There is a sage voice from the back of the room inside the walls of the Knicks practice facility who has seen this movie before, and he hopes the ending to the sequel produces a similar thrill ride.
Herb Williams played a bit role as a backup center for the Knicks in the 1998-99 season, his last as a player before becoming an assistant coach for the team, a position he still holds today.
This is what Williams sees in this team: a potential party like it’s 1999.
“I can equate this team to what happened in ’99, because in ’99 we had a lot of problems trying to put it together in the regular season with new players,’’ Williams said yesterday after practice. “We added Marcus Camby and Latrell Sprewell to the team and it took us until the end of the season before we jelled, but at the end of the year we took off when we got to the playoffs.’’
That would qualify as a significant understatement.
That Knicks team, which stumbled into the playoffs with a 27-23 record in a lockout-shortened regular season, stunned the No. 1 seeded Heat (who happen to be the current top seed), marking the second time in NBA playoff history a No. 8 seed defeated the top seed.
From there, the Knicks swept Atlanta and upset Indiana to become the first No. 8 seed to reach the NBA Finals, where they lost to San Antonio.
This is where these Knicks stand now that the breathlessness of “Linsanity’’ has calmed for the moment post All-Star break: They’re trying to gel Jeremy Lin with stars Amar’e Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony as well as newcomer Tyson Chandler and newer comers Baron Davis and J.R. Smith to make a legitimate title run this year the way they did in ’99.
The Knicks enter tonight’s home game against the Cavaliers with a 17-18 record, 3 1/2 games behind the 76ers for first place in the Atlantic Division and in seventh position for the eight-team Eastern Conference playoff pool.
They might be the most hyped 17-18 team in NBA history thanks to the energy Linsanity has injected into the program.
“They have a lot of noise around their team just like we did in ’99,’’ Jeff Van Gundy, the coach of those 1999 Knicks, said yesterday from his home in Houston. “The one advantage we had was we had a lot of experienced guys who weren’t influenced by outside opinions.
“What’s going to determine their success this year is everyone making a commitment to doing the dirty work defensively and rebounding,’’ Van Gundy, now an NBA analyst for ESPN, added. “They can’t just leave it to Tyson Chandler to do the dirty work. They have to share in that to be a consistent team that goes deep into the playoffs.
“Are they willing to make the necessary sacrifices in their own games so their team can have better success? No one knows the answer to that until it plays out. That’s going to be the fun part of watching them play the second half of the season and into the playoffs: How far are they willing to go to win?’’
From the look in Williams’ eyes, it’s clear he believes they’re willing to go far.
“You have no clue how excited I am about this team,’’ he said. “We’ve been building to this point, trying to make sure we put the right pieces on the court. I think we’re going to take off, but I’m not sure when. You can see flashes of it.’’
So can head coach Mike D’Antoni.
“The sky is the limit,’’ D’Antoni said. “Whether that happens immediately or it takes awhile to evolve, I don’t know, but the talent level, the enthusiasm, the bench, the depth is all there to be a big force.’’
So can the players.
“We feel that we have enough on this team to win a championship,’’ Stoudemire said. “We’ve had some ups and downs, but right now I feel like we’re ready to go.’’
Linsanity raised the expectations with the Knicks as they won nine of their last 12 games before the break.
“I think the raised expectations are warranted,’’ Chandler said. “I feel like we should be a contender. This team is very deep — maybe the deepest team in the league — so now it’s about putting it all together. Hopefully we can make our run now.’’