This is the most euphoric things have been around the New York Knicks in my lifetime. I missed 1994 and was too young to comprehend the late 90’s and 2000. So that means like all of you reading along here, I lived through the dark ages that were the 2000’s and 2010’s. To say a lot transpired between the late 90’s window slamming shut and Leon Rose saving the Knicks from themselves in 2020 would be an understatement. There were twelve coaches, bizarre ejections from the arena (which was barely lit), drama off the floor, and countless bad trades and signings. There was a time where the Friday Night Knicks theme song was the highlight of the season…I wish I was kidding (real ones know it’s a classic).

But it wasn’t all bad, right? No in fact it wasn’t, there was some fun moments, games and stretches along the way. Hell, there was even three straight playoff appearances at one point, thanks to the players who came before the crop of Knicks we are now in love with. So here are ten of those instances (in chronological order) that kept us coming back for more in spite of the things that made us question our faith in the basketball gods.

Fight Night

Leading off isn’t a play or a performance or a season at all, but rather it’s something most fan bases and teams would consider a black eye on team history. Funny enough, the event in question caused quite a few black eyes on a wild Saturday night at the Garden, and yours truly had an (almost) front row seat to it all. December 16th, 2006 was a night where the Knicks were taking on the Nuggets who boasted a lineup with some real star power. Denver had a pair of future Knicks in JR Smith and star Carmelo Anthony and former Knick Marcus Camby to go with a solid rotation of players that would make the playoffs in 2006. Meanwhile Isaiah Thomas’ Knicks were scuffling with a roster that was oddly assembled, led by Stephon Marbury.

Yours truly was ten years old and on his way to his first Knicks game in a few years, with no idea what he was in for. Me, my dad, and my uncle were there on free club tickets and we lived up every single minute of the game, even if the Knicks were getting beat up by Denver. As the game wound down and Denver was on their way to a win, Mardy Collins committed a flagrant foul under the basket on JR Smith, and then the bell rang. I’ll let the video above tell the rest of the story from here, but when it was all said and done, there was a total of 47 suspended games amongst the players involved on both sides. The fans had a memory that would last a lifetime, and another was soon to follow!

In The Knick of Time

How could you not love David Lee? The guy was pure glue out there and gave his all every single night…even if things around him were a disaster. He would honestly be a great fit on the present-day Knicks with his heart and hustle. While he had a lot of good moments in the league, perhaps his best in a Knicks uniform comes on December 20th 2006 at MSG. The Knicks were shorthanded after a host of suspensions that resulted from the brawl a few days earlier. So they took on the Bobcats with eight players and battled their way to a 109-109 tie in double OT. Which set the stage for the play you see above, where Lee elevates off the inbounds and tips in the pass to win the game for the Knicks. Like many games on this list, this moment is a footnote to the larger story as the Knicks finished 33-49 that season, despite being within a few games of .500 in March, still a fun highlight to breakout though.

Little Man Big Hops

Saying the dunk contest was the highlight of your season every year says a lot about how bad your team is at a given time. This was best exemplified in the Knicks case when the now meaningless event was the story of their year as the diminutive Nate Robinson would put on an absolute clinic representing the Knicks. The 5-9″ 180-pound Robinson was dwarfed by almost every opponent, but he didn’t let that slow down his athleticism on the floor. He had plenty of good moments in actual games for the Knicks, but it’s hard to top leaping over Dwight Howard, regular season game or not! Nate remains a fan favorite to this day, drawing a nice ovation when he’s at MSG cheering on the guys, as he has been this spring.

