At times, comparisons between the 2021 Knicks and their 1990s predecessors seem a bit overblown.
In contrast with the current club, those Knicks—who mimicked the Bad Boys Pistons and were the last of their kind—regularly led the NBA in flagrants and technicals. They weren’t merely inclined to play with a nasty streak; they were required to. After laying out opposing players with unforgiving physicality, then coach Pat Riley had an established, preemptive warning: Any player who tried to help up a fallen opponent would be fined. From 1992 to ’99, they were a perennial contender to win the title, but they never quite got there.