Alan Hahn - 100 Things Knicks Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die

Foreword by Walt Frazier

Id say that the first thing that Knicks fans need to know and do before they die is go to a Knicks game! While I hope that, as a Knicks broadcaster, I can bring to the television audience a sense of being there, of the dishin and swishin, the swoopin and hoopinand, on the best of Knick daysthe spinnin and winnin, there is nothing quite like being in Madison Square Garden when the Knicks are making a run, of coming from behind, say, to threaten to take the leador taking it.

I can still relate to those moments when I was a player and the crowd was really into it. Youd make a good play and then theres a timeout and you go back to the sideline and listen to the standing ovation. It made my blood jingle.

I had to laugh about a story told by the late Dick Schaap, a very fine sportswriter and broadcaster. It so happened that during the period when I was playing and we had those great teams, Dick had taken Bobby Fischer, the chess champion, to our game at the Garden, and he had never been to a basketball game. They had front-row seats. At one point, the crowd got very excited. Fischer looked back over his shoulder at the crowd, and in a very worried voice, said to Schaap, Are they dangerous?

Another important thing to know is the background information on some of the Knicks jerseys hanging from the Garden rafters, which represent the retired numbers of what the Garden calls legendary Knicks. Id have to first bring attention to the guys I played with when we won the only two Knick NBA titlesEarl the Pearl, Dick Barnett, Jerry Lucas, Dave DeBusschere, Dollar Bill Bradley, Willis Reed, our coach Red Holzman, and, well, Clyde, too. If you can go back and get videos of some of our games, youd see the ultimate in teamwork and terrific defense: guys helping each other out. Youd have to say that it started with our coach. On defense: See the ball and see your man. On offense: Hit the open man. Sounds easy, but youd be surprised how many pros ignore it.

Of course, Red knew how to handle situations, and often with a sense of humor. He was once in a restaurant with a few people and someone at another table recognized him and sent over a bottle of wine. When Red learned who had sent it, he nodded in appreciation. Shortly after, Red called over the waiter and said he wanted to reciprocate and send a bottle of wine to that table. The waiter complied, but it happened that the people at that table had finished dinner and were getting up to leave, which is when the bottle of wine arrived. Red, said the man who had sent the original bottle of wine, you sent over a bottle of wine when were leaving. And Red said, Thats why Im the coach.

Another jersey in the rafters is that of Dick McGuire, my first coach with the Knicks and one of the great ball handlers in basketball history, as well as a great defensive player. It was said about Dick that he not only held one guy he was guarding to just two shots, he held him to just two passes as well!

But this is just for starters. Youll find many more examples as you read this book, some of which I may even do before the final buzzer sounds for me.

Walt Frazier

9. Attending the NBA Draft... Just to Boo

It is an annual rite for Knicks fans, whether the team has a first-round pick or not. The NBA has made it easy for Knicks fans to voice their opinion, because since the draft became a public event in 1979, it has been held in New York City most of the time.

And most of the time, Knicks fans come to the same collective conclusion: Boo!

So when you go, wear a Knicks jersey and a menacing look. Mug for the camera and, by all means, bring a sign, because whichever network is televising the eventESPN, TNTtheyll want to get you on camera.

The goal is to be extreme: either uncontrollably elated or completely beside yourself with disgust. There is no in-between. The NFL also holds their draft in the same city. And as notorious as Knicks fans are at the NBA Draft, you have a formidable rival in New York Jets fans, who have had just as much reasonor so they believeto treat draft night like its the Super Bowl.

The kick is up and its...Kyle Brady over Warren Sapp?

Boo!

Madison Square Gardens theater, which has gone by several different names over the yearsfrom the Felt Forum to the Paramount Theatre to its current name, the Theater at Madison Square Gardenhas hosted the NBA Draft 22 times in 30 years. The 1996 draft was held in New Jerseys Meadowlands Arena, a close enough proximity to New York to call it a 23 rd time the draft has been in New York.

And in that span, the Knicks have gotten it right on draft night a total of three times. One was obvious, of course: the only time the team has ever had the first overall pick in the draft event era was 1985. Fans were already wearing Patrick Ewing jerseys to the draft that night, so there was little suspense, just a cheer when it was made official.

For a franchise that has been in the lottery as often as it has over the yearsespecially recentlythe Knicks have seen many draft blunders. Arguably the worst of them all came in 1999, when a St. Johns star and a local product from Queensbridge named Ron Artest slipped all the way to the Knicks at No. 15.

That year the Knicks had yet to hire a general manager to replace the fired Ernie Grunfeld, so Grunfelds former assistant, Ed Tapscott, was placed in charge of the draft. With Patrick Ewing in his twilight years, Tapscott thought the team needed to find a center to one day replace Ewing. Artest was a 6'8" forward and a rugged defender but not a center.

So Tapscott chose a 7'0" Frenchman named Frederick Weis, and Artest was crushed. The Knicks wound up hurt the most, of course, as Artest developed into an All-Star and one of the leagues best defensive players. Weis never even made it to training camp.

The Knicks were spared the usual shower of angry boos that would have come with such an incorrigible decision because the draft that year was held at the MCI Center (now the Verizon Center) in Washington, D.C.far enough away from the ire of most Knicks fans.

That draft was during a period in which the NBA took the draft on a league-wide tour. After holding it in New York from 1979 to 1991, the NBA made stops in Portland (1992), Detroit (1993), Indiana (1994), Toronto (1995), New Jersey (1996), Vancouver (1998), Washington (1999), and Minnesota (2000) before returning to New York, for good, in 2001. (The draft was moved to Newarks Prudential Center in 2011 to accommodate the construction schedule of the Gardens transformation project.)

The Knicks didnt have a first-round pick in 2001, so they avoided any real backlash, aside from the usual reactions of, Who? when second-round picks Michael Wright (Arizona) and Eric Chenowith (Kansas) were selected. Neither made the team. But in 2002, the Theater exploded in anger when, with the seventh overall pick (the teams first lottery selection in 16 years), the Knicks chose a Brazilian big man named Maybyner Hilario.

They passed on players such as Chris Wilcox of the NCAA champion Maryland Terrapins and Caron Butler of UConn, two of the crowd favorites that night. They also, it should be noted, decided against taking a high school stud from Cypress Creek, Florida, by the name of Amare Stoudemire (there was no apostrophe yet).

Shortly after the pick, the four words everyone in attendance loves to hear came from the commissioner: We have a trade.

Knicks general manager Scott Layden pulled off a major trade when he sent that draft pick, Hilario, along with Marcus Camby and Mark Jackson, to the Denver Nuggets in a four-player deal that returned All-Star power forward Antonio McDyess and Denvers first-round pick, guard Frank Williams.

You would think the fans would be happy with landing an explosive player such as McDyess, but instead, the deal prompted more boos and chants of, Fire Layden!