Posted by Kelly Dwyer
Phoenix at New York, 2-25-00
These sorts of games intrigue me. Because of the nondescript nature of the teams, as an objective observer, you can't help but be a little annoyed in retrospect. What were these teams thinking? Did the GMs who put these outfits together really believe them to be championship contenders? Both teams were capped out, with little young talent beyond one or two players, and no real room for roster turnover outside of blowing the whole thing up.
The Knicks had made the Finals the year before, taking advantage of a few lucky bounces, a lucky call, and a parity-driven Eastern Conference to earn the right to be waxed by the Spurs in the Finals. The Suns, boasting Jason Kidd, a lottery pick in 1999, and plenty of cap space following the lockout year, were everyone's favorite to take grasp of the new decade. Instead, they lost out on re-signing Antonio McDyess, settled for Tom Gugliotta, and ended up trading for the right to extend and overpay a gimpy Anfernee Hardaway in the summer of 1999. Drafting Shawn Marion helped during the '99 Draft, but they also had to trade Steve Nash to get that pick.
Make no mistake; both of the teams I'm about to watch are pretty good. The Knicks entered the game at 32 and 20, the Suns at 34 and 19; but it was obvious then and pretty clear in 2007 that both outfits were riding the "let's get in the Playoffs and see what happens" ethos that always seems to lead nowhere - with a few exceptions (Cleveland last year, New York in 1999, Houston in 1980, though I'm not counting Houston in 1995; that was a championship team).
Let's get down to it. Jeff Van Gundy coaches the Knicks, and he's starting Latrell Sprewell and Allan Houston in the backcourt (which we were all begging him to do back then), Larry Johnson at the 3, Kurt Thomas at power forward, and Patrick Ewing at center. Scott Skiles' Suns counter with Luc Longley in the pivot, Tom Gugliotta and Clifford Robinson at the forwards, and Hardaway with Jason Kidd in the backcourt.
1Q, 11:45: With Clifford Robinson grabbing what will be one of four rebounds (in 32 minutes) in this game, Dick Stockton wants to point out that the Knicks were looking for a rebounder at the trading deadline, and wanted to pull the trigger on a deal involving Maurice "Baby Rodman" Taylor.
1Q, 11:30: Hardaway scores the first basket of the game, a 20-footer jumper. His True Shooting Percentage wasn't actually all that bad in 1999-00, a solid 55 percent. While we're at it, he offered a 17.9 PER that year, and it was all downhill after that. His contract, meanwhile, expired last summer.
1Q, 9:15: Longley hits a free throw to put the Suns up 11-2. JVG calls a timeout to inform his team that the players on the floor are expected to run back on defense. Patrick Ewing actually makes Longley look fast. Unfortunately, he doesn't make Luc look "good."
1Q, 7:07: Spre (not "Spree," Spre) and Houston are getting into the lane; the Knicks are now down two. Longley picks up his second foul, Hubie Brown and Scott Skiles are equally upset, and Antawn Jamison helps some kids paint a mural during the commercial break.
1Q, 5:46: Still hard to see why Penny's shooting percentages were so good, considering the hundreds of low-percentage 20-footers he shot that year.
1Q, 5:07: Clifford Robinson is not wearing a headband, which is a surprise (Skiles?). He's not rebounding, either, which isn't a surprise.
1Q, 3:12: Dick and Hubie are talking about Uncle Cliffy, who scored 50 points (at age 33), calling him "the oldest NBA player to score 50 in a game." Michael Jordan scored 55 in a playoff game against the Washington Wizards at age 34, but I guess the NBA doesn't count that. Don't blame Dick and Hubie, the bit of trivia was likely included by Suns PR in the pre-game packages, but I have to question the NBA here. Why don't playoff games - against tougher competition - count? If Kobe Bryant scored 112 points against the Suns in the first round next spring, would that only count as a playoff record? Bogus, man. Bogus.
1Q, 1:40: Penny Hardaway's goatee and mustache combo kind of looks like a sideways "H." Suns up four, Knicks have turned it over three straight times. Jeff Van Gundy's solution? Insert John Wallace.
