Good things come in twos
In Knicks history, some of the best eras have been started via a single draft where two awesome talents were taken at once. Could Obi Toppin and Immanuel Quickley be the latest dynamic duo in Knicks history?
Over 76 years of ups and downs for the New York Knicks, the ups have been fewer and farther between. In all that history, the Knicks have only had, like, three good stretches. Ever. That’s it.
There were the Knicks of the early 1950s, who reached three Finals in a row; the hallowed heroes of the championship years; and the Pat Riley/Jeff Van Gundy teams of the 1990s. Those three eras share something as unique to Knicks history as winning, something that may signal we’re a few years away from the Garden’s fourth Golden Age. They each came after drafts where the Knicks landed multiple meaningful talents.
In 1949, the Knicks used the eighth pick on Dick McGuire, a five-time All-Star and Hall of Famer. Somehow they one-upped themselves with the 20th pick, selecting Harry Gallatin. The Horse was named to seven All-Star games and also canonized in Spingfield. Before the dynamic duo’s arrival, the Knicks were a winning team, but nothing more. Led by McGuire and Gallatin, they’d reach the Finals from 1951 through 1953 and establish the Knicks as a flagship franchise.
New York nearly drafted two Hall of Famers the year prior, again selecting Gallatin with their second pick while using their first on Dolph Schayes. Schayes was also picked by the Tri-Cities Blackhawks of the National Basketball League, the Basketball Association of America’s rival. A year later, the leagues would merge, but in 1948 they were still competitors. The Blackhawks traded his rights to the Syracuse Nationals. The Knicks offered Schayes $5,000; the Nats offered $7,500. Schayes chose Syracuse.
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