Winning Time

[playthrough]

"Awesome Baby, he's a real PTP'er," now that's analysis.

 

[CitizenTino]

I'm just glad that a national audience now knows just what a horrible color commentator "Slick!" Leonard is.

"Boom BABY!!!!" is NOT basketball analysis.

YES.

What a dumb catchphrase.

 

[Smallpotatoes]

I never saw what the big deal was in that rivalry. Neither team won a world championship during that decade.

NEW YORK!!!!! THE GARDEN!!!!! SPIKE LEE!!!!!

I also thought it was ridiculous how over-hyped and over-analyzed the 1994 Eastern Conference semifinals between the Knicks and the Bulls was. Anyone who just dropped in from another planet might have thought it was finals, that they really were the two best teams in the NBA.
That's why I loved it when the Rockets won the title that year.
I guess I don't care as much about personalities as much as I care about who's the best.

 

[Piotr Rasputin]

"Awesome Baby, he's a real PTP'er," now that's analysis.

Same category as Slick. Just acting like a blowhard, and calling it analysis.

Bob Knight did a bit of that last night too, just without the volume.

 

[playthrough]

I never saw what the big deal was in that rivalry. Neither team won a world championship during that decade.

NEW YORK!!!!! THE GARDEN!!!!! SPIKE LEE!!!!!

I also thought it was ridiculous how over-hyped and over-analyzed the 1994 Eastern Conference semifinals between the Knicks and the Bulls was. Anyone who just dropped in from another planet might have thought it was finals, that they really were the two best teams in the NBA.
That's why I loved it when the Rockets won the title that year.
I guess I don't care as much about personalities as much as I care about who's the best.

To each their own, but I think rivalries can flourish just fine without one or both teams winning championships. If you weren't in NY or Indy, I can see where this one might not be as compelling. But in those towns, Indy especially as Bob Cook explained, it was plenty big.

 

[Bob Cook]

I'm just glad that a national audience now knows just what a horrible color commentator "Slick!" Leonard is.

"Boom BABY!!!!" is NOT basketball analysis.

At least Slick doesn't have to say much on radio, thanks to Mark Boyle, still my favorite play-by-play radio guy, in part because he's good, but also in part because when he hosted a local radio show he called auto racing "Deathsport" (yes, in Indianapolis) and publicly flayed a state rep on the air, right into his ear while he was on the phone, for writing a letter to the NCAA asking for an investigation about whether Duke's win over Indiana in the '93 final four was fixed.

Slick on TV in the early 80s with Eddie Doucette defined how low that franchise sunk. At least on radio all Slick has time to say is "Boom, Baby!" or "C'mon, set a pick out there!"

And Slick will work til he dies, because he signed a lifetime services contract when he won ABA titles in the 70s, so they've got to have him do something.

 

[Piotr Rasputin]

I'm just glad that a national audience now knows just what a horrible color commentator "Slick!" Leonard is.

"Boom BABY!!!!" is NOT basketball analysis.

At least Slick doesn't have to say much on radio, thanks to Mark Boyle, still my favorite play-by-play radio guy, in part because he's good, but also in part because when he hosted a local radio show he called auto racing "Deathsport" (yes, in Indianapolis) and publicly flayed a state rep on the air, right into his ear while he was on the phone, for writing a letter to the NCAA asking for an investigation about whether Duke's win over Indiana in the '93 final four was fixed.

That 1992 win wasn't fixed.

It's just that Ted Valentine is a horrendous referee.

 

[GoochMan]

I never saw what the big deal was in that rivalry. Neither team won a world championship during that decade.

NEW YORK!!!!! THE GARDEN!!!!! SPIKE LEE!!!!!

I also thought it was ridiculous how over-hyped and over-analyzed the 1994 Eastern Conference semifinals between the Knicks and the Bulls was. Anyone who just dropped in from another planet might have thought it was finals, that they really were the two best teams in the NBA.
That's why I loved it when the Rockets won the title that year.
I guess I don't care as much about personalities as much as I care about who's the best.

