Credit the Knicks with winning the division title, yes. Credit them with winning over 50 games, yes, but don’t credit them with being anything more than they are. An also-ran.

Apr 14, 2013; New York, NY, USA; New York Knicks small forward Carmelo Anthony (7) reacts during the third quarter against the Indiana Pacers at Madison Square Garden. Knicks won 90-80. Mandatory Credit: Anthony Gruppuso-USA TODAY Sports

The team isn’t going to the championship with Carmelo Anthony scoring 40 points a game. We saw that with Bernard King. Not that Bernard was not a Hall of Famer. He was, but his team was not. This Knick team is better than Bernard’s 1982-1987 teams. The best they did was win 47 games and lose in the Eastern Conference Semifinals versus the Philadelphia 76ers and Boston Celtics in 1983 and 1984. Bernard never got to play with Patrick Ewing. Together, they could have made history, but as it was, it was Bernard right, King left, all day and all night.

And though I see this Knick team possibly reaching the Eastern Conference finals, that’s certainly the limit. Sure, the Knicks can win a first round playoff against the Celtics (or so it seems with the Celtics currently the 7th seed), and maybe squeak by in a seven games vs. Indiana, Brooklyn or Chicago, but against the Miami Heat, you need more than one player shooting the ball. Remember what the Heat did to the Knicks in last year’s playoffs? Carmelo got his, but no one else backed him up. Could this year be different?

This year, it’s been Carmelo right, Anthony left, all day and all night. But we’ve seen that before with Bernard. Fine for high personal stats, but not a championship formula. To win a championship you need a team to play defense, pass the ball around, hit the open man and take advantage of matchups.

And when J.R. Smith comes into the  game to take some of the scoring pressure off of Anthony, it’s the same exact story.

Look at the Los Angeles Lakers. Mike D’Antoni’s hiring has resulted in a less than satisfactory outcome except when Kobe scores less, and passes the ball more.

In the Knicks big win against the Oklahoma City Thunder a week ago, Anthony amassed zero assists. That’s right; he did not get even one, single assist. Is that a championship formula?

Until Anthony learns to follow in Michael Jordan’s footsteps, and get others more involved in the offense, the Knicks will disappoint. What Michael did that was magical was get everyone involved, so that when he was double teamed at the end of the game, he could pass and watch his teammate score. When Anthony does that you can talk Championship, but until then, it will be Bernard King‘s Knicks all over again.

That’s all I can really say about the latest report that says former New York Knicks forward Bernard King will be among the members of the 2013 NBA Hall of Fame Class.

January 13, 2013; New York, NY, USA; New York Knicks former player Bernard King gestures to the crowd during the second quarter of an NBA game against the New Orleans Hornets at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

It’s extremely long overdue.

Nothing is official until Monday when it all gets announced in New York but these things tend to leak out early as the players have already been called and according to the New York Post, King has finally gotten that call.

King was one of the great pure scorers ever to play in the NBA, ad played with the Knicks from 1982-87, although his career was shortened by knee trouble.

“The King “averaged 26.5 points during his Knicks career and had been nominated for the Hall of Fame six times. The Brooklyn native started and finished his career with the Nets, playing with them starting in 1977-’79 and again in 1993.

The small forward averaged 22.5 points per game in his career and a career-high 32.9 for the Knicks in the 1984-’85 season.

Current Knicks superstar Carmelo Anthony has mentioned King as his idol several times and had said that King was a “no-brainer” to get into the Hall of Fame. Even though it took a little longer than it probably should have, King is heading exactly where he belongs- with the game’s greatest of all-time.

Other names to leak of have included Gary Payton (via Pro Basketball Talk) and Spencer Haywood (via Fox Sports Florida).

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The NBA Hall Of Fame 2013 results were announced Friday afternoon and the New York Knicks are well represented in the finalists for the Class of 2013.

Feb 9, 2013; South Bend, IN, USA; Louisville Cardinals coach Rick Pitino on the sidelines against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish at the Joyce Center. Notre Dame defeats Louisville 104-101 in five overtimes. Mandatory Credit: Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports

That list is headlined by former Knicks’ great Bernard King, who was one of the best pure scorers in NBA history and long overdue for enshrinement into the Hall of Fame.

King is joined as a finalist by former Knicks’ head coach and current Louisville coach Rick Pitino.

King and Pitino have to wait to see if they are among the 13 former greats who will be enshrined in September. But that isn’t the case for former Knicks’ guard Richie Guerin, who is among five Direct Elects.

Guerin, who starred for the Knicks from 1956-63, was voted in by the Veteran’s Committee and will be joined by the likes of: Edwin “EB” Henderson, Roger Brown, Oscar Schmidt and Russ Granik.

King and Pitino are among 12 finalists, who also include: Dawn Staley, Sylvia Hatchell, Maurice Cheeks, Tom Heinsohn, Mitch Richmond, Guy V. Lewis, Spencer Haywood, Jerry Tarkanian, Tim Hardaway and Gary Payton.

Payton is likely a first ballot Hall of Famer, but King should have a legitimate chance to be one of the other three or four other inductees.

The Class of 2013 will be announced April 8 in Atlanta at the Final Four.

Enshrinement will take place September 8 in Springfield, Massachusetts at the Basketball Hall of Fame.

