In the Irish, catholic, Christian Brothers Grammar School, gaelic football was king. The McRory Cup was the holy grail that my school, the Abbey CBS, won the year before I started there but then didn’t win it for another 20 years. Soccer was not played by the school but it was played by a lot of the 700 all male pupils. There were several games going on in the yard every lunch time and while that would have been completely forbidden when my father was at school, the iron rule of the catholic church in Ireland was coming to an end. At the the height of it, even the mention of the S word would have got you a hiding from a Priest or Christian Brother. It was nowhere near as bad as that by the time I got to secondary school. We could ask the PE Teacher if we could play the foreign game but 99% of the time the answer would be no. It was either gaelic football or when it was raining, basketball. I had been warned of this by my P7 Primary School Teacher. We had a school gaelic team for the boys and a school netball team for the girls. This was were the segregation ended in our mixed class. For P.E., boys and girls played soccer, boys and girls played gaelic, boys and girls played netball. The boys complained about playing a girls game but we were told it would be good practice for our next school where we would be playing basketball. We did what we were told and it was an inspired move because we both won our respective school leagues.
How much it prepared me for basketball, I’m not sure. Being the sort of person who would give any sport a go (we’d play soccer all year round, gaelic in the summer, tennis when Wimbledon was on, cycling when Tour De France was on, American football in the winter, rugby when world cup was on, athletics when Olympics were on etc) but basketball required a very specific 10ft high hoop and backboard. No one I knew had one of those. If it was raining at lunch time in school we could go to the gym and try and play basketball among a throng of kids aged from 11 to 18, bouncing a ball each. We were all trying to be the Boston Celtics Larry Bird or the LA Lakers Magic Johnson while also trying to avoid being hit by balls winged from one end of hall to the other. Bird and Magic were the the 2 most famous basketball players I was aware of but we rarely, if ever got to see them play. This was still in the days before Sky. Occasionally, we would stumble across an NBA basketball game or WWF wrestling on one of our 6 channels. Sometimes these programs were not even advertised in the newspaper TV guide, they would just appear and these glimpses of Americana along with the rock music and hip hop that were coming out of the states, would blow my mind. I vividly remember seeing a Celtics Lakers game in the late 80’s and then could not wait to get into school the next day to see who else had seen it. Channel 4 became a real beacon for American sport showing the latter stages of the NFL and NBA seasons. At school, we learnt the basics of basketball - chest pass, bounce pass, dribble, lay up. The rules were fairly complicated - personal fouls, team fouls, technical fouls and how many clocks were ticking at the same time? - Game clock, 24 second shot clock, 3 second violation. No wonder they needed so many referees, they should have all been officiating like Flavor Flav! NBA players made it look easy to put the ball in the basket but they were up to 7ft something tall with hands the size of the ball. I’ve always been small and thin and I could hardly hit the rim from the free throw line. I did hear about a player called Spud Webb who was only 5 foot 7 so there were tiny guys too.
In my second last year at school, I took P.E. Studies which was mostly a theory class and I had to write a report on a basketball game. If you didn’t have Sky back then you gave a VHS tape to someone who had and they recorded it for you. I got Simpsons, WWF Royal Rumble, Guns N Roses concerts and a regular season basketball game between the all conquering Chicago Bulls and the Portland Trailblazers from the 93-94 season. This was the first game of basketball I’d watched since the Dream Team at the 92 Olympics. I brought the tape in to school for my classmates but our Teacher had a finals series game between the same two teams from a couple of years before and we watched it together during a double class. The Bulls were on their way to three in a row and everybody in the world knew who their star player, Michael Jordan, was. That was my first taste of the NBA Finals and the first time I ever wrote about basketball. This is the second time. I probably didn’t watch another game for a couple of years after that though. One of my best friends was also in that class and he got me back into basketball in 1996. Father Ted was reading the last rites over the all powerful catholic church and also on Channel 4 late at night were the NBA Finals. We were university students and stayed up all night anyway. Michael Jordan had retired after the Bulls won their treble in 93. Chicago missed the finals the next two years. He returned in 95-96 and the Bulls were back in the finals against the Seattle Supersonics. Also in that Bulls team were Scottie Pippen and Denis Rodman along with guys like Luc Longley, Ron Harper, Steve Kerr and Toni Kukoc in the supporting roles. The Sonics had a good team too with Shawn Kemp, Gary Payton, Hersey Hawkins and Detlef Schrempf but they were no match for the Bulls who ran out 4-2 winners in the series to begin the quest for the three-peat. The following season it was the Utah Jazz with John Stockton and “The Mail Man” Karl Malone trying to stop the Bulls. The Jazz lost by the same series score having admirably taken the Bulls to 2-2. They had another go in the 97-98 finals but yet again they lost 4-2 despite winning the first game. That Bulls team and Michael Jordan were phenomenal. I didn’t have a team as such. It would have been too easy to start supporting the Bulls, they were the best but you couldn’t just go for them because of that. We would invariably be rooting for the underdog while admiring the Bulls. We were neutral, there to be entertained. I’m reliving that golden era again through the new Netflix documentary, The Last Dance.
