- It's May 13th, 1994.
We're at Chicago Stadium for game three
of the Eastern Conference semi-finals
between the New York Knicks and the Chicago Bulls.
The score is tied at 102 and the Bulls
are inbounding with 1.8 seconds left.
A year's long rivalry that's been historically one sided,
a bench clearing brawl, a late game comeback,
and some intra-team drama have all lead us
to this moment, and as a result, there is so much
personal pride riding on this inbound play.
To remember just how much, let's rewind.
(soft electronic music)
The Bulls have eliminated the Knicks from the playoffs
four times in the past five years.
Very fun for them, but now the Knicks
are up two games to none, what's the difference this year?
Well let's see, who's missing?
Oh right, Michael Jordan left the NBA to play baseball,
for some reason.
Good news for the Knicks, though.
They've had enough of MJ's Bulls.
In 1989, New York and Chicago met in the
Eastern Conference semi-finals, sound familiar?
Get used to it.
Chicago took 'em out in six games
and according to this high flying, wide open
dunk from Jordan, they had fun doing it.
In '91 the first seed Bulls were mercifully quick
in their decimation of the eighth seed Knicks
winning the series in three tidy little games.
In '92 the Knicks and Bulls met in the
Eastern Conference semi-finals, sound repetitive?
Tell it to the Knicks.
New York put up more of a fight this year, thanks
in large part to John Starks' D, and Patrick Ewing's O.
They got to smell a passing waft of revenge
taking it to seven games, but they didn't get
to taste revenge or champagne that season.
A pattern was developing, and that pattern was
that Michael Jordan is better than everyone
always no matter what and it's unfair and so is life
so maybe we should just get used to it,
great, good, okay. (laughing)
The Knicks kept on coming, and in the '93
Eastern Conference finals they even
went up on the Bulls two games to none.
Michael Jordan looked beatable, but looks
can be deceiving and the Bulls won the next four
eliminating the Knicks and going on to three-peat.
The same guys had their hopes dashed by the same team
year, after year, after year, after year.
You know that shot went in.
But now with Jordan gone, the general consensus
around the NBA was play it cool, but oh my God,
oh my God, oh my God, we have a chance.
While other teams merely had a chance,
the Knicks were expected to step in
as the dominant team in the East.
People were saying it was the star-studded
Knicks' turn to be at least Eastern Conference
champs, and honestly, so far so good.
The Knicks finished the regular season
first in the Atlantic division, and they made
quick work of the Nets in the first round of the playoffs.
And now, they're up two and oh on the Bulls in the playoffs.
They gotta be feelin' pretty good,
oh, wait a second, last year they were up
two and oh on the Bulls in the playoffs
and it didn't work out so well for 'em,
plus the two wins they have this series
they really squeaked out.
So the Bulls are MJ-less and the Knicks
have made some roster changes, too.
Though you wouldn't know it from looking at the court.
New York picked up Derek Harper in January
after Doc Rivers tore his ACL, but uh,
Harper's not present at the end of today's game.
You see, temper's have been extremely high all series.
Seems Scottie Pippen and Horace Grant didn't really
agree it was the Knicks' turn to own the East.
John Starks didn't actually kick B.J. Armstrong here
but you can tell he wanted to,
and it all came to a head tonight.
Just before half Chicago reserve Jo Jo English
got in a fight with Harper, that quickly turned
into a huge bench clearing pile up.
I don't know who's foot that is.
It spilled into the stands but luckily
didn't cross the line into involving fans,
even though this woman definitely wanted in on the action.
And the cool thing about this fight?
It took place directly in front of Commissioner David Stern.
They couldn't have been closer to him
without actually hitting him, and look at Stern.
He's not mad he's just so very disappointed.
Harper and English were both ejected.
The Knicks probably would have preferred
to keep their starting point guard,
'cause a few extra points could have prevented
this whole last second tie game situation.
Since it's tied, you might think, "Wow,
"this must have been an even game so far,
"probably a lot of trading baskets
"and nobody was ever up by 22."
The Bulls were dominating this whole game,
but then the fourth quarter happened, which was a pattern.
In the last two games the Knicks outscored
Chicago in the fourth, maybe because the Knicks
stepped up their D and also maybe because
the Bulls were used to Jordan doing spectacular things
at the end of games, and had come to rely on it.
Hmm, probably a combo of the two.
Either way, it happened again tonight.
The Bulls were up by 11 at half and lead by 22 in the third,
but in the fourth the Knicks turned it on
and the Bulls turned it off.
In particular Patrick Ewing turned it on
in the final minutes of the game.
He hit a fade away with just over two minutes to go
then with about a minute left he was like,
"I'm Patrick Ewing, I'm good at everything."
He got open down low and dropped in a reverse.
Then with 30 seconds left he was like,
"I mean it, everything!" and he took Cartwright
off the dribble putting the Knicks within two.
Chicago had a chance to add to that lead,
but Anthony Mason's swarming defense
totally stifled Scottie Pippen who
just kinda dribbled around the three point line
not getting open and then bashed a prayer
into the backboard trying to beat the shot clock.
He did not, Knicks' ball.
They got it to Patrick Ewing's hot hand, and--
- [Announcer] Ewing for the tie!
He's got it with 1.8 left!
