Looking back at the brawls, thrills, and “temporary insanity” of the ‘90s feud between the New York Knicks and the Miami Heat
Van Gundy dive and other memorable lowlights from the ‘’90s rivalry are on the minds of NBA fans — or at least the ones old enough to remember what happened in the grainy footage. With Jimmy Butler willing the Heat forward against a, the competition to head to the Eastern Conference Finals will be intense. But it won’t be like the hard fouls of the old days. “No one’s doing that anymore,” said Van Gundy. Rule changes have banned the level of violence seen back then.
The brothers were close that first year in the league together. “We would talk four or five days a week,” said Stan Van Gundy. “We still do.” That changed the first time the teams faced off in the 1997 playoffs. In the last minutes of game five of the Eastern Conference semifinals in Miami, Knicks guard Charlie Wardof Heat forward P.J. Tucker — who borrowed from WWE and straight-up suplexed Ward.
After that mess, the coaches Van Gundy made a rule for the playoffs. “That was obviously pretty emotional so we just decided that we wouldn’t talk during the series,” said Stan Van Gundy. As the schedule would have it, the Knicks and Heat wound up playing four years in a row, throwing elbows and hand-checking their way through some. “It went from disdain for the opponent to great, great respect on both sides,” said Jeff Van Gundy.
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