{"id":715615,"date":"2026-04-22T05:12:36","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T05:12:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/715615\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T05:12:36","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T05:12:36","slug":"ranking-the-all-time-knicks-villains-as-cj-mccollum-joins-the-club-saratogian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/715615\/","title":{"rendered":"Ranking the all-time Knicks villains as CJ McCollum joins the club \u2013 Saratogian"},"content":{"rendered":"

Between his antagonizing antics and soul-shaking shot-making, CJ McCollum<\/a> needed only two playoff games to achieve Knicks villain status<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A sellout crowd at Madison Square Garden informed McCollum of his addition to the club with booming, profane chants throughout the second half of his Atlanta Hawks\u2019 come-from-behind 107-106 victory in Game 2<\/a> of their first-round series.<\/p>\n

This was inevitable after McCollum inadvertently kicked Jalen Brunson in the groin, then accused the Knicks star of flopping<\/a> in Game 1; and then got into a heated spat with Jose Alvarado before sinking the game-winning jumper in Game 2.<\/p>\n

\u201cI ain\u2019t no villain. I\u2019m a nice guy with two kids and a wife,\u201d McCollum said Monday night after scoring six of his 32 points in the final 2:08, helping the Hawks complete a 14-point comeback.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s admiration. Great, passionate fans in a really hostile environment. It\u2019s fun. It\u2019s basketball. It\u2019s the playoffs. If anything, I think it\u2019s a sign of respect.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the series now tied, McCollum has at least three more games to add to his newfound lore as a Knicks enemy, including at least one more at the Garden.<\/p>\n

But McCollum still has a long way to go to even think about the top of the leaderboard.<\/p>\n

Here are our power rankings for the all-time Knicks villains:<\/p>\n

6. JOEL EMBIID<\/p>\n

Another relatively recent addition to the fraternity, Embiid earned the ire of Knicks fans during a 2024 first-round playoff series fraught with tension.<\/p>\n

In a four-game span, the Philadelphia 76ers star received a technical foul for shoving Donte DiVincenzo, and flagrant fouls for dragging Mitchell Robinson to the floor and swiping Brunson in the head.<\/p>\n

Like McCollum, Embiid embraced the repeated explicit chants from the Garden faithful.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not hostile. I love New York. New York is my favorite city in the world,\u201d Embiid said<\/a> after Game 5 of that series, which the Knicks won in six.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fans, when you play against a team, they\u2019re always going to pick that guy. \u2026 If I\u2019ve got to be the punching bag and hear a lot of \u2018F Embiid,\u2019 that\u2019s OK. I love it.\u201d<\/p>\n

5. ALONZO MOURNING<\/p>\n

There are plenty of near-fights in the NBA playoffs that never truly materialize, but that wasn\u2019t the case with Mourning.<\/p>\n

The Miami Heat center engaged in a full-blown brawl with the Knicks\u2019 Larry Johnson and Charles Oakley late in Game 4 of their 1998 first-round playoff series \u2014 a heated fracas that resulted in Knicks coach Jeff Van Gundy grabbing the 6-10 Mourning by the legs.<\/p>\n

The image of Van Gundy clinging to Mourning<\/a> and being dragged as the latter continued to clash remains a lasting one from the intense Knicks-Heat rivalry of the 1990s.<\/p>\n

4. TYRESE HALIBURTON<\/p>\n

The Indiana Pacers star never misses a chance to take a dig at the Knicks<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He wore a Reggie Miller \u201cchoke\u201d hoodie<\/a> (more on the origins of that later) after Indy eliminated the Knicks in the second round of the 2024 playoffs.<\/p>\n

Haliburton then emulated Miller by making the same choke gesture after his bouncing, buzzer-beating long 2-pointer forced overtime<\/a> in Game 1 of last year\u2019s Eastern Conference Finals \u2014 a game, and series, the Pacers would go on to win.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I had known it was a two, I wouldn\u2019t have done it,\u201d Haliburton said of his taunt. \u201cI would not have done it. So I might have wasted it. If I do it again, people might say I\u2019m aura-farming.\u201d<\/p>\n

3. TRAE YOUNG<\/p>\n

Before there was McCollum, there was Young.<\/p>\n

Young was the Hawks star who dominated the Knicks during their 2021 first-round playoff series, averaging 29.2 points per game as Atlanta won in five.<\/p>\n

His high-scoring heroics spoiled those Knicks\u2019 first trip to the playoffs in eight years<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Garden\u2019s, ahem, Bleep* Trae Young jeers took on a life of their own, so much so that fans still break out that chant with regularity \u2014 including in the current series against the Hawks, even though Young is no longer on the team.<\/p>\n

Fittingly, the Hawks acquired McCollum in the January trade that sent Young to the Washington Wizards.<\/p>\n

Of course, Young\u2019s villain status is about more than that 2021 series. Young has continued to antagonize New York fans, including pretending to roll dice on the Knicks logo after a 2024 victory clinched a trip to Las Vegas for the NBA Cup.<\/p>\n

2. MICHAEL JORDAN<\/p>\n

Many of these entries are, at least in part, rooted in silliness and showboating.<\/p>\n

But Jordan\u2019s place on this list is about pure domination.<\/p>\n

Jordan faced the Knicks in five playoff series between 1989-96, and his Chicago Bulls won all five.<\/p>\n

He averaged 33.1 points, 6.4 rebounds and 6.0 assists per game over 27 playoff appearances against the Knicks, including a 54-point eruption in Game 4 of the 1993 Eastern Conference Finals.<\/p>\n

Had Jordan played in a different era, the 1990s Knicks could have very well won a championship, if not multiple.<\/p>\n

Instead, Jordan won six titles from 1991-98, while the Knicks still seek their first since 1973.<\/p>\n

1. REGGIE MILLER<\/p>\n

It could be no one else.<\/p>\n

The sharp-shooting, trash-talking Miller delivered some of the most infamous moments in Knicks history during his Pacers\u2019 six playoff series against them from 1993-2000.<\/p>\n

Miller\u2019s incessant needling caused John Starks to headbutt him in Game 3 of their first-round series in 1993.<\/p>\n

He taunted Knicks superfan Spike Lee with the \u201cchoke\u201d sign after fueling a furious second-half comeback at the Garden in Game 2 of the 1994 Eastern Conference Finals.<\/p>\n

And a year later, Miller scored eight points in 8.9 seconds late in Game 1 of the 1995 Eastern Conference semifinals to cap another improbable comeback win.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re two grown men,\u201d Lee told the Daily News<\/a> in 2024 when Miller returned to the Garden for TNT\u2019s Knicks-Pacers playoff broadcast. \u201cThat\u2019s dead and buried. We\u2019re good.\u201d<\/p>\n

All told, Miller averaged 23.1 points in 35 playoff games against the Knicks, and the teams split those series, 3-3.<\/p>\n

But Miller\u2019s infamy goes beyond the box score \u2014 and he still leans into his reputation every chance he gets.<\/p>\n

\u201cI live rent-free in a lot of New Yorkers\u2019 heads,\u201d Miller said last year on a social-media live stream<\/a> during a trip to the city. \u201cSo yes, they\u2019re still mad.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Between his antagonizing antics and soul-shaking shot-making, CJ McCollum needed only two playoff games to achieve Knicks villain…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":715616,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3774],"tags":[7,113,126,3866,6,114,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-715615","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-indiana-pacers","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-indiana","10":"tag-indiana-pacers","11":"tag-indianapacers","12":"tag-nba","13":"tag-pacers","14":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116446650840919727","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=715615"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715615\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/715616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=715615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=715615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=715615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}