In 1999 James Dolan son of a successful businessman inherited control of the New York Knicks the team now under his stewardship had a reputation in a rough-and-tumble era of basketball the Knicks were among the roughest and the tum lists beloved by the locals and loathed by everyone else the Knicks had been a perennial runner up in the dense Eastern Conference repeatedly falling short of the finals because of the Bulls Heat and Pacers but they were good and right before Dolan took over New York experienced an unexpected breakthrough Jeff Van Gundy's defense still ranked among the best in the league.
Cornerstone Center Patrick Ewing was aging but still productive when healthy Allan Houston and Larry Johnson stepped up as Ewing scoring workload diminished Charlie Ward was the stalwart point guard and entering a strange 99 season prefaced by Michael Jordan's retirement and delayed until the end of a lockout New York GM Ernie Grunfeld made bold moves he jettisoned to 90s icons to bring in some new blood Marcus Camby a loping leaping stringbean Center entering his prime Latrell Sprewell a star scorer getting his career back on track after a long suspension for attacking his coach in Golden State and Kurt Thomas a sturdy big man who fit the team's style and attitude perfectly.
The compressed 99 season contained plenty of drama the newcomers took awhile to get going Ewing struggled with an Achilles injury friction between grünfeld and man Gundy contributed to the executives late season demotion plus a lingering feeling that the coach might get fired a regular contender almost missed the playoffs entirely but something miraculous happened even as an eight seed even as you and gradually succumb to his injury the Knicks crapped out a run to the NBA Finals upsetting longtime rivals along the way only the nation powerhouse Spurs could stop them by even reaching the finals the Knicks rekindled a fire that could illuminate the next decade.
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