By CHRIS PERKINS
FOXSportsFlorida.com Heat writer
Dec. 27, 2010
The Heat's Big Three of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh would love to have a rivalry with the New York Knicks.
In fact, James hopes New Yorkers flood AmericanAirlines Arena on Tuesday night for the Heat-Knicks game. He loves the hostility.
"It'd be good if we get a lot of Knicks fans in the building," James said after Monday's practice. "Then we might hear a few boos. I know I like it . . . Maybe I might give the Knicks fans some tickets or something."
The Big Three are keenly aware of the blood feud between the Heat and Knicks that began in the late 1990s and moved into 2000. They met in the playoffs four consecutive seasons (1997-2000), with the Heat winning the first series and the hated Knicks winning the next three.
The Big Three can rattle off headlines from that rivalry. They know about the venomous taunts Pat Riley received from Knicks fans at Madison Square Garden. The P.J. Brown-Charlie Ward fight. The Alonzo Mourning-Larry Johnson fight. The suspensions. The Allan Houston shot.
They know the names. Patrick Ewing. Tim Hardaway. John Starks. Anthony Mason. They know about the sheer grit that sometimes turned to outright thuggery. But they don't want to revisit those days.
"No, you lose too much money," Wade said. "Can't do that."
Still, the Big Three would love a rivalry with the Knicks. They think the NBA is better as a whole when the Knicks are successful.
"That's the mecca," Wade said of New York. "That's where all the excitement is, where the hype builds . . . I think we're all excited the Knicks are back to being a winning program."
And the Big Three would love to be in the center of the excitement. The big regular-season games. The hatred from the fans. Memorable games. Lots of passion. Big shots. The kind of games the Heat played against the Pistons during the 2004-07 seasons. There were always big crowds and lots of subplots.
Bosh recalled the reception the Heat got at Madison Square Garden this season. It wasn't necessarily an anti-Big Three thing.
"It was more of an anti-Heat thing and an anti-LeBron thing," he said, laughing. "I guess people felt slighted for some reason. That's what makes sports (special). Everybody gets passionate about it, and that makes the games fun."
It's also what generates a buzz. Usually such hatred is borne from postseason meetings, those hard-fought games with everything on the line. But the seed could be planted in the regular season. Let's hope that happens Tuesday night. The Big Three want a hated rival and the headline-grabbing atmosphere that comes with it.
"You love those," Wade said. "As a competitor you live for the big games, the moments, story lines, all that. But they can keep that (Heat-Knicks) rivalry they had back then. It was good for them. We'll try to start a different one."
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