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T Mac on Broadway

Next is a pretty random game and moment to look back on. The date was February 20th, 2010, and our site was the World’s Most Famous Arena. It was another tough season on 34th street as the Knicks were on their way to a 29-53 record under coach Mike D’Antoni and GM Donnie Walsh. Both men were busy trying to dig the Knicks out of the abyss and weren’t quite getting good results yet. With the “summer of Lebron” and many other great free agents looming, Walsh decided to clear more cap space on February 18th, trading Jordan Hill and Jared Jeffries in a three-team deal for injury plagued star Tracy McGrady. The future Hall of Famer was recovering from shoulder and knee surgery and was trying to save his once brilliant career. As he explains in the clip below, he thought the Knicks might actually be half decent with him on the roster…they weren’t. But T-Mac did have his moment in the sun, debuting in an OT loss to the Thunder, dropping 26 points in the game and electrifying the MSG crowd. The game is the ultimate footnote in history as T-Mac struggled after his debut, the Knicks stayed bad, and the free agent dollars saved in the trade resulted in the Knicks signing only one big fish that Summer.

The First Guy Through The Wall

Now we’re getting to better days on Broadway. For the two seasons prior, the Knicks were trying to figure out who actually belonged on this roster. The summer prior was all about the aforementioned Lebron sweepstakes, as Donnie Walsh put on a full court press to bring the king to New York, a press that included a unique sales pitch from the cast of the Sopranos and the kiss of death from Isaiah. James of course signed with Miami, but the Knicks pitch didn’t go unnoticed by Amare Stoudemire who was leaving the Suns. He joined the Knicks and donned the number 1 as the new face of the operation and his impact was immediate. After a somewhat sluggish start, “Stat” started to dominate and the Knicks were red hot going into the new year, consistently staying seven games above .500 or better. They cooled off in February though and struggled in spite of Amare’s contributions, as they made some moves off the court to improve the squad. Stat did go on to enjoy a successful Knicks tenure, making him a fan favorite for years to come, and a welcome sight at MSG sitting courtside. Now, about those moves to improve the squad…

Melo’s Arrival

The biggest trade the Knicks made in some time was completed in February of that 2011 season as they acquired the one and only Carmelo Anthony from the Denver Nuggets. The deal was jam packed with players as New York received Melo, Chauncy Billups, Shelden Williams, Anthony Carter and Renaldo Balkman. In return they sent Danilo Gallinari, Reymond Felton, Wilson Chandler, Timofey Mozgov, draft picks, which included a pick swap Denver used to eventually select Jamal Murray. While acquiring Melo and “Mr. Big Shot” Billups was a great thing for the Knicks to try and take the next step, in the short term they hurt the team with the deal as they had a hard time replacing Galinari and Felton’s production in the lineup, so much so that Felton was later re-acquired, but more on that later. The Red Hook native debuted at MSG against Milwaukee and from there the fairy tale was off and running…or so it seemed. Melo was the star this team had missed since the old guard had gone, and the Knicks had a pair of stars in him and Stat to build around, even if the team was eliminated by the Celtics in a round one sweep that season. Things were looking up…or so they seemed.

Linsanity

Fast forward to the 2011-2012 season, a campaign affected by an NBA lockout that delayed the season until Christmas Day. Expectations were sky high for the Knicks, as they signed center Tyson Chandler away from the defending champion Mavericks to strengthen the defense around their two offensive stars. The team made a statement on Christmas Day beating the Celtics, which only increased the hype around the team. But of course, the Knicks and their fans can’t have nice things, so they scuffled from there and entered play on February 4th, 2012, at 8-15. That night’s contest against the Nets yielded an unlikely savior of the season, as journeyman guard Jeremy Lin stepped to the forefront and dropped 25 on the cross-river rivals get the Knicks a much-needed win. From there Linsanity began, as the Knicks new star stayed red hot, dropping big numbers in the box score, hitting clutch threes and even outplaying Kobe and Dirk. The streak turned the season around but even that wasn’t enough to save Mike D’Antoni’s job. An eventual coaching change to Mike Woodson was enough to get the Knicks to the playoffs for the second straight year…sadly without Lin who was injured. They managed only one win against the Heat in round one and went into another summer of unease. The fun and lasting memories of Linsanity live on to this day, even if it was brief, by God was it fun to watch him live the dream.

