It doesn’t matter that there are players on Rick Carlisle’s Indiana Pacers team who weren’t alive when the Pacers-Knicks rivalry was at its zenith.
Coming to New York, Carlisle said, is a big deal.
"Our core guys are in their mid to late 20s. They were alive back then," Carlisle said before Monday night’s Pacers-Knicks game. "Many of them follow basketball. They know who Patrick Ewing and Reggie Miller are and those kinds of things. When you come to New York and play here, it’s a big deal. It’s a larger-than-life experience."
Unfortunately, the Pacers aren’t the only team that gets up to play at Madison Square Garden.