How I became a Knick.
I was in New York when the next NBA Finals were played. The year was 1999. It was the end of the century. The world was in a panic about Y2K - none of the computers that were now essential in every household and business had the ability to move their clocks to 1/1/2000 so mass updates were being done to correct this but no one would know if they worked until the countdown on new years eve. Most of my friends had worked in New Jersey for at least one of the last 3 summers and I was eager to sample it myself. Another friend had moved to New York the previous winter and we decided to spend a week with him before going down the shore to work. He lived and worked in Yonkers which is above the Bronx, one of the 5 boroughs of New York. We flew into JFK on Sunday 20th June and were picked up and brought to the Irish bar our friend worked in. He had a booth to himself and the welcome was like something out of Carlito’s Way. He was doing well for himself. Job, nice apartment, girlfriend and new friends. Ricky Martin’s Livin La Vida Loca was the big hit and the covers band on stage filled the dance floor when they played it. I’d never heard it before but it just seemed so New York. The next day we bumped into a couple of boys from home as we headed to the deli for a hero sandwich. There was a homely feel about the area because there were so many Irish about but then a yellow school bus would go past and The Simpsons theme music would go through my head or you’d notice the wooden houses and that would bring you back into the moment. Our friend treated us brilliantly - We rode the 4 train from Woodlawn down to Manhattan then took a speed boat out to the Statue Of Liberty, lunch in a Hard Rock Cafe, strolled around the streets of Manhattan dwarfed by the giant skyscrapers all around and ended the day with the spectacular views from the top of the Empire State. This was 2 years before 9/11 (which was the most incredible news story in my lifetime until the Covid 19 outbreak) and I’ve written previously of being in New York City while they were up but having no recollection or photographic evidence of seeing them. Later that night we were back in a bar again and the NBA Finals were on. After a long day of jet lag and sightseeing, a few pints and watching the basketball sounded like bliss to me. My friends weren’t as enthused and they took a trip back down town to see Times Square at night. Ironically, the basketball was being shown there on the big screen and I could have stood and watched it there. Not too far away, the NBA Finals, I had watched for the last 3 years in the middle of the night in Belfast, were being played in the world famous Madison Square Garden, NYC. A venue that was better known to me for a Led Zeppelin concert in the 70’s than basketball. I hadn’t been following that years finals at all. Channel 4’s contract had ended the year before so NBA was no longer readily available. The first I knew about the 1999 NBA Finals was when I walked into the bar that night and just as I want nostalgia for comfort during these uncertain times, so to then having arrived in the city that never sleeps and being pretty overwhelmed by it all, a few pints of Guinness while watching the American basketball was the little taste of normality I needed. Except it wasn’t normal. The finals at home were on in the middle of the night, here they were prime time. Also in New York, every fourth pint was bought for you, although you were effectively paying for at least half of that too as you gave a $1 or $2 tip with every pint you bought. The other difference was I was in New York, among people who watched basketball all year round and were desperate for the Knicks to win their first championship since 1973. I’ve watched the series again during lockdown to see if my memories of the games have been altered in the last 21 years. For the record, my recollections are as follows: Latrell Sprewell is my favourite basketball player ever for his performances in this series, Charlie Ward and Marcus Camby have also stuck in my mind as players I liked and my final memory of the 1999 NBA Finals between the San Antonio Spurs and the New York Knicks is that Larry Johnson (LJ), although a player I liked, had some costly misses for the Knicks.