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The winner joins the 1973, 1995 and yesterday’s winner the 1998 Knicks in the Sweet 16.

That brings us to today’s matchup and just like the other ones, you get to vote and decide the winner, who will go onto play the 1995 team in the second round.

Here’s a look at today’s matchup.

1984 New York Knicks: 47-35 regular season; lost in Eastern Conference Semis

1971 New York Knicks: 52-30 regular season; lost in Eastern Conference Finals

The ’84 team, led by a huge season from Bernard King, finished the season third in the Atlantic Division and the No. 5 seed in the East. They were able to sneak by the Detroit Pistons in five games in the first round of the playoffs, but lost in seven games to the Boston Celtics in the second round.

The ’71 team was trying to win a second consecutive championship and was the No. 1 seed in the east. But after defeating the Atlanta Hawks in the first round, they lost in seven games to the Baltimore Bullets, ending their chances of repeating.

Here’s a look at how they stack up against each other.

1984 Knicks

Coach- Hubie Brown

Starters

C- Bill Cartwright (17.0 PPG, 8.4 RPG)

F- Truck Robinson (10.8 PPG, 8.4 RPG)

F-Bernard King (26.3 PPG, 5.1 RPG)

G- Rory Sparrow (10.4 PPG, 6.8 APG)

G- Ray Williams (14.8 PPG, 5.9 APG)

Bench- Louis Orr, Len Elmore, Trent Tucker, Darrell Walker, Ernie Grunfeld, Rudy Macklin

1971 Knicks

Coach- Red Holzman

Starters

C- Willis Reed (20.9 PPG, 13.7 RPG)

F- Dave DeBusschere (15.6 PPG, 11.1 RPG)

F- Bill Bradley (12.4 PPG)

G-Dick Barnett (15.5 PPG)

G- Walt Frazier (21.7 PPG, 6.8 RPG, 6.7 APG)

Bench- Phil Jackson, Dave Stallworth, Cazzie Russell, Mike Riordan, Greg Filmore

My Take: This actually wouldn’t be as close of a game as I thought it would be initially. The ’71 team is loaded and while they were only 14th of 17 teams in scoring at 110.1 PPG, they did lead the league in points against, allowing 105.0 per game.

The ’84 team by comparison scored 106.9 points per game and allowed 103.0, which made them a very good defensive team for that era of basketball.

Cartwright and King could potentially play Reed and DeBusschere to a draw if the ’84 team was lucky, but they have no answer for Frazier, who had one of the finest seasons of his career in ’71. He’s the X-factor and a big reason why the ’71 team wins this going away.

Your Vote: Your vote is the one that counts though, so make sure you vote for the winner in the poll on the right hand side of this page. Voting is open until tomorrow afternoon and the winner will advance to the Sweet 16.

Up Next: We head to the Southeast Region as the No. 1 seed 1993 Knicks take on the No. 8 seed 1952 Knicks.

Follow Matt Shetler on Twitter for news, reaction and analysis from around the NBA.

The Knicks were down seven at the end of the quarter. “It’s an ugly game,” Monroe said. “If I had to draw this one up, it’d look like this,” and he pantomimed a mess of scribbles.

Trautwig asked the analysts to raise their hand if they thought the Knicks could come back and tie the game. They all looked at each other. King cautiously lifted his. Monroe and Tripucka raised their eyebrows. King shrugged his shoulders.

Yet somehow the Knicks began to claw their way back. Anthony continued his run of unearthly baskets, driving to the hoop as elusively as Monroe and raining jump shots with a touch as deadly as King’s. The Knicks closed to within two, and Trautwig complemented King on his unlikely prescience. “I was being optimistic,” King said. After the Knicks remarkably took the lead with eight minutes left, everyone in the room jumped out of their seats. King raised both his arms in the air. Monroe beamed. “I don’t mind being wrong,” he said.

We learned about this article a couple weeks ago and apologize for just getting around to putting it up. If you’re down about the Knicks and need to refresh your head before Friday night’s Game 3, make sure you give this well written, informative article by Hardwood Hype’s Emile Avanessian a thorough read—whether you’re too young to have witnessed Bernard King’s greatness or are left wondering where scorers like him have gone.

Imagine if these guys all were young at the same time and played together. Wait, but since Willis Reed and Patrick Ewing both played center, you can only pick one of 'em. Ay, there's the rub. (Source: Yardbarker.com)

Right now ESPN.com has a great little thing where for each team in the league you can vote on who their greatest player was for each position.  For the Knicks, do you go Patrick Ewing or Willis Reed at center?  You gotta go Walt Frazier at point, and sorry, Bill Bradley, but Bernard King was unstoppable at small forward.  Shooting guard I’m inclined to go with Earl The Pearl, but I’ve never seen Richie Guerin play, so maybe he has a case?  And if the team is playing with today’s three point line and we’re thinking who’d mesh best together, maybe instead the two should be Allan Houston to stretch out the other team’s defense and keep ‘em honest.  At power forward, for some reason they list David Lee, even though he pretty much just played center.  I’m not picking him, of course, just pointing out that it’s odd that he’s in this category.  Probably you should go with Dave DeDebusschere, although I grew up worshiping at the altar of Charles Oakley, and particularly if you chose Ewing over Reed, then you need an enforcer.

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