As the Michael Jordan/Bulls documentary The Last Dance on ESPN nears its end, one of the opposing players featured -- Knicks legend Patrick Ewing -- will not be watching.
"I had to live through that. ... now y'all have a documentary to keep rubbing it in my face. ... I don't need to watch," Ewing said on The Dan Patrick Show.
And you can forgive Ewing for not wanting to relive the main reason why his Knicks teams were never able to win that elusive NBA title.
During Ewing's career, the Jordan-led Bulls took the Knicks out in the playoffs five times.
The 1988-89 Knicks lost to the Bulls in six games in the Eastern Conference Semifinals, and the 1990-91 Knicks were swept by the Bulls in the first round of the playoffs before Chicago went on to win the first of three-straight championships.
But the worst pain for the Knicks didn't start until 1991-92, when they lost to the Bulls in seven games in the semifinals, and 1992-93, when they squandered a 2-0 series lead to Chicago in the Eastern Conference Finals (including the infamous end of Game 5 with Charles Smith) and lost in six games.
The only time the Knicks beat the Bulls in the playoffs was 1993-94, when they defeated the Jordan-less Bulls in seven games in the semifinals.
With Jordