Greatest Knicks Shooting Guards

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Gyrating, spinning, and scintillating his way to the hoop, the things The Pearl could do were undefinable and unteachable. Everybody wanted to be The Pearl -- but good luck with that! "When Magic Johnson came into the league....," ponders Monroe's Knicks teammate Mike Glenn. "Well, let's just say we all thought The Pearl was magic. A whole different kind of magic that was entirely his own: shoot over seven-footers without even jumping high, you couldn't block his shot. Hanging in the air, fadaway, he had a completely different rhythm to his game. Many people called him 'Black Jesus'. But I think Earl was the John Coltrane of basketball."

Monroe, a 48 per cent career shooter, still played within the team concept and was the two guard on the Knicks 1973 championship team. He led New York with 23 points in the fifth-game clincher against the Lakers. The four-time NBA All-Star is a Hall Of Famer and was selected as one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History.

Equally important, "along with Willis Reed, The Pearl is the probably nicest person ever to play for the Knicks," onetime New York forward and TV commentator Cal Ramsey says. "Always with a kind word, he'd treat everyone wonderfully and would simply lay his life down for a teammate. The man was, and is, a total pleasure to be around."

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"The Touch" grew up in an environment -- Dad was his head coach at the University Of Tennessee -- where the fundamentals of basketball became second nature naturally. And then, of course, there is that shot: pure as a spring brook, flawless like a high-class diamond, downright beautiful to behold in its effective simplicity. "Once you have a shot like that, you just fine-tune it and build the rest of your game around it," Houston's stylistic predecessor with the Knicks, Mike Glenn, says. "Shoot it quickly, catch-and-shoot it with range, even be extremely efficient off the dribble -- Allan can do it all."

Houston, a 40 per cent career shooter from three point range, is a two-time All-Star and has led the Knicks into the playoffs six times, including the NBA Finals in 1999. He is the Knicks third all-time freethrowshooting percentage leader, hitting over 90 percent from the stripe in a trio of different seasons. He owns the Knicks fourth (53 points) and ninth (49) highest scoring games, making more fieldgoals over his career than any Knick except Patrick Ewing, Walt Frazier, and Willis Reed.

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A 6-4 college CENTER at Iona, Guerin became a six-time NBA All-Star shooting guard who owns the team's second highest season scoring average (29.5 ppg. in 1962). His 57-point outburst vs. Syracuse on Dec. 11. 1959 is the Knicks second-best scoring game, but Guerin also had 51, 50, 49, and 47 -point games that all fit snugly into the Knicks Top 20. He also owns the Knicks top assist game in history with 21 against St. Louis on dec. 12 1958.

"Richie had a strength about him that was remarkable," longtime Knicks TV commentator Spencer Ross says. "He had very good basketball skills but, basically, he was a guy who willed himself to greatness." All-around greatness, too: in his otherworldly 1962 scoring-season, Guerin also averaged 6.9 assists and 6.4 rebounds a game.

"He was hard and strong and willing to fight anybody at the drop of a hat," says Glenn. "He just had that physical nature about him. More than anything, that toughness is what made him exceptional." Guerin, a player-coach since 1964-65, won the NBA Coach of the Year title with St. Louis in 1968 then returned to play for two more seasons with the Hawks.

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Everyone wanted to, but noone could, imitate Dick Barnett's sideways kickshot -- it looked all wrong except the ball would go into the hoop all the time. The starting two guard on New York's 1970 Championship team, Barnett "harkened back to an earlier time in the NBA, he was kind of a self-taught player," says Glenn. "At the same time, Dick also a great defender who'd take the pressure of Clyde by making a lot of steals and guarding Jerry West and the rest of all the great two guards in the league at the time." Barnett was a highly intelligent player who made himself more efficient by really knowing what he was doing on the floor. "Once you saw Dick Barnett play, you'd never forget it," smiles Ramsey.

"He was one of a kind."

Barnett averaged 23.8 ppg. in the Knicks 1968 playoff run and 15.6 ppg. throughout his career. An NBA All-Star in 1968, he was a 46.4 per cent shooter as a Knick.

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Starks was a guy who would often do something great for you -- but then he also had his ups and downs becuae he may have been the greatest Knicks risk-taker of all time. "He'd take on any challenge, drive on Hakeem Olajuwon, dunk on Michael Jordan, it didn't matter to John," says Glenn. "And that's why the Knicks fans love him so much."

That and his personable nature, hardscrabble life-story -- a year before entering the NBA, he was bagging groceries at Safeway for $3.35 an hour -- and contagious spirit. "John was a terrific streakshooter and a terrific athlete with a world of guts," says Ramsey. "A very high-energy player, he would always want to take the big shot and would make most of them. Plus there was something very down-to-earth positive about John. He was the kind of guy people loved to play with -- or just be around."