![]() John’s if the Johnnies hadn’t forced Joe Lapchick into early retirement in 1965. In truth, he’d always been partial to New York he has long said he probably would have gone to St. Later, at Power Memorial, he’d become the most accomplished high school player ever. It was in New York’s rich tapestry of neighborhood playgrounds and CYO gyms where he had learned and developed his skyhook. He’d grown up in the Dyckman Street projects of Manhattan. Bettmann/CORBISīut his destination of choice - by far - was New York City. when engineering a trade out of Milwaukee. One was Los Angeles, of which he’d grown fond during his college years at UCLA, a city that held a fair amount of sentiment for him.Ģ0 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar preferred New York to L.A. And Kareem made it known, very plainly, that there were two places he would agree to be dealt. Think of him as being Juan Soto, only well ahead of his time. On June 16, Abdul-Jabbar - still only 28, winner of three MVPs in his first seven seasons in the league, owner of one championship ring - announced that he no longer wanted to play for the Milwaukee Bucks. This one is enough to make you weep if you are inclined to play the “what-if” game. Here’s a brief (actually, a not-so-brief) look back at those follies. But then the core of that team got older, and the Knicks began a run that now extends to nearly half a century of ill-fated - or simply unsuccessful - attempts to bag game-changing elephants. Once, the Knicks built themselves into a championship team by making a remarkable run of smart deals that yielded Dick Barnett, Dave DeBusschere, Earl Monroe and Jerry Lucas. ![]() And Latrell Sprewell electrified the Garden briefly and led the Knicks to the 1999 Finals ( but wound up ruining much of his legacy by the way he got himself run out of town).Ģ0 Carmelo Anthony counts as a successful Knicks star acquisition. Allan Houston was a fine free-agent pickup ( but his contact ultimately became a destructive albatross). The Knicks? Even their success stories outside the draft come with “buts.” Carmelo Anthony was a terrific player ( but, outside of 2012-13, the Knicks never surrounded him with enough supporting parts). ![]() But they’ve also managed to acquire the likes of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Shaquille O’Neal and LeBron James - three of the top 20 players of all time - plus stars Anthony Davis and (maddeningly for the Knicks, as we’ll see) Bob McAdoo, among many others. That’s how they got Magic Johnson, James Worthy and Kobe Bryant (though even those picks were deft thefts taking advantage of the ill-advised Jazz - for Magic - and Cavaliers - for Worthy - and Hornets - for Kobe). And yet while the Lakers have kept themselves flush in banners - 11 of them since Knicks 102, Lakers 93, on May 10, 1973, clinching Game 5 of the Finals - the Knicks have stayed stuck on two. Los Angeles, like New York, is supposed to be an attractive lure for stars of all stripes, but especially for elite athletes. The Lakers, for instance, have reinvented themselves multiple times in the 49 years since they ended their NBA Finals trilogy with the Knicks in 1973. So if you see a lot of facial tics among the truest and longest believers as the Knicks ponder what to do about Donovan Mitchell … well, there’s a backstory. In truth, an amazing amount of them never happened at all - and those that did didn’t exactly have happily-ever-after endings. Across the better part of a half-century, none of these dalliances has borne championship fruit. Knicks fans can be forgiven if they are a bit queasy whenever they see their team linked to a big-time, big-ticket player who plays for someone else. ![]()
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