2013

It’s time to jump ahead to the next season, a campaign that was the absolute pinnacle of “the dark ages.” The 2012-13 Knicks were in a word, absolutely “perfect.” Even if they weren’t literally perfect night to night, there was so much to like about this team on and off the floor on their way to 54 wins. Melo played to an MVP level, JR Smith won sixth man of the year, Tyson Chandler carried the whole team on defense, while Raymond Felton revitalized the offense in his return. Not to be left out the second unit was led by Amare, Jason Kidd, the aforementioned Smith who traded off with the highly athletic Iman Shumpert and sniper supreme Steve Novak. They met a tough demise at the hands of the ever-frustrating Pacers in round two, but there were so many great memories made along the way under Mike Woodson. There were JR game winners and dunks, Jason Kidd heartbreakers, wins over the Heat and a rocking MSG all season long. They were the best assembled Knicks team prior to the current one and will always hold a special place in our hearts, even if it didn’t work out in the end.

62

Let’s jump another year ahead, one where the Knicks were running it back looking to get deeper in the playoffs, with rookie Tim Hardaway Jr., Meta World Peace and human anchor Andrea Bargiani in tow. They won the opener and the wheels came off with the team struggling to find chemistry as drama mounted off the court. Woodson couldn’t even pull the nose up for a while. They climbed into playoff contention, albeit under .500 as strung together wins and knocked off the defending champion Heat at MSG. It felt like the season was saved until they went on another losing streak which brings us to the game in question. On this Friday night January 24th, the sellout crowd on Broadway was treated to a performance for the ages as Carmelo Anthony had his best game in a Knick uniform. Melo went for 62, shooting 65% from the floor for the game in an electrifying performance. It was one of those nights that you could tell early on that number 7 had the goods. The 125-96 win didn’t do much for the long haul as the Knicks finished 37-45, one game out of a playoff spot, while they hired Phil Jackson to run the front office. The game is kind of a footnote at this point, but it’s still a performance worth celebrating.

KristapsMania

Fast forward two years to the next time things felt like they could possibly work out for the Knicks. They were coming off a nightmarish season in which they went 17-65 under first year coach Derek Fisher and GM Phil Jackon’s direction. They lost the draft lottery, a draft in which current Knick Karl Anthony Towns went first overall to Minnesota. With the fourth pick they selected Latvian Kristaps Porzingis, much to the ire of Knicks fans everywhere. The proof of whether or not this would be a good selection would reveal itself on the hardwood the following season and boy did Porzingis silence the doubters. He broke out early and never looked back, managing to make a roster that didn’t have a lot going for it palatable. Porzingis would take Linsansity and super charge it, as he was literally everywhere for about two and a half seasons. He went on all the talk shows, appeared on Mike Francesa’s daytime radio show, and even received votes for mayor. There would be continued attempts to put a winner around him and Carmelo with a menagerie of free agents brought in to improve things, but it never wound up working out. While they’d eventually go their separate ways, the Kristaps days were fun if not anything else, and they made us all dream that perhaps they had solved things…but we’d have to keep waiting a while for that “solution.”

That Guy was a Knick?

Before we wrap up, let’s take one more trip down memory lane. Below are ten players from throughout “the dark ages,” some of which will really take you back and make you question if you’ve been watching all along. Enjoy everyone!

On twitter you can find Mike @Mike_Sheerin, Tyler @TMon_19 and Sean @SeanMartinNFL. Subscribe to the site by hitting the follow button in the bottom right corner and entering your email address. Check out our Instagram feed @thebroadwaybreakdownsports for special gameday and promotional content. Our podcasts are available on Spotify. Visit the Rangers Ed Shop by clicking the link on our homepage. Check out our mailbag page to join the conversation here on the site and on our partners show, The Rangers Ed Podcast! We’ll be back with more soon.