5 BOROUGH SPORTS

In the first round of the 1998 Eastern Conference Playoffs, the Knicks and Heat were once again paired up for an epic battle. One year after the P.J. Brown incident, the rivalry was still in full bloom. With the Heat up 2-1 in the series, the Knicks won Game Four at the Garden to force Game Five. But just seconds before the end of Game Four, the game got physical when Heat Center Alonzo Mourning and Knicks’ forward Larry Johnson started to throw punches at each other (ironically they were teammates in Charlotte just a few years before the incident). The reason this fight is ranked as the #1 fight in Knicks’ postseason history is because of the involvement of Knicks head coach Jeff Van Gundy. Seconds after the fight commenced, Van Gundy sprinted onto the court and tried to hold back Mourning from fighting his starting forward. Given Van Gundy was nearly two feet shorter than Mourning, the only way Van Gundy could stop the fight was to hold onto Mourning’s leg. The fight ended seconds after Van Gundy got in the middle of it, but the damage had already been done. Mourning and Johnson were suspended for the final game of the series. In Game Five, the Knicks would go on to take advantage of the Mourning-less Heat and win 98-81 at Miami.

Who Knew?

This entry was posted on April 12, 2011 at 11:40 am and is filed under Knicks, Top 5 Knicks Postseason Fights. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.