Connecticut.

New York has a street grid, but doesn't quite follow a centerpoint system. For the east-west numbered Streets in Manhattan, below Washington Square Park, Broadway is the divider between the East Side and the West Side; above Washington Square to the Harlem River, it's 5th Avenue; in The Bronx, it's Jerome Avenue.

North of 14th Street, streets will be a bit easier to navigate, as they will follow the 1811 grid plan. South of 14th Street, you may end up as confused, as this oldest part of the City doesn't always pay attention to the grid. If you're a comic book fan, there's a running gag that Metropolis, hometown of the optimistic superhero Superman, is Manhattan north of 14th Street on a beautiful spring day; while Gotham City, hometown of the brooding crimefighter Batman, is Manhattan south of 14th Street, a few minutes after midnight, on a cold rainy day in November.

In the grid, Manhattan has (almost exclusively) numbered streets running (more or less) east-west, and (mostly) numbered avenues running (more or less) north-south. The numbered streets go up to 264th Street in The Bronx. Brooklyn and Queens also have numbered streets and numbered avenues, but they're a lot more confusing; when someone in New York says, "34th Street" or "5th Avenue," 95 percent of the time, they'll mean the one in Manhattan.

"Lower Manhattan" or "Downtown" is pretty much everything south of 14th Street, including Houston Street (pronounced HOW-stin, not HYOO-stin like the Texas city), which is, effectively, Zero Street. "Uptown" is pretty much everything in Manhattan north of 59th Street, from the southern edge of Central Park upward. "Midtown" is between 14th and 59th, and is where most of the touristy stuff is.

On the East Side, the Avenues go 5th, Madison, Park (which takes the place of 4th Avenue above Union Square), Lexington, 3rd, 2nd, 1st, York, East End. Numbered Streets will reach an address of 1 at 5th, 100 at Park, 200 at 3rd, 300 at 2nd, 400 at 1st. On the Lower East Side, this extends to 500 at Avenue A, 600 at Avenue B, 700 at Avenue C and 800 at Avenue D. (A, B, C and D, hence the nickname for this neighborhood: "Alphabet City.") The Franklin D. Roosevelt Drive, a.k.a. the FDR Drive, formerly the East River Drive and once so dangerous it was said that FDR stood for "Falling Down Roadway," separates the island from the East River.

On the West Side, the Avenues go 6th, a.k.a. Avenue of the Americas, Lenox Avenue or Malcolm X Blvd. above Central Park; 7th, a.k.a. Fashion Avenue, or Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd. above Central Park; 8th, Central Park West above 59th Street, or Frederick Douglass Blvd. above Central Park; 9th, Columbus Avenue above 59th, or Morningside Drive above 110th; 10th, Amsterdam Avenue above 59th; 11th, West End Avenue above 59th, merging with Broadway at 108th; and Riverside Drive. The West Side Highway, a.k.a. the Joe DiMaggio Highway, separates the island from the Hudson River.

The north-south numbered Avenues start with 1 at their southern ends, and the addresses go up going Uptown, but there's no set pattern (such as every X blocks = 100 house numbers), and they vary as to where they begin: 

Broadway, The Battery at the island's southern tip; 1st and 2nd, Houston Street; 3rd, 9th Street; Lexington, 21st Street; Park, 32nd Street (Park Avenue South extends to 17th Street); Madison, 23rd Street (at Madison Square); 5th, Washington Square North (roughly, 6th Street); 6th, Franklin Street (the only numbered Avenue below Houston, so it's about -12th Street); 7th, 11th Street (7th Avenue South extends to Carmine Street, roughly at Houston or Zero); 8th, Bleecker Street (roughly 10th Street at that point); 9th, Gansevoort Street (roughly 12th Street); 10th and 11th, 13th Street; 12th, 22nd Street.

