By Dennis D’Agostino
For better or worse, there was a hardscrabble edge, a New York beat, to every aspect of Dean Meminger’s life.
His game, his life, belonged at once and forever to the city long before he wore a Knicks uniform. New York already knew him. . .from the streets and the gyms, to Rice High School (where he was named All-City three straight years), to Marquette University, where he played for another New York gym rat, Al McGuire. . .to what was then called the New Garden, where he won MVP honors at the 1970 NIT and a year later put one of the few blemishes on Fordham’s fabled 26-3 year by leading the Warriors to an overtime victory before a packed house.