You’d keep checking in the Sports section of the bookstore — which for me was a Barnes and Nobles in Manhattan on 8th Street and Broadway — to see if it had arrived.

And then there it would be — a quick purchase and could not wait to start reading it on the subway home to Brooklyn.

Zander Was On Point & Funny

It was more than a treat — the unique feature was the funny and accurate bios of each player that Hollander provided, which were part scouting report, part standup comedy, but always razor sharp and on the money. Zander pushed the envelope. This type of writing, on sports players, was not available anywhere.

Zander also provided statistics for each player, a scouting report on players just drafted, and predictions — a complete handbook.

Analysis of Zander’s Analysis

I’m providing here a sampling of the 1991 Handbook — the pages for the Knicks team — under Fair Use doctrine of Copyright law, and with perfect hindsight, will analyze Zander’s analysis.  The book details the 1989-90 season, with the 1990-91 season about to begin.

The 1990-91 Knicks

The Knicks were coming off a disappointing 45-37 campaign in 1989-90, coached by Stu Jackson who was put into the role after Rick Pitino left for greener blue-grass college pastures in Kentucky. Pitino had led NY to a 52-30 season in 1988-89, wherein they lost in the Eastern Conference semifinals to Michael Jordan‘s Bulls, 4 games to 2. Stu had been Pitino’s assistant coach with the Knicks and with Providence before that.

Stu wasn’t Rick Pitino — and he would be fired 15 games into the 1990-91 season with a 7-8 record, replaced by veteran John MacLeod — who went an equally unimpressive 32-35.

The Knicks were a team in transition although they didn’t know it — Al Bianchi was still the GM — he would step down in a year for the young whirlwind Dave Checketts, whose first order of business was bringing Pat Riley to NY. But that was a year away. The 1990-91 Knicks were heading for another disappointing season in which they’d go 39-43.

On Playmaking — Rod Strickland, age 23, had just been traded after 50 games in his 2nd season for 33-year-old Maurice Cheeks. The trade devastated a lot of Knick fans at the time and would yield life-long scars. At the time it was reported that Strickland was always 10 minutes late for the team bus. Years later, it was discovered this was ‘NBA talk’ for ‘he was always high on marijuana.’

So what had been a Knick dilemma of having two great young point guards in Mark Jackson and Rod Strickland became Cheeks — who supplanted Mark Jackson as starter, as Jackson had gained some weight by his 3rd season and wasn’t playing as well as he had as a rookie.

After a disappointing first 2 seasons by Patrick Ewing, Mark Jackson had come to town and helped him become a dominant big man. By 1989, Ewing was one of the best players in the NBA, and Zander’s analysis shows that.

The Charles Oakley-for-Bill Cartwright trade was one of the best in Knick history, followed by the fantastic Oakley-for-a-young-Marcus Camby trade at the end of Oakley’s career (by GM Ernie Grunfeld).

Kiki Vandewegh was about to have a pretty good season for NY — averaging 16.3 ppg (.362 from 3) in 75 games. It would be his last season as a regular, as by 1991-92 he’d become a reserve under Pat Riley.

Tucker would again come off the bench for NY in 1990-91, and do his usual — 7 ppg and 41 percent from 3. Tucker’s lifetime percentage from 3 was .408 — great even by today’s standards. At the end of the 1990-91 season, Tucker would be packaged with Jerrod Mustaf and two 2nd-round picks to Phoenix for Xavier McDaniel — a Great trade.

Eddie Lee Wilkins had been a great find for NY and was a fan favorite off the bench for 5 years. He’d have his usual 4ppg-off-the-bench season for NY in 1990-91 before going to Italy to play.

Mark Jackson was demoted in this Zander coverage of the Knicks — falling to the 3rd page. People remember him being out of shape; what isn’t remembered is the knee and thigh injuries that he was also dealing with. Mark would average 8.8 ppg as the backup point guard for NY in 1990-91, then be traded in the off season to the LA Clippers for Doc Rivers and Charles Smith. Later, Mark would find a home with Indiana where he had tremendous success, and later at age 35 come back to NY. Mark finished his career as the #2 all time assist leader — he is currently 6th — and should be in the Hall of Fame.

