The New York Knicks finally ended their 53-year championship drought in mid-June. The long-suffering fan base finally got to see their beloved franchise reach the mountaintop, led by their heroes such as Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns, and OG Anunoby.
That wait for a title could have been a bit shorter.
One of the all-time greats demanded a trade in 1974, and he wanted to go to the Knicks. On The Hoop Collective podcast, Tim MacMahon and Brian Windhorst discussed crazy NBA trades that never happened. MacMahon brought up the trade demand from none other than Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
MacMahon: “Kareem Abdul-Jabbar absolutely requested a trade to the Knicks when he was in Milwaukee.”
Windhorst: “Kareem Abdul-Jabbar made a trade request, and it stayed silent for a year.”
MacMahon: “It leaked when Marv Albert reported it on New York City radio.”
It shows how different the league was in the pre-social media era that an all-time great early in his career would want to go to a high-profile team, yet it remained a secret for a long time. Abdul-Jabbar would end up going to a high-profile club, just not the Knicks.
Abdul-Jabbar to the Knicks would have been scary for the rest of the league
At the time of his trade demand—reportedly in October 1974—Abdul-Jabbar was in the prime of his career at 27 years old. He had already won three MVP awards and a championship, and he had helped guide the Bucks to the 1974 NBA Finals, where they lost to the Boston Celtics in seven games.
The Knicks weren’t far removed from their first two title-winning teams, in 1970 and 1973. In 1974–75, they were in a bit of a transition stage, as Willis Reed missed the entire season and retired soon afterward. Their starting center after Reed was John Gianelli, a solid but unspectacular player.
It’s hard to imagine the Knicks dropping off as they did if they had acquired the best player in the game at the time. Even though they were in the latter portions of their careers, the Knicks still rostered Hall of Famers Walt Frazier, Earl Monroe, and Bill Bradley. At least one more championship for New York in the mid-to-late 1970s had a strong possibility of occurring had they added Abdul-Jabbar.
Instead, Abdul-Jabbar was traded to the Lakers, where he won five more championships. In the end, the Knicks’ fan base waited 53 years for a championship instead of, say, around 50 if Abdul-Jabbar had become a member of the team.
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