In the best of times, the Knicks made Nelson Ortiz weep.

It happened in 1994, when Pat Riley’s squad buckled in Game 7 of the Finals and lost the championship to the Houston Rockets.

It happened again in 1999, when the eighth-seeded Knicks returned to the Finals, in fairy-tale fashion, only to get crushed by the San Antonio Spurs.

“I cried in 1999,” said Ortiz, 26, a devout Knicks fan since childhood. “I cried in 1994.”

These were bittersweet tears, borne of hope. They are warm memories compared with the years of emotional torment that followed.

The losing. The lawsuits. The humiliation. The blown draft picks. The foolish trades. The false promise of Isiah Thomas. The petulance of Stephon Marbury. The feckless leadership of James Dolan. The callous dismissal of Jeremy Lin.