Originally Posted by
Starter
Your final two statements are dead-on.
I'm a Knicks fan, so I find myself forced to defend them from a position of disadvantage. =) While fully admitting they had a deleterious effect on the whole with their physical brand of defense -- leading to figurative and sometimes literal slugfests with the Heat, which while inartistic were still high theater -- the overall level of play of the NBA stayed pretty high through most of the Ewing years, in large part due to Michael Jordan and the Bulls. Those Bulls teams were magnificent, and the playoffs were always tremendous.
Even after the Knicks screwed stuff up, you still had Vince Carter, Iverson and the Lakers keeping stuff exciting. I remember Bucks-Sixers in 2001 being a tremendous series -- Iverson spit blood inside his jersey so the refs couldn't see and make him come out! -- and I used to love the Nets-Celtics series back then.
All that said, I can't deny the Knicks eventually had a negative effect on the league, but the post-Jordan hangover (which includes his years on the Bullets) had just as much a negative effect, if not more. Not to mention, the league's always in better shape when the they have a good team in the New York market, and the Knicks happened to be much better when they were beating everyone up with Oakley and Mason.