By the time I started watching the 1999 finals, the Knicks were already 2-0 down having lost the first 2 games in San Antonio. The next 3 would be played in New York and if needed, the teams would go back to San Antonio for the final 2 games. The Spurs had their own Twin Towers in “The Admiral” David Robinson (whose name I always remember from playing NBA on playstation) and their 1997 number one draft pick, Tim Duncan who had led them to top of the Western Conference and play off wins against Minnesota, LA Lakers and Portland, sweeping the last two. Robinson had been with Spurs for 10 years and was looking like he would finally win a championship thanks to the emergence of Duncan but also because of the supporting line up coach Gregg Popovich had assembled. Mario Elie, who won two championships with the Rockets having played in Ireland for Kilester after failing to find an NBA team in the mid 80’s. Sean Elliott, a third pick in the first round in 1989. David Robinson started with the Spurs that year too. He had still been in the Navy fulfilling his military service since being drafted by the Spurs in 87. Avery Johnson had not been selected in the draft and was now in his second stint with the Spurs. He was known as the Little General as opposed to The Admiral.
The Knicks had crept into the playoffs as the 8th seed in the Eastern Conference but then upset the apple cart by eliminating the number 1 seed Miami Heat when Allan Houston scored with 0.8 seconds left on the clock in the game 5 decider. The Knicks went on to sweep the Hawks in the semi finals and set up a final with their long time rivals, the Indiana Pacers coached by former Celtics great Larry Bird and led by Reggie Miller. There was no love lost between these two teams. The Knicks centre Patrick Ewing was struggling with injuries and looked like he had two sponges permanently taped to his knees. Ewing finally succumbed to his failing body after game two of the series. In game 3, Larry Johnson hit a game levelling 3 pointer with 11.8 seconds left on the clock. He was also fouled and he completed the 4 point play to give his team a 1 point victory and a 2-1 series lead. After 5 games in the series, the Knicks led 3-2. Johnson got injured in game 6 but Allan Houston came up with 32 points to send the Knicks to the NBA finals for the first time since 1994. They would have to win it without Patrick Ewing though. He was ruled out for the rest of the season. Both Ewing and David Robinson had been named in the top 50 greatest basketball players of all time but neither had won a championship. One of them would end that anomaly now but only one would be able to do it on the court.
Game 1 - 1999 NBA Finals
The first thing to say about watching these games from over 20 years ago on youtube is how blurry they are. This is 6 or 7 years before HD. Digital TV was only beginning to be rolled out so these games were probably recorded on VHS back then and digitised for upload. Which makes me wonder if this was what watching those Bulls finals looked like on a small analogue tv set. The Knicks scored 27 points in the first quarter to lead by 4. Steals and fast breaks would be a theme for the Knicks during this series as one of their most effective ways of scoring. The problem that they have is that without Ewing they are hamstrung as his replacements are Chris Dudley who doesn’t score and has the worst FT record in NBA history but does a good job defensively. Kurt Thomas who can score but doesn’t do as good a job defensively or 40 year old Herb Williams who was a veteran the last time the Knicks were in the final 5 years ago. Marcus Camby doesn’t start this game but soon finds himself in foul trouble which is maybe why he doesn’t start. Larry Johnson is in similar bother. The Spurs dynamic duo of Robinson and Duncan take over in the second quarter further highlighting how much the Knicks miss the power of Ewing in the offence. Both are scoring from rebounds and the free throw line with the occasional spin and jump shot for good measure. Spurs lead by 8 at the half. Mario Elie and in particular Sean Elliott come alive in the third to support the two big men. Elliott sinks some 3’s but Latrell Sprewell takes the game to the Spurs, driving to the rim and landing mid range jump shots. Knicks reduce the lead but Spurs still lead by 3 at end of the 3rd thanks to another one of the supporting cast, Jarren Jackson, scoring from downtown. Jackson scores from the outside again at the start of the 4th as Larry Johnson jars his knee and comes out of the game. Sprewell leads a fast break to set up Chris Childs for a 3. LJ has to hobble back out there to replace Camby who now has 5 fouls. Jackson with another 3 then Sprewell is blocked by Robinson. Tim Duncan puts the Spurs ahead by 12 and has 27 points in the game. Duncan will end up with 33 points, 16 rebounds and 2 blocks. The Spurs led by as many as 15 in the 4th following another 3 pointer (the Spurs 6th, Knicks have 2) from Jackson. They go on to record their 11th straight playoff win. Spurs 89-77 Knicks.
