Keys to Knicks-Heat - Here's what could decide the latest chapter in this classic NBA playoff rivalry - ESPN

It's been 23 years since the New York Knicks reached the Eastern Conference finals, and 24 since their last NBA Finals appearance.

And, to get there both times, the Knicks had to fight their way through the Miami Heat.

From 1997 to 2000, the two teams — in the wake of then-coach Pat Riley going from the Knicks to the Heat in 1995 — engaged in one battle after another, with each of those series going the distance.

Those intense showdowns, perhaps peaking during the 1998 playoffs when then-Knicks coach Jeff Van Gundy was wrapped around Heat center Alonzo Mourning's leg during an in-game skirmish, have created a level of enmity that might not exist among current players but is still strong among both franchise's fan bases.

«It's great,» Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau, an assistant on those Knicks teams, said. «The players, they're too young, some of them probably weren't even born. But for the older people that have been around, it's part of the history, it's fun. If you love competition, that's what it's all about.»

«I don't think it matters to the locker rooms,» Heat coach Erik Spoelstra, who also was an assistant back then under Riley, said. «And that's OK. Those battles were so long ago. It probably means something to the organizations, but ultimately this is about trying to accomplish something huge.»

Sunday (1 p.m. ET on ABC) will see the Knicks and Heat engage in their latest playoff showdown: the Eastern Conference semifinals kicking off at Madison Square Garden.

There will be plenty of reminders from those Knicks-Heat clashes. In addition to both coaches, Allan Houston and Mourning — stars for the Knicks and Heat, respectively, in those battles — now have front-office roles with their franchises. Riley is still in