Think of him as being Juan Soto, only well ahead of his time. On June 16, Abdul-Jabbar - still only 28, winner of three MVPs in his first seven seasons in the league, owner of one championship ring - announced that he no longer wanted to play for the Milwaukee Bucks. This one is enough to make you weep if you are inclined to play the “what-if” game. Here’s a brief (actually, a not-so-brief) look back at those follies. But then the core of that team got older, and the Knicks began a run that now extends to nearly half a century of ill-fated - or simply unsuccessful - attempts to bag game-changing elephants. Once, the Knicks built themselves into a championship team by making a remarkable run of smart deals that yielded Dick Barnett, Dave DeBusschere, Earl Monroe and Jerry Lucas. And Latrell Sprewell electrified the Garden briefly and led the Knicks to the 1999 Finals ( but wound up ruining much of his legacy by the way he got himself run out of town).Ģ0 Carmelo Anthony counts as a successful Knicks star acquisition. Allan Houston was a fine free-agent pickup ( but his contact ultimately became a destructive albatross). The Knicks? Even their success stories outside the draft come with “buts.” Carmelo Anthony was a terrific player ( but, outside of 2012-13, the Knicks never surrounded him with enough supporting parts). But they’ve also managed to acquire the likes of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Shaquille O’Neal and LeBron James - three of the top 20 players of all time - plus stars Anthony Davis and (maddeningly for the Knicks, as we’ll see) Bob McAdoo, among many others. That’s how they got Magic Johnson, James Worthy and Kobe Bryant (though even those picks were deft thefts taking advantage of the ill-advised Jazz - for Magic - and Cavaliers - for Worthy - and Hornets - for Kobe). And yet while the Lakers have kept themselves flush in banners - 11 of them since Knicks 102, Lakers 93, on May 10, 1973, clinching Game 5 of the Finals - the Knicks have stayed stuck on two. Los Angeles, like New York, is supposed to be an attractive lure for stars of all stripes, but especially for elite athletes. The Lakers, for instance, have reinvented themselves multiple times in the 49 years since they ended their NBA Finals trilogy with the Knicks in 1973. So if you see a lot of facial tics among the truest and longest believers as the Knicks ponder what to do about Donovan Mitchell … well, there’s a backstory. In truth, an amazing amount of them never happened at all - and those that did didn’t exactly have happily-ever-after endings. Across the better part of a half-century, none of these dalliances has borne championship fruit. I’m taking Karl Malone and uh, that last position I like, even a ‘Tiny’ Archibald.Knicks fans can be forgiven if they are a bit queasy whenever they see their team linked to a big-time, big-ticket player who plays for someone else. Erving added: “I always argue with my other son about where Tim Duncan belongs and he’s like he belongs ahead of Karl Malone, but I’m taking Karl Malone. He struggled to land on a final member of his list but didn’t even consider LeBron or Curry. When asked to name the rest of his top 10, Erving revealed: “The next group of guys would be Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Michael Jordan, Earvin 'Magic' Johnson, probably Karl Malone.” It is difficult to compete with those five names, given that the likes of Russell and Chamberlain were pioneers of the league while West's silhouette is the league logo. I'm sticking with it now all these years later.” I made this decision when I was 15 years old. “Everybody else got to be on the second team or the third team. “They are Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Oscar Robertson, Jerry West and Elgin. “I got five guys who are untouchable,” the Hall of Famer recently told Joy DeAngela. Bronny James continues recovery progress after cardiac arrest with family dinner
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