The outlier is Broadway, which starts at the southern tip of Manhattan (known as The Battery), and remains more or less straight until 10th Street, at which point it curves to (more or less) the northwest, until 78th Street, at which point it straightens out again. However, this northerly description I gave forces me to point out that, like 2nd, Lexington, 5th, 7th, 9th and 11th Avenues, Broadway traffic runs Downtown. The Uptown-running Avenues are 1st, 3rd, Madison, 6th, 8th and 10th. Park Avenue is the only one that goes both ways.

Where Broadway intersects with the numbered avenues, there are frequently "squares," although this does not accurately reflect the actual shapes of the intersections. These include:

* Union Square, at 14th Street and Park Avenue.
* Madison Square, at 23rd Street and 5th Avenue.
* Herald Square, at 34th Street and 6th Avenue.
* Times Square, at 42nd Street and 7th Avenue.
* Columbus Circle, at 59th Street and 8th Avenue.

Times Square

The Subway system looks complicated, and it is. The blue lines (A, C & E), orange lines (B, D & F) and red lines (1, 2 & 3) are on the West Side; the green lines (4, 5 & 6) on the East Side; the yellow lines (N, Q & R) go from the East Side when Downtown to the West Side in Midtown, and then cross over to Queens. A single ride is $2.50, and you're better off getting a multi-ride MetroCard. There will be a $1.00 charge for a new card.

Pennsylvania Station, a.k.a. Penn Station, is between 31st and 33rd Streets, between 7th and 8th Avenues. Port Authority Bus Terminal is between 40th and 42nd Streets, between 8th and 9th Avenues. They are one stop apart on the Subway's A, C and E trains. Outside Port Authority, there is a statue of Jackie Gleason dressed as bus driver Ralph Kramden on The Honeymooners, one of a series of statues commissioned by cable network TV Land.

When you get to your hotel, Penn Station or Port Authority, if you have time to read, go to a Hudson News stand and pick up copies of The New York Times and the Daily News. Believe me, reading the New York papers on your computer or smartphone just isn't the same. In many ways, New York was a city built on newspapers, and there's nothing like turning the page of the Times or the Daily News to find another good story, especially the City features and the sports section, to get a feel for what people in The City are really thinking and feeling.

Don’t read the New York Post. Like anything owned by Rupert Murdoch, it’s a bunch of right-wing lies with an occasionally good sports section added. The Times and the Daily News, however, are not only manned by responsible journalists, but have great sports sections. The Times is the face New York City likes to show the rest of the world. The Daily News is the face the City prefers to show itself. The Post is a face only a mother could love. Not my mother, though. Nor hers.

The sales tax in New York City is 8.875 percent, in New Jersey 7 percent. ZIP Codes for Manhattan begin with the digits 100 (including the Knicks' team offices, in 10001), with a few examples of 101 (including the Madison Square Garden Corporation, at 10119, and the Rangers' team offices, in 10121) and 102.

New York's Area Code started as 212, but 718 was split off in 1984, for Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island. The Bronx was also split off and moved to 718 in 1992. Now, only Manhattan has 212, with 917 overlaid in 1992, 646 in 1999, and 332 will be added this coming June 10.

Going In. The 4th and current version of Madison Square Garden is 1 of 10 arenas shared by an NBA team and an NHL team. It has only one real entrance, and that's on the 7th Avenue side. You'll see giant posters referencing the current Knick and Ranger squads, and historic moments that occurred at The Garden. Besides those involving the home team, these include: The 1st fight between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier (the 2nd was also held there, but was far less significant because neither man then held the title), Nadia Comaneci performing the 1st perfect 10 in an international gymnastics meet (before doing it again later in the year at the Olympics at the Montreal Forum), and various concerts and political conventions.

Once your ticket is scanned, you will be directed to a "tower" at one of the "corners" of this completely round arena: Tower A (33rd & 8th), Tower B (33rd & 7th), Tower C (31st & 7th) or Tower D (31st & 8th). These are escalator towers, and will make it easier for you to find your seating section. Although I am a Devils fan and I hate the Rangers (I'd say I hate their guts, but they are completely gutless), the only things I don't like about The Garden as a structure are these escalator towers (they take too long, going either up or down) and the narrowness of the concourses (about half the width of those at the Prudential Center, and no wider than those at the inadequate Nassau Coliseum).

