It was undoubtedly the most intense rivalry of the 1990s. The Knicks and the Heat indeed hated each other cordially during this period, marked by particularly rough basketball when the two clubs crossed paths, culminating in this marked fight by a Jeff Van Gundy clinging to the leg of Alonzo Mourning.
With four successive clashes in the playoffs, from 1997 to 2000, the spirits had particularly had time to warm up. Tonight, at 7:00 p.m., there will logically be a little of this perfume in the aisles of Madison Square Garden.
Too far from current players
“I don’t think it’s important for the two dressing rooms, and that’s normal”, relativizes however Erik Spoelstra. “These battles took place so long ago. It probably means something for the clubs. But for the players in the locker room, it’s about the moment. It’s not a matter of history.”
It probably means a lot more for Tom Thibodeau, the Knicks coach who was Jeff Van Gundy’s assistant from 1996 to 2003, and for Pat Riley, still the Heat’s sports boss, who was Miami’s coach at the time. era… after being that of the Knicks, only for the players of both teams.
“When Pat Riley left, that’s where the rivalry started”remembers Tim Hardaway in the columns of the Miami Herald. “When I arrived (in Miami), I had no idea of the magnitude of what had happened. I had read articles about it, I had listened to stuff, I had heard about it. But until I played against the Knicks, at the Garden or the Miami Arena, I didn’t realize the effects of what had happened between Pat Riley and the Knicks organization. That’s where it comes from. We didn’t create this rivalry. Once the first fight broke out, it went to another level.”
Because the departure of Pat Riley, from New York to Miami in 1995, was very, very badly digested by the Knicks. The “Godfather of South Beach” had thus purely and simply resigned from his post at the “Big Apple” to join Florida, where a more substantial contract, and control of the sports operations of the club, awaited him.
Pat Riley and Tom Thibodeau always present
Obviously, the leaders of New York did not like the way, and the obvious hidden negotiations, especially since Pat Riley still had a year of contract to honor. Miami even had to drop its first draft round in 1996, as well as a million dollars, to “settle” the affair with the Knicks.
This “original sin” then fed the animosity between the two clubs, culminating in this fight between Alonzo Mourning and Larry Johnson, in the first round of the 1998 playoffs. 25 years ago, to the day.
A scene that has become legendary, with a Jeff Van Gundy desperately clinging to the leg of the opposing pivot, which is part of folklore, but which probably has no real strength for the current protagonists.
“Everything will come back to the mat”concludes Tim Hardaway. “But these players were two, three, four or five years old [à l’époque]. If you’re not 30, you don’t know what happened. They don’t know it either. But they will read articles, they will hear about it in the newspapers, they will hear about it everywhere. But for them it’s not a rivalry because they never experienced what happened back then. »
