MIAMI — It’s not so much about payback as it satisfaction. That’s what Mike Bibby gets a chance to achieve tonight when he leads the Knicks against the Heat in Game 5 of their best-of-seven series at AmericanAirlines Arena.
Payback requires an attitude of revenge, which isn’t what this is about. It’s more about a 14-year veteran proving he still has the game and the guile to beat a former team that elected to keep someone younger.
“If I can get 30-40 minutes out of him, I’m going to play him,” Knicks interim coach Mike Woodson said of Bibby after yesterday’s morning practice session yesterday at their training facility. “If he’s playing well, then he’s going to play. I can’t worry about tomorrow. I’ve got to try to win one game and get back home.”
It has the potential to be one of those classic sports stories: “Aging vet beats former team.” But maybe that is asking too much of the 33-year-old Bibby and the Knicks. Until now he was the ultimate insurance policy, signed as a free agent just before the season began after successive stops in Atlanta, Washington and Miami a year ago.
He missed out on a championship ring when the Mavericks dispatched the Heat in the NBA Finals. Then Miami no longer had the need for his services after acquiring rookie Norris Cole.
Every team needs a savvy veteran on the roster for depth. Why do you think 39-year-old Heat forward Juwan Howard is still around? So Bibby seemed an appropriate support at point guard, though his bad knees have made him a step slower — OK, two steps slower — than he was in his prime.
The best-case scenario was Bibby wouldn’t play much. Toney Douglas was the starting point guard when the year began before his struggles led to Linsanity. When Jeremy Lin went down with a knee injury in March, Baron Davis became the primary starter until his year ended with a gruesome knee injury in Game 4.
Without combo guard Iman Shumpert out after his own knee injury in Game 1, the Knicks are Bibby’s team. He will make his fifth start of the season tonight after Woodson ruled out Lin for the remainder of this series, saying Lin “was not yet physically ready to play.”
Not rushing Lin back to action without his knee sound and conditioning right is a wise move for the long-term future of the Knicks. But Bibby has no long-term future. His time is now. He gets the chance to prove he can still lead a team to what would be one of the most improbable wins of the year.
Considering what the Knicks have been through at point guard, it’s not a bad option. Bibby is fresh, having played about 20 minutes a game during the series. He’s confident after scoring six points on two crucial 3-pointers in his 22:31 of playing time in the Knicks’ 89-87 victory on Sunday.
He also is familiar with the Heat and AmericanAirlines Arena, having played their last season. The situation, the pressure and the environment won’t anything he hasn’t experienced before.
“I’m ready,” he said after Game 4. “This is what I gear my whole life for, to play basketball.”
Bibby wasn’t made available to the media yesterday, probably focused on getting his legs and his mind ready to play an important role against the Heat.
But on Sunday he vowed, “We’re not gonna give up.”
This wasn’t exactly what the Knicks envisioned when they signed Bibby last December. Making a road start down 3-1 in a series with three other guards out with injury isn’t ideal.
But now he gets the opportunity every aging vet wants, a chance to prove he’s more than an insurance policy, after all.
george.willis@nypost.com