New York Knicks legend Dick McGuire died Wednesday at Long Island's Huntington Hospital of natural causes. He was 84.

A member of the Basketball Hall of Fame, McGuire had been associated with the Knicks for 53 of the franchise's 64 seasons, most recently as a senior basketball consultant, a position which he held until his death. McGuire also was a head coach, assistant coach and chief scout for the Knicks after his playing career.

"Dick McGuire was the epitome of what it means to be a Knickerbocker: pride, tradition and class," Knicks president of basketball operations and New York native Donnie Walsh said in a statement. "It was an honor to watch him play for our hometown team and I consider myself very lucky to say I worked alongside a man who shaped the National Basketball Association for parts of all eight decades of its existence."

As an employee of the New York Knicks, John Starks really isn't allowed to talk about upcoming free agency, and where it could lead LeBron James, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade this summer, so his remarks have to be directed generically.

"I can't speak on anyone specifically. I'd get in a lot of trouble,'' Starks said.

Yet his message Tuesday was clear. There is no better place for an NBA superstar to be.

"New York City is the greatest city in the world. The sports fans pick their stars and put them on a pedestal like nowhere else,'' Starks said. "And if you're winning, it's the best place to be. If you're losing, it might be the worst if you're not thick skinned.''

Starks, a Knicks star guard in the '90s and one of their most popular players, was speaking Tuesday on his way to the John Starks Celebrity Bowling Tournament, a fund raiser for his Foundation that provides college scholarships annually to disadvantaged high school graduates. He is hoping to leave the Lucky Strike Lanes Tuesday night with another $30,000 in the coffers.

Starks has worked the last six years in the team's Community Relations Department, still carried by the fame he achieved in his eight seasons in New York. Although he also played for Golden State, Chicago and Utah, it was his time in New York that defined his career.

Spencer Haywood will walk into a Dallas hotel ballroom filled with the 24 NBA All-Stars next weekend, and not a head will turn. Hardly anyone will know the face. Several may know his name -- if they get close enough to read the name tag he is wearing.

And that's a shame. They should be giving him a standing ovation, or parade him around the room on their shoulders like a conquering hero. For most of them, Haywood is the one who made this all possible.

It was Haywood 40 years ago who forced his way into the league by boldly challenging the NBA establishment, taking his demand all the way to the United States Supreme Court. He changed the rule prohibiting teams from using a player whose college class had not yet graduated.

His case sent a shockwave through every city in the league, forever changing the face of the NBA. And depending upon your view, he was either a trail blazing pioneer or the devil who was trying to wreck both college basketball and professional sports.

For the most part, the coaches got it right while selecting the 2010 All-Star reserves. But no matter how many deserving players get in, there are always a few who were on the fringe that could just have easily made the team. In no particular order, here's our list of notable names that may have a reason to feel snubbed.

WESTERN CONFERENCE

Chris Kaman (Clippers): Kaman is having his best year as a pro, averaging 20.2 points, 9.1 rebounds, and 1.3 blocks per game. But the team he plays for is abysmal (seriously, how do you lose to a Nets team playing without Devin Harris by 16 points?), and that seemed to factor heavily in this year's selection of reserves. As noted by Eric Freeman over at The Baseline, every player on the reserves came from a team with a winning record. And unfortunately for Kaman, his Clippers don't fall into that category.

Chauncey Billups (Nuggets): Let's get this out of the way right now: Billups is an All-Star. The Nuggets are on fire, and there's no way they play at that level without Chauncey running the show. The problem he faced was too much talent at the guard spot in the Western Conference. With Chris Paul and Deron Williams locks to get in, and Brandon Roy almost singlehandedly keeping the Blazers afloat through their rash of injuries, he had to get in, too. But Roy has missed six of the last seven games with a hamstring injury, and if it remains serious enough to keep him sidelined for All-Star weekend, look for Billups to get the call as his replacement.

You know, Brett Pollakoff always told me, "I don't believe in LeBron James, but I'm afraid of him." Well, I believe in LeBron James, and the only thing that scares me ... is Kobe Bryant.

One day after the Cleveland Cavaliers bossed, bounced, and bullied their way to sweeping the defending champs in the regular season series, Kobe and the Lakers visit Madison Square Garden to take on the Knicks.

Ye Gods. Knicks fans, lock up your daughters, lock up your wives, lock up your defense and run for your lives.

