The 1998–99 NBA season was the 52nd season of the National Basketball Association in New York City. The Head Coach was Jeff Van Gundy, serving for his 4th year. The team played its home games at Madison Square Garden in New York City. To give All-Star center Patrick Ewing more help offensively and defensively, the Knicks acquired All-Star guard Latrell Sprewell from the Golden State Warriors and Marcus Camby from the Toronto Raptors, while signing free agent Kurt Thomas and re-signing Herb Williams during the offseason. However, because of the lockout shortened season, and injuries to Sprewell and Ewing, the Knicks had to build chemistry on the fly, and barely made the playoffs with a 27–23 record. The Knicks had to win six of its remaining eight games just to qualify.

In the first round of the playoffs, the Knicks defeated the top-seeded Miami Heat in five games, (one of the five games on one of the biggest shots in Knicks' history by Allan Houston), and the 4th-seeded Atlanta Hawks in a second round sweep as Camby, who had struggled through most of the regular season, emerged as one of the key players off a deep Knicks bench. Camby's 11 points and 13 rebounds in Game 2 of the Atlanta series proved to be his coming-out party, as the Knicks advanced to the Conference Finals to meet a familiar foe, Reggie Miller and the Indiana Pacers.

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