The 100 and 200 Levels are now accessed by the Madison Concourse on the building's 6th Floor. The 300 and 400 Levels are accessed by the Garden Concourse on the 10th Floor. The old color system of red seats down below, white in the middle and blue up top is long gone. So is the system that replaced it, of purple seats in the 100 and 200 Levels and aquamarine in the 300 and 400s. They're all purple now. Fortunately, there really isn't a bad seat in the house, not even in the 400 Level, and the sound carries spectacularly well.

Food. Although New York is one of the world's great food cities, The Garden isn't exactly known for great food. There are specialty stands of interest, though. The 10th Floor has Garden Market between Towers B & C (on the 7th Avenue side), and the 6th Floor has one behind Sections 108 and 115.

Also on the 6th Floor, there is Carlos and Gabby's Kosher & Mexican Grill (I don't know whether to say, "Oy vey!" or "iAy caramba!") at 111, and Senzai Sushi at 118. Ice cream is available at 110, and 16 Handles Frozen Yogurt at 115. "Coffee and Deserts" are at 114.

Team History Displays. The NBA, founded in 1946, celebrates its 70th Anniversary in the 2016-17 season, and the Knicks do the same, with a 70th Anniversary logo, and with occasional Hardwood Classic (a.k.a. "throwback") jersey nights: November 2 vs. Houston, November 12 vs. Toronto, December 7 vs. Cleveland, January 15 vs. Toronto, January 27 vs. Charlotte, February 6 vs. the Lakers, March 29 vs. Miami and April 2 vs. Boston -- although only the Boston and L.A. games make sense, since only those 2 teams were, like the Knicks, playing prior to 1971.

There used to be a "Madison Square Garden Hall of Fame," with the names listed on the marquee at the main doors on the 7th Avenue side. That was removed a few years ago. But the Knicks and Rangers still hang banners for their titles and their retired numbers. The Knicks banners are as follows:

* NBA Championships: 1970 and 1973.

* Conference Championships (other than the preceding): 1951, 1952, 1953, 1972, 1994 and 1999.

* Division Championships (other than the preceding): 1971, 1989, 1993 and 2013.

Retired Numbers: 10, Walt "Clyde" Frazier, guard 1967-77 and now broadcaster; 12, Dick Barnett, guard 1965-74; 15, retired twice, for Dick McGuire, guard 1949-57 and chief scout that set up the early 1970s Knick champions, and Earl "the Pearl" Monroe, guard 1972-80; 19, Willis Reed, center 1964-74; 22, Dave DeBusschere, forward 1969-74; 24, Bill Bradley, forward 1967-77 and later a U.S. Senator from New Jersey; 33, Patrick Ewing, center 1985-2000; and 613, representing the number of regular-season coaching wins for Red Holzman, 1967-82. (Reed's number was the 1st retired, in 1976.)

If you're keeping track, McGuire's is the only one from before the 1970 title, and Ewing's is the only one from after the 1973 title, so if you're expecting John Starks' 3, Charles Oakley's 34, or Carmelo Anthony's 7 to go up anytime within the next 10 years, forget it, unless the Knicks win another title while 'Melo's still there. (Don't count on it, they might be better off without him.)

In addition to those figures, there are other men associated with the Knicks in the Basketball Hall of Fame. All of the retired number honorees are in the Hall except Barnett.

The other Hall-of-Famers who can be said to have gotten in on the basis of their Knick tenures are: 1950s guard Richie Guerin (who wore 9, not a common number, so perhaps it should be retired), 1950s forward Nat "Sweetwater" Clifton (8, ditto, and also the 1st black Knick), 1950s forward Harry Gallatin,  and 1980s forward Bernard King. Jerry Lucas, a star with the Cincinnati Royals most of his career, wrapped things up with the Knicks, and helped to win the 1973 title. Other Knicks who got into the Hall of Fame mainly based on what they did elsewhere include Tom Gola, Walt Bellamy, and coaches Hubie Brown, Rick Pitino and Larry Brown.