Game 2 -
Similar first quarter to game 1 but Knicks shooting lets them down and they only score half as many points this time. LJ, Houston and Sprewell all guilty of missing but things improve when Marcus Camby gets on the floor. Spurs lead by 5 at the half. David Robinson is the subject of the half time interview on NBC. Will it finally be his year? Payne Stewart leads the 1999 US Open going into tomorrows final day. Governor George W Bush is in the crowd. Little does he know how much the city of New York will influence the presidency he is yet to realise. The Spurs increase their lead to 11 in the third but let the Knicks back into it and the lead is reduced to 3 but the Spurs score 4 in the last few seconds. There is a feeling that the Knicks are flat out just trying to stay in touch but the Spurs have several more gears they can go through. Kurt Thomas scores a jump shot. Knicks need scores from anywhere now. Houston (19) and Sprewell (26) are their only double digit scorers. Elie, Robinson and Elliott all have at least 10 points. Duncan leads the Spurs with 25. The Knicks crumble in the 4th giving up 7 turnovers and lose 80-67. Three point plays were one of the key differences in game 1, it was the Knicks failure to get to the free throw line in this one that cost them. Spurs had 35 attempts from the line scoring 24, Knicks only had 11 from 12, though Sprewell was 10 from 10. This was also one of the lowest scoring finals games for many years. The first 2 games of the series were lost by 12 and 13 points but for the most part they were much closer than the score suggests. I fly out the next day to begin my American summer holiday.
Game 3 - My favourite game?
I’m not so sure this is the game I remember because Allan Houston was absolutely phenomenal in this yet I have no love for the Knicks number 20. I thought he must’ve hardly played at all in this series because I have no recollection of him but he played nearly every minute and was the star of game 3. The Knicks were at home for the third game. The big news was that Van Gundy started Camby instead of Dudley. At 2 nil down in the series, the Knicks had to do something to try and become only the third team after the 1966 Celtics and 1977 Blazers to come from 2 down and win a championship. Those were great sides apparently. The 1999 Knicks are 8th seed and wrecked by injury. Camby is on Robinson, LJ on Duncan. Camby gets an early block on Robinson to lay down a marker. New Yorker Mario Elie fumbles and Johnson scores for the Knicks. Again the Knicks are playing on full throttle, Houston is on fire but they only lead 7-6. Spurs have won 44 of last 50, Knicks record at home is 19-6 in regular season and 5-2 in playoffs. Houston completes a 3 pt play from free throw line. Knicks need to get there a lot more than they have in first two games. Camby is in foul trouble already as Robinson scores and is fouled by the former Raptor. Kurt Thomas comes in for Camby. Sprewell gets on the board with a medium range jump shot. Knicks lead 16-10. Duncan misses. Knicks counter and LJ scores to make it 18-10. Knicks steal and break fast with Charlie Ward. He misses the lay up, Camby is back in the game and misses the rebound but Sprewell scores for the Knicks at third attempt. Robinson scores for the Spurs and LJ replies for the Knicks. Sean Elliott nails a three pointer and gets a foul but this is reversed and coach Popovich goes crazy. Technical foul called and Houston scores from resulting free throw. Antonio Davis lands a 3 for San Antonio. Kurt Thomas in foul trouble and is replaced by Dudley. Will this dilute the Knicks offence? Charlie Ward makes it an 8 point lead again then Houston with the catch and shoot. Houston is scoring from everywhere. Chris Childs makes a 3 at the end of the first quarter. Knicks by 14. Daniels replies to keep lead at 11. Knicks lead 32-21.
