The New York Knicks haven’t had the best go of it the last few seasons. The seasons always start with high expectations and lofty goals. But as much as fans want to be optimistic about the Knicks, they simply haven’t performed to ‘New York standards’.
The Knicks haven’t had a winning record since the 2012-13 season. That was when watching the Knicks was fun. While they do give the fans some excitement from time-to-time, it’s nothing like earlier this decade. Here’s the 3 most fun Knicks teams of the last decade.
2012-13
This was the last time that the Knicks made the playoffs. They had a record of 54-28 behind head coach Mike Woodson. Their play had them in 1st place in the Atlantic and 2nd overall in the Eastern conference. The roster consisted of Carmelo Anthony, Amar’e Stoudemire, Tyson Chandler, Raymond Felton and Iman Shumpert. However, Stoudemire missed the season due to injury.
Others bringing more fun to the table were J.R. Smith, Rasheed Wallace, Steve Novak, Jason Kidd, Pablo Prigioni, Kenyon Martin, Chris Copeland, Ronnie Brewer, Quentin Richardson, Kurt Thomas, James White and Marcus Camby.
This team packed the Garden each game with expectations of making a run to the finals. This Knicks team brought fun for the 3rd year in a row. It was Anthony’s career season with points per game at 28.7. He led this team with confidence and it showed. This team was good and they have fun doing it.
They brought high-scoring games, high-flying dunks which the Knicks haven’t seen on a consistent basis since. Fans also fell in lvoe with Novak’s championship belt celebration and Wallace’s “Ball don’t lie!” The most fun was when the Knicks defeated the Boston Celtics in the first-round of the the playoffs, 4-2. That was the Knicks first playoff series win since losing in the conference finals in 1999-00. The Knicks fell to the Indiana Pacers in the following round
2011-12
This season of the Knicks had a lot of highs and lows. The Knicks had a record of 36-30 with ultimately losing in the 1st round of the playoffs under Mike Woodson. He took over after Mike D’Antoni was fired after a 18-24 record. However, making the playoffs, while exciting, wasn’t the peak. It was Jeremy Lin and ‘Lin-sanity’. That is a stretch of games that Knicks fans won’t ever forget.
Lin bursted onto the scene and gave Knicks fans the most excitement they’ve had in a long, long time. It was a feel-good story of basically a ‘no name’ taking the basketball world by storm. The game winner against Toronto, career-high 38 against Kobe Bryant’s Lakers, first double-double against John Wall’s Wizards, etc. There was literally nothing stopping Lin. His confidence grew each game and so did the fans excitement. That stretch of games during ‘Lin-sanity’ is something that the New York faithful may never see again.
2010-11
Mike D’Antoni’s Knicks with a 42-40 recorded had another 1st round playoff exit. Melo and Amar’e, Felton had good help around this squad. The likes of Chauncey Billups, Wilson Chandler, Toney Douglas, Landry Fields, Jared Jeffries, Danilo Gallinari, Ronny Turiaf and Renaldo Balkman. A lot of old school Knicks gems on this roster.
This season was when Anthony was traded to the Knicks from the Denver Nuggets. Anthony joined the Knicks were a standing ovation from the Garden faithful. Fans had hope that he’d be the guy, along with Stoudemire, to resurrect the Knicks. Those two, and Chandler later on, did they best they could and brought excitement to the Garden in the likes of which we haven’t seen in 7 seasons.
The beginning of the last decade was an exciting team for both players and fans. Hopefully, the New York Knicks can bring us more exciting, fun times in the near future.