During a tenure in New York that spanned a decade, Charlie Ward was more often than not the leader of the second unit, coming off the bench in 308 out of a possible 580 games with the Knicks.
At only 22.9 minutes a night, his 4.2 assists per game certainly don’t jump off the page. However, that number jumps to 6.6 per 36 minutes, a solid number for an NBA point guard.
Ward was obviously never a big-time player, but he was a stabilizer on the offensive end. As the unofficial leader of New York’s bench, he had to be. He was a guy who could come into the game and do the little things like pushing the ball up the court to get fast-break opportunities or getting the hockey assists. Things rarely seemed to implode with the ball in the hands of Ward.
It looked like he always had an endless supply of energy on the court, constantly in motion whether he had the ball or not. This turned out to be a great way for him to find the open man, as he’d simply collapse the defense and either kick out to an open shooter or dump it down to a teammate for an easy layup.
So, Ward may not have made the biggest of impacts on the Knicks success during the 90’s, but he certainly wasn’t just along for the ride. There was a calming presence he brought to the court, in that most people knew Ward may not have helped build up a lead, but he certainly wouldn’t let the opponent build one of their own.