It's June 16, 1999 and we are minutes away from game 1 of the NBA Finals. On one side we have the San Antonio Spurs, resoundingly steeped into the competition this season, finishing first in the West and losing just one game on their route to the NBA Finals. On the other side we have the New York Knicks, one of the last teams you would have expected to make it this far in the competition. Their route here was not only a losing one, but a historic one. They're the first and only ever 8 seed to make an NBA final. How did we get to this point? How did such a disappointing season true to one of the most entertaining ones for Knicks fans? For that we have to go back all the way to the offseason. The 98-99 offseason wasn't like your typical offseason. The league was not only going through a transitional period, waving buy to one of its icons, but was enduring. A brutal 204 day lockout. Players were not allowed access to team facilities, trainers and staff. An agreement was finally reached, but it came at a cost. Compressing a 50 game regular season into 90 days. Been seen, right? But before the Knicks could even start the season, the front off to shook up the roster. Trading fan favors and integral pieces that made the Knicks a powerhouse in the 90s. They shipped Charles Oakle, one of the top rebounders in the game, and a player who would embody Knicks culture for young and up-and-comer Marcus Cammy. And they traded John Starks, who everyone in New York loved, and who was Patrick Irwin's best friend for someone who not many loved. The Charles Spreewall was coming off one of the worst suspensions in the history. After he decided to choke his coach during a heated exchange, the last offseason pick-up the Knicks front office made was signed with the barely-tredit Kurt Thomas. These moves were not only unpopular with the fans, but the coach. Jeff Ben Gundy was tasked with getting this group ready for the season in less than a month. It started off well. The Knicks won 9 of their first 14 games. That honeymoon phase ended quickly. The Knicks, though one of the best defensive teams in the league, were terrible on the offensive end. Then Gundy had a real issue piecey that knew an old talent together. He could not figure out a winning formula, and it didn't help his aging star and new pieces were coming in and out of the lineup with injuries. That inability to find a winning formula, who frustration with Knicks GM, earning Grunfeld. He wanted then Gundy to play more of a fast pace with the new acquisitions. These deferring philosophies of play drew an eye between the two, with multiple reports coming out of a possible firing of the coach. It made a rocky season even rockier, and with 8 games left in the season, having lost 4th Street, the Knicks sat outside the playoffs with a 21 and 21 record. Then something shocking happened. Dave Chekips, president of Knicks Basketball, fired Grunfeld, with just 2 weeks left in the season. Knicks would win 6 of their last 8 games to just barely squeaking into the playoffs as an 8 seed. Their first round matchup are more than familiar to the Miami Heat. They've met in the last 2 post seasons, and it's quite an understatement to say, these 2 teams don't like each other. Well, bothers these 2 teams about each other, is their carbon copies of each other. They have the same culture, philosophy, coaching, and style of play. They can read each other like a book, and for the Knicks, that was ideal. The Heat or Team they knew, and a team they just knocked out last year. It gave them confidence coming into the series, and it showed right away in game 1. Team their best basketball of the season, steaming the Heat to take game 1, and hope for advantage. That didn't last long, because the Knicks would have re-burted back to their old ways. Dropping 2 of their next 3 games, putting the series in a deadlock, and sending them packing to Miami, to play the all decided game 5. The game went back and forth, rolled from blow, with a knee-dirty able to pull away from each other, and as the game started winding down, the Heat made their move. Alonzo took a hook shot. The Knicks season all came down to this moment, the last play of the game. Let's see what happens. The Knicks were rolling, the chemistry was flowing, everyone knew their rules, and it was evident, their offseason acquisitions were trouble, unlucky for the Hawks, because that series can be summed up with this one play. The Knicks convincingly clipped the Hawks in 4 games, making them the first of their 8-seed to make an appearance in the conference finals. Celebrations were short, because they knew who was coming next. The battle tested Indiana Pacers. This is a team the Knicks have run into repeatedly in the 90s, and have been sent home by them their last two matchups, so the Knicks came into game 1 throwing haymakers right from the get-go to set the tone of the series. The Pacers were able to climb back from this deficit, and the game became a back and forth affair. With the game winding down, the Pacers had one last chance, Mullin inbounded the ball to Jackson. The Knicks take the series lead. In game 2, the Pacers came out swinging, building a 17-point lead before half-time. But this underdog Knicks group was able to chip away at it just enough for a chance at a shot to send the game to overtime. The loss came with a devastating blow to the franchise. Patrick Ewing's nagging injuries in the regular season caught up with him, and he was ruled out for the remainder of the season. That didn't stop the resilient Knicks from competing in game 3. They made adjustments, giving him more minutes, and he was feasting, contributing 21 points off the bench on 9-13 shooting. The Knicks still found themselves trailing in the dire moments of game 3. The score right now is 91-80. And there's less than 10 seconds left of the game. If the Knicks can sink this through here, they can possibly take the game to overtime and steal it. If they miss it, the Pacers will get a strangle hold on the series. Let's see what happens. Larry Johnson is one of the greatest shots in the playoff history to steal the game right from under the Pacers' nose. The Pacers never truly recovered from this, and the Knicks put him away in 6 games and became the only team in league history to make an NBA finals as an 8-seed, an improbable story, likely to never be seen again due to the various circumstances the organization was put in. This is Earn Your Ranks, where we only talk about ball, signing off. Oh, if you're wondering what happened in the finals, the Badder Knicks were simply just outmatched by the Tim Duncan Leipz first. You were able to take a game, but that's all the series wrote for them. This is Earn Your Ranks, where we only talk about ball, signing off.