You remember the last time Bryant visited the Garden, right? No? Here, let me remind you. Sixty-one points on 31 shots, the most points ever in the storied arena, and a total domination showcasing that he's still the most cold-blooded assassin this side of Jordan's retirement. Now he enters the famous arena against a defensively lax team with his blood boiling after watching his teammates get shoved around and he made only four of his last 20 shots. Broken finger, strained back, I don't care. This is a recipe for a vicious annihilation.

Once upon a time in the NBA, long before Phil Jackson discovered the Triangle Offense, scolded Michael Jordan or led Kobe Bryant in Native American chants, he was a restless 24-year-old with a balky back and an uncertain future.

It was the fall of 1969, and Jackson, just two years removed from the University of North Dakota, was slowly recuperating from spinal fusion surgery. Earlier that year, he had landed awkwardly on his heels and herniated two disks in his vertebrae during a game against the San Francisco Warriors. The injury had cut short his second pro season with the New York Knicks and would sideline the lanky 6-foot-8 forward for the next season as well. After the surgery, Jackson wore a back brace for six months and endured excruciating pain. "Overnight," he wrote in his 1995 book Sacred Hoops, "Action Jackson had become Traction Jackson."

Instead of ending his career, though, the injury provided a unique opportunity that forever altered Jackson's basketball life. While he rehabilitated, Jackson also worked as an unofficial assistant to New York coach Red Holzman during the '69-'70 season, serving as his advance scout and sounding board for the memorable Knicks team that beat the Los Angeles Lakers 40 years ago to win the franchise's first NBA title. (The 2010 editions of the Knicks and Lakers play Friday in New York.)

In 1988, Ossie Schectman, then a mere 68, picked up the phone at his Florida home. On the line was somebody from the NBA.

Schectman wondered what the call was about. He had played one season for the New York Knickerbockers in 1946-47 in the Basketball Association of America, which would become the NBA. But it wasn't as if league officials had put in many calls since then to the man who recently had retired from being a fabric salesman.

Ricky Green of Utah had scored on Jan. 25, 1988 the five millionth point in NBA history, so league officials had set out to find out who scored the initial points. What they learned brought them to Schectman.

"They had started researching and looking back at old newspapers,''Schectman said in a phone interview. "So they said 'You scored the first basket in NBA history.' I was surprised. I never had any idea.''

Of the four players who will be competing in this year's Slam Dunk contest, it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out all but one of the participants.

The league announced a "Slam Dunk-In" last Friday, the winner of which -- either DeMar DeRozan or Eric Gordon -- would earn his way into the event. The good folks at Nike effectively leaked the name of contestant number two, when they began a contest to design a shoe for Shannon Brown to wear in the contest -- you know, just in case.

The league's collective bargaining agreement requires the previous year's champ to defend his title, so Nate Robinson as contestant number three was virtually guaranteed.

With Dwight Howard bowing out and LeBron James continuing to back off of his bold declaration from last year that he would give it a go, the fourth and final spot went to the Bobcats' Gerald Wallace.

As much as the points he scores, the rebounds he grabs and the wrestling he does with bigger bodies in the post, it's the mental approach of Knicks forward David Lee that will make him a very sought-after free agent this summer.

He is a professional in the truest sense. If the New York Knicks have to sacrifice him as part of their salary cap purge to bigger stars, there will be 29 other teams trying to land Lee. Whoever gets him will be fortunate.

How many times do we read about a player missing a game, or two or three in the NBA while they leave their respective team to attend a family funeral, often for a grandparent or cousin? And then travel becomes an issue when they can't make it back by game time?

More than we should.

While grief can be a very personal thing, impossible to judge from the outside, and one of those touchy things that no one in the league wants to debate, too often it is used as a crutch.

What players sometime forget is how lucky they are to be working this job that pays millions -- that it allows them to provide for their family for generations afterward -- and that there is such a thing as showing loyalty to your franchise.

No one debates that family comes first -- and it should be paramount -- but it also should not stand in the way of fulfilling your obligation.

It's not that Lee isn't close to his family -- he is -- but he took the extra step to make sure he also didn't slight a team that needed him after his grandfather died.

The New York Knicks were in a house of horrors.

No, the Isiah Thomas era hadn't resumed, but the Knicks still were spooked during their stay in Oklahoma City, where they suffered a 106-88 loss to the Thunder on Monday night.

Was the culprit Kevin Durant? Hardly.

Ghosts.

Several players had trouble sleeping for fear that OKC's Skirvin Hilton was haunted, according to the New York Daily News. The newspaper said that there have been ghost sightings over the years at the hotel, where legend dictates that a woman jumped to her death while holding a baby in her arms in the 1930s.