Start of second quarter. Duncan spins, scores and fouled. Then there’s the rarity of a Chris Dudley basket. Former Chicago Bull and future Golden State Warriors championship winning coach, Steve Kerr scores to keep gap at 8. Duncan has come alive, He turns in the paint and bounces the ball in off the glass. Daniels then reduces the lead to 6. Knicks are struggling as Houston takes a break. Robinson brings Spurs to within 5 from the line. LJ scores but Avery Johnson beats the buzzer to keep it at 5. Houston back in the game, attacks the rim, draws foul and Knicks lead by 7. Robinson scores before LJ jumps like David Lee Roth doing mid air splits and scores. Tim Duncan leads a Spurs fast break, dunks and fouled. Knicks by 4. Elliott looks like he travels on 3 point attempt when he changes his mind, mid-move and runs, unchallenged, to lay up. Lead now just 2. Sprewell and Duncan exchange scores before Sprewell scores another jump shot. AJ stops a fast break by recovering the ball then dribbles back up the court to score. Houston continues to be perfect from free throw line but hasn’t made a 3 in finals. Knicks lead 49-46 at half. Payne Stewart won the US Open. A few months later he would tragically die in an air crash. There’s an advert for Gatorade and I recall a Skid Row poster on my wall as a teenager and lead singer Sebastian Bach holding a fluorescent coloured bottle. I had no idea what it was. It looks like it could be de-icer or something. In reality, it’s a soft drink that tastes like what we call diluting juice or cordial. A concentrated sugary liquid you add water to before drinking.
The third quarter begins with both sides missing on their opening plays. Camby and Robinson have to be dragged apart but Robinson has the last laugh in this encounter when he draws a foul from Camby, his 4th and he has to sit down. Robinson scores one from line. Houston scores back to back two’s from the same mid range low post spot. Houston then makes his first 3 of the finals after a turnover. Knicks lead by 9 but it’s soon reduced to 6 when Mario Elie makes a 3. Scrappy sequences from both teams follow. LJ ends that when he draws a foul and scores both to extend the lead to 8. Duncan is triple teamed but still manages to rebound his own shot and score. Robinson then cuts the lead to 4. Kurt Thomas steals and feeds Sprewell who drives to the basket and is fouled but uncharacteristically misses both. First Knicks misses from line tonight. Elie’s return to New York gets worse as he commits his 4th personal foul of the night but Tim Duncan and Avery Johnson work a brilliant round the corner give and go for AJ to score. Lead is 2. I’m probably about 6-8 pints in at this stage and absolutely loving the drama unfolding in front of me on the first full day of my summer holiday on the east coast. Duncan scores with his signature spin and jump shot off glass. The game is tied. Come on Knicks! Houston scores a 3 on the shot clock buzzer. Houston has been phenomenal. How do I not remember this performance? He draws a 4th foul from Jackson and scores 2 points from the line. 30 points for Houston tonight. Thomas commits his 4th on Duncan who scores 2 from the line. The lead is then reduced to one when Duncan scores yet another spin out jumper off the backboard. Sprewell is fouled. He misses the first but scores the second. Knicks by 2. Sprewell draws another foul. Same outcome from the line. Knicks by 3 at the end of the third.
