Al Bianchi, who helped lay the groundwork for the Knicks’ teams that ruled the city across so much of the 1990s, died Monday of natural causes, the team announced. The Long Island City native was 87.

Hired in the summer of 1987 after the Knicks had suffered three successive seasons of losing 58, 59 and 58 games, he immediately got a taste of corporate Garden warfare when, an hour after his introductory press conference, he found himself en route to Providence, R.I., to hire Rick Pitino, a move that was foisted on him.

Forced into a shotgun marriage the two men never got along professionally, despite the Knicks improving to 38-44 and earning a playoff berth their first year together and then 52-30 and an Atlantic Division title in Year 2. Pitino left for Kentucky after that year and his successors, Stu Jackson and John MacLeod (for whom Bianchi had served as an assistant coach for 11 years in Phoenix) didn’t work out.

Bianchi did engineer the deal with the Bulls that sent Charles Oakley to New York in exchange for Bill Cartwright. But he also drafted Rod Strickland (the year after Mark Jackson won Rookie of the Year) and also traded a draft pick for Gerald Henderson, one that wound up being Scottie Pippen.

He was inducted into the New York City Basketball Hall of Fame in 2007, as a player.

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