Frazier, Monroe, Reed, DeBusschere, Lucas and Ewing were named to the NBA's 50th Anniversary 50 Greatest Players.

The Garden is also home to the New York Liberty, winners of the WNBA's Eastern Conference in 1997, 1999, 2000 and 2002, but have never won a title. Teresa Weatherspoon, Becky Hammon and Cappie Pondexter -- but not Rebecca Lobo, oddly -- were named to the WNBA's 15th Anniversary 15 Greatest Players. None is with the team anymore. "T-Spoon" wore Number 11, which the Libs have listed as an "Honored Number," not a "Retired Number," and so there's no banner for it. But neither is it currently being worn. No banners for the Libs hang at The Garden.

In addition to the Knicks' and Rangers' banners, 2 music legends were honored with banners at The Garden: Bronx-born, Long Island-raised Billy Joel had a Number 12 banner, for the Garden record 12 straight sellout concerts he played in 2006; and Elton John, who had played The Garden more than any other musical performer, including for the 60th time on his 60th birthday, got a Number 60 banner for that occasion. He's now played it 64 times -- each and every one a sellout. However, Billy has now broken both records: 66, and 13 in a row, and has banners honoring those.

There aren't, however, banners honoring some other landmark concerts at The Garden, though some of these are mentioned at the entrance:

* February 11, 1968: Frank Sinatra opened what was then officially called "The Madison Square Garden Center."

* August 1, 1971: George Harrison hosted the Concert for Bangladesh, also including fellow ex-Beatle Ringo Starr, Bob Dylan and Eric Clapton. (While the Beatles did play New York on all 3 of their North American tours, they did not play the old Garden, which generally did not book rock and roll shows. Instead, they played Carnegie Hall, the Paramount Theater in Times Square, the Forest Hills tennis stadium in Queens and Shea Stadium twice.)

* June 9, 10 and 11, 1972: Elvis Presley became the 1st performer to sell out what was still being called "The New Garden" 3 times, and a 4th show was added (a matinee on the 10th).

* August 30, 1972: John Lennon led the Plastic Ono Band at "The One to One Concert," a benefit for children with developmental disabilities, which was recorded for the album (and filmed for the movie) Live in New York City. It turned out to be his last full-length concert appearance. This is how big John was at that time: Stevie Wonder, already one of the greatest musical personalities of the 20th Century, opened for him.

* July 27 to 29, 1973: Led Zeppelin played the shows that formed the concert film The Song Remains the Same.

* November 28, 1974: Elton John played on Thanksgiving, and invited Lennon onto the stage with him to sing "Whatever Gets You Through the Night," "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" and "I Saw Her Standing There." This turned out to be Lennon's last public musical performance.

* October 16, 1992: Columbia Records celebrated the 30th Anniversary of their release of Dylan's 1st album with a tribute concert, which Neil Young nicknamed "Bobfest." It included Harrison, Clapton, Wonder, Young, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, Tom Petty, and, controversially since she'd just torn up a picture of the Pope on Saturday Night Live, Sinead O'Connor. Dylan, whose performances range from clear to mumbled to totally unpredictable, was at the top of his game -- he had to be, with that lineup.

* September 7 and 10, 2001: An all-star show honoring Michael Jackson featured several performers singing his songs, before The Gloved One himself closed the shows. The day after the 2nd show was September 11, so this was the last big New York event before the attacks.

