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The 1999 NBA Finals are set.
Excuse me, I mean that the 2026 NBA Finals are set.
But you can forgive me for having a momentary flashback. After all, the last time the New York Knicks were in the NBA Finals, they met the San Antonio Spurs. Now those two teams will meet again starting tonight, with a champion waiting to be crowned.
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Now, as SB Nation’s elder statesperson — which is yes a nice way of saying I’m the old one around here — I have the benefit of having lived through that meeting back in 1999. While some of my coworkers were navigating middle school or even elementary school, I was facing the real world having just graduated college. Some of my roommates and best friends that final year in school were Knicks fans. They lived and died with this team.
So it falls on me to take you back in time.
Here is a look back at the 1999 NBA Finals.
The 1998-1999 NBA season
We start by a look at the 1998-1999 NBA season, which might be remembered more for what happened off the court, rather than what happened on it.
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First off, the season did not begin until January of 1999, due to a dispute between league owners and the NBA Players’ Association. When the two sides could not reach an agreement on a new Collective Bargaining Agreement, a lockout began in July of 1998.
That lockout lasted more than 200 days, until a deal was finally reached on January 6, 1999.
The season did not begin until a few weeks later, and schedules were shortened to just 50 games as a result.
Another big piece of off-court news? The dismantling of the Chicago Bulls. Chicago was coming off their second three-peat, but the retirements of Phil Jackson and Michael Jordan, plus the trade of Scottie Pippen to the Houston Rockets and the departure of Dennis Rodman in free agency, opened up both the Eastern Conference and the league at large for a new champion.
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How the Spurs reached the 1999 NBA Finals
The 1998-1999 NBA season marked the second year that San Antonio could rely on the pairing of David Robinson and Tim Duncan down low.
And while the Spurs got off to a slow start, beginning the year 6-8, they quickly…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/remembering-knicks-vs-spurs-1999-120000687.html
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Publish date : 2026-06-03 12:00:00
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