It will be a rivalry as long as the Bulls bother, and for reasons unexplained–apathy, spite, habit–the Knicks can still nettle the Bulls.
If it isn’t New York forward Larry Johnson refusing to acknowledge his inadequacy, or the little old odd sock of a coach, Jeff Van Gundy, chewing on his own foot, it is Patrick Ewing guaranteeing victory in the final regular-season game.
“We showed the world we can beat the Bulls,” Ewing said.
It takes a lot of active passion to trouble with such things, and the wonder is that the Bulls spit back.
“The last thing we wanted to do was give them any confidence by winning in our building,” Michael Jordan said.
That’s one way to look at it. Another is, by losing, the Bulls will not have to face the Knicks and their bludgeoning scrum of a game until the conference finals. And the Knicks will likely have to get by Miami for that to happen.
So Scottie Pippen’s missed final three-point shot is an actual benefit to the Bulls, aside from the historical concern for another 70-win season.
“Well, 70 is better than 69,” Jordan said.
The Bulls caring at all about the Knicks is like the hammer caring about the thumb, the 18-wheeler about the deer, the dentist about the molar.
“It’s a long season,” Pippen explained.
Pippen’s special amusement is Johnson, a cheap diversion but not without some peril. Although Johnson is not the natural brute that Anthony Mason was or Charles Oakley is, even a falling pacifist can hurt if you get caught under one.
Johnson called Pippen a bum, not an original opinion, and Pippen called Johnson garbage, possibly an olfactory as well as a critical judgment. They do rub up against one another a lot, so Pippen would know.
And Johnson has friends who seemed to take turns whacking Pippen with extra emphasis Saturday night. Even Buck Williams, a pleasant afterthought of a player, clouted Pippen to the floor in the first half and was called for a flagrant foul.
Who started all this cheap chirping is unclear. Johnson says Pippen. Pippen says Johnson. Which came first, the elbow or the scab?
“I’ve accomplished things accidentally in my career more than he’s accomplished on purpose,” Pippen has said.
“Pippen’s best play is to get the ball to No. 23,” Johnson has said.
On this night, it seemed it was everybody’s best play. Before the game Jordan suggested he might score 65 points. He needed 62 in order to get his season average to 30, where it has been for every full year he has played in the NBA since he was a rookie.
Jordan finished with 33 on 22 shots, which means if he’d hit them all, they all would have to have been threes. Say, if you can’t indulge Michael Jordan, whom can you indulge?
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“Our job now is to get rejuvenated and focused again,” Jordan said. “When we are at full strength, everybody knows how well we can play. When we play our game, I’m not worried about anyone else.”
The Bulls were missing again the injured threesome of Dennis Rodman, Toni Kukoc and Bill Wennington, each healing at his own rate, Rodman and Kukoc promised back for the playoffs.
Rodman’s health is of greater concern, an intrigue kept active by Rodman himself. Rodman refused to confirm that he would be ready for the playoffs or even that he would be ready for practice for the playoffs.
It is left to Rodman’s agent, Dwight Manley, to reassure the world that Rodman is, to use Manley’s phrase, totally on track, though not specifying if Rodman is a caboose or a circus car.
Judging by Rodman’s bench attire for the Knicks, shiny shades of chartreuse, it is the latter.
“I’m excited,” Jordan said. “Can’t wait.”
Nor the rest of us.