* October 20, 2001: The Concert for New York City raised funds for rebuilding after the attacks. David Bowie opened and Ex-Beatle Paul McCartney closed a show that included Joel, John, Clapton, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards from the Rolling Stones, The Who (it was John Entwistle's last concert before he died), Bon Jovi, and Jay-Z and Beyoncé (who performed with Destiny's Child). Michael Jackson did not perform, but his sister Janet did. Melissa Etheridge's microphone went out while she was singing "Come to My Window," but the crowd sang along and allowed her to finish the song. She also sang "Born to Run," although I don't know why Bruce Springsteen wasn't there. It may have been the biggest array of talent ever brought together for a single concert. As Mick said, "If there's one thing we've learned from all of this, it's that you don't fuck with New York City!"

* September 20, 2005: From the Big Apple to the Big Easy, raising funds for rebuilding New Orleans and nearby communities devastated by Hurricane Katrina 3 weeks earlier. Performers included Elton, Simon & Garfunkel, John Fogerty, Bette Midler and Jimmy Buffett.

* December 12, 2012: The "12-12-12" Concert raised funds for relief of Hurricane Sandy. Springsteen opened, and this was one of the few times that he and Joel have ever appeared together. It also featured McCartney and the surviving members of Nirvana, the Stones, Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend of The Who, Clapton, Bon Jovi, Roger Waters of Pink Floyd, Alicia Keys, Sean Combs and Kanye West.

Stuff. There are souvenir stands all over The Garden, including at the front entrance. The Garden teams also now have the MSG Team Store open a block away at the Manhattan Mall at Herald Square.

There are many good books about the Knicks. Sadly, their team stores do not seem to sell them, and the Borders store that was at the Penn Plaza complex is gone. You'll have to get them elsewhere. Alan Hahn and Knick legend Bernard King collaborated on New York Knicks: The Complete Illustrated History, tracking the team from its 1946 founding to the book's 2012 publication.

In 2003, Dennis D'Agostino published Garden Glory: An Oral History of the New York Knicks, which, understandably, focused on the glory years after the new Garden opened in 1968, to 1973. Along the same lines, longtime New York Times basketball writer Harvey Araton published When the Garden Was Eden: Clyde, the Captain, Dollar Bill, and the Glory Days of the New York Knicks, which was recently made into a documentary for ESPN's 30 for 30 series -- as was June 17, 1994, the night a Knicks NBA Finals game at The Garden competed for TV time with the O.J. Simpson Bronco chase in Los Angeles. (Clyde was Frazier, the Captain was Reed, and Dollar Bill was Bradley.)

The NBA has released 2 standard team DVDs: NBA Dynasty Series -- New York Knicks -- The Complete History (well, it was complete when it was released in 2005), and The Essentials: Five All-Time Great Games of the New York Knicks.

Unfortunately, the latter set does not include either of their title clinchers, Game 7 in 1970 (and ESPN Classic has shown the original ABC broadcast many times, so we know that one exists intact and in full color) and Game 5 in 1973, both over the Lakers. The 5 games in question are a 1984 deciding Game 5 against the Detroit Pistons, showing Bernard King at his peak; Game 7 of the 1994 Conference Finals against the Indiana Pacers with Knick bête noire Reggie Miller; Game 5 of the 1999 1st round against the already-hated Miami Heat; Game 3 of the 1999 Conference Finals against the Pacers; and, for those fans whose knowledge doesn't even go back to the Ewing years, a 2012 thriller against the Chicago Bulls.

During the Game. A November 13, 2014 article on DailyRotoHelp ranked the NBA teams' fan bases, and listed the Knicks' fans at 4th. It cites the constant sellouts, but also ignores the fact that a lot of those seats are sold but not filled, and points out that the huge fan base makes those sellouts possible.

Although New Yorkers and New Jerseyans can be intense, a visiting fan will probably be safe attending a Knick game at Madison Square Garden, even if you're wearing gear of the opposing team. All the same, exercise discretion if you're wearing Boston Celtics stuff. Any other team's fans will most likely be subject to nothing more than a few verbal jabs.

