A father, a son & three Knicks trips to the Finals

June 5, 1994

Game 7. ECF. 34 and a half seconds left. Knicks down one. I’m 15, watching in the living room with my papi. My mother and sisters are elsewhere; they don’t want to deal with our stressing.

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Charles Oakley inbounds to John Starks, surprisingly wide-open for the pass given all 19,763 in attendance and the millions watching at home know exactly what’s about to happen: Starks running a pick-and-roll with Patrick Ewing. Starks is as open as he is because his defender, Reggie Miller, made a business decision as he trailed Starks towards an Anthony Mason screen. Miller is alive today because he didn’t test Mase.

Starks dribbles to his right, past the pick. Antonio Davis, Ewing’s defender, hesitates for a split-second, giving Starks all the runway he’d need to take it to the cup. It’s the same action the ‘90s Knicks ran whenever they were in desperate need of a last-second bucket.

Once Ewing slammed home the rebound to put the Knicks up one, Papi and I allowed ourselves the briefest expression of joy, a “yes!” as short and sibilant as airbrakes on a truck. For the next 22.7 seconds, neither of us breathes. Instead we wait. For the other shoe to drop. Or not.

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I’d never seen the Knicks advance so far. Papi saw them win two titles, but that was back in ye olden days, the 1970s. This was the mid-‘90s — too late for Hammer Time, too soon for Y2K. The Knicks were thisclose to a championship. The Rangers, too. It was a glorious time.

Not so much for a Knicks/Rangers fan living in western New York. The move from Long Island to Rochester introduced the Mirandas to garbage plates, ice storms, the highest concentration of Confederate flags north of the Mason-Dixon and a particular strain of hate for all things NYC. Western New York has this particular paranoia where many locals believe NYC gets all of the state funding without contributing enough revenue to deserve it. It’s like a small child being pissed that their parents who work 40-50 hours a week “only” give them a weekly allowance and not their whole paycheck.

After the Rangers won their first Stanley Cup in 54…

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Publish date : 2026-05-29 18:40:00

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