Yabu-Dabba-Doo

The newest Knick went off in Eurobasket. Plus, a 25 for 25 honoree whose Knick whose career ended far too soon.

Good morning! Before we get to today’s 25 for 25 honoree, we got some actual big time basketball being played by a New York Knick yesterday, albeit for Team France:

Guerschon Yabusele went off for 36 points, including a national team career high six 3-pointers, in France’s big win yesterday over Team Poland. Great performances in international basketball don’t always translate to the NBA, but it’s worth noting that a stellar 2024 Olympics is the reason Yabusele signed with Philly to begin with. For the mini-midlevel exception, the Knicks may have gotten themselves a steal.

25 for 25: No. 8 - Allan Houston

Three years ago, when I did my list of the Top 75 Knicks ever, putting Allan Houston at No. 14 was probably my most controversial stance.

He was then - as he is now - the fourth leading scorer in franchise history whose 33 playoff wins are more than double that of Bernard King and Carmelo Anthony combined. Among Knicks who have appeared in at least three playoff series with New York, his postseason scoring average of 19.0 points ranks eighth, behind only King, Brunson, Melo, Clyde, Ewing, Sprewell and KAT. He hit one of the biggest shots in franchise history, and was the leader in total points for a team that made the Finals.

At the very least, he had an argument to be above the handful of names ahead of him (in reverse order: Carl Braun at 13, Dick Barnett at 12, Harry Gallatin at 11, Charles Oakley at 10, Richie Guerin at 9, and maybe even Bernard King at 8). This time around, I was determined to make sure I didn’t underestimate Houston again.

But of course I had a different challenge now.

Along with Latrell Sprewell, Houston holds the distinction of doing his best work before the 2000-01 season, which is the first year in consideration for this list. Even though he played more than half of his regular season games for the Knicks after the ‘99-00 season, 55 of his 60 playoff games came before ‘00-01, not to mention one of his two All-Star appearances.

Between the franchise starting its decent into the abyss following that 2000 conference finals appearance, Houston signing the now infamous seven-year, $100 million contract extension in the summer of 2001, and the injuries that hampered him towards the end of his career, the perception exists that the second half of his tenure in New York was a complete flop. The reality is far different.