NEW YORK -- The Knicks' second round playoff series begins Sunday at Madison Square Garden, and who they're playing has significance.
The Knicks and Heat may not be the most historic rivalry, but for a time, it was the most intense.
It started with a fight.
"All the technical fouls and flagrant fouls and suspensions. But you look back now and it was great competition," Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau said.
Thibodeau was a Knicks assistant back then. In a physical and competitive series in 1997, emotions boiled over.