There was a fallen John Starks tripping Scottie Pippen with a scissors kick in the first game, and Patrick Ewing hitting two big shots late to seal another comeback New York victory in the second. There was Ewing sitting in his locker before the third game, dribbling a basketball back and forth under his legs to the rhythm of the music that overflowed from the headphones of his Walkman; Derek Harper and Jo Jo English locked in a wrestling hold spinning toward the first row of seats, and the bench-clearing brouhaha spilling into the stands; an angered Pippen almost pounding the ball into the floor as he slowly dribbled upcourt during another fourth-quarter collapse, then asking out of the final play when it was called for Toni Kukoc; and Kukoc hitting the shot, being presented the ball afterward, and heaving it into the stands. There was Pippen greeted with a mixture of cheers and boos–but mostly cheers–as he was introduced for the fourth game, later dealing a no-look pass to Horace Grant for a slam dunk on the fast break; Scott Williams scoring and pointing to a “Tank” banner (his nickname) in the second balcony as he ran downcourt; Pippen with an arm around Kukoc’s shoulders as they talked following some minor offensive confusion; and a lineup of Pippen, Grant, B.J. Armstrong, Bill Cartwright, and John Paxson shepherding the win home in the closing minutes. There was Charles Oakley kicking at Kukoc in the early moments of the fifth game; Armstrong, feet akimbo in the air, hitting a go-ahead jumper from the free-throw line in the final minute; and a whistle blowing as Pippen grazed Hubert Davis’s hand on the Knicks’ last shot. There was a sign behind the Knicks’ bench in the sixth game–“Starks, you’re going down … and so’s your sister”–and Starks tripping Pippen again in the open court; New York sportswriter Mike Lupica sauntering over, writing something on the newspaper of National Basketball Association Vice President of Public Relations Brian McIntyre–something about the Bulls’ early 13-to-1 advantage in foul shots, no doubt–and sauntering away without saying anything; and Pippen swiping at Ewing as Ewing tumbled in the face of Pippen’s fast-break slam dunk. And then there were Armstrong and Grant hitting shot after clutch shot from the perimeter in the seventh game, until a fallen Armstrong was kneed in the head by Greg Anthony as they both tried to rise following an Anthony foul, and Armstrong then missing two free throws; Armstrong, Kukoc, and Steve Kerr all forcing up long jumpers in the closing minutes of the seventh game; Ewing banking in a three-point jumper off the glass. And finally there were the players–most prominently Pippen and Ewing–embracing after the New York Knicks had defeated the Chicago Bulls in the National Basketball Association playoffs.
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The last three playoff meetings between the Bulls and the Knicks were sport at its highest level. This year’s series, like the two before it, was involving athletically, intellectually, emotionally, and culturally, and it passed by in a blur of dramatic images.
The Zen aspects of focus and discipline he had frequently called upon as a coach, but the Christian element got its sternest test in the Pippen incident.
Kukoc was equally understanding. “This is a very intense game,” he said. “It’s not easy. Especially when you’re playing good like that and in five minutes everything you did for three and a half quarters is gone. So it’s not easy to handle that.”
But in the end the Bulls had to reach back to simple old tactics from their encounters with the Pistons. The Bulls would typically go out to significant leads against the Pistons, but the Pistons would run them down with tough defense, and that’s just what the Knicks were doing in the fourth quarter. “We have to match their defensive frenzy with our defensive frenzy,” Jackson said. That’s what they had done against the Pistons, and that’s what they did against the Knicks beginning with the fourth game. When the Bulls held the lead it was all right to commit a 24-second violation, to fail to get a shot off. They just had to make sure the same thing happened at the other end. That would be 48 seconds off the clock, almost another minute closer to victory, and with the Bulls playing a ferocious double-teaming defense it worked–until game seven and that final adjustment by the Knicks.
One great thing about the Bulls–something brought out every year in their series with the Knicks–when they won, they won without sacrificing their character, no matter how badly they wanted to win. In fact, they won by pitting their character against the sternest tests, beneath the harshest scrutiny, under the most intense pressure imaginable. The Knicks learned something from them, and I think the fans did too. I know I learned about sports–and about myself–from watching the Bulls.
