Remember how I rattled off a list of things I missed about the NBA in my post about Without Bias? Watching Winning Time last night gave me more items to at to that list.
The film documents the back-and-forth between Reggie Miller and the New York Knicks, focusing in on the 1994 and 1995 Eastern Conference playoffs.
For anyone old enough to remember those series, you have to watch this film. I was grinning like the Cheshire Cat throughout, thinking back to the heat between the two teams, the under-rated awesomeness of Miller, and how much I really enjoyed seeing the New York Knicks lose in '94.
Let's get this part out of the way right now: Reggie Miller is a Hall of Famer. He averaged 18-plus over an 18-year career, with a couple boards, a couple assists, and a steal on the side, and was an assassin.
assassin (basketball): a player who you don't want to see with the ball in their hands as the clock winds down in a close game, because you're pretty certain they're going to kill it.
That's what this film boils down to as well — Reggie's ability to shine in the spotlight opposite the seeming inability of those Knicks teams to every quite get over the hump.
Now there are going to be some New Yorkers or Knicks fans saying, "What? Reggie choked in '93 — bricked the big foul shots in Game 7," and they're absolutely right.
He also murdered the Knicks for 25 in the fourth quarter three games earlier in what might be the single best quarter I've watched anyone deliver with my own two eyes. Miller hit everything, from everywhere, and did it in the Garden with an expression on his face that said, "You brought this on yourselves."
He also came back the following year and dropped nine points in 18.7 seconds to earn the Pacers a victory in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals, the year Patrick Ewing missed a layup that would have tied up Game 7.
When all was said and done, Reggie and Ewing ended up with the same number of championships (zero), and Ewing had the superior numbers, but Reggie just had it — that little something where his numbers don't do justice to the impact he had on his team and how good he really was.
And Reggie was really good.
I miss this kind of basketball.
I miss heated rivalries that play out every year in the playoffs, and players stepping up in moments when the spotlight is brightest. That's what Reggie did every time he set foot in the Garden, and while there are a few players who do the same today, it feels like we've lost the heat that once permeated the league.
As they said in the film — or maybe it was the bonus features — the 2009 playoff series between the Boston Celtics and Chicago Bulls featured four games that went to overtime, with seven extra frames in total, and no one really got all that keyed up for the contests.
They were hard fought, back-and-forth games that featured some outstanding performances, but for some reason, they fell into the background behind LeBron's last stand with the Cavs, and Kobe's quest for another ring in Los Angeles.
Maybe Reggie's battles with the Knicks gained extra attention because Michael Jordan was out of the league at the time — these were his baseball years — but it's not like there weren't other superstars and dominant teams taking to the court. Houston won back-to-back titles in Mike's absence, Hakeem Olajuwon was schooling everyone with "The Dream Shake" and this kid named Shaquille was turning into a monster in Orlando.
Still, Reggie vs. the Knicks captivated everyone who loved basketball and a bunch of people who only had lukewarm feelings about hoops previous to those games. It was must-see TV on NBC that drew the star of NBC's of Must-See TV Thursdays to MSG, and Jerry Seinfeld wasn't the only celebrity in attendance.
The most infamous sideline star was Spike Lee, and he is featured prominently in the film.
I love Spike — I love his passion for the Knicks, his films, Mars Blackmon (the name of my fantasy hoops team this year), and the way he tries to paint a different picture of his involvement in these games with a wry smile on his aging face.
Sidebar: seeing how old Spike is getting (How is Mookie 54-years-old?) only makes me realize I too am being chased down by Father Time; the grey hairs I'm starting to find do too.
That 25-point fourth quarter Reggie unleashed? Spike took the blame for it after getting into a little off-court/on-court verbal sparring match with Miller, though he tries to downplay his involvement.
Hearing the NBA on NBC music during the film — dunt-dun-dunna-dunt-dunt-dun-dun — made the hair on my arms stand up.
I miss that song. I miss that era of the NBA.
I still love the game — that will never change — but it isn't the same.
The mid-80s through the end of Mike's reign in Chicago are my time, the era I point to the way older generations tried to school us kids on the great music of the 60s and 70s — that's real basketball; that's what the game is supposed to look like.
If you feel the same — and even if you don't — be sure to check out Winning Time.
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