To each their own, but I think rivalries can flourish just fine without one or both teams winning championships. If you weren't in NY or Indy, I can see where this one might not be as compelling. But in those towns, Indy especially as Bob Cook explained, it was plenty big.

Not that I'd care nearly as much as I did then (young teenager), but as a Knicks fan I'd be happy at this point to see that team be decent enough to form any kind of rivalry. Hell, make it the Bucks.

Ain't no rivalries when you suck.

 

[Piotr Rasputin]

Ain't no rivalries when you suck.

Tell that to Cubs fans who think they get to claim a rivalry with the Cardinals.

 

[Boomer7]

I never saw what the big deal was in that rivalry. Neither team won a world championship during that decade.

Good rivalry. One of the great sports stories in the last 30 years? No way in hell.

But an overblown sense of importance is endemic to Knicks fans.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

I never saw what the big deal was in that rivalry. Neither team won a world championship during that decade.

To me, the big deal was how Miller would go into the Garden and just destroy the Knicks. Even I, as a Knicks fan, respected Miller for not being intimidated by either the Knicks or their fans, and for backing up his trash talking with Spike.

 

[Smallpotatoes]

I never saw what the big deal was in that rivalry. Neither team won a world championship during that decade.

To me, the big deal was how Miller would go into the Garden and just destroy the Knicks. Even I, as a Knicks fan, respected Miller for not being intimidated by either the Knicks or their fans, and for backing up his trash talking with Spike.

Like I said, I don't care about personalities. I care about who's the best.

 

[Bubbler]

I covered the '94 Eastern Conference Finals. I remember how amazed I was when Patrick Ewing was held to something like two points in Game 3 or 4 (I forget).

When Pacers fans were on it, Market Square Arena was the loudest venue I've ever been to. I remember when Reggie Miller tried a Willis Reed in a '96 first round Game 5 against Atlanta (it didn't work, the Hawks won anyway) after he had been declared out. The roar from the crowd when Miller was announced (it was a game-time decision) was the loudest non-auto racing noise I've ever heard at a sporting event.

I still maintain to this day that Miller was a one-dimensional player. But my God, the one dimension he had was breathtaking.

 

[Bob Cook]

Bubbler -- the game where Ewing had 2 points was game three. I remember it because my wife (then my fiance) and I walked from the 500 parade route (the parade had just finished) to the City Market, whereupon two buddies of Johnny Rutherford bought us lunch because we let them cut in line... Because they were in a hurry to get to the game, too.

The Knicks had Pacers fans juiced, but it also being race time when the games were going on meant the fans were already a little extra juiced, if you know what I mean.

By the way, when they showed the '85 lottery in the doc, they edited it out the part where David Stern bent the Knicks envelope after removing it from a bottle of liquid nitrogen.

 

[Bob Cook]

And while I'm being fanboy looserish, it was hilarious to see what obscure players would pop up. Hey, there in the suit -- it's Scott Haskin!

 

[Bubbler]

Any Duane Ferrell appearances?

 

[Bob Cook]

Yes, Duane Ferrell was there. Better yet, there was a Kenny Williams appearance. Williams lived near me in Carmel, and sometimes I'd see him shooting around with the kids at the Our Lady of Mt. Carmel outdoor hoops. There was a guy with massive amounts of talent who just seemed mentally incapable of ever harnessing it.

 

[Bob Cook]

Also, the doc left out another interesting incident in the Pacers-Knicks rivalry: when Malik Sealy lost his playbook at Kennedy Airport, and it ended up in the hands of Don Imus during the 1993 series, and then Sealy made it worse by calling Imus' show and begging him not to read it:

http://www.nytimes.com/1993/05/01/sports/sports-of-the-times-imus-scores-on-turnover-by-sealy.html?pagewanted=1

It had stuff like "Greg Anthony: easily rattled," and "John Starks: talk about his sister."

Funny thing about that rivalry: for all the morality play about the Pacers representing pure Hoosier basketball, that Indiana team had a lot more New Yorkers associated with it than the Knicks, up to and including the owners.