INDIANAPOLIS – Maybe Reggie Miller was just getting himself jump-started for his seemingly annual meeting with the Knicks.
He hates ’em to death, he claimed. On his list of favorite things, put the Orange and Blue right up –
there above a Hanson music marathon and pickled liver.
And his Pacer teammates stood by him. In fact, some even shared his distaste for the guys from the Garden. Obviously, it doesn’t run as deep as Miller’s revulsion, but there are no warm, misty thoughts held by the Pacers toward the Knicks.
“I don’t like them,” said Dale Davis, sounding more businesslike than personal, though. “I’m not going to sit here and say I’m a fan of New York. I respect what they’ve done, but I still have bitterness that over the years, they’ve been the team that has kept us out of the Finals.”
Two of the four times the Pacers tried in the Eastern Conference Finals, to be precise. Now the Knicks went for their third block in the Pacers five tries as the conference finals started here last night.
“It’s going to be won on the court. No matter what’s said, it still has to be won on the court and that’s what we plan on doing,” Davis concluded.
But not everybody hates the Knicks – “I have no hate. I’m from Springfield, Mass.,” offered Travis Best, who quickly noted he supports Miller. “He’s a teammate.”
The Knicks-Pacers seem to be an annual rite. And of course, the feelings of pure, deep, unadulterated hatred travels from Knick fans right back to Reggie.
He is the guy in the black hat. He is the troll under the bridge. “I understand it,” Mark Jackson said of Miller’s feelings, which were openly aired this week. “You’ve got to understand what he’s been through – going to New York, being the No. 1 enemy. And it’s also something that really gets him going. So I appreciate it. I understand it and it’s sincere. I believe he [really] feels that way.”
And Miller admitting he feels the Knicks think they’re “bigger and badder” than everybody else and that he feels they show no one respect is all done to just get under the Knicks’ skins and New Yorkers’ collars. Sort of like Jackson wearing a Boston Red Sox hat for the cameras yesterday.
“Exactly,” smiled Jackson, once New York’s own darling. “We’re both quality teams and I think [Miller’s] comments are not going to make a difference. It’s probably setting the environment for Game 3 in Madison Square Garden, so I’m sure that has a little bit to do with it.”
Forgive the Pacers for feeling like second-class citizens. Not only have they been denied forever from getting to the Finals – the place the Knicks waltzed into last year as the No. 8 seed – but they know how Indiana is perceived in New York. Jalen Rose, for one, took offense to the perception, even though he referred to the Pacers jokingly as “hicks.”
“When you start talking about culture, I don’t want to get into that because that’s on the borderline of race,” Rose said. “Making a cultural statement is like making a racist statement and that’s pretty stupid.”
And so the gamesmanship has started anew. Whether it’s for motivation or not, it makes for interesting discussion. But it really should not be necessary, said one Larry Bird.
“These guys have to motivate themselves,” the Pacer coach said. “This far in to the playoffs, playing for a chance to go to the world championships, that should be motivation enough.”