“I might have to puke” – Heat-Knicks BRUTAL RIVALRY reopened, ex-foe Tim Hardaway working for Knicks leaves Jeff Van Gundy unnerved
Jeff Van Gundy feels Tim Hardaway should not be working for the New York Knicks being a former Miami Heat player
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Jeff Van Gundy
Jeff Van Gundy cannot stand the fact that ex-Miami Heat player Tim Hardaway is working for rivals New York Knicks. The Knicks and the Heat face off in the Eastern Conference second round in the 2023 playoffs. Van Gundy, a long-time coach for the New York Knicks in the 1990s and had a lot of epic battles against Hardaway and the Heat in the playoffs.
Van Gundy spoke to the New York Post before the Heat-Knicks series, saying, “It was hard enough watching his son play for the Knicks. Now he works for the Knicks? They’re taking my patience to another level.” Van Gundy has since moved on from coaching to broadcasting and always wears his Knicks colors on his sleeve, especially against the Miami Heat.
“If [Hardaway] is at the game wearing a Knicks sweatshirt, I might have to puke,’’ Van Gundy said. “He should seriously be able to go home for a week’s moratorium, go back to his Heat roots, so he doesn’t have to fake it, and we don’t have to fake it.” Tim Hardaway is now a scout for the New York Knicks, and Van Gundy is incredibly irked by the fact that someone who had such an intense rivalry with New York could work for the city.
“Tim Hardaway being a Knicks scout is so unnerving to me… What’s next, Scottie Pippen as Knicks alumni director?’’ Along with the Miami Heat, the Chicago Bulls also had a historic rivalry with the New York Knicks in the 1990s when Scottie Pippen led the Bulls in 1994. The Knicks defeated the Bulls in the 1994 Eastern Conference semi-finals when Michael Jordan took his career sabbatical to play baseball.
Jeff Van Gundy was an active participant in the Knicks-Heat rivalry of the 1990s
Van Gundy started his coaching career as an assistant coach for the New York Knicks and was promoted to the head coach position in 1995. During an on-court brawl during the 1998 playoffs, Van Gundy, Knicks head coach, can be seen clutching Miami Heat star Alonzo Morning’s leg as he was throwing punches at Charles Oakley. The Knicks-Heat brawl in 1998 was fiercer than usual as the Knicks ended up sweeping their big-time rivals that year.
In particular, Van Gundy’s animosity for Tim Hardaway stems from Hardaway eliminating New York from the playoffs in 1997 with 38 points in game seven of the Eastern Conference semi-finals. The Knicks and Heat met for four straight years in the playoffs, and Van Gundy’s men got the better of Miami each year aside from 1997.
The Knicks most iconic win over Miami came in the 1999 first-round series on their way to the NBA Finals as John Starks hit a 15-foot dagger to dump Miami out of the playoffs. The Indiana Pacers, Miami Heat, and Chicago Bulls thwarted the Van Gundy led-New York Knicks’ multiple playoff runs in the 1990s. Van Gundy will cover the Knicks-Heat series in 2023 without questioning where his loyalties lie in this epic rivalry.
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Anuj Shrikanth Iyer
(290 Articles Published)