Ranking the 'Knicks Legends’ Seated Courtside vs. Cavaliers in Tiers

The Knicks are in the Eastern Conference finals for the second straight year. After losing in six games to the Pacers last season, they have jumped out to a 2-0 lead over the Cavaliers and sure look like they're ready to reach the NBA Finals for the first time in more than a quarter-century.

The team’s recent success in the Jalen Brunson era has brought a number of former players back to Madison Square Garden. For the most part, those former players are being treated like they played in New York during the glory days, but that doesn't appear to be true for many of them.

Two of the most prominent faces you may have noticed during the Eastern Conference finals broadcasts have been Stephon Marbury and John Starks, who have gotten quite close to the action at times, as noted by ESPN's Brian Windhorst after Game 1.

"Starks by the way is coming on the court last night. Starks and Marbury are aiding the Knicks on defense last night. They're on the court, get them off the court!" – Brian Windhorst pic.twitter.com/mWMUVR0kkv
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) May 20, 2026

It raises the question of, well, just who do some of these guys think they are? Marbury has been a New York City legend since he was a teenager, but is he really a Knicks legend as the group of former players is often billed online and on television?

Let's take a look at some of the many ex-players who have flocked back to MSG during the team's return to prominence and see how many of them really are franchise legends.

Wilson Chandler, Gerald Wilkins, Larry Johnson, Iman Shumpert, Bernard King, Tim Thomas, Stephon Marbury, Kurt Thomas, Latrell Sprewell, Nate Robinson, Walt Clyde Frazier and John Starks courtside pic.twitter.com/kWBbCl3vNl
— New York Basketball (@NBA_NewYork) May 22, 2026

Tier 1: Actual legends

Walt Frazier

Knicks cred: No. 5 pick in 1967. 10 seasons in New York, 19.3 points, 6.1 assists, 5.9 rebounds and 1.9 steals per game. Eight time All-Defense. Seven-time All-Star. Eight playoff appearances and two NBA championships. Number retired.

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Walt "Clyde" Frazier is a legitimate NBA legend who was named to the NBA's 50th and 75th anniversary teams. As a Knick he was high draft pick who led them to multiple championships. And he did it all in style, which he maintains to this day as one of the faces of Knicks basketball on the MSG Network. Frazier is Knicks basketball.

Patrick Ewing

Knicks cred: No. 1 pick in 1983. 15 seasons in New York. 1,039 games, 22.8 points, 10.4 rebounds and 2.4 blocks per game. 11-time All-Star with multiple All-NBA and All-Defensive team selections. Finished in the top five for MVP voting six times. Helped the Knicks reach the postseason 13 times.

Patrick Ewing was the chosen one who was going to take the Knicks back to the Finals. He spent a long time pouring sweat onto the floor at MSG trying to bring a title back to New York. Unfortunately, he ran into the Chicago Bulls six times over an eight-year stretch and lost five of those series. The team never reached the Finals until ’99 when he was injured and inspired Bill Simmons's Ewing Theory. Still, Ewing is a Hall of Famer and legitimate Knicks legend.

Tier 2: Knicks legend

John Starks

Knicks cred: Eight seasons and 602 games with the Knicks; 14.1 points, 3.5 assists per game. Eight playoff appearances. One-time All-Star; 1996–97 Sixth Man of the Year.

Starks is synonymous with Ewing and was on the floor for many of the battles against the Bulls, which included his baseline dunk in Game 1 of the ’93 Eastern Conference finals. He would eventually shoot 2-of-18 in Game 7 of the ’94 NBA Finals, costing the team its best and only real shot at a title since the ’70s. But he currently owns a car dealership in Queens ... so how much more New York can you really get?

Tier 3: Knicks ‘legends’

Bernard King

Knicks cred: Four seasons, two playoff appearances with one postseason series win. Led the NBA in scoring in 1984-85 and was a two-time All-Star and All-NBA performer in New York.

King only played 206 games with the Knicks during his Hall of Fame career. The team didn't actually have a ton of success when he was there, but he did average 29.1 points per game in a seven-game series against the 1984 NBA champion Celtics.

Larry Johnson

Knicks cred: Five seasons, 330 games and four playoff appearances, including a trip to the NBA Finals. Averaged 12.3 points, 5.5 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game in New York.

The Knicks won five playoff series during Johnson's time in New York after they traded Anthony Mason and Brad Lohaus to acquire him from the Hornets, where he wore one of the most iconic jerseys in NBA history. (Or at least that's how this ’90s kid remembers it.) In New York he reinvented himself, grew a big beard, invented a new celebration and completed an epic four-point play in the 1999 playoffs thanks to a phantom foul.

Latrell Sprewell

Knicks cred: Five seasons and five playoff series won. 17.9 points, 4.1 rebounds and four assists per game in New York. One All-Star selection and one NBA Finals appearance.

The Knicks traded for Sprewell in 1999 after he served a 68-game suspension for choking coach P.J. Carlesimo while a member of the Warriors. He ended up starting eight of the team's 20 playoff games that year as they made their improbable run to the Finals, averaging 20.4 points per game.

Kurt Thomas

Knicks cred: Eight seasons averaging 10.6 points and 7.5 rebounds in New York. The Knicks made four playoff appearances while Thomas was there, and he played in all 20 games during the '99 Finals run.

Thomas played for eight other teams, but the majority of his career and all of his most productive seasons happened with the Knicks.

Tier 4: Fuzzy memories

Nate Robinson

Knicks cred: Robinson averaged 12.5 points and 2.8 assists in four-plus seasons. He finished third in Sixth Man of the Year voting one year and won two Slam Dunk Contests as a member of the Knicks, but the team never made the playoffs while he was there.

Stephon Marbury

Knicks cred: Marbury played five seasons in New York, averaging 18.2 points and seven assists per game. The team never had a winning record during the Marbury era and got swept in their lone postseason appearance in a season where they finished below .500 and went through multiple coaches.

Gerald Wilkins

Knicks cred: Second-round pick. Seven seasons. Averaged 14.9 points, 3.2 rebounds and 3.5 assists. Won two playoff series. Wilkins was actually drafted by New York and owns the fourth-longest tenure of all the former Knicks who have shown up this postseason, but he left before the Ewing-era team made their Finals run.

J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert

Knicks cred: Shumpert was the No. 17 pick in the 2011 NBA draft and Smith signed with the team that same year. Smith ended up winning Sixth Man of the Year with the Knicks before he and Shumpert were traded to the Cavaliers during the 2014-15 season. While they only won a single playoff series in New York, they went on to be integral parts of a Cavaliers team that made multiple Finals and won the title in 2016, which prompted Smith to suggest the Knicks had treated them like trash.

Tier 5: Sir, may I please see your ticket?

Wilson Chandler

Knicks cred: The No. 23 pick in the 2007 draft, Chandler played 233 games with the Knicks, averaging 14 points and 5.2 rebounds per game on some very bad teams before he was sent to Denver as part of the Carmelo Anthony trade.

Tim Thomas

Knicks cred: The journeyman had two stops in New York. He was first sent to the Knicks as part of a three-team trade that also brought Nazr Mohammed to New York while Keith Van Horn went to Milwaukee. Thomas was then traded to the Bulls as part of the move that brought in Eddy Curry. Years later, Thomas was sent back to the Knicks as part of a Zach Randolph trade, and then he was again traded from New York for Larry Hughes. Thomas averaged 12 points per game in 131 games with the Knicks and appeared in one single playoff game.

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