While the current New York Knicks team isn’t in the 2023 NBA Finals — or has reached a championship series since 1973 — that doesn’t mean Gotham’s favorite basketball team hasn’t had a surprisingly rich and long history with the league’s championship series.
Yes, the New York Knicks are not going to win a championship this season. For the 50th straight year, the blue-and-orange won’t bring a title back to the city. It is a streak that is one of the most infamous in all of sports considering the Knicks’ place in the pantheon of popular franchises.
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However, there is hope back in the big apple. The team ended a streak of not reaching the semifinals of the NBA playoffs in 2023. They have a budding superstar that the city has fallen in love with in Jalen Brunson. And they have the assets to get the last few pieces to create a championship squad in the near future.
New York Knicks championship seasons: 1970 and 1973
Yet, while the New York Knicks have not competed for an NBA title since Richard Milhous Nixon was in the oval office, the legendary franchise has had a weird connection to the league’s championship series since the 1940s.
On Monday, the Denver Nuggets were the first team to punch their ticket to this year’s NBA Finals when they completed a sweep of the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference Finals. Former New York player DeAndre Jordan is a member of the current Nuggets roster and by being a part of the Denver roster he became the 77th straight Knicks alum to compete in the NBA Finals.
New York Knicks stats account Knicks Muse revealed the surprising bit of history on Tuesday, as well as the complete list of players that has continued one of the weirder streaks in the team and NBA history. It includes memorable former Knicks like JR Smith, Jeremy Lin, and David Lee.
Some of those players competed for the franchise and then went on to Finals glory, while others brought their championship pedigree to the New York Knicks years after competing for an NBA title.