Spike Lee Welcomes Knicks vs Pacers, Reggie Miller

It’s Miller Time for the New York Knicks and Spike Lee is ready.

The Knicks’ upcoming Eastern Conference Semifinal series against the Indiana Pacers will doubt conjure memories of Lee, the renowned film director born in Brooklyn, verbally clashing with Indianapolis’ star shooter Reggie Miller during the teams’ frequent postseason showdowns at the turn of the century. The rivalry, however, appears to have gotten a lot friendlier if a Friday Instagram post from Lee is any indication.

“I’m Looking Forward To Seeing My Brother And Friend Mr. REGGIE MILLER [sic],” Lee wrote in a caption accompanying a post of him hovering behind Miller in a facetiously threatening manner.

The Knicks and Pacers have met in the postseason on seven prior occasions, with Indiana currently holding the narrow 4-3 edge. All but one of those get-togethers came between 1993 and 2000 and each of the Knicks’ most recent visits to the NBA Finals (1994, 1999) required a victory over the Pacers.

Miller partook in every one of those showdowns, including the 2000 conference finals which saw the Pacers return the favor and clinch their own Finals ticket at MSG (in what became Patrick Ewing’s final game as a Knick). He now serves as a game analyst for TNT, which will carry coverage of Game 1 on Monday night.

The most notable matchup came during the 1995 conference semifinals, a thrilling seven-game set that saw Indiana escape from New York with the win. The first game of the series, staged at Madison Square Garden, infamously saw Miller score eight points in 8.9 seconds, which turned a late six-point deficit into a 107-105 victory.

Well-known for his trash talk, Miller frequently engaged in verbal sparring with Lee from the latter’s customary courtside seat at MSG. Their relationship was one of the focuses of the ESPN Films documentary “Winning Time: Reggie Miller vs. The New York Knicks,” part of the “30 for 30” anthology series.

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