Rivalry Renewed?

The major news outlets in New York as well as most of the rest of the usual sports yakkers have been promoting tonight's match up between The Heat and The Knicks as a possible return to the glory days of the '90s. It was back in those days that the two then Eastern Conference powers battled it out seemingly every season in the playoffs, forming one of the most tense (and often brutal to watch) rivalries in all of sports.

Here at PTU we might have a tendency to glorify the '90s, but that being said, before we all get ahead of ourselves and say "Knicks Heat is back!", there are some pretty obvious differences between those fondly remembered days and whatever it is that might begin tonight.

Firstly, those games were for the most part an eyesore, holding the rest of the nation outside of New York and Miami hostage as the two teams struggled to score a combined 140 points on most nights. Tonight, as well as in the games that will probably follow between the two, I wouldn't be surprised to see one team score 120 themselves. Then, a final score usually looked something like 72-70. Now, that's not unbelievable as a halftime score the way the Knicks play defense and the Heat can score in a blink.

Secondly, those teams absolutely hated each other. ESPN had a great piece today breaking down the particularly ugly moments of the many series and you can see why. Pat "The Snake" Riley (or Rat Riley as Lupica used to call him, take your pick) and his ugly divorce from the Knicks made sure that this wasn't just a bunch of guys playing for an eastern conference championship. They really didn't like each other. Even the Van Gundy brothers didn't speak when their teams played each other. Fast forward to 2011 and the big stars of the new "rivalry", LeBron, Melo, Wade, Stoudemire, etc. may as well have a sleep over after the game. These guys are all good friends off the court. Could you imagine Dan Majerle and Latrell Sprewell going out for dinner after the game? Or P.J. Brown and Charlie Ward having a beer after body slams?

Finally, the biggest difference between the current Knicks-Heat games and the storied rivalry of the past is the lack of real drama. The Heat haven't won anything yet although they should cruise to a divisions title and are going to be a Vegas favorite to make it far in the playoffs and the Knicks are still barely over .500, who should be more concerned with The Sixers then what Miami's doing. If these two teams can manage to both be serious contenders at the same time (which I think they will at some point) then we might have, at least, a fun competition between two good basketball teams. But, let's not kid ourselves, it's nothing like the '90s.