The selection of Kenny Walker with the #6 pick in the 1986 draft was the pick that hurt the Knicks’ Ewing years the most — as NY hoped Walker would be another James Worthy, but he wasn’t. The very next year, in 1987, Chicago picked Scottie Pippen with the #6 pick.

Gerald Wilkins‘ warts were showing by time of this Zander writeup. Wilkins would play two more years in NY — good ones averaging 15.6 ppg both seasons — before being released by NY and Pat Riley in September 1992. Wilkins would be picked up by Cleveland where he averaged 15.4 and 15.2 ppg, before finishing his career with a year in Vancouver (the original location of the Grizzlies!) and 3 years in Orlando.

My sister in law met Brian Quinnett at a bar in Brooklyn (or Manhattan) in 1990. She was a very pretty girl aged 21 at the time and guys no doubt flocked to her. She went on to marry a surgeon with his own business of 12 other surgeons who has probably made a lot more money than Quinnett — not that Quinnett wasn’t a catch too. I’ve been waiting 30 years to write that somewhere.

Zander’s writeup of these Knicks was rather dry by Zander standards — until you get to Stuart Gray (above).

The rookie that Zander doesn’t mention here is John Starks — who signed with Al Bianchi’s Knicks and played for NY in 1990-91, averaging 7.6 ppg in 19 minutes over 61 games. Not Zander’s fault as Starks signed with NY on October 1, 1990 — after this book went to press.

But that is mind blowing — all these years I remember it as Pat Riley finding and signing Starks. Not true Bianchi did.

I remember Al Bianchi as a “suit” — forgetting he had a 10-year NBA career with Syracuse and then Philadelphia. He passed away in 2019 aged 87. I wonder if for years he was telling anyone who would listen that He found Starks, not Riley.

The post The Zander Hollander Complete Handbook of the 1990-91 Knicks appeared first on Knicks.City.

You’d keep checking in the Sports section of the bookstore — which for me was a Barnes and Nobles in Manhattan on 8th Street and Broadway — to see if it had arrived.

And then there it would be — a quick purchase and could not wait to start reading it on the subway back home to Brooklyn.

Zander Was On Point & Funny

It was more than a treat — the unique feature was the funny and accurate bios of each player that Hollander provided, which were part scouting report, part standup comedy, but always razor sharp and on the money. Zander pushed the envelope. This type of writing, on sports players, was not available anywhere.

Zander also provided statistics for each player, a scouting report on players just drafted, and predictions — a complete handbook.

Analysis of Zander’s Analysis

I’m providing here a sampling of the 1988 Handbook — the pages for the Knicks team — under Fair Use doctrine of Copyright law, and with perfect hindsight, will analyze Zander’s analysis.  The book details the 1986-87 season, with the 1987-88 season about to begin.

The 1987-88 Knicks

The Knicks were coming off a horrid 24-58 campaign — Patrick Ewing‘s second season. Hubie Brown, who had coached Ewing as a rookie, was let go after a 4-12 start, and assistant Bob Hill was made coach. Hill went 20-46.

During the off season the Knicks hired Rick Pitino to be their coach. Pitino was a young phenom college coach who had just led Providence of the Big East into the NCAA playoffs and before 2 years at Providence had done a great job at Boston University for 5 seasons. Pitino was 35 years old.

The Knicks had just drafted Mark Jackson with the #18 overall pick in the June 1987 draft. With Pitino and Jackson leading the way, things were about to get good in NY.

Time Machine

Below we present this time machine — again under Fair Use doctrine of Copyright law — we provide a screen shot and provide our analysis of Zander’s analysis:

Bernard King graced the cover of the Knicks section. He had just missed two seasons with the knee surgery; before that he was a superstar, leading the NBA in scoring when he went down midway thru the 1984-85 season, going back to defend that shot against Kansas City on the break. He returned at the end of the disaster 1986-87 season and played 6 games.

Note above — Zander NAILED the drafting of Mark Jackson as a super important event. At that time nobody knew how good Jackson would be in the NBA. He seemed a tad slow for the NBA game. But he controlled tempo and was an exceptional passer who had just led St. Johns to the final 4.

Also note that Patrick Ewing was being gigged as not being as good a rebounder as everyone anticipated he’d be early in his career.