1Q, 5.2: Penny can't guard Spre. Penny can't guard me, either, and Spre has eight points. Suns up four after the first quarter.
2Q, 9:10: Reggie Theus, current Sacramento Kings coach (that still blows me away, for some reason; and it's not that I think he'll do a bad job) interviews Samuel L. Jackson on the sideline, and Jackson mentions that the Toronto Raptors are his favorite team. Que? Born in D.C., raised in Tennessee, went to college in Atlanta, works out of Los Angeles ... the Raptors? Must be all those movies filmed up there. Or Zan Tabak.
2Q, 9:01: Randy Livingston's in. Always loved his (not so good) game. Worked hard, made sound decisions, but never had the legs.
2Q, 5:30: Fewer players were better at squaring their shoulders on a turnaround jumper than Latrell Sprewell. It's a shame that he didn't receive much exposure during his explosive first few years in Golden State, as his hops were never the same (though still astonishing, at times) following his 14-month NBA sabbatical from 1997-to-1999. Then again, it's more or less entirely Spre's own fault ... so boo, bloody, hoo.
2Q, 4:18: Hubie Brown: "We have some seen some weird passing, in this first half. I mean weird. Where a guy is wide open, and I throw the ball off your foot. You're wide open? I throw the ball three feet over your head, out of bounds. I throw the ball through my legs, but you're already three feet ahead, and it goes out of bounds." I love this guy.
2Q, 2:20: Not the greatest game. Marcus Camby is on the shelf for New York, and Shawn Marion is not getting many minutes.
Halftime. 14 points for Sprewell on 13 shots, seven boards. Suns up 42 to 39. Woody Allen still wearing that green hat. TNT runs an ad for Inside Stuff magazine during halftime, showing a copy that may have actually run an article penned by our mate Henry Abbott. Kenny Smith, who coined the exaggerated pronunciation of "Hyundai!" this season, joins Ernie Johnson in the studio. During a 76ers/Bucks highlight package, Hoopstv.com ads run on press row at Milwaukee's Bradley Center. Yeah, spend that money in Wisconsin. Good thinking.
3Q, 11:45: Googs throws a pass off Luc Longley's knees. Hubie: "That is the fifth weird pass that we have seen from Phoenix. How do you miss Luc Longley?"
3Q, 10:46: Longley shows us how it's done with a nice feed to a cutting Googs for the lay-in. This might be a good time to go over the career of Tom Gugliotta, who we may have overrated a little bit in his prime with the Timberwolves. Look at his per-minute stats. They're good, but not maximum contract-worthy, and that's exactly what he signed to in Phoenix. In his second year with the Suns, he nearly died as a result of taking the wrong sleeping supplement, suffering a seizure on the team bus. Later in the season he tore all the major ligaments in his left knee - an injury more in line with football players than power forwards - and he was never the same. Fine player, though. Probably the best power forward I've ever seen outside of Brian Cardinal and Karl Malone (unless you count Hakeem Olajuwon as a power forward when paired with Ralph Sampson) at ratcheting up the steals.
Also, in this NBA.com picture, he sort of looks like a grown-up Michael Cera. Her?
3Q, 7:13: This game makes me want to ban defense.
3Q, 6:50: This game makes me want to ban offensive charges.
3Q, 5:52: This game makes me miss Jerome James and Pat Burke. Seriously, any sportswriter you see complaining about the state of the NBA and how the game is played in 2007, send him to my house. Tell him not to make eye contact with my neighbors.
3Q, 5:04: Is it any wonder Latrell Sprewell was so popular back then? He seems to be the only guy in this league who wanted to make a move early in the possession. And the Knicks were the slowest team in the NBA that year. New York is down three points.
3Q: 1:01: I said it then, and I'm saying it now - Scott Skiles ran the least-imaginative offense in the NBA back then. The same, efficient but tedious down-screens and elbow-extended screen and roll. He's doing a tremendous job in Chicago now, the Bulls stink offensively but the ball is always moving and the spacing spot-on, but he's added quite a bit to the arsenal since coming to Chicago. 2000-01's Suns (with Penny and Googs fading) were even tougher to watch than this team.