A Ranger game is another matter entirely: I don't recommend that to anyone. Ranger fans are animals. Ironically, they're pretty much the same people. Why hockey makes them animals and basketball merely passionate fans, who knows.

Much of the fun of going to a Knick game is spotting the celebrities. Spike Lee is the most noticeable one, but know this: When the Knicks finally won their 1st title on May 8, 1970, Spike, then 12 years old, was there, in the Blue Seats at the top of the building. Woody Allen, then a superstar standup comic and beginning his career as a film director, was already at courtside. Jay-Z and Beyoncé haven't been around since the former bought into the Nets, but you can probably still find comedians like Jerry Seinfeld, Paul Reiser, Richard Lewis, Chris Rock and Tracy Morgan. Actor Richard Gere still goes, and you might see Samuel L. Jackson.

One celebrity you will not see at a Knicks game these days is Marvin Cooper, a.k.a. Dancing Harry. He was a Baltimore Bullets fan who danced in honor of Earl Monroe. When the Knicks traded for the Pearl early in the 1971-72 season, Cooper went up Interstate 95, and started dancing at Knick games. He would even wiggle his fingers at the opposition, in an attempt to put a hex on them. Teams didn't have dance squads in those days, so this was something new.

After the 1973 title, Knick president Ned Irish told him he couldn't dance in the aisle anymore. He did it anyway, and was kicked out. So he went out to Long Island to dance for the Nets, and they won the 1974 ABA title. The Indiana Pacers hired him for the 1975 ABA Playoffs, but they fell short. He soon returned to Baltimore to care for his ill mother, and is still alive, and notes that the Knicks haven't won the NBA title since they got rid of him.

(In case you're wondering: No, Larry Goodman, a.k.a. Dancin' Larry at the Ranger games, does not dance at Knick games. The Lakers also once had a Dancing Barry, who danced in a suit, but wearing a half a basketball on his head, with eyeholes cut out.)

The Knicks do not have a regular National Anthem singer, unlike the Rangers with John Amirante. But celebrities are frequently on hand to sing it. The Knicks do not have a mascot. Nor do they have cheerleaders, but they do have the Knicks City Dancers. This shouldn't surprise anyone who knows the Madison Square Garden Corporation now owns Radio City Music Hall, home of the Rockettes.

If you're watching on TV, you may hear one of the announcers, in the tradition of Marv Albert, refer to the action moving toward "the 8th Avenue side of the building" or "the 7th Avenue side of the building." Watching on TV, the 8th Avenue side is to the left of the screen, the 7th Avenue side to the right.

The Knicks have used "Go New York, Go New York, Go!" as their fight song since 1993.

After the Game. New York's reputation as a high-crime city hasn't been true in years. And Knick fans, much more so than Ranger or Yankee Fans, are likely to leave you alone on your way out. You'll be directed to one of the escalator towers at the corners, but this will take a while.

There are dozens of bars around The Garden that are popular among postgamers. If this is your 1st time in New York, and you don't know them, my advice is to ignore the chain restaurants, and just follow people who look like they know where they're going. If you got a hotel, and nothing around The Garden appeals to you (I don't see why at least 1 wouldn't), there may be a bar more to your liking near your hotel.

If you're visiting New York during the European soccer season, as we are now in, there are many places where you can watch your favorite team. The best "football pub" in The City, and, indeed, in the country, is The Football Factory, downstairs at Legends NYC, at 6 West 33rd Street, across from the Empire State Building, and 2 blocks east from The Garden. B, D, F, N, Q or R train to 34th Street-Herald Square.

Sidelights. This is where I discuss other sports-related sites in the metropolitan area in question, and then move on to tourist attractions that have no (or little) connection to sports. Since most people reading this will be from the Tri-State Area, I'll keep it short as possible.

There is a Madison Square, where 23rd Street, 5th Avenue & Broadway all come together. The 1st 2 buildings to be named Madison Square Garden went up across from it, in 1879 and 1891, respectively, at 26th & Madison.

