This is when it gets fun. Familiarity. Back in the day, it was Michael Jordan’s Bulls, and then Reggie Miller’s Pacers. A little later it became Pat Riley’s Heat. The playoff collisions were already delicious, but the “you-again” factor turned those series, those rivalries, into something more.
Lately, it’s been the Pacers again, this time engineered by Tyrese Haliburton and company. Two years ago, the Knicks fell apart bit by bit and so there was something inevitable — and almost explainable — about that. Last year, though … that was harder to take. Partly because the Knicks believed to the end that they were the team.
And partly: Not you, again.
How does the old saying go? “Familiarity breeds contempt.”