- 102, 102, but with 1.8 seconds on the clock
the Bulls have time to catch and shoot and win,
and Pippen wants to be the guy to do it.
He's got something to prove.
Not just that he can get around Anthony Mason,
he's got something a little bigger to prove.
Yep, that's it.
He's been in Jordan's shadow for so long,
now that he's out nobody expected the Bulls
to do anything or even be fun to watch.
In fact people thought the Bulls would be so bad
without Jordan the Chicago economy would suffer,
but Scottie defied expectations and lead Chicago
to a 55 win regular season, a three seed finish in the East,
and now the Eastern Conference semis.
He's been the Bulls' leading scorer all season
averaging 49% from the field
and 22 points a game, a career high.
He was the All Star game MVP, and while defense
might not help him in these final seconds
his defense has been annoyingly good this year.
Sure, Scottie never got to take the buzzer beater
when MJ was there, and we get that.
Of course you're not going to Scottie
if you have MJ, what are you, stupid?
But tonight, Scottie could finally be the hero.
Ready to inbound the ball, the Bulls
line up in a stack and Scottie is
not on the floor, which takes some explanation.
After Ewing tied it up, the Bulls called time out.
Great, that's normal.
Phil Jackson drew up a play, also normal.
Then, Scottie Pippen cursed at Jackson,
walked to the end of the bench and planted himself there.
I can't read his lips, but come on,
that rant is profanity laced.
Ugh, Scottie Williams, move,
we want to see this self destruction.
Why'd Scottie refuse to take the floor after the time out?
Because the play Jackson called wasn't for him.
Jackson wanted someone else to take the shot, Toni Kukoc,
which throws some light onto why Scottie Pippen
was so mad after the play was drawn up.
I say some light because there's no way to fully explain
benching yourself in the last seconds of a playoff game.
Dumb dumb.
Pippen hated Kukoc since before
the Croatian Sensation was even drafted.
Kukoc came to the Bulls after being
heavily recruited by GM Jerry Krause.
Krause would go to his Euro League games
and bring him Bulls' championship t-shirts
and I'm assuming better, unreported gifts as well.
All this attention from Krause
made Scottie extremely jealous.
It didn't help that Krause did things
like refuse to negotiate Pippen's contract
so he had the salary cap room to offer Kukoc 60 million.
Pippen resented Kukoc so much that in the '92 Olympics
when the USA played Toni's Croatian team,
Scottie matched up on Kukoc determined
to teach him a thing or two, or maybe
he wanted to teach Krause a thing or two.
Either way, Scottie shut down Kukoc at every turn
playing intense D and holding him to just four points
with a whopping seven turnovers.
Like an older child telling his new baby brother
he's not welcome in the family, Scottie made a statement.
The only problem, didn't matter.
Krause still pursued Toni and offered him a nice contract.
A contract so nice in fact, it is very possible
Kukoc will make more money than Scottie next year.
After waiting your whole career to step out of
the sidekick role, only to have some new guy
with the face of a 13 year old step in front of you
even for a moment can't feel good.
Can it make it bench yourself
in the final seconds of a playoff game?
Apparently.
In Pippen's place, Jackson subbed Pete Myers,
or as Chicago fans called him, Pizza Pete,
a nickname he earned when he missed two free throws
costing fans a free pizza promotional deal.
So, confidence is high going into this last second shot,
and the ball is going to Toni Kukoc.
That's Jackson's call, but is it a good call?
This is Toni's rookie season,
though he's not new to pro ball.
He's been playing professionally in Europe
since he was 17, he was real skinny but real good.
He racked up Euro League championships,
Italian Cups and MVP awards.
The Bulls drafted him back in 1990, but he didn't join
the team right away because he still had a contract
in Yugoslavia, and then one in Italy,
but that's okay, Krause thought he was
good enough to wait for, right Scottie?
Threatening to make us remember there are
more important things in life than basketball,
geopolitical factors influenced where young Kukoc played.
Toni started his career playing for his hometown Split
in Croatia, which was part of Yugoslavia at the time.
In '91 Croatia seceded from Yugoslavia
and there was some fighting in Split.
Toni had a chance to move his Split
contract to Italy, and he took it.
When Kukoc did eventually come to Chicago this season,
fans didn't exactly welcome him with open arms
but that soon turned around because Toni played well.
In fact, he's hit three buzzer beaters this season.
In just his fourth NBA game he became a hero,
making a deep three with about three seconds
on the clock to defeat Milwaukee.
On Christmas day he nailed this floater
with three seconds left, merry Christmas Chicago!
Orlando, I hope your parents got you
some good presents or something.
Later in the season he took down the Pacers, banking in
a game winner with eight tenths of a second left.
Kinda seems like Jackson's got the right guy
taking the shot tonight.
Here we are, less than two seconds on the clock,
a tie game between two teams whose
play off rivalry goes back six years.
The Knicks, fighting for dignity, determined
not to be eliminated by the Bulls yet again,
rallied in the fourth quarter after
being down by as many as 22.
For the Bulls, a win here would help them contest
the narrative that without Jordan, they're no good.
In a bitter series full of emotion that boiled over
in fits of aggression and passive aggression
both of these teams have something to prove.
Welcome to a moment in history.
(crowd cheering)
- [Announcer] Kukoc for the win, it's good!
Oh brother!
(TV clicking off)