The first thing that Mark Jackson did as a rookie was announce that Patrick Ewing was the best center in the NBA and he was going to get him the ball. Even I as a Knick fan found that statement shocking — Ewing had not shown himself to be that good yet. But Jackson had played against Ewing at Georgetown, and Jackson did get Ewing the ball and Ewing gained confidence and became a BEAST. PS: Mark Jackson — who retired 2nd All Time in the NBA in assists and is currently 6th — should be in the Hall of Fame.

Zander does not hold back in criticism of Bill Cartwright (“averaged 17.5 points but did not care about any other aspect of the game”) or Bernard King (“Ego as large as the Empire State Building… Played in six games after sitting out two years with knee injury, then declared ‘I’m terrific’ and was looking for a new contract for over million a year'”.

Zander also ripped Ewing, “not exactly St Patrick. Ability to withstand pain has to be questioned… Hubie Brown was fired because he went to war with Patrick and lost… Moved by Brown to center and rebelled…. Overall play a disappointment considering his $30 Million contract…. May be too nice a guy. Needs to get angry on the court.” Wow. And it was true at the time; there were a lot of questions about Ewing his first two years before Mark Jackson arrived.

And then Zander nails it on Ewing: “Will be a monster one day.”

Gerald Wilkins was indeed the “most exciting player in the Garden”, but you learned that Gerald was a “big believer in positive thinking. Meditates before games.”

Kenny Walker: “The sky is falling” — that is prototypical Zander Hollander. Did not know that Kenny “was so depressed by end of season he wanted to be called ‘Twilight’ because he was stationed much of the time outside the shooting zone.” Another great Hollander line: “Highlight of the season was winning a harness race at Monticello Raceway.”

Poor Rory Sparrow was sulking, and Gerald Henderson had just hit town. Pat Cummings took the subway to games.

Jawann Oldham.. great Hollander lines. “From another planet. Overestimates his ability, often comparing himself to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar” Funny stuff.

Louis Orr — who was great for Knicks: “Needs to go to another team for his own well being.” Funny, and on point.

Bob Thornton “May be the only California Angels fan east of the Rockies”?

And of course Trent Tucker, who the Knicks drafted at #5 in the 1982 draft thinking he’d be the next Sidney Moncrief 2-way star guard, but Tucker never did like driving to the hoop much.

Zander, on point as usual, included the famous Mark Jackson draft-night quote, “I felt like Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz. I was sitting there clicking my heels, saying there’s no place like home.”

The post The Zander Hollander Complete Handbook of the 1987-88 Knicks appeared first on Knicks.City.

You’d keep checking in the Sports section of the bookstore — which for me was a Barnes and Nobles in Manhattan on 8th Street and Broadway — to see if it had arrived.

And then there it would be — a quick purchase and could not wait to start reading it on the subway back home to Brooklyn.

It was more than a treat — the unique feature was the funny and accurate bios of each player that Hollander provided, which were part scouting report, part standup comedy, but always razor sharp and on the money. Zander pushed the envelope. This type of writing, on sports players, was not available anywhere.

He also provided statistics for each player, a scouting report on players just drafted, and predictions — a complete handbook.

Analysis of Zander’s Analysis

I’m providing here a sampling of the 1979 Handbook — the pages for the Knicks team — under Fair Use doctrine of Copyright law, and with perfect hindsight, will analyze Zander’s analysis.  The book details the 1977-78 season, with the 1978-79 season about to begin. The Knicks had just finished 43-39, and won the first round series over Cleveland, but got swept by Philadelphia in round 2, as they double teamed Bob McAdoo.

The 1978-79 Knicks

The Knicks were a great team on paper — and there was expectation they would do well in 1978-79 — especially after signing Marvin Webster just before the season as a big-time free agent, bolstering their defense and front line — which also had Bob McAdoo and Spencer Haywood.

But the team fell apart, going 31-51. Spencer Haywood would be unloaded in January for Joe Meriweather. McAdoo was traded to Boston in February for 3 1st-round draft picks — the first of which would become the #3 pick in the 1979 draft and result in NY picking Bill Cartwright (the other picks eventually resulted in Larry Demic and Sly Williams). NY didn’t know it but it was a team in transition. The new guard was already on the team — Ray Williams and Micheal Ray Richardson. The old guard looked good on paper but the team didn’t play any defense on the court.

