The New York Knickerbockers are a professional basketball team based in New York City. The team plays in the National Basketball Association (NBA).

According to Forbes Magazine, the Knicks are the most valuable basketball franchise in the United States, valued at approximately $608 million.

At one point, the Knicks were owned by Gulf+Western, which was renamed to Paramount Communications in 1989, and sold to Viacom in 1994. Viacom then sold the team to ITT Corporation and Cablevision, and in 1997, ITT sold their share of the team to Cablevision, who still owns the team today.

Franchise history

The Knicks, the shortened form of Knickerbockers, are one of only two teams of the original National Basketball Association still located in its original city (the other being the Boston Celtics). The Basketball Association of America and the National Basketball League merged in 1949 to form the National Basketball Association.

Early years

The Knicks' (and the BAA's) first game was played on November 1, 1946 against the Toronto Huskies as the New York Knickerbockers at Toronto's Maple Leaf Gardens, where the Knickerbockers won 68–66.Goldaper, Sam. The First Game, National Basketball Association. Accessed 2008-03-25. The Knickerbockers' first head coach was Neil Cohalan. The Knickerbockers were consistent playoff contenders in their early years. During the first decade of the NBA's existence, the Knickerbockers made the NBA Finals in three straight years (1951–53), and they were respected by basketball players and fans. For the remainder of the 1950s, the Knicks would field decent, if not spectacular teams, and made the playoffs in 1955, 1956 (where they lost a one-game playoff to the Syracuse Nationals), and 1959.

Lean years

From 1960 to 1966, the Knicks fell on hard times, and they finished last in the NBA's Eastern Division each year. Some of the biggest losses in Knicks history occurred during this time. One such game occurred on November 15, 1960, where they lost to the Los Angeles Lakers by a score of 162–100. Another notable loss occurred on March 2, 1962, as the Philadelphia Warriors' Wilt Chamberlain scored a NBA-record 100 points against the Knicks, and the Warriors won the game 169–147 in a game played in Hershey, Pennsylvania.

Championship years

In 1967, right after the Knicks made it to the playoffs for the first time since 1959, the Knicks hired Red Holzman as their head coach. With Holzman at the helm, and young players such as Bill Bradley and Walt "Clyde" Frazier, the Knicks were a playoff team again in 1968. The next season, the team acquired Dave DeBusschere from the Detroit Pistons, and the team went 55–27. In the ensuing playoffs, the team made it past the first round of the playoffs for the first time since 1953, sweeping the Baltimore Bullets in three games, before falling to the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Division finals.