In the early 1990s, the New York Knicks had followed the Bad Boy Pistons project: building a physical, aggressive team with enough skills to do the job, then submitting the other team to submission. It worked, except against the Chicago Bulls. That didn’t change the plan – coach Pat Riley told his Knicks to get out and knock Michael Jordan out when he led the lane (looks familiar).
“We hated each other. He was extremely physical. It wasn’t really a foul until you drew the blood, ”that’s how Patrick Ewing described it in last episode of The Last Dance. The Knicks and Bulls probably gave birth to the biggest rivalry of the 90s.
The Knicks and Bulls have met six times in the playoffs over eight seasons. The show revealed the 1993 Eastern Conference finals when the Knicks took the lead in the 2-0 series. So New York dropped the next four games.