LeBron James isn't ready to call it a rivalry. Most of the media have already declared it so, especially once Carmelo Anthony came into the picture. But with only a few teams in the East with realistic chances of making a deep playoff run, the Miami Heat may have no choice but to embrace a reunion between two teams with plenty of shared history."We know the Heat and Knicks rivalry is way beyond our years," said James, who was only 16 the last time these two teams faced each other in the postseason with the likes of Alonzo Mourning, Patrick Ewing, Tim Hardaway and Allan Houston battling it out. "It basically started with the departure of the man upstairs coming down here and leaving New York."
The path James and that man upstairs, Pat Riley, took to Miami are quite similar in both the abrupt manner they left their former teams and the subsequent firestorm of controversy it set off. While James is aware of the bad blood between the two franchises, he hasn't forgotten that it's also been a decade since they faced off in meaningful games.
"First of all, rivalries don't start until you have a playoff series or two," said James. "But we'll welcome it back, we have no problem with bringing that old rivalry back and making it fun like it has been in the past."
Dwyane Wade arrived in Miami a few years after the Knicks began their decline into perennial lottery team status but has had his fair share of battles with them in the regular season, including a 55 point performance on April 12, 2009. Though the Knicks haven't won in Miami for almost three years, Wade is excited to see if they are truly a competitive adversary.
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