Knickerbockers have now gone forty years since capturing the 1972-73 NBA title (AP photo)
KNICKS vs. BUCKS
Madison Square Garden
Friday, April 5, $80-$430, 7:30
www.nba.com/knicks
www.thegarden.com
Madison Square Garden has seen its share of championship droughts, most famously the Rangers’ fifty-four years without a Stanley Cup, until Mark Messier, Brian Leetch, Mike Richter, Adam Graves, et al. changed all that in 1994. So the longest current streak belongs to the streaking Knickerbockers, who have won eight games in a row as they go after a title the club has not claimed since 1973, an almost unbelievable forty years. In the ’90s, the Patrick Ewing–led Knicks could not get past Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls, and now it’s looking like the current team might never get past the Miami Heat and its triumvirate of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosch. Mike Woodson’s Knicks have had an up-and-down, inconsistent season filled with injuries and old-timers, getting streaky production from J. R. Smith, Steve Novak, Amar’e Stoudemire, Chris Copeland, and Kenyon Martin while Carmelo Anthony continues to prove he’s one of the best offensive players in the league. On Friday night, the 46-26 Knicks — who are sitting in second place in the East, behind only Miami, whom they visit on Tuesday, followed by a game in Atlanta on Wednesday — will take on the 35-37 Bucks, who are trying to hold on to the eighth and final playoff spot in the conference. During halftime, the team will honor the 1973 squad, which consisted of Dean Meminger (#7), Walt “Clyde” Frazier (#10), Dick Barnett (#12), Earl Monroe (#15), Henry Bibby (#17), Phil Jackson (#18), Willis Reed (#19), Dave DeBusschere (#22), Bill Bradley (#24), Jerry Lucas (#32), John Gianelli(#40), and Harthorne Wingo (#43), guided by masterful head coach and GM Red Holzman, along with assistant coach Dick McGuire and trainer Danny Whelan. Several of those players will be at the Garden to participate in the celebration, each one wondering, just as the fans are, when the Knicks will take home the NBA crown again.