Patrick Ewing is on screens and gets a huge cheer from MSG crowd at the start of the 4th. If he has any chance of getting a ring, Knicks must not lose this one. Sprewell keeps believing, charging at the basket, scoring an up and under over Duncan. Marcus Camby ignites the crowd slamming in a one handed rebound then hanging from the rim, screaming, open mouthed. I love this game. The Garden erupts. Knicks by 7. Camby then gives away his 5th foul when Robinson backs into him. Robinson can only score 1. LJ misses another 3. Sprewell scores on counter, driving at the basket. He’s being compared to Michael Jordan by NBC commentators. Steve Kerr sinks a 3 pointer. Knicks by 5. “LAT-RELL SPREE-WELL” the game announcer booms out the name of the Knicks number 8 who draws a 5th foul from Elie and scores 2 from the line. Robinson then equals that when he is fouled. LJ finally scores a 3 from Houstons pass. Houston scores from a jump shot. Knicks by 10. Elie drives, scores and fouled for a 3 point play. Sprewell makes room to score and now has 21 points on the night. Knicks have 18 points off 18 Spurs turnovers in series. Robinson scores and fouled. Knicks by 6. Camby misses dunk but fouled and scores 1. Elliott scores corner 3 after Sprewell turns over ball. Knicks lead by 4 and 3 minutes left. Houston 2 from top of key. Camby turns and scores jump shot from LJ pass along baseline. Elliott scores with less than 2 minutes on the clock. The Garden are now on their feet. Sprewell scores another mid range jumper to increase lead to 8. Camby fouls out on Robinson and is cheered off. Duncan deliberately fouls LJ. He only has 2 fouls all game. How does he manage that? LJ scores 1. Forty seconds left. Duncan misses 3 point attempt and Childs makes it an 8 point lead. Knicks win 89-81 and now trail 2-1 in series. New York got to the free throw line on 30 occasions to San Antonio’s 22, scoring 5 more points than the Spurs. Larry Johnson 16 points, Sprewell 24 but Houston is the star with 34 including 12-12 from the line. Knicks huddle and pray. Wow. I am very inebriated but absolutely over the moon that the Knicks won. I’m in love with basketball again and Latrell Sprewell symbolises everything I love about the Knicks. Brave, dynamic, skilful, fast, cheeky, scoring all sorts of baskets and assisting also. I owe Allan Houston a massive apology though because this was his night. From this game, I can also see why I liked Camby and LJ. Game 4 is on Wednesday night and any plans for that day will be built around watching this.
Game 4 -
Another latino influenced hit, Smooth by Santana and Rob Thomas is becoming the soundtrack to my week in New York . I think this is actually the game I remember better. The Knicks have another high scoring first quarter but the Spurs almost match them without breaking into a sweat. Charlie Ward has 10 points including two 3’s. He only scores 1 more point in the other 3 quarters. JFK Jr is in the crowd. He would sadly be dead within a month adding more fuel to the Kennedy curse claims. Larry Johnson has been poor in the first half, 0-3 from the outside. Spurs lead by 4 at half time. There’s an advert for the new movie Mystery Men, at the break. Other movies out that summer were Austin Powers 2 starring Mike Myers, Summer Of Sam from big Knicks fan Spike Lee and one of the best cinema experiences I’ve ever had was watching The Blair Witch Project at the movie theatre on the boardwalk in Wildwood, New Jersey. The Spurs supporting cast of AJ, Elie and Elliott do the damage in the second half as Sprewell continues to be the Knicks shining light. Spurs lead by 9 going into the final quarter. Camby and Houston contribute in the 4th to get the Knicks back within 2. The Knicks have opportunities to go level or take the lead but Sprewell, Houston and Ward all spurn chances while the Spurs pick up points from the free throw line. It’s another close game that the score makes it look like it was comfortable for the Spurs. They win 97-89. Knicks made 33-80 from field, Spurs 35-75. Knicks were 21-28 from free throw line, Spurs 23-28. Knicks 2-10 from behind 3 point line and Spurs were 3-9. Very little in it but small details decide games as basketball fan Rafa Benitez would say.
Game 5 -
The holiday is over and the working holiday begins. Another mate has joined us from home and we get a Greyhound bus from Port Authority down to Wildwood via Atlantic City. I have my first ever cheese steak (steak sandwich) when we stop in A.C. but whatever they put in it along with the almost unbearable humidity makes it longest 2 hour bus journey of my life. I think I watched game 5 in the Poplar Bar in Wildwood. We shot some pool and celebrated our arrival. I had a contact for work who I went to see on the boardwalk and I was scheduled to start working on a water gun game the next day. Limp Bizkit, Nookie, is blasting out from another game as one of the other three thousand Irish over to work for the summer puts on his best yankee accent to try and deceive real Americans. I think we bumped into someone my mate knew from previous years and they let us sleep in their house for the first couple of nights. So with all that sorted out, I could enjoy Game 5. Sprewell was averaging 24 points for the series. Camby and Houston both had 20 points in game 4 but Houston wasn’t as influential as he had been in game 3. Houston, Sprewell and LJ get among the points early in the first quarter but Camby again finds himself in early foul trouble. A big part of the series has been the Knicks playing really well but not finding themselves far enough ahead of the Spurs who have taken a while to get going in each game. Here we have it again. Knicks lead 23-20. Houston, Thomas and LJ extend lead to 8 in 2nd quarter. The Knicks continue to excel in steals with 2 each from Houston and Sprewell in the first half. They also have 10 points each but Duncan leads the scoring with 16 and the Spurs lead 40-38 at half time. Ominously, whoever has led at half time has won the other 4 games.
