THE 75 GREATEST

THE KNICKS are an original NBA franchise — beginning life in 1946 as a charter member of the BAA — and while that 75-year history has yielded only two titles, what’s most remarkable is how thin the franchise’s list of individual season accolades is, too.

The 1946-47 Knicks, the originals, were shut out of the limited NBA postseason awards. A future Knick, Max Zaslofsky, was a member of the first all-NBA team as a member of the Chicago Stags (along with Bob Feerick and Bones McKinney of the Washington Capitols, Joe Fulks of the Philadelphia Warriors and Stan Miasek of the Detroit Falcons).

After Carl Braun earned second-team allNBA honors the next year, the first Knick to make first-team all-NBA would be Harry “The Horse” Gallatin in ’53-54. Other Knicks to be named all-NBA first team include Willis Reed (’69-70), Walt Frazier (’69-70, ’71-72, ’73-74, ’74-75), Bernard King (’83-84, ’84-85) and Patrick Ewing (’89-90).

Reed, in ’69-70, is the only Knick to win the league’s MVP Award.

Three Knicks have won Rookie of the Year: Reed (’64-65), Ewing (’85-86) and Mark Jackson (’87-88). Three have won Sixth Man of the Year: Anthony Mason (’9495), John Starks (’96-97) and J.R. Smith (’1213). Tyson Chandler won Defensive Player of the Year in ’11-12.

Tom Thibodeau in ’20-21 became the third Knicks coach to win Coach of the Year, joining Red Holzman (’69-70) and Pat Riley (’92-93).

Awards or not, plenty of individuals have played major roles in shaping the organization. Let’s continue the countdown of the 75 Greatest Figures in Knicks history: