Knicks Morning News (2023.08.30)

“The Knicks in 1993 most certainly could’ve and probably should’ve won it all. They had the best record in the East winning 60 games, went 3-1 vs Chicago in the regular season and were up 2-0 on them in the Conference Finals riding a 26 game winning streak at MSG.”

The regular season meant nothing to the 2X defending champs Bulls, who couldn’t care less about seeding that year. They beat the Knicks four straight games in the playoffs. That doesn’t happen unless one team is significantly better than the other, or there’s some other factor like a major injury or team dysfunction. They also beat us pretty handily in all three games in CHI, including Game 6 when the Knicks were desperate. Since they beat us at MSG in game 5, why should anyone assume that we would have beaten them in game 7?

The Bulls also swept their first two series, and only lost 2 to a Suns team that won more games than we did during the regular season so by your calculations was a better team than the Knicks.

It takes a certain kind of Knicks PTSD to think that we had the better team in 1993, or even were as good. The Bulls and Jordan toyed with us, just like they did with everyone else. They had the GOAT at the absolute peak of his powers with a good enough supporting cast. No one was beating them in a Game 7 anywhere, and it says it all that we can’t even prove that hypothesis, even when they didn’t have home court in the series. I was at the majority of those playoff games in good seats and wish I felt even once that we had the better team, including in 1993.

BBA I will agree that 1993 was our best chance to pull an upset and win a series over the Bulls during their 6 championship seasons (and it would have been an upset, the betting odds going into the series were Bulls -150).

And while I agree that the Bulls always took the regular season seriously, I very much disagree that they felt that it mattered all that much once the playoffs started, i.e. they knew they had another level to go to. Many a member of dynastic teams has commented on how hard it is to get excited about the regular season after winning multiple championships….that the real season started in April. And it was PARTICULARLY true about Michael Jordan. I know that there were lots of reasons why Jordan quit after 1993, but if he had lost to the Knicks or the Suns that year, do you really think he would have quit? I highly doubt it.

That’s not to say that they were just going through the motions…only that it becomes increasingly more difficult to get emotionally amped up to the degree necessary to win when you have already been there done that and know that the endless regular season is just a stepping stone. Even in the playoffs, it took a 2-game wake-up call for the Bulls to get amped up enough to win four straight against a formidable but inferior Knicks team. Four straight. Against a team that was as hungry and desperate as any team ever. There’s no getting around that.

And let’s not pin it all on Charles Smith either. The Knicks were losing when that happened. At home. And had he converted, the game wasn’t over. The Bulls would have had the ball with around 7 seconds left and down one. Anyone think MJ might have figured out a way to hit a game-winner or get fouled in that spot? Like we’ve never seen that movie before…

Let’s also not forget that Smith had the ball because Ewing, who should have taken the last shot, drove left, tripped and fell down, and made a desperation push pass to Smith because there was nothing else he could do with the ball. Smith actually shot pretty well that series (.607 TS%, second only to Mase, on a 21% usage). Smith fucked up on that pivotal play somewhat, but he was not the reason that game was lost, certainly not the biggest reason. Starks went 3-11 (2-5 on FTs) for 8 points with 3 turnovers. Oak went 2-6 and had 4 fucking rebounds in a game where we were outrebounded by 48-37. Ewing, as heroic as he was, went 8-14 from the FT line. It was a team loss.