Maybe the world changed. Perhaps it was the game itself.
Or maybe it was us.
But whatever the reason, that something, that spark, just isn’t there (yet) in the series between the New York Knicks and the Indiana Pacers.
Perhaps it is because that whatever emotions stir for the fans of these two current versions of the Knicks and Pacers, they can likely never compare to our collective memories the Hicks vs. Knicks battles of the mid-1990s.
Those 1994 and 1995 playoff series were multi-layered, fascinating events. That’s right, events. You just won’t be able to convince anyone in the state of Indiana those were merely just professional basketball games.
During that period of time, there was really something special about the Months of May.
(You’re darn right I capitalized that!)
There was something in the air, an aura that something special was happening.
Between the anticipation of the Greatest Spectacle in Racing and all that goes on in Indy and at the track, to have the Pacers actually contending in the Eastern Conference against the assumed “Next-In-Line-Now-That-Jordan’s-Gone” champions, the Hicks were downright giddy.
It had all been played out by the pundits before it actually happened, because this was how it had always worked: the New York Knicks would take their rightful place atop the NBA Eastern Conference in 1994. It was just an understanding. They were the next in line.
Just like Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls had followed the Detroit Pistons and Isiah Thomas, who had followed Larry Bird and the Boston Celtics, who had overcome Moses Malone and the Philadelphia 76ers.
You take out the champs, your rival, your nemesis, you move on and assume the crown.
Um, except for one small problem: the Knicks never actually, you know, beat the Bulls with His Airness.
In turn, that became a problem for the Pacers. They saw the Eastern Conference just as wide-open as the rest of the world should have seen it. So for two years, the Pacers never backed down, never gave an inch, punched the Knicks in the mouth, gave Riley’s boys all they could handle. Somehow, the Knicks escaped, but the battle had left them damaged enough, they didn’t win the title.
Then came the rematch in 1995. And it felt like, at least in Indiana, the Knicks were a little too cocky, a little too New York, a little too…entitled. Again.
And yet another epic seven game series followed, punctuated by that skinny punk with his elbows out running his mouth for what felt like the entire month of May in the Garden. Reggie gave us eight unforgettable points in nine incredible seconds. Told Spike his boys were choking.
And we ate it up.
Back in Market Square Arena, sounds of race cars passing played way too loudly during seemingly every defensive possession. Slick Leonard’s “Boom, Baby!” phrase entered national prominence. Towels waved, race flags and Boomer became symbols of entire state for a four-week period that felt like another season shoved in between spring and summer.
In the end, the Pacers took the series before falling to Orlando in the Eastern Conference Finals – much like the Knicks the year before, too drained from the battle to resist the youth and legs of Penny Hardaway, Shaquille O’Neal and the Orlando Magic.
Then Jordan returned and nobody won anything for three more years.
While the Knicks and Pacers met a few more times in the late 1990s, essentially splitting the difference, the names and faces gradually changed. In fact, it happened all over the NBA.
The big man – greats like Patrick Ewing, Hakeem Olajuwon, Shaq, Alonzo Mourning, David Robinson and even the Pacers own Rik Smits – began to disappear. Volume shooters and athletes who could play multiple positions began to take over the game, gone, or at least greatly reduced, were the specialists like Dale and Antonio Davis, Hubert Davis, Charles Oakley, Anthony Mason, Derrick McKey, Sam Mitchell, Byron Scott.
Pure shooters like Reggie? Well, not too many left of them either.
Around Indy, the Month of May has changed a bit too. After the Indy Car split, things got weird for a few years. Oh, make no mistake, the track still hops and it’s lively time in the Circle City – but it’s not quite the same.
Which is all the things that come to mind as this 2013 series between the Knicks and Pacers shifts back to Indy for Game 3 on Saturday night. We like the Pacers chances: a plucky team in 2012 that gave the eventual champion Miami Heat a good scare has become team with far more potential and experience.
And we still don’t like the Knicks around here. Once again, they seem a little cocky for having, you know, not really winning anything but a division title and an insignificant first round series.
So we’ll keep looking for something, a skirmish, a big shot, those race sounds echoing over the Fieldhouse PA – anything to make us feel it.
The Mays of 1994 and 1995 may be long gone, nothing but a fading memory brought back to life by old clips and the oddity that is Reggie Miller calling games in this series.
But it’s still May. It’s still the playoffs. Both teams have a chance, which raises the stakes, which raises the possibility of something happening to add to the lore.
Maybe the game changed. Maybe it was us. It can be different and still good.
Maybe the Month of May will live again.
Boom, baby.
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