Suddenly the Spurs lead by 7 at the start of the third. Jarren Jackson sandwiches the half time break with 3’s. The Knicks get it back to 4 when Houston delivers a big 3 but it’s ruled out because he stepped out of bounds. Could this be a crucial moment in the game? The Knicks don’t dwell on this and there’s another Knicks steal, this time by Charlie Ward. He finds Sprewell who slam dunks to send the Garden crazy. Sprewell then gives the Knicks the lead with a jump shot on the baseline but Elie quickly cancels that out with a 3. Another mid range jump shot from Sprewell. This sequence is just another reason why I love Latrell Sprewell. He was everywhere in that last 3 minutes - defensive rebounds, free throws, jump shots, dunks. He has turned the game in the Knicks favour singlehandedly. Spree has 21 points and 11 in this quarter. Ward runs through with the lay up. The Knicks are on a 14-3 run to lead by 2 but fouls from the Knicks lead to the Spurs retaking the lead at the end of the 3rd. In the 4th, Duncan and Sprewell exchange scores. Sprewell scores a 3 to give the Knicks the lead again. That scoring dual continues until Avery Johnson scores for the Spurs then Robinson steals from Sprewells bad pass and is fouled to tie the game. At the other end, Houston misses a free throw. Camby makes a timely contribution with a 3 point play from Sprewell’s assist. Knicks lead by 3. Robinson scores two from the line. Camby dunks. The Garden explodes with noise. Robinson scores and fouled. It’s a 1 point game with under 5 minutes remaining. LJ misses a 3. Sprewell scores with his signature mid range jumper. 33 points for the night now. Mario Elie hits a big 3 pointer. Duncan fouls Sprewell and again only has 2 fouls in the game. LJ fouls Duncan and he scores 1 of 2. Knicks lead by 1. Sprewell drives at the basket but ball jams between board and rim. Jump ball centre court. Camby wins but Knicks waste possession. Robinson misses. 1 minute to go. Knicks ball. LJ with the 3…..Misses. Spurs move the ball around. AJ is free and…. scores with a baseline jump shot. Spurs lead by 1. Knicks have a couple of seconds left to save the game. It’s thrown in to Sprewell under the basket but he can’t score and it’s over. Knicks lose 78-77. Spurs win series 4-1 and their first championship. Robinson gets the monkey off his back. Tim Duncan is MVP and goes on to win 5 championships with the Spurs before he retires in 2016.