The 1879 Garden

The 2nd Garden hosts a few prizefights, and the 1924 Democratic Convention, which, under the old 2/3rds rule, went to 103 ballots before compromising and nominating John W. Davis for President, and he lost badly to incumbent Calvin Coolidge.

The 1891 Garden

The New York Life Insurance Company held the mortgage on the 2nd Garden, and in 1925 decided it wanted the land for its headquarters, which still stands on the site (the official address is 51 Madison Avenue). It's about a mile south of the new Garden.

But Tex Rickard, who ran the boxing promotions at The Garden, had made so much money (mainly off promoting fights of Heavyweight Champion Jack Dempsey, that he could afford to build a new Garden all by himself. He did so, at 49th Street & 8th Avenue. This building, now usually referred to as "the old Garden," became "the Mecca of Basketball" and "the Mecca of Boxing."

From 1935 until its closing in 1968, it became famous for its basketball doubleheaders, both collegiate and professional. It hosted what we would now call the NCAA Final Four in 1943 (Wyoming over Georgetown), 1944 (Utah over Dartmouth), 1945 (Oklahoma A&M, which became Oklahoma State in 1958, over New York University), 1946 (Oklahoma State over North Carolina), 1947 (Holy Cross over Oklahoma), 1948 (Kentucky over Baylor) and 1950 (City College over Bradley).

But in 1951, the college basketball point-shaving scandal hit, and all the schools that used the old Garden as a secondary home court -- NYU, CCNY, St. John's, Long Island University and Fordham -- were hit. (Only St. John's would survive as a legitimate program, and still use the new Garden as a home court for games where ticket demand exceeded an on-campus facility.) The NIT suffered, and, while it's still held at the new Garden today, it was so degraded in the eyes of the public that the NCAA Champion became viewed as the National Champion. The Final Four has only been held in the Tri-State Area once since, in 1996 at the Meadowlands (Kentucky over Syracuse), and unless MetLife Stadium or Citi Field gets a dome, it will never happen here again.

The old Garden was torn down shortly after the new Garden opened, and a skyscraper called Worldwide Plaza is on the site now. Underneath, the 50th Street station on the Subway's C & E lines has a mural depicting events at the old Garden.

It was torn down shortly after the new Garden opened, and a skyscraper called Worldwide Plaza is on the site now. Underneath, the 50th Street station on the Subway's C & E lines has a mural depicting events at the old Garden. It's about a mile north of the new Garden.

The 1925 Garden

Both the Giants (1925-55) and the Jets (1960-63) used to play at the Polo Grounds. So did the baseball Giants (1890-1957), the Yankees (1913-22) and the Mets (1962-63). 155th Street & 8th Avenue in Upper Manhattan. D train to 155th Street. Definitely visit in daylight only.

The original Yankee Stadium, the former home of the Yankees (1923-2008) and the Giants (1956-73), was on the south side of 161st Street at River Avenue. The new Stadium is on the north side. It's about 6 1/2 miles north of The Garden. D or 4 train to 161st Street.

Shea Stadium, the former home of the Mets (1964-2008) and Jets (1964-83), and where the Yankees played while the old Yankee Stadium was being renovated (1974-75), was in Flushing Meadow, Queens, just to the west of the new Mets ballpark, Citi Field. The Giants played 1 season there, 1975. Across Roosevelt Avenue is the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, site of the U.S. Open, including stadiums named for Arthur Ashe and Louis Armstrong (a big sports fan, including tennis, who lived his last years nearby in Corona). 7 train to Mets-Willets Point. About 8 miles east of the Garden.

The Meadowlands complex, home to the Giants since 1976, the Jets since 1984, the Devils from 1982 to 2007, the Nets from 1981 to 2010, and the New York Red Bulls (until 2005, the New York/New Jersey MetroStars) from 1996 to 2009, is accessible by New Jersey Transit rail, but only on football games days. Otherwise, you'll have to take the New Jersey Transit 320 bus from Port Authority. About 8 miles west of the Garden.