Time Machine

Below we present this time machine — again under Fair Use doctrine of Copyright law — we provide a screen shot and provide our analysis of Zander’s analysis:

Hollander hit it on the head in calling out the Knicks lack of defense, rebounding, and passing. He predicts a playoff team — so he got that wrong; he got fooled by the prior season and didn’t add up all of his spot-on analysis.

Just before this season began, in September 1978, the Knicks would sign high-end free agent Marvin Webster to play center. The Human Eraser made the Knicks look Great on paper — providing the interior defense NY needed. But alas it still didn’t work out. The Knicks started out 6-8, and Willis Reed was fired as coach — replaced with Red Holzman. NY would go 25-43 under Holzman.

On Bob McAdoo: “When asked to score less for the sake of a balanced attack, he does none of that” — Zander Hollander never minced words. McAdoo would be traded in February, 1979 as NY pulled the plug on this team. As mentioned at the top of this article, NY got a #1 pick back from Boston that would end up being the #3 overall pick and Bill Cartwright — the beginning of a new era.

Earl Monroe was indeed not that spectacular at this point in his career — his press clippings at the time belied what you saw on the court — which was a kind of slow unathletic guard who could still score on jumpers after some gyration shake-and-bake moves. But there was no D and no passing. Monroe would average a career low 12.3 ppg in only 64 games in 1978-79, and then 7.4 ppg in only 51 games in 1979-80 before retiring a Knick. He remained a fan favorite as much as ever — as offense off the bench.

Lonnie Shelton was a tough young power forward for those Knicks. But the NBA — at that point seemingly run by Red Auerbach with puppet strings — ripped NY a good one in determining they had to give up Lonnie Shelton as compensation for NY signing Marvin Webster — so Lonnie went to Seattle and didn’t play with NY in 1978-79.

Meanwhile Spencer Haywood averaged 17.8 points and 6.1 rebounds — empty numbers — especially the rebounds — before getting traded in January of 1979 as the Knicks pulled the plug on this team.

As Hollander points out, the Knicks had acquired Jim Clemens a year earlier for Walt Frazier, who had all of a sudden lost a step on defense at age 31. Clemens was younger but not nearly as good. Not even close.

The young Ray Williams on this team — he had not yet made his mark but would start doing so in 1978-79 — averaging 17.3 ppg.

Jim McMillan was one of those players who made the Knicks look great on paper when they acquired him from Buffalo — he was going to be the new Bill Bradley — but it didn’t work out at all.

A lot of talented youth on this team — again making it look like a great team on paper. The young Toby Knight would make his mark in 1978-79, averaging 16.6 ppg, and taking over at the forward scoring slot after McAdoo and Haywood were jettisoned. Glenn Gondrezick — Gondo — was a fiery player as Hollander points out. He’d play 1978-79 with NY, averaging 5.0 ppg before NY waived him. Gondo got picked up by Denver, where he played 4 years, averaging 4.6 to 8.3 ppg, before retiring.

Mike Glenn — good shooter. The poor man’s Dell Curry. And of course last but not least, Micheal Ray Richardson — who would be horrible as a rookie, but come on strong in 1979-80 to become one of the great Knick point guards — for a few years before cocaine derailed his NBA career, and he got traded for Bernard King who led the Knicks to some glory years.

As mentioned above, Willis Reed lasted only 14 games the coming season as coach. Again Zander Hollander was spot on in his analysis.

The post The Zander Hollander Complete Handbook of the 1978-79 Knicks appeared first on Knicks.City.

I’d check the bookstores weekly until it arrived. Seeing it on the shelf was a special, magical treat — I’d purchase it with zest and start reading it on the subway home. Hollander provided funny and accurate bios and a scouting report of each player. He was a comedian and excellent basketball analyst — like any good comedian he hit the nail on the head.

He also provided statistics for each player, a scouting report on players just drafted, and predictions — a complete handbook.

Analysis of Zander’s Knick Analysis

I’m posting a sampling of the 1991-92 Handbook — the pages for the Knicks team — under Fair Use doctrine of Copyright law, and with perfect hindsight, will analyze Zander’s analysis.

