It feels like a lifetime ago. Honestly, if you look at a grainy clip of Patrick Ewing sweating through his jersey at Madison Square Garden, it feels like ancient history. But the New York Knicks 2000 campaign wasn’t just another year in the standings. It was the "last dance" before the floor fell out from under the franchise for the better part of two decades.
People forget how good they were.
The Knicks finished that season with 50 wins. Think about that for a second. Fifty wins in an Eastern Conference that was basically a bar fight every single night. They had grit. They had that annoying, suffocating defense that made opposing point guards want to retire early. Jeff Van Gundy was on the sidelines looking like he hadn't slept since 1996, and the Garden was rocking.
But 2000 was also the year the cracks became canyons.
The Patrick Ewing Dilemma and the Weight of Expectations
You can’t talk about the New York Knicks 2000 roster without talking about the Big Fella. Patrick Ewing was 37. His knees were essentially bone on bone at that point, and you could see the pain in every jump hook. Yet, he was still the heartbeat. He averaged 15 points and nearly 10 boards, which, considering he was moving like a tectonic plate, was a miracle.
Fans were split. Half the city wanted to ride with Patrick until the wheels fell off. The other half was looking at Marcus Camby’s pogo-stick legs and wondering if it was time to move on.
💡 You might also like: Cómo entender la tabla de Copa Oro y por qué los puntos no siempre cuentan la historia completa
It’s easy to look back and say they should have traded him sooner. Or maybe never at all. But in the moment? It was tense. The Knicks were trying to balance the sunset of a legend with the prime of guys like Allan Houston and Latrell Sprewell. It was a weird, beautiful, clunky chemistry experiment that somehow worked until it didn’t.
That Eastern Conference Finals Heartbreak
The 2000 playoffs were a grind. New York swept the Raptors—back when Vince Carter was "half-man, half-amazing"—and then outlasted Pat Riley’s Miami Heat in a seven-game slugfest. That Heat series was peak 90s basketball. Low scoring. Lots of elbows. Pure hatred.
Then came the Indiana Pacers.
Reggie Miller. Just saying the name makes older Knicks fans twitch. The Pacers took the series in six games. Game 6 at the Garden was a funeral. Reggie dropped 34. Travis Best hit shots. The Knicks just ran out of gas.
I remember watching Ewing walk off the floor. You kinda felt it then. That was his last game as a Knick. He got traded to Seattle that following September in a massive four-team deal that brought back Glen Rice and a bunch of pieces that never quite fit. Looking back, that trade was the "Patient Zero" moment for the dark ages of the 2000s. They traded their soul for a shooter who was past his prime and a luxury tax bill that would make a billionaire blink.
📖 Related: Ohio State Football All White Uniforms: Why the Icy Look Always Sparks a Debate
The Sprewell and Houston Dynamic
While Ewing was the statue, Sprewell and Houston were the engine.
- Latrell Sprewell: He was pure chaos in the best way. He'd coast for three quarters and then decide to dunk on an entire team's frontcourt in the fourth.
- Allan Houston: The smoothest jumper in the league. Seriously, his form was textbook.
- Larry Johnson: No longer "Grandmama," but a bruising power forward with a broken back who still hit big shots.
They were a "big three" before that was a marketing term. But they lacked a true floor general. Charlie Ward and Chris Childs were tough as nails, but they weren't the guys who were going to outmaneuver the elite guards of the West like Kobe or Stockton.
Why the New York Knicks 2000 Stats Don't Tell the Whole Story
If you look at the Basketball-Reference page for this team, you see a defense that ranked 2nd in the league. They allowed only 90.7 points per game. In today’s NBA, teams score 90 points by the third quarter.
But the New York Knicks 2000 era was defined by pace—or lack thereof. They wanted to drag you into the mud. They wanted to make sure every possession felt like a chore. That was the Van Gundy way.
The problem was the offense. When the game slowed down in the playoffs, they became predictable. If Houston’s shot wasn’t falling or Sprewell wasn’t getting to the rim, it was a struggle. They lacked that secondary playmaker. They lacked a young Ewing.
👉 See also: Who Won the Golf Tournament This Weekend: Richard T. Lee and the 2026 Season Kickoff
The Long Shadow of the Ewing Trade
Most historians point to the post-2000 offseason as the turning point. When Dave Checketts and Scott Layden pulled the trigger on the Ewing deal, they thought they were getting younger and more versatile.
They weren't.
They got older in different ways. They tied up money in Luc Longley (who barely played) and Glen Rice. They lost the defensive identity that had defined the team since the Pat Riley days. The 2000 season was the last time the Knicks felt like "The Knicks" for a very long time. It was the final gasp of a culture built on defense, rebounding, and MSG intimidation.
Actionable Insights for the Modern Fan
If you want to truly understand the DNA of this franchise, you have to study the 2000 collapse. Here is what we can learn from that specific turning point:
- Value Identity Over Assets: The Knicks traded an identity (Ewing) for "value" (Rice, picks, etc.) and lost their soul in the process. Never sacrifice your team's core culture for a marginal upgrade in talent.
- Acknowledge the End: The front office tried to extend a championship window that had already closed. Sometimes, a hard rebuild is better than a slow decay.
- Defense Still Wins (Sort of): The 2000 team proved you can win 50 games with a mediocre offense if your defense is elite. However, to win a ring, you need at least one transcendent offensive creator—something the Knicks haven't truly had consistently until the Jalen Brunson era.
To see this in action, go back and watch the 2000 ECF Game 6. Watch how the Garden reacts to every Ewing bucket. It’s a lesson in loyalty and the bittersweet nature of sports. The 2000 Knicks weren't champions, but they were the last great version of a team that defined New York basketball for a generation.