Elsa/Getty Images
For years it has seemed, at least in the view of New Yorkers, that the opportunity to play in the greatest city in the world — and in Madison Square Garden, the world’s most famous arena — would be a powerful lure for the N.B.A.’s most talented players to sign with the Knicks.
But, then again, these are the Knicks, who have not won a championship since 1973 or a conference title in two decades and who are now better known as a hapless organization with a long streak of bad choices and bad luck.