Counting down the 75 most important people in Knicks history: No. 25 to No. 16, with Jeff Van Gundy and Charles Oakley

Counting down the 75 most important people in Knicks history: No. 25 to No. 16, with Jeff Van Gundy and Charles Oakley

The Knicks are an original NBA franchise — beginning life in 1946 as a charter member of the BAA — and while that 75-year history has yielded only two titles, what’s most remarkable is how thin the franchise’s list of individual season accolades is, too.

The 1946-47 Knicks, the originals, were shut out of the limited NBA postseason awards. A future Knick, Max Zaslofsky, was a member of the first all-NBA team as a member of the Chicago Stags (along with Bob Feerick and Bones McKinney of the Washington Capitols, Joe Fulks of the Philadelphia Warriors and Stan Miasek of the Detroit Falcons).

After Carl Braun earned second-team all-NBA honors the next year, the first Knick to make first-team all-NBA would be Harry (the Horse) Gallatin in ’53-54. Other Knicks to be named all-NBA first team include Willis Reed (’69-70), Walt Frazier (’69-70, ’71-72, ’73-74, ’74-75), Bernard King (’83-84, ’84-85) and Patrick Ewing (’89-90).

Reed, in ’69-70, is the only Knick to win the league’s MVP Award. The other Knicks to finish top five in the vote were Reed (second in ’68-69, fourth in ’70-71), Frazier (fourth in ’69-70), King (second in ’83-84), Ewing (fourth in ’88-89, fifth in ’89-90, fifth in ’91-92, fourth in ’92-93, fifth in ’93-94, fifth in ’94-95) and Carmelo Anthony (third in ’12-13).