Heat and Knicks, 1990s-style everything

Game 7 in Sacramento, Jeff Van Gundy cracks me up

Old Heat/Knick games were ugly, even by the standards of the time. The games were funny, at the time. We thought we’d made all the jokes we could make by 1998 and then Jeff Van Gundy clings to Alonzo’s leg, like, Alonzo Mourning and Larry Johnson haven’t ended their beef by now?

Everyone hated each other. Pat Riley left New York for Miami and traded for his younger, fitter, Georgetown center. New York dealt for the ex-Charlotte forward, Larry Johnson, whose millstone contract was the reason Alonzo Mourning couldn’t make $100 million in Charlotte. Nobody could let anything go, least of all long enough to schedule the Bulls.

It was, unavoidably, the worst basketball. The best basketball.

And it lasted well beyond Jordan: Allan Houston’s series-winner in 1999, Clarence Weatherspoon’s series-loser in 2000, the Tim Hardaway knuckleball in 2000, it kept going until Eddie Robinson dismantled the Heat and Jeff Van Gundy left Jimmy Dolan’s Knicks.