The Forgotten Knicks

Ray Marcano brings the heat with a "Knick You Knew..." for the ages. Literally.

Good morning! One month from right now - September 30 - the 2024-25 edition of the New York Knicks will officially join together for the first time. Start spreading the news. As for the newsletter, we’re going to be doing two more weeks with three newsletters, and then ramping things back up in anticipation for media day. The wait is almost over. In the meantime, Ray Marcano ends the week with perhaps my favorite historical piece of his to date. Hope you enjoy as much as I did.

9 Decades of Forgotten Knicks

by Ray Marcano

In 1996, Matt Fish appeared in two games for the New York Knicks.

It’s easy to forget the 6'11" Fish. He signed a 10-day contract on February 24 of that year and made a nice impact. Two days later, in a game against the Lakers, Fish started in place of Patrick Ewing, who was nursing a sore ankle. Fish played 15 minutes, scored 10 points on five of eight shooting and grabbed three boards in the 114-96 loss¹.You could say he was e-FISH-ent. (That was bad, but I couldn’t resist.)

He played one more game --- just two minutes --- before the Knicks waived him on March 5.

So goes the NBA life of players like Fish, bench filler who often move around. He played 50 games over three seasons with five total teams. After his career, he founded and published the basketball publication Rebound Magazine. 

Fish is more the rule than the exception. There are, literally, thousands of players in the life of the NBA whose contributions have been forgotten. Sometimes they have a career game. Sometimes they score a basket. Most of the time they run around the court in garbage time waiting for the clock to run out. 

Today, we look back on nine Knicks players from nine different decades that you may have forgotten about. Some had long NBA careers but played marginal roles in New York. Some became All-Stars after they left. All have been relegated to the small type of New York Knicks electronic box scores.

9 Decades, 9 Forgotten Knicks