Walt Frazier played 10 seasons for the New York Knicks, leading them to 2 NBA championships in 1970 and 1973.
The Knicks have been a marquee NBA franchise, and some of the best players in the game have called Madison Square Garden their home. There have been some defensive specialists who have starred for the Knicks as well, and here, we take a look at all the players who have been named to the NBA All-Defense First Team while playing in New York.
Walt Frazier – 7 times (1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974,1975)
Frazier played for the Knicks in 10 of his 13 seasons in the NBA, earning seven consecutive All-Star nods and seven consecutive nominations to the NBA All-Defense 1st Team between the 1968-69 and 1975-76 campaigns. One interesting fact about Frazier’s All-Defense 1st Team berths is that in six of those seasons, he earned the nod alongside one of his teammates, Dave DeBusschere. The lone year in which that didn’t happen was the 1974-75 campaign. Frazier won two titles with the Knicks in 1969-70 and 1972-73. He averaged 19.3 points, 6.3 assists and 6.1 rebounds per game during his 10-year period with the Knicks. He’d go on to play three more years for the Cavaliers before retiring.
Dave DeBusschere – 6 times (1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974)
DeBusschere started his career with the Detroit Pistons, where he was named to the All-Star Games three times, but he reached his apex with the Knicks. He was a member of the NBA All-Defense 1st Team in each of the six campaigns he played in New York and had a prominent role in a Knicks team that won two titles in the late 1960s and early 1970s alongside the aforementioned defensive stalwart, Walt Frazier, who was named to the NBA All-Defense 1st Team seven times. DeBusschere averaged 16.0 points and 10.7 rebounds in the six seasons he played with the Knicks, and he retired as a member of the franchise at the end of the 1973-74 campaign.
Michael Ray Richardson – 2 times (1980, 1981)
Richardson played the first four years of his NBA career with the Knicks and quickly established himself as a stellar defender. After coming off the bench as a rookie in the 1978-79 campaign, Richardson moved into a starting role in his sophomore year and earned a spot on the All-Defense 1st Team, as well as the All-Star Game, after averaging 15.3 points, 10.1 assists and 3.2 steals per game, leading The Association in the latter two categories. Richardson was once again named to the All-Defense 1st Team and the All-Star Game in the 1980-81 campaign after putting up 16.4 points, 7.9 assists and 2.9 steals per contest, numbers that also helped him finish 17th in the MVP voting. Richardson would play one more year with the Knicks before changing teams. He finished out his NBA career with the Nets in 1986.
Willis Reed – 1 time (1970)
Reed was the first player to earn a spot in the All-Defense 1st Team as a member of the Knicks in NBA history. He did it during the 1969-70 season, a year in which he averaged 21.7 points, 13.9 rebounds and 2.0 assists per game en route to winning the MVP award, an All-Star berth, and a spot in the All-NBA First Team. Reed featured in the All-Defense 1st Team alongside two teammates, Dave DeBusschere and Walt Frazier, in a season where the Knicks won the Larry O’Brien trophy after toppling the Los Angeles Lakers in seven games.
Charles Oakley – 1 time (1994)
Oakley played 10 of his 19 NBA seasons as a member of the Knicks and was a regular starter for the franchise throughout that decade, featuring in the lineup in all but five of his 727 regular-season appearances. Oakley had one of the best seasons of his career in the 1993-94 campaign, averaging 11.8 points, 11.8 rebounds, 2.7 assists, 1.3 steals and 0.2 blocks per contest while earning the lone All-Star berth of his career. He was also part of the All-Defense 1st Team alongside Mookie Blaylock, Gary Payton, Scottie Pippen and Hakeem Olajuwon.
Tyson Chandler – 1 time (2013)
Chandler is the most recent player to crack the All-Defense 1st Team as a member of the Knicks. The big man earned that award in the 2012-13 campaign, a season in which the All-Defense 1st Team honor had six players since Chandler and Joakim Noah were tied in points. The other members of the team were Chris Paul, Serge Ibaka, LeBron James and Tony Allen. Chandler averaged 10.4 points, 10.7 rebounds and 1.1 blocks per game in 2012-13. He had won the Defensive Player of the Year award the previous season in 2011-12.
