The playoff-level Knicks of the 1990s were led by future Hall of Fame center Patrick Ewing; this era was marked by passionate rivalries with the Chicago Bulls, Indiana Pacers, and Miami Heat.

[16] Lapchick readily accepted after Irish promised to make him the highest-paid coach in the league; however, he requested he remain at St. John's one more season in hopes of winning one last championship.

[32] Looking to regain their former dominance, Andrew Levane was named the head coach and in his first year, the results were significantly better as the team finished with a 40–32 record, securing their playoff spot.

[33] The Levane-led squad fared poorly to begin the 1959–60 season and under mounting pressure Levane resigned and was immediately replaced by Carl Braun, who became the team's first player-coach.

[33][40] In the playoffs, New York made it past the first round of contention for the first time since 1953, sweeping the Baltimore Bullets in four games, before falling to the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Division finals.

[53] Hubie Brown replaced Holzman as head coach and in his first season, the team went 44–38 and made it to the second round of the playoffs, where they were swept by the eventual champion Philadelphia 76ers.

[60] Combined with the selection of point guard Mark Jackson, who won the NBA Rookie of the Year Award and garnered MVP consideration, in the draft and with Ewing's consistently stellar play, the Knicks made the playoffs with a record of 38–44, where they were defeated by the Celtics in the first round.

Before the season, the Knicks traded Mark Jackson to the Los Angeles Clippers for Charles Smith, Doc Rivers, and Bo Kimble while also acquiring Rolando Blackman from the Dallas Mavericks.

It started with the Knicks eliminating the #1 seeded Heat in the first round after Allan Houston bounced in a running one-hander off the front of the rim, high off the backboard, and in with 0.8 seconds left in the deciding 5th game.

[82][83] Furthermore, the Knicks were criticized by many analysts as multiple players on the roster were overpaid in light of their poor performances, causing salary cap problems that would persist until Donnie Walsh took over as team president.

[94] Curry, who reportedly had a worrying heart condition, refused to take a controversial DNA test, and fell out of favor with John Paxson, Chicago's general manager.

[105] At the introductory press conference, Walsh, while not proclaiming to be a savior, did set goals, which included getting the team under the salary cap and bringing back a competitive environment.

[110] Hours later, New York traded Zach Randolph, along with Mardy Collins, to the Los Angeles Clippers for Cuttino Mobley and Tim Thomas, with the intention of freeing cap space for the 2010 off-season, when top-flight players such as LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, and Amar'e Stoudemire would be available.

[110] In February 2009, the Knicks traded Tim Thomas, Jerome James, and Anthony Roberson to the Chicago Bulls for Larry Hughes, in addition to sending Malik Rose to the Oklahoma City Thunder for Chris Wilcox.

[114][115][116][117] In the 2009 NBA draft, the Knicks selected forward Jordan Hill eighth after targets such as Stephen Curry, Jonny Flynn, and Ricky Rubio were off the board.

[123] The Knicks also acquired All-Star forward Tracy McGrady from the Houston Rockets and point guard Sergio Rodríguez from the Sacramento Kings in a three-way trade.

[128] The Knicks continued to redesign their roster, trading David Lee to the Golden State Warriors for Anthony Randolph, Kelenna Azubuike and Ronny Turiaf.

The Knicks also re-acquired Marcus Camby from the Houston Rockets in a sign and trade sending Houston Josh Harrellson, Jerome Jordan, Toney Douglas and 2014 and 2015 two second-round picks and completed a sign-and-trade with the Portland Trail Blazers that brought back Raymond Felton and Kurt Thomas in exchange for Jared Jeffries, Dan Gadzuric, and the draft rights to Papanikolaou and Greek forward Georgios Printezis, whose draft rights had been acquired by the Knicks in December 2011.

The Knicks also re-signed free agents J. R. Smith and Steve Novak and added more players to the roster, such as James White, Chris Copeland, and Argentinian point guard Pablo Prigioni.

They re-signed J. R. Smith to a 3-year, $18 million deal and traded Quentin Richardson, Steve Novak, Marcus Camby, and three draft picks to acquire Andrea Bargnani from the Toronto Raptors.

[163] The Knicks then appointed former coach Phil Jackson as president of basketball operations, with Mills remaining as general manager, with the duo working directly under MSG chairman James Dolan.

[167] Forbes magazine released its franchise value rankings for NBA teams, and listed the Knicks as the world's most valuable basketball organization at $1.4 billion in 2014, edging out the Los Angeles Lakers by $50 million.

On June 22, former NBA MVP Derrick Rose was traded, along with Justin Holiday and a second-round pick from Chicago, to New York in exchange for Robin Lopez, José Calderón and Grant.

Originally, the only teams for which he would waive his no-trade clause were for the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Houston Rockets, with the former eventually removed from trade discussions due to internal conflicts.

[174][175] The Knicks received Enes Kanter, Doug McDermott and a 2018 second-round pick in exchange for Anthony on September 25, 2017,[176] while also positioning Kristaps Porziņģis as the new centerpiece of the franchise.

[185] However, following a dismal start to the season, and after a meeting with Porziņģis gave team officials the impression that he wanted to be traded,[186] Porziņģis was traded on January 30, 2019, alongside Trey Burke, Courtney Lee and Tim Hardaway Jr., to the Dallas Mavericks in exchange for DeAndre Jordan, Wesley Matthews, Dennis Smith Jr., an unprotected 2021 first-round draft pick, and an additional top-ten protected 2023 first-round draft pick.

Since the 1991–92 season various outfitters such as Champion, Puma, Reebok, Adidas, and Nike have taken over uniform production from Cosby, with player names on the back reverted to a radial arch and added serifs.

[220][221] The Knicks kept their white "Association" and blue "icon" uniforms almost intact with only a few alterations such as truncated shoulder and shorts striping and the modern roundball logo on the waistband.

The 2016 Christmas Day game against the Celtics saw the Knicks wear an all-blue uniform without additional striping, complete with fancy scripted orange lettering and numbers.

However, the design they wore that season faithfully replicated those of the 1991–92 Knicks team, complete with radially-arched serifed block letters on the player's name and the "roundball" logo on the shorts.