3Q, .52.0: Larry Johnson blocks Rodney Rogers' shot, thus winning the Battle of Undersized Power Forwards Who Still Weigh Too Much and Dribble a Lot. Suns up two after three quarters.
4Q, 11:30: LJ and Rogers resume the battle on the other end, and LJ misses the fallaway jumper.
4Q, 10:20: Hubie, on Shawn Marion's clanged 16-footer: "this is not a pretty release."
4Q, 8:52: Hubie, after Marion threw down a (rather unremarkable, for Marion's exalted standards) lob dunk: "This guy is going to be excitement, in the future. Major excitement."
4Q, 7:09: The Suns keep running baseline screens that call for either Hardaway or (provided he actually runs hard) Rodney Rogers to curl and come to the ball off a pass from Kidd. The main options usually see Hardaway taking a low-percentage 19-footer, or going to Luc Longley in the post. Luc just made a nice lefty hook in Ewing's face, and nobody's been a bigger fan of big Luc over the years than pasty KD, but these shouldn't be your options. Phoenix keeps incessantly going to this play.
4Q, 6:11: Ewing, with a season-high 25 points, is carrying the Knicks, who are down three points. Rolling hooks, mainly, getting a half-step ahead of Longley.
4Q, 5:10: Hubie: "Jason Kidd has to push the action, here." Hard to push the ball when nobody (and I mean nobody, I've seen Kidd start a half-dozen 1-on-4 breaks during this game) is running with you.
4Q, 4:00: The Suns haven't hit a shot in over three minutes, and the Suns keep going to this ineffective screen and roll game that sees Hardaway/Rogers/Clifford Robinson missing long jumpers almost every time down court. Jason Kidd still has yet to score a point. Most credit due to New York, but this can be avoided.
4Q, 3:35: Another long miss for Phoenix, this time from Kidd.
4Q, 2:58: Houston hits a jumper that falls in after a Don Nelson-like bounce, and the Knicks take a one-point lead.
4Q, 2:24: Chris Childs nails a three, Skiles finally calls a timeout, and the Suns still haven't scored since Longley's hook.
4Q, 1:48: Kidd hits a pair of free throws, his first two points, and the first Suns points in almost six minutes. Knicks up two.
4Q, 1:27: The refs call Patrick Ewing for a traveling violation with less than two minutes left in a close game, in New York. So, let's just get rid of that whole thought process, right now.
4Q, 1:12: Another Suns miss, Googs again, from 20-feet. Hubie: "I just don't get why they're continuing to play screen and roll! They haven't been open one time! Everything is a strained jump shot."
4Q, 1:07. It's Reggie Theus' mom's birthday. Not today, mind you, but back then. February 25th. They waited until there was a minute left in a close game to tell us.
4Q, .29.6: Kidd takes a horrible 3-pointer with ten seconds left to go on the shot clock, and the Suns down two. It airballs.
Game over, Knicks win 84 to 79, and all the Suns were able to muster in the game's final seven minutes were two Kidd free throws, and a meaningless Rodney Rogers 3-pointer in the final seconds.
As mentioned above, these sorts of teams get to me. They're not much fun to watch, always capped-out; and don't have real championship aspirations unless EVERYTHING goes right, while seeming cool with just taking on a few playoff home games. It was an odd year for the Suns, to say the least. Kidd broke his left ankle with a month to go in the season, which prompted Kevin Johnson to come out of retirement. KJ and a re-habbed Kidd (sporting a fresh bleach job on his hair) took down the Tim Duncan-less Spurs in the first round of the 2000 Playoffs, but fell to the eventual champions from Los Angeles in the second round.
As was the team's style, the Knicks dumped the Heat in another close series after dismissing an infighting Toronto Raptor team in the first round. They then lost to the Indiana Pacers in the Conference finals, and traded Patrick Ewing that September. Instead of rebuilding, the Knicks actually took on more contracts, and then compounded the problem by re-signing Allan Houston to a monster deal in the summer of 2001. Two years after this game was played, both of these clubs were in the lottery. One team would draft Amare Stoudemire, one team would trade for Antonio McDyess.
Let this be a warning to today's 45-50 win hopefuls. New Jersey, I'm looking in your direction.
