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.
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.
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.
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.
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 righted the ship, winning 31 of their final 36 games to finish the year with a 37-13 record. Again, the season was shortened due to the lockout, which ended in January.
That record tied San Antonio with the Utah Jazz atop the Western Conference standings, and San Antonio secured the No. 1 seed in the conference due to a tiebreaker.
Once in the dance, the Spurs stayed red-hot. San Antonio won its opening series 4-1, dropping just one game to the Minnesota Timberwolves. From there, the Spurs swept their way to the NBA Finals, dispatching the Los Angeles Lakers in four games, and then sweeping the Portland Trail Blazers in the Western Conference finals. Duncan scored 21 in Game 1 against Portland, adding 13 rebounds, and Robinson scored 20 with ten boards in Game 4 as the Spurs closed out the sweep.
For the first time in franchise history, San Antonio was heading to the NBA Finals.
How the Knicks reached the 1999 NBA Finals
While the Spurs enjoyed a relatively easy path to the 1999 NBA Finals, it was a much tougher road for the Knicks.
Ahead of the 1998-1999 season, New York made several key additions to help Patrick Ewing, adding Latrell Sprewell, Marcus Camby, and Kurt Thomas. Those acquisitions helped the Knicks begin the year with and 8-3 record.
But then, injuries started to mount. Sprewell played in just 37 games that regular season due to a stress fracture in his right foot, and Ewing missed time due to a knee injury. After starting 8-3 the Knicks began dropping games, and hovered around .500 for most of the year.
That stretch cost president and general manager Ernie Grunfeld his job in April.
Wins in six of their last eight games were enough for New York to secure the No. 8 seed in the Eastern Conference, as they finished with a 27-23 record. But that meant a date with the top seed in the East, the Miami Heat. New York won Game 1 in Miami, getting 22 points from both Sprewell and Allan Houston to steal the first game of the series. After dropping Game 2, New York took Game 3 behind a 20-point outing from Sprewell, giving the Knicks a chance to close out the upset at Madison Square Garden at home.
But Miami staved off elimination, forcing a deciding Game 5 back in Miami. Ewing led the way for New York with 22 points, but a buzzer-beater from Houston gave New York a 78-77 win, pushing the Knicks into the Eastern Conference semifinals.
Up next for New York? A date with the No. 4 seed Atlanta Hawks. But to the surprise of many, the Knicks swept their way to the Eastern Conference finals, getting 34 from Houston in Game 1 and 31 from Sprewell in Game 2 to take both games in Atlanta. With the series win, New York became the first No. 8 seed to reach the conference finals.
That meant another date with the Indiana Pacers, the team that bounced New York out of the playoffs the previous year. The Knicks again took Game 1, this time in Indianapolis, behind 19 points from Houston, but dropped Game 2. That second game was costly for another reason, as an Achilles’ tendon injury that had hampered Ewing for most of the season was revealed to be a partial tear, ending his playoff run.
But veteran Larry Johnson stepped up in Game 3 at Madison Square Garden, leading the way with a team-high 26 points. The final point of the night came at the charity stripe, as he drew a foul from Antonio Davis on a three-point attempt with seconds remaining in a 91-88 game. The three-pointer tied the game, and the ensuing foul shot gave New York a 92-91 win.
The teams split the next two games, giving New York a chance to close out the series at Madison Square Garden in Game 6. The Knicks did just that, led by 32 points from Houston and stiff defense on Reggie Miller, who was held to just eight points on 3-of-18 from the field, and New York punched their ticket to the Finals with a 90-82 win.
But the win was also costly, as Johnson suffered a sprained MCL in the game, which limited his effectiveness in the Finals.
The 1999 NBA Finals, revisited
The 1999 NBA Finals pitted wounded Knicks team against the Spurs, who had dropped just one game on their way to the series and were rested after sweeping Portland in the Western Conference finals.
As you might expect, it was not much of a series.
San Antonio took the first two games at home, behind a 33-13 effort from Duncan in Game 1 and a 25-15 effort from Duncan two nights later in Game 2. The Knicks fought back to cut San Antonio’s series lead to 2-1 with an 89-81 win in Game 3, behind 34 points from Houston, but that would be as close as New York got. San Antonio closed out the series, and their first title, with wins in Game 4 and Game 5.
The final game, decided by an Avery Johnson jump shot with under a minute remaining, was played two years to the day that San Antonio drafted Duncan.
Duncan was named MVP of the Finals.
