So what started the Knicks-Bills rivalry? 1.) The Knicks-Bulls trade in the Summer of 1988 which sent Charles Oakley to the Knicks and Bill Cartwright to the Bulls? 2.) Chicago and New York are/were big cities and both teams were good at that time? 3.) Patrick Ewing playing for the Knicks and Michael Jordan playing for the Bulls?

My guess would be 2.) and the fact that Jordan loved playing in Madison Square Garden in NYC. Another thing is the Knicks shocked the Bulls in Chicago Stadium in Game 1 of the 1992 Eastern Conference Semifinals. Nobody expected the Knicks to win that game and Jordan even said after that game that the Knicks were "legit". The series went 7 games and besides Games 1 and 3 each team won on their home court with Chicago finshing the Knicks off in Game 7 in a rout.

Your thoughts?

I think during the late 80s/early 90s, when Michael Jordan was starting to show that he was legit towards the NBA, he gained popularity towards people in Chicago. This was around the time when they never won a NBA championship, while New York won two of them in the early 70s. The Knicks were alright, especially in the playoffs at the time. The problem was that they never seem to go to the NBA Finals. I'm gonna go with #3 with this, because it might seem like on what I'm going to talk about with this post. Both Michael Jordan and Patrick Ewing started on the NBA during the mid 80s, and they were somehow iconic during that time.

They shown that the East Conference (aside from Detroit) was not mediocre towards the NBA, especially with their playoff rivalry. Even though the Pistons already won the 1989 Finals, which started an iconic era towards basketball on what they could do towards sports. The Knicks and Bulls were on fire at the time, and they wanted their cities to know that they mean business. Which is probably why they went to the playoffs every single year during 1989-1993, so they could just that. Chicago was more important, since they did went to the NBA Finals three times in a row in the early 90s. Especially when they won every single appearance. That has to be something towards Chicago, since they never got it that big prior to that time.

New York tried to do something like that, but somebody like Patrick Ewing didn't had the chance to beat the Bulls. Especially in the 1990 and 1991 First Round playoffs, the 1992 Conference Semifinals, and the 1993 Conference Finals. Michael Jordan kept beating their asses every time, with the Knicks winning only a few games at that point. It wasn't really until '94, when they finally went to the NBA Finals for the first time in 21 years. They blew it, but it meant something for New York at the time. Especially when no other team except for the Rangers actually had balls to show them strength.

I wouldn't say that Chicago and New York are some sort of rivals towards any professional sport in their history. New York had better baseball and football teams (although the Mets and Jets kinda suck). Chicago had a better basketball and hockey team. None of their basketball teams had a much better era than the early 90s, even though the Knicks won with the 1970 and 1973 Finals, but nobody who was born after the mid 60s cared. Hell, I don't even think that the Knicks were that cool for having 40 year old NBA championships. I tried to care about that, but it was never that significant towards me. I could think of better championships that New York had, but that would be a different story. For me, the Knicks were somehow okay during the early 90s, but that's because they rivaled against the Bulls. No other era could define the team like that. Not even in the 70s.