Tyson Chandler’s elite defense makes him one the five best centers in franchise history. Photo Credit: Mark Runyon, Basketball Schedule
The center position is a dying breed. Fifteen or 20 years ago, most NBA teams built their entire franchise around a dominant big. Today? Not only can you can make an argument that there isn’t a complete player at the center position in the entire NBA, many teams have ignored the idea of having a true center in general. The league is more athletic than ever and the days of the big, plodding 7-footer are likely numbered. For the Knicks, the center position has historically been a rich one. Here are the top five centers to ever don an orange and blue uniform:
5. Bill Cartwright: Obviously, Cartwright is better known for his days as a member of Michael Jordan‘s Chicago Bulls. But the 7-footer spent his first eight seasons with the New York Knicks and was a big time player from day one, averaging 21.7 points and 8.9 rebounds per game as a rookie in the 1979-80 season. Cartwright sat out the entire 1984-85 season with a foot injury and the Knicks ended up with the No. 1 overall pick, Patrick Ewing. The writing was on the wall and in 1988 he was traded to Chicago.
4. Marcus Camby: From the minute he left John Calipari’s team at Massachusetts and entered the NBA as a rookie in the 1996-97 season, Marcus Camby was a force defensively. In his sophomore season in Toronto, Camby led the NBA in blocked shots, averaging 3.7 per night. Following that season, New York acquired him for fan favorite and notorious enforcer Charles Oakley in a sign and trade. Camby’s arrival in New York was the beginning of the end of the Patrick Ewing era and the Knicks managed to become the first No. 8 seed ever to reach the NBA Finals as Ewing watched from the sidelines with an injury. Camby had four solid seasons with the Knicks before being traded to Denver for Antonio McDyess. The trade proved to be an awful one for New York, as McDyess was an injury prone bust upon arrival at Madison Square Garden, while Camby went on to continue a solid career in Denver, which included a Defensive Player of the Year trophy.
3. Tyson Chandler: He’s only been a Knick for two seasons, but his impact on this franchise cannot be overstated. Amar’e Stoudemire famously claimed “the Knicks are back” when he signed with the franchise during the 2010 offseason. Truth is, however, they weren’t officially back until Tyson Chandler came into the fold. Chandler won Defensive Player of the Year in his first season in New York, just one year after being the X-factor on a Dallas Mavericks team that won the NBA title. He followed that campaign with a First-Team All-Defensive season, a year that coincided with New York’s most successful season in a decade-plus. The Knicks are currently key players in the Eastern Conference and Chandler may be their most indispensable piece.
2. Willis Reed: In terms of great moments for this franchise (and the history of the NBA, for that matter), you simply cannot top Willis Reed walking out of the locker room for Game 7 of the 1970 NBA Finals despite being crippled by an injury and scoring the first two buckets of the contest. It’s something that can never be duplicated and something that shows the heart of a true champion, which the 6’9″ big man proved to be on two occasions in a Knick uniform. Willis Reed was a true Knick, spending his entire 10-year career in New York and finishing with gaudy averages of 18.7 points and 12.9 rebounds per game.
1. Patrick Ewing: When you think of the New York Knicks, who is the first player that comes to mind? Ewing is the best center in franchise history, the best overall player in franchise history and one of the truly great centers in the history of the NBA. While at Georgetown, the NBA implemented the draft lottery system mainly because teams were openly trying to lose games in order to acquire the 7-footer in the 1985 NBA Draft. There isn’t a two-way force like him currently in the NBA and he had some monster seasons in a Knick uniform, including a 1989-90 campaign which saw him average 28.6 points, 10.9 rebounds and four blocked shots per game. Sadly, the Ewing era in New York will always be remembered for heartbreak and disappointment due to the fact that he could never get the Knicks over the hump; and by hump, I mean Michael Jordan. Closest he got? The 1994 NBA Finals while Jordan was flirting with baseball. The Knicks would lose that series in seven games to Hakeem Olajuwon‘s Rockets.