Now, the Nets play at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, and the Islanders will join them there for the 2015-16 season. 620 Atlantic Avenue & Flatbush Avenue. 2, 3, 4, 5, D, N or R train to Atlantic Avenue. About 5 miles southeast of the Garden.

The Islanders have moved into the Barclays Center as well, after playing their 1st 43 years at the Nassau Coliseum. The Nets also played their best years (1971-77) there. 1255 Hempstead Turnpike in Hempstead (the mailing address is Uniondale). Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) from Penn Station to Hempstead Terminal, then transfer to N70, N71 or N72 bus. About 27 miles east of the Garden.

The Devils now play at the Prudential Center in Newark. So does the basketball team at Seton Hall University of South Orange. 165 Mulberry Street & Edison Place. New Jersey Transit rail from New York's Penn Station to Newark's station of the same name. About 11 miles southwest of the Garden.

The New York Red Bulls have played at Red Bull Arena in Harrison since 2010. 600 Cape May Street. PATH to Harrison. Also about 11 miles southwest of the Garden.

The Giants played half of 1973 and all of 1974 at the Yale Bowl in New Haven, Connecticut. Metro-North from Grand Central to New Haven, then walk from Union Station to Chapel Street, and take the F bus. About 78 miles northeast of the Garden.

Of the other notable sports-playing colleges in the area, St. John's University is in Jamaica, Queens, about 12 miles east; Columbia University's Baker Field/Wien Stadium is at the northern tip of Manhattan at 220th Street & Broadway, 10 miles north; the U.S. Military Academy (a.k.a. "Army") is in West Point, Orange County, 55 miles north; Syracuse's Carrier Dome is 248 miles to the northwest; Rutgers' High Point Solutions Stadium is in Piscataway, New Jersey, 39 miles southwest; and Princeton's Powers Field is 52 miles southwest.

However, because of the distance involved, I'd say forget the New Jersey, Long Island and Connecticut places, unless you're a sports nut with more than 1 day to spare.

If you have more than 1 day (and more than a little money) to spend in and around New York, I do recommend the American Museum of Natural History (79th Street & Central Park West, C train to 81st Street), the Metropolitan Museum of Art (82nd Street & 5th Avenue, 4, 5 or 6 train to 86th Street and then walk 3 blocks west to 5th Avenue), and the observation deck of the Empire State Building (34th Street & 5th Avenue, 2 blocks from The Garden, B, D, F, N, Q or R train to 34th Street-Herald Square and walk 1 block east).

There have been 2 Presidents born in New York City. And the 1st would have slapped the 2nd. Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace National Historic Site, a recreation of the townhouse where TR was born in 1858, is at 28 East 20th Street. N or R train to 23rd Street. Donald Trump was born at Jamaica Hospital, at 89-00 Van Wyck Expressway in Kew Gardens. E train to Jamaica-Van Wyck.

However, I can't recommend the Statue of Liberty, as it's not cheap, it's time-consuming both to get there and to get through, and the view from the crown isn't what you might hope. And the new World Trade Center isn't open yet, and the 9/11 Memorial is expensive and has long lines.

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The New York Knicks haven't won a title in over 40 years, but with Phil Jackson running the team, Derek Fisher coaching, and Carmelo Anthony on the floor, they are once again relevant. And -- and this is just my personal opinion -- I believe that, if you told the average New Yorker that he could pick any single team to win another World Championship, and that one team would win it in its current or next upcoming season, I think you'd get more votes for the Knicks than any other team.

True, the Jets have waited longer, and the Mets will get a lot of frustrated votes, but that city truly loves basketball, and they want so badly for the Knicks to put themselves in position to make a long Playoff run, where anything is possible.

If you follow these instructions carefully, you'll be able to get in, through and out of a Knicks game safely. Not without stress, to be sure, and I can't guarantee a win (I'm Uncle Mike, not Broadway Joe), but safely.