Jim Cavan: Great piece Brian. I remember watching this game, but had completely forgotten how it was all set off. It’s funny watching Greg Anthony on the tube now and thinking his reputation was always so sterling. Which, of course, you can also say about Jalen Rose, Chris Webber, and a number of other really decent commentators who had to live down certain life episodes.
I was like 10 at the time, and a huge Ewing fan, and seem to remember Ewing throwing a lot more punches (I may have deluded myself into believing he’d laid out Barkley). But he really didn’t do much outside of restraining. Did they have another brawl at some point around the same time? Maybe it was just my rose-colored glasses.  

Only other brawl I remember vividly besides the 97 one vs the Heat was the 94 one vs the Bulls in the playoffs between Harper and White. Of course back then players were allowed to push and shove and get in each other’s faces w/o any suspensions or even ejections like happens now. I believe also in Game 1 of the 95 series vs the Pacers Harper and one of the Davis boys I think get ejected for some physical stuff but it wasnt a fight just technicals if I remember correctly.

Ewing also was ejected from a playoff game in 94 vs NJ too but for arguing with the refs not for fighting.

All about personnel. Riley’s Knicks couldnt score much because they had extremely limited offensive players in my opinion. Van Gundy’s Knicks to me had the ability to be much better on offense but his philosophy (and lack of a real good PG) limited them offensively.

I was like 10 at the time, and a huge Ewing fan, and seem to remember Ewing throwing a lot more punches (I may have deluded myself into believing he’d laid out Barkley). But he really didn’t do much outside of restraining. Did they have another brawl at some point around the same time? Maybe it was just my rose-colored glasses.

Like you I always thought the 1993 team was much better than the 1994 team but statistically its not really the case. Ironically both teams had much tougher times in the first 2 rounds of the playoffs than they should have. One thing I appreciated about Van Gundy’s Knicks was when they faced an inferior opponent in the playoffs they didnt mess around and swept all of them (96 Cavs, 97 Hornets, 99 Hawks, 2000 Raptors) something Riley’s Knicks never did (sweep a playoff series).

In my opinions those were the two best teams of the Ewing era…that neither one made it to the finals is the grandy irony of it all while lesser teams (the 94 and 99 incarnations) did….I really believe these two teams possessed the best balance of killer D and at least moderate to potent offense…the other teams of the 90s didn´t have nearly as much firepower as those 2 teams..and the fact that we didn´t win it over 4 missed layups in a row (charles smith) and a bench-clearing brawl (this is debatable, since we would have had to face MJ in the next round, but I, too, believe we had an excellent chance of taking them out that year) is truly a tragedy!!!

Brian Cronin:
Exactly. They brought in Houston and LJ specifically for their offensive abilities, and neither really brought it in that first year.  

They brought it in the playoffs though. LJ had a .662 TS% and a 124 offensive rating. Houston also raised his TS% to .583% in the playoffs.

Weird looking back at the advanced stats for these teams since they werent even available to look at back then I assume. Hell I didnt start looking at advanced stats in basketball until a couple of years ago lol.

1997 Knicks: 2nd ranked defense. 25th ranked offense. If this blog existed then, we’d be arguing over Allan Houston’s value: 16.1 pts/36 on 53.1%. I can hear it now “How can Houston be a good scorer if the Knicks are 25th on offense?” – “He can score from anywhere on the court – he’s awesome.”

Exactly. They brought in Houston and LJ specifically for their offensive abilities, and neither really brought it in that first year.

Robert Silverman: I hit the motherlode.For those who’d like to re-live more Knicks history both sung and unsung, this youtube channel has about EVERY important Knick playoff game for the last 30 years. It’s the whole game too. Take a look, but believe me, you can end up watching games for hours (like I did last night and killing any chance at being a productive member of society).http://www.youtube.com/user/tjhunt76The whole finals v. Houston is there. As are the playoffs against Indy in 94 and 95, plus (and this is what I was going kaboobernuts watching last night), King’s incredible run v. Detroit/Boston in ’84 (and for those too young to have seen Bernard play, check it out), Ewing’s great series against Boston in ’90, a ton of Knicks/Bulls games from ’88, ’90, ’92, ’93, ’94, ’96, ’97The Charles Smith game is there, so is Starks’ 2-18 game, the leaving the bench game that Brian talks about above.
Everything.  

Good stuff, just added both of his channels to my subscriptions.

Thanks to a torrents website Ive been able to download full/original broadcasts of a bunch of 90′s Knicks playoff games. Ive only kept saved on my hard drive games they won though lol. I have the 3 wins in the 1992 series vs the Bulls, Games 1/2/7 vs the Bulls in 1994 and all 4 wins vs the Pacers from 1994 too.

Have the Game 3 OT win vs the Bulls in 1996 and all 3 wins from the 1998/1999 series vs the Heat plus Game 6 of the 1999 series vs Indiana. Also have the Game 7 win vs the Heat in 2000 but its a Greatest Games version which isnt the complete broadcast obviously.

Plus of course I have the Knicks History DVD which is great too. Evidently I have way too much time on my hands……..