Summary of Knicks’ recent history
Now that we’re almost caught, I’m going to go ahead and summarize the highlights since this time period will be at least somewhat familiar to most of us. Spoiler alert, it doesn’t get any better.
- March 5, 2017 – The Knicks try a failed experiment by not playing music during that first half of their game against the Golden State Warriors. Apparently, their goal was for fans to “experience the game in it’s purest form…”? Okay…?
- February 16, 2017 – Russell Westbrook records a triple-double in a Thunder win
- February 23, 2017 – The New York Daily News reports James Dolan’s $300 thousand donations to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign further alienating himself from, not only Knicks’ fans but from the NBA in general. Honestly, though, is it really a surprise that Dolan would be a Trump supporter?
- June 23, 2017 – Fat Joe expresses anger with Phil Jackson because according to him, Jackson was responsible for destroying the Knicks. Uh, Joe, have you not been paying attention?
- June 28, 2017 – Phil Jackson is fired as the Knicks’ President. It almost goes without saying that there are numerous possible reasons Jackson was let go from his feud with Carmelo Anthony and Kristaps Porzingis to internal politics to simply being old and out of touch with the direction the NBA was going. Steve Mills, who was the Knicks’ General Manager took over as President
- July 14, 2017 – Scott Perry is hired as the Knicks’ new General Manager
- July 27, 2017 – An NBC Sports report gives hope to Knicks fans when it reports that Kyrie Irving wanted to be a New York Knick. Although another report revealed that Irving’s choice had nothing to do with the team and everything to do with geography.
- September 23, 2017 – After weeks of speculation the Knicks traded Carmelo Anthony to the Oklahoma City Thunder in return for Enes Kanter, Doug McDermott, and a second-round draft pick
- May 3, 2018 – David Fizdale becomes the Knicks’ head coach in the 13th change in the position (in an interim capacity or otherwise) since 1999.
Along with all of these specifics, Enes Kanter was waived, and the Knicks lost a franchise-record 18 straight games missing, by only a hair, the ignominious distinction of sharing the all-time record for consecutive losses in NBA history with the Timberwolves. In the 2018-19 season, the Knicks matched their franchise-worst 17-65 record for the second time in five seasons.
To top it all off, the Knicks had hopes of landing both Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant during their 2019 free agency. As we know, both players ended up in New York but snubbed the Knicks in favor of playing for the Brooklyn Nets.