Paul Knepper - The Knicks of the Nineties: Ewing, Oakley, Starks and the Brawlers That Almost Won It All

My wife, Stacey, served as a valuable consultant and helped me manage the ups and downs of the writing process. I am so grateful to have her by my side.

It is not a coincidence that I formulated the idea for this book soon after my son, Brodie, was born. He is my greatest inspiration and brings immeasurable joy to my life.

I am extremely grateful to Martha Cantu for everything she does for my family. Thank you to my father for reading a draft of this book and taking me to Knicks games. I appreciate my mother, Gregg, Sam, Jordyn, Scarlett, Elle, Robbie, Elba and Margo for their love and support. I wish my father-in-law, Andy, were here to read this.

Thank you to my cousin Joe Brofsky for taking me to Knicks and Liberty games and sending me books for this project. I am fortunate to have several friends who took an interest in this book and encouraged me along the way, most notably Daniel Oliver. I would also like to thank Thomas Kremer for encouraging me to pursue writing.

I am deeply appreciative of every one of the sources I interviewed for this book. They include Rand Araskog, Harvey Araton, Stan Asofsky, Barbara Barker, Al Bianchi, Rolando Blackman, Anthony Bonner, Chris Brienza, Clifton Brown, Gerald Brown, Rick Brunson, Curtis Bunn, Dick Butera, Michael Carter, Jr., Bill Cartwright, Dave Checketts, Chris Childs, Doug Christie, John Cirillo, Jim Cleamons, Don Cronson, Terry Cummings, Dave DAlessandro, Ben Davis, Hubert Davis, Peter DeBusschere, Chris Dudley, Mario Elie, Paul Evans, David Falk, Scott Fiedler, Matt Fish, Corey Gaines, Lewis Geter, Ronnie Grandison, Ernie Grunfeld, Bob Gutkowski, Lori Hamamoto, Said Hamdan, Leonard Hamilton, Tim Hardaway, Derek Harper, Wade Houston, Jaren Jackson, Stanley Jaffe, Mike Jarvis, DeMarco Johnson, Bo Kimble, Travis Knight, Andrew Lang, Ian Mahoney, Brendan Malone, Stephen Masiello, Vernon Maxwell, Xavier McDaniel, Scott McGuire, Carlton McKinney, Charles Oakley, Will Perdue, Dave Robbins, Barry Rubinstein, Bob Salmi, Wimp Sanderson, Mike Saunders, Rik Smits, Barry Stanton, John Starks, David Steele, Sammie Steinlight, Spencer Stolpen, Erick Strickland, Mark Strickland, Tom Thibodeau, Kurt Thomas, Rod Thorn, Rudy Tomjanovich, Jeff Van Gundy, Stan Van Gundy, Peter Vecsey, Suzyn Waldman, Kenny Walker, John Wallace, Charlie Ward, Gerald Wilkins, Herb Williams, Mike Wise, Dave Wohl, Ronnie Zeidel, and those who prefer to remain anonymous.

I am grateful for my agent, John Rudolph, whose belief in me and this project propelled it forward, and my editor, Aaron Fischman. Thank you to Gary Mitchem and everybody at McFarland who brought this book to life. I also want to thank Adam Criblez and Mick Minas, two authors I have never met who were extremely generous in assisting me with several aspects of this book.

Lastly, I would like to thank the 1990s Knicks for providing me with endless hours of suspense, joy, hope, and heartache. I hope The Knicks of the Nineties does them justice.