Regarding Hollander’s prediction for the Knicks — he got the words right but his prediction was wrong. The Knicks went 51-31, and were much more than “a second round playoff team.” The Knicks would beat the Detroit Pistons in the 1st round, 3 games to 2, and then lose in 7 games to Michael Jordan and the Bulls. I know — they lost in the 2nd round like he said — but they became championship contenders, beating former champs Detroit and almost beating what would become one of the greatest teams of all time in Jordan’s Bulls.

On Ewing

“Teammates rapped him anonymously for taking too many shots” — that is something that has been mostly lost to the wind of many current-day Knick fans who hold Ewing up high  while simultaneously smashing Julius Randle.

The complaints by his teammates of Ewing being a ball hog weren’t known by fans that much at the time. There were occasional rumors in the press of Anthony Mason not getting along with Ewing and demanding more shots, but that was about it. Years later we learned both Charles Oakley and Mason and whoever knows who else felt that way. It was brought up in a video snippet that recently surfaced on Twitter (below) — of Michael Jordan and Julius Erving ribbing Ewing on the amount of shots he took (with Magic Johnson and Larry Bird looking on).

"The only guy I know who could be double-, triple-teamed and still think he's open"

– Michael Jordan to Patrick Ewing Magic Johnson, Larry Bird & Dr. J pile on pic.twitter.com/F1p3IzMf5C

— New York Basketball (@NBA_NewYorkCity) September 17, 2022

On Oakley

Hollander’s encapsulation of Charles Oakley‘s play was perfect; both the plusses and the minuses, as were his analysis of all the Knicks. And the ancillary stuff was informative and entertaining — example on Gerald Wilkins: “Had the injry of the year: bruised thigh when he stomped foot laughing on charter flight”

Jackson

Hollander’s analysis of Mark Jackson was fair — “Tremendous leadership qualities. Feeds team with own emotion. Thrives on crowd. Won back fickle Garden crowd. Outside shot questionable, but is superb penetrator and easily the best passer on the team.” Remember the team included Maurice Cheeks. Mark Jackson ended up 4th All Time in Assists in the NBA and should be in the Hall of Fame.

Starks

The first report on John Starks. Hollander had it all right but underestimated how good Starks would become — an All Star. Also the first report on Anthony Mason — again Hollander’s analysis was good; he  didn’t say enough to not get it right — aka Mason would become a Star; Hollander didn’t predict that, but didn’t not predict it.

On Greg Anthony — “Steady — no flash team player.” Hollander nailed it. Anthony was good during his career; never quite great. PS: Good to see his son Cole Anthony do well his first 2 years in NBA.

On Riley

On Pat Riley, Hollander got this bit wrong: “May need to enlist Freud with this bunch.” It was a funny joke but Hollander dismissed the talent already on this team waiting for the right coach: Ewing, Oakley, Mason, and Starks would form the foundation of one of the greatest Knicks eras ever.

Zander Hollander passed away in 2014. He created something special, and his handbooks will live on for many years; each one a treasure.

Comments? Feedback?

Please post below.

The post The Zander Hollander Complete Handbook of the 1991-92 Knicks appeared first on Knicks.City.

It was more than a treat — the unique feature was the funny and accurate bios of each player that Hollander provided, which were part scouting report, part standup comedy, but always razor sharp and on the money. Zander pushed the envelope. This type of writing, on sports players, was not available anywhere.

He also provided statistics for each player, a scouting report on players just drafted, and predictions — a complete handbook.

Analysis of Zander’s Knick Analysis

I’m providing a sampling of the 1988-89 Handbook — the pages for the Knicks team — under Fair Use doctrine of Copyright law, and with perfect hindsight, will analyze Zander’s analysis.  The 1988-89 Knicks were the Knicks of Rick Pitino — about to be dubbed The Bomb Squad.

The Knicks had a front line of:  Patrick Ewing, Charles Oakley (whom they had just acquired), Kenny Walker, and Sidney Green.

In the backcourt there was: Mark Jackson, Trent Tucker, Gerald Wilkins, Johnny Newman, and rookie Rod Strickland.

Rick Carlisle was also on this team. He got a full bio!

Time Machine

On the next few pages we present this time machine — again under Fair Use doctrine of Copyright law — we provide a screen shot and provide our analysis of Zander’s analysis:

The post The Zander Hollander Complete Handbook of the 1988-89 Knicks appeared first on Knicks.City.