Cribbing from an online discussion, and paraphrasing. Who would be the Knicks starting five under the following rules:
- one who can reasonably be viewed as the GOAT
- one star from the team's golden era
- one founding father / OG player, perhaps forgotten by modern fans
- one player with a strong local connection
- one underdog type player
- the coach is the one who was most beloved by the fans
Additionally, the players should form something approximating an actual starting five (ie, cannot start Ewing/Reed/Oakley/DeBusschere/Tyson)
My take:
PG - Clyde (golden era)
SG - Starks (underdog)
SF - King (local connection)
PF - Harry the Horse (founding father)
C - Ewing (GOAT)
Coach - JVG
Toughest pick, really, was local connection (Melo, Marbury, Mark Jackson, Richie Guerin, Carl Braun)
Cornbread?
How about Paul Pierce?
Also, Larry Bird played the 3-spot. McHale played the 4-spot, as did Tommy Heinsohn and Paul Silas.
Oh, and Ewing over Reed? Starks over Monroe or Barnett? JVG over Holtzman?
To each his own. A matter of our relative ages, I suspect.
Pierce wasn't really an underdog, as he was a lottery pick who was the centre of the team for years.
Bird was a 3, sure (he'd be a 4 today), but just wanted to make room for Maxwell.
Monroe, like Pierce, doesn't count as the underdog type I was looking for over Starks. I agree that he was a better player than Starks.
Red over JVG makes more sense, I'll concede.
Ewing
Frazier
Fredette
King
Nauls
Holzman
So the same team (I'll concede Holzman, as I said) save for Nauls over Gallatin and....Jimmer?
Hard to argue with Jimmer, given his extensive resume as a Knick.
I guess I didn't understand your format.
I'm old enough to remember those Knicks teams with Willie Naulls, and Jumping Johnny Green. Dick McGuire was the PG on all of those '50s Knicks teams that challenged for the championship year after year, but kept running into George Mikan's Lakers. I was born in 1952, so I was not really conscious of those Knicks teams or much else, save for Crusader Rabbit & Ragland T. Tiger, Abbott & Costello and The Lone Ranger.
Tell you who I do remember as a Knick, was Richie Guerin who was a scoring machine from all over the floor. In 1961-62, he averaged 29.2 ppg, 6.4 boards and 6.5 assists.
Alas, even then, to be a Knicks fan was to suffer. I remember attending a Knicks-Royals game at the old Garden on 50th & 8th; Lincoln's Birthday, 1961...I had just turned 9.
Knicks jumped on the Royals in the first quarter by a score of 43-21. Yikes. Naulls, Green and Guerin were lighting it up. But the Royals had this Oscar Robertson fellow.
Guerin scored 24. Oscar scored 32.
Royals won...wait for it...Wait For It...WAIT FOR IT...105-104.
Sound familiar?
How do I remember all of this.
All I really remembered was that the Knicks were killing, Oscar stepped up, and they lost by one.
I told this story to BoD, and he was kind enough to track down the original box score and pass it on to me.
Loved those Royals teams of the 1960s with Oscar and Wayne Embry and Jack Twyman and Jerry Lucas. Great teams, however, like those great Philly teams (save for 1966-67), they always ran into those damn Celtics. They just didn't have the bench depth...or Bill Russell.
Still, when people genuflect about Michael Jordan, and not to take anything away from him or his six rings, but the greatest of all time?
Sorry, no sale...OSCAR ROBERTSON.
For all intents and purposes, the man was a walking triple double night in, night out, season after season. Great physical gifts, but what really set him apart was his intuition, his court vision, his genius for the game. A very heady player. And at 6'5", a big, powerful guard, with a great all around game: 25.7 ppg-7.5 rebounds-9.5 assists, with a career .838 FT%, playing 42.2 mpg over 14 seasons.
Y'all know that butt bump Mark Jackson used to like to deploy to set up midrange shots? That was Oscar Robertson's bread and butter. He could get any shot he wanted, any time he wanted.
Finally, let me preface this observation by cautioning that what follows is a one-dimensional, superficial comparison. I reckon Kiid will like it though...fair enough. In looking at the Knicks roster, in terms of a physical specimen, a 6'5" guard with a big powerful body that reminds me of Oscar.
EMMANUEL MUDIAY
Body. Not game. BODY.
As for the kid's game, we shall see, won't we.
I am intrigued to see how the competition between Burke, Ntilikina and Mudiay plays out. If we could splice genetic material from all three into one PG, we'd be shitting in tall cotton, yes we would.