I started working the next day and apart from the odd fishing trip or a night gambling in AC or day trips to Philadelphia and Delaware, that would be me for the next 10 weeks that summer in New Jersey. Beyonce was just starting out with Destinys Child. Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera had their first hits. Red Hot Chill Peppers returned with Scar Tissue and Lauryn Hill from The Fugees went solo. The 30th anniversary Woodstock concert ended up in riots over the price of food and beer. One of the first things I noticed were the amount of kids wearing Tim Duncan jerseys. I did see one Knicks fan later that night and I tried out the American accent I would need to perfect or I would not be understood by the natives. “LJ cost us, man”. He spotted me as a fake straight away. We got set up in our own apartment in a house owned by a woman called Sparkles who apparently was best friends with Frank Sinatra’s Medium on the east coast. I had to get my head around recycling which wouldn’t make its way to Northern Ireland for about another 10 years. There were kids living upstairs from us from Downpatrick. One of them, Cormac Neeson, would go on to form the band The Answer who have toured the world with, among others, ACDC. I’ve been to see them a few times live. The last time I met him was in the maternity unit when our sons were born. I got used to the cheese steaks although I preferred the chicken version. My diet consisted mostly of dollar pizza slices several times a day. Towards the end I discovered a restaurant on the boardwalk that did takeaway sunday dinners so that became a weekly ritual. I think it rained about 3 times that entire summer and it was between 30-40 degrees every other day. I mostly worked the day shift when it was quiet and got to listen to a lot of music all day. A real American who worked with us gave me a tape of an album by Sublime that became one of the soundtracks of that summer along with Gomez Bring It On and Liam Howletts Dirtchambers. Another song that takes me right back there is Steal My Sunshine by Len. My boss was a huge music fan. He had followed the Grateful Dead all over the country selling t-shirts and laughing gas. My evenings were spent watching MTV, WWF Wrestling and The Simpsons on TV and waiting for my mates to finish work so we could go out then back into work the next day hungover. Our friend came down from New York for a weekend and we went back up there for a few days before we went home. It was another 17 years before I returned to America for a west coast road trip with my family.
The Knicks haven’t got this close since. The following year with the same team and manager and with Ewing back, they got to the Eastern finals but lost to the Pacers. The Ewing era ended without a championship. Sprewell got a new 5 year contract in 2000 but Van Gundy resigned early in 2001 and the team fell away badly to miss out on the playoffs for the first time since 1987. Houston was now suffering with injuries but still got a $20m a year contract in 2001. That was just the beginning of a series of poor decisions that saw the Knicks fall into obscurity. Sprewell was traded in 2003. Houston was there until 2005. Isaiah Thomas was named President in 2003. Larry Brown followed as Coach. Brown went and so did Thomas. Carmelo Anthony and Amar’e Stoudemire were signed by Coach Mike D’Antoni who got the Knicks back into the playoffs. D’Antoni’s Assistant, Mike Woodson, replaced him and took them back to consecutive playoffs in 2012 for the first time since that run from the late 80’s to the early 2000’s when they were in the post season every year. Woodson was replaced by the great Phil Jackson who was playing for the Knicks the last time they won a championship. Kristaps Porzingis was drafted in 2015. Unfortunately, Jacksons star had diminished and he never got remotely close to achieving anything like the success he had with the Bulls and Lakers. Porzingis and Anthony were traded. The latest Knicks era has seen the pursuit of youth with the signing of first round pick RJ Barrett to come in alongside Kevin Knox, Mitchell Robinson and Frank Ntilikina as they try and grow a team. These days they aren’t even the best team in New York. The Brooklyn Nets relocated from New Jersey and signed 2 players in Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving that many hoped might be Knicks. I think my recollections of the 1999 NBA finals are accurate. Sprewell was incredible. Camby and Ward had their moments and Larry Johnson, albeit not 100% fit, missed some important shots. Allan Houston had one outstanding game that I did not recall but if it’s any consolation after watching game 3 I was online looking a vintage Houston 20 Knicks jersey. Sadly, he couldn’t repeat that performance and the Spurs were worthy winners who would prove themselves time and again. I’m trying to convince my wife that we should organise an east coast holiday in the next few years. I’d love to go to Fenway to see the Red Sox or Heinz Field in Pittsburgh to watch the Steelers but more than anything I’d love to bring my son to Madison Square Garden to watch my New York Knicks. Hopefully they will be decent again by then.
I think my recollections of the 1999 NBA finals are accurate. Sprewell was incredible. Camby and Ward had their moments and Larry Johnson, albeit not 100% fit, missed some important shots. Allan Houston had one outstanding game that I did not recall but if it’s any consolation after watching game 3, I was online looking a vintage Houston 20 Knicks jersey. Sadly, he couldn’t repeat that performance and the Spurs were worthy winners who would prove themselves time and again. I’m trying to convince my wife that we should organise an east coast holiday in the next few years. I’d love to go to Fenway to see the Red Sox or Heinz Field in Pittsburgh to watch the Steelers but more than anything I’d love to bring my son to Madison Square Garden to watch my New York Knicks. Hopefully they will be decent again by then.
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