In the early 1990s, we knew the deal: The New York Knicks were a bonafide NBA title contender. Head coach Pat Riley arrived as the missing piece, and he took an overachieving group to the brink of a championship.
What we tend to forget is that this no-doubt-about-it-contending status didn’t happen overnight—as is usually the case in the National Basketball Association.
Let’s never eliminate Knicks history from the equation.
Remember, New York took the defending champion Chicago Bulls to Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals in the 1992 playoffs, which seemed to jump-start everything. Xavier McDaniel standing nose-to-nose with an irate Micheal Jordan remains etched in our minds.
At that point, the NBA world knew the hard-nosed bully Knickerbockers were coming.
Just as the Bad Boy Detroit Pistons waited their turn before knocking off Larry Bird’s Boston Celtics, and how the Bulls waited until finally getting through those same Pistons, Patrick Ewing was forced to do the same.
Not until Detroit faded could New York lay claim to the east’s No. 2 rough-and-tumble spot.
The Knicks’ franchise record 60 wins in 1992-93 put any pestering naysayers to bed, and the team’s 2-0 Eastern Conference Finals lead over Michael Jordan—cemented by John Starks‘s “The Dunk”—signaled the emphasis.
Once the dust settled on the 1993 campaign, the Knicks remained legitimate title contenders, but one larger-than-life roadblock remained steadfast in his relentless pursuit of perfection.
Say what you want about the Knicks’ most villainous all-time opponent—despite his uncontroversial revered stature—but Jordan earnestly kept the early 1990s Knicks from the Larry O’Brien Trophy.
That was until he shockingly retired, and everybody knew Scottie Pippen, alone, would not be enough.
From that point forward, every Knicks fan understood how much sweeter those “NBA on NBC” intros would be.
Although the 1994 squad could not finish the job against Hakeem Olajuwon’s Houston Rockets, they came as close as any squad since 1973. They were genuine NBA champion contenders, and we all knew it.
Thirty-one years later, the confusion surrounding the current Knickerbockers reigns supreme.
Yes (in Marv Albert’s voice), Leon Rose‘s acquisition of Karl-Anthony Towns this past October was one giant leap in the correct direction. Still, the obvious short-term ills it produced have placed Tom Thibodeau‘s squad in a strangely thin and confounding position.
They’re one of a handful of elite NBA regular-season teams, yet they might possess the unique distinction of an elite team that does not yet know its true identity. For that, the 2024-25 New York Knicks are not yet ready for June’s NBA primetime.
Despite a much-anticipated tone heading into Friday night’s game, the Knicks’ 126-101 defeat to the Oklahoma City Thunder smacked all onlookers in the face. At 25-14 on the season, New York still holds the east’s No. 3 spot, but this loss—their fourth in five games and second in a week’s span against the best in the west—sours championship hopes.
Jan. 10, 2025: Final
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What a difference a week makes.
Towns was in the lineup after missing the loss to the Orlando Magic, yet his team had nothing from the jump. Oklahoma City outscored New York 31-17 in the first quarter while on the road—coming just seven days after the Knicks nearly upset the Thunder out west (if not for a monster OKC fourth quarter).
For the second straight game, Mikal Bridges shot terribly. After finishing 4-18 in the win over the Toronto Raptors, the Knicks 3-and-D swingman went 0-9 against the Thunder. Worse yet, he seemed to be aiming his shot again, akin to overthinking things in a sport where overthinking is for suckers.
Jalen Brunson did his usually stellar thing—pouring in a team-high 27 points on 7 of 15 shooting—but a point guard filling out the stat sheet in a vacuum isn’t even close to what this quad should be.
Other than Josh Hart, where’s the hustle, grit, and heart this team showcased to the world last spring? Perhaps it’s in Oklahoma. Maybe it all went with Isaiah Hartenstein and the plane trip he took en route to a new (and much richer) life.
Each time the Knicks are presented with a physical challenge, they seem to come up small.
The NBA Cup loss to the Atlanta Hawks saw the officials swallow the whistle to an abnormal degree. It felt as though the more the game got tough, the more disinterested and distracted the Knicks became (as arguing with the refs jumped to priority No. 1).
In the first game against the best of the west, a frantic fourth quarter favored the more physical, excitable, and emotional squad (the Thunder). Let’s also mention the bitter loss to the universally injured Magic this past Tuesday—a team that, while not healthy, is as good defensively as any in the NBA.
Just as Brunson and Towns can’t do it alone offensively, Hart cannot do it alone in the grit department.
There is no Donte DiVincenzo-type to save them when times get rough and tough. There hasn’t been a Miles McBride-type who brings serious energy off the bench—until he returned Friday night. No rim-protector will be present until Mitchell Robinson finally returns to the lineup after recovering from ankle surgery.
These are the depth pieces that separate the Knicks from fatigue, which automatically (and oftentimes unfairly) puts Thibodeau’s name in a blender.
More importantly, these are the winning pieces that separate the Knicks from true NBA title contention.
The furthest these Knicks have advanced is Game 7 of the second round, having lost to the Indiana Pacers in 2024. By no means did Brunson and company reach their goal, but they certainly pulled out all the stops on the MSG hardwood while banged up to a near-fictional degree.
Remember, as Michael Jordan even admitted afterward, the 1992 Bulls expected to “waltz right through the Knicks.” Yet, Riley’s underdog-ish and physical team took them to the edge of the upset cliff.
It is also important to realize how the 1994 finals Knicks club came together. An injured Doc Rivers could only watch from the bench, so New York traded Tony Campbell and a 1997 first-round pick to the Dallas Mavericks for Derek Harper.
Harper often kept the Knicks in those games against Houston. New York’s veteran point guard averaged 16.4 points and 6.0 assists in 38.0 minutes per game in the 1994 NBA Finals. He and Starks (sans Game 7) put on a show to help compensate for Olajuwon’s dominance against Ewing.
He’s the perfect example of an unsung yet critical piece that makes all the difference in the basketball world.
For the current Knicks, who are not yet ready for genuine title contention, several questions remain.
Was last year’s Game 7 push the moment that put the league on notice?
Will they find their identity in time to make a push in 2025?
Who is their eventual Derek Harper, the man who can solidify a team that desperately needs depth and supporting workmanlike and productive efforts?
Who is this team’s version of Charles Oakley and Anthony Mason? (After all, I-Hart no longer plays at the Mecca.)
No, these New York Knicks, while undoubtedly playing as an upper-tier NBA squad, are not yet ready to win a championship.
At the same time, just as the 1992 Knicks showcased, they’re certainly on their way. They just need to identify and capture those elusive final pieces.
