Beloved NBA analyst Jeff Van Gundy spent nearly the entire Michael Jordan Bulls era watching from the New York Knicks bench, after becoming an assistant in 1989. In 1996, Van Gundy was elevated to the role of head coach mid-season, but during the Bulls’ second three-peat, Van Gundy’s Knicks posted a record of 4-11 against Jordan, including a 4-1 loss in the 1996 playoffs.
Van Gundy joined ESPN’s First Take to recall what it was like to coach against Jordan’s Bulls, and said that while Jordan’s ability was an obvious challenge, it was the Bulls’ team defense that posed the biggest hurdle for his Knicks teams.
“When you think of the Bulls, Jordan’s talent got most of the notoriety, and then secondarily the triangle offense that Phil Jackson instituted. But for [the Knicks], the hardest thing for us in those games to try to come out with a win was being able to score enough against their great defense. They had great size at every position. They were tremendous defensively. We had a hard time rebounding the ball, particularly when we were double teaming Jordan.
And, third, in the games we lost, critical games in the playoffs, our free-throw shooting betrayed us. Those three things were three constants, along with obviously Jordan and the triangle offense.”
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