PHILADELPHIA – This could be the start of something big. Maybe it should be. As crazy as it sounds, when the first game between the 76ers and New York Knicks kicks off on Saturday at Madison Square Garden, it will be the first time the two teams have met in the playoffs in 35 years. And the final image of this series is the moment from which blood feuds are born. But not in this case.
That doesn’t sound right, right? Philly-New York is supposed to be a fierce rivalry, at least here. This is often the case. Eagles-Giants, Phillies-Mets, Flyers-Rangers – these games are all a little more important. However, for Sixers-Knicks, the timing was never right
When the Sixers played well, the Knicks did not. When the Knicks were good — and hey, it was a while before Jalen Brunson showed up — the Sixers weren’t. In this context, it is understandable that what happened on May 2, 1989 remains a distant memory for most people and is not considered the kind of anecdote whose mention would immediately cause anger. Philly fans’ blood temperatures rose to 212 degrees Fahrenheit.
A reminder, in case you don’t remember or haven’t looked back until now: That night, the Knicks won won a three-game series against the Sixers in the Eastern Conference quarterfinals, defeating them in overtime at the Spectrum, 116-115. And after the buzzer sounded and while Charles Barkley was lying on his back in the middle of the court, distraught and in disbelief that his team had lost, the Knicks – Patrick Ewing, Charles Oakley, Mark Jackson, all the Knicks grabbed a mop house below. “It upset us a little bit,” John Nash, then the Sixers general manager, said Thursday. Can’t blame them. It’s not like the Knicks beat the Sixers. They are just eight points ahead of them in the series. New York’s one-point win in Game 3 came three days after a one-point victory in Game 2. And Barkley was the best player of the game, scoring 27 points, grabbing nearly 12 rebounds per game and shooting 64% from the field.
“Charles was great, and that’s why we should have won “, old” Sixers coach Jim Lynam said. “Patrick is really good. Charles is better. . They won 52-30 to win the Atlantic Division and are the third-highest scoring team in the NBA, and the difference from the Sixers, which upset the series, was their backcourt. team. Jackson, Rod Strickland and Gerald Wilkins dominated Maurice Cheeks and rookie Hersey Hawkins, who missed 21 of 24 shots.
The matches themselves were intense and tense, in and off the field. Hundreds of Knicks fans came to the Spectrum to watch Game 3. At times, they chanted, “Sweep! SWEEP!” Some fights broke out. Trash talk came and went between the players. This didn’t bother New York. Strutting came naturally to them. “They were talking, saying negative things,” Ewing said of the Sixers. “So I want to add a little bit more.”
The Knicks also know they will have home-court advantage in the second round, which they believe will give them an easy path to the first round. conference finals. Their opponent turned out to be the Chicago Bulls, who defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers in five games only because Michael Jordan hit his famous buzzer-beater at the foul line on Craig Ehlo. But that Bulls-Cavs series was still tied 1-1 as the Knicks took down the Sixers, so why not celebrate? What did they know?
“I would characterize that as very inexperienced and young,” said longtime NBA guard Trent Tucker, who won Game 2 with a 3-pointer late in the game and at 29, he was New York’s oldest player, he said Thursday. “We are not mature enough to understand that this is not something you have to do.”
The public reaction was predictable. For example, in the New York Times, journalist Ira Berkow wrote: “It is unpleasant, as they say in one part of town; On the contrary, as people say in other people’s homes. It was anything but decent. Before the teams’ first regular-season rematch, a newspaper article showing a photo of the Knicks sweeping the floor was posted inside each Sixers player’s locker, although Barkley denied the significance of the incident: “ We have so many important things. everything that happens in our lives has to worry about a broom. After the Knicks lost to Chicago in six games, Pitino and general manager Al Bianchi found themselves in a heated conflict over the direction of the team. Pitino wanted to continue playing fast, but the front office, in an effort to build around Ewing, preferred a slower, half-court-oriented approach. Pitino became Kentucky’s head coach, and it took two years of mediocrity for the Knicks to find a suitable replacement for him in Pat Riley.
For the Sixers, Cheeks averaged 17, 7 points and 13 assists in the series, but Game 3 marked the last time he played for the Sixers – the last time a member of the 1982–83 championship club played for them. The following August, they traded Cheeks to the San Antonio Spurs in a five-player deal that included Johnny Dawkins, who would be their new point guard. The last connection with those great teams of the late 1970s and early 1980s was severed.
When you talk about an outstanding professional athlete and a true champion, he knows exactly how to run a team,” Tucker said in a phone interview. The big stars were present, but the glue of these teams was another graceless move by Maurice Cheek.” can do that Although there were high hopes, the two teams clashed with two NBA dynasties during this period. Everything else in the league is a secondary story to the battles between the Bads Boy Detroit Pistons and Jordan’s Bulls Plus, if any. The 1988-89 Sixers nursed a grudge, he kept it to himself.
