5 greatest New York Knicks playoff heroes ever

The New York Knicks have returned to the NBA Finals for the first time since the calendar flipped to 2000.

New York City is united behind the orange and blue. Their team is set to hoist the O’Brien Trophy for the first time since 1973.

The exploits of point guard Jalen Brunson and center Karl-Anthony Towns have reawakened the echoes of greatness at Madison Square Garden. Now, New York prepares to face off against the San Antonio Spurs with an 11-game playoff win streak in tow. It’s worth looking back at the franchise’s great players of postseasons past.

Does Brunson belong on this list? Possibly. ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith contends a title this season would make him the greatest Knick of all time. We’ll let that play out before rendering a decision.

This ranking is about impact on winning and big-game moments.

There are a few great Knicks who didn’t make the list. John Starks’ 1994 Game 6 against the Houston Rockets , with his fourth-quarter barrage before the final shot rimmed out, still lives in Knicks lore. Latrell Sprewell’s energy during the 1999 run, Charles Oakley’s physicality in every series and even Carmelo Anthony ’s brief bursts of postseason scoring all have a place in the conversation.

Bernard King’s 1984 playoff run is still the standard for pure scoring that every hot Knicks hand gets measured against. On a bad knee and with limited help, King poured in 34.8 points per game, shredding the Detroit Pistons and taking the eventual champion Boston Celtics to seven games. His back-to-back 46-point outings against Detroit, including a Game 5 road win with a broken finger, are the kind of stories older Knicks fans still tell in detail.

That spring, the Knicks were a tough out mostly because King refused to go quietly. He scored from the midrange and lived at the free-throw line. When center Mitchell Robinson appears with a brace to protect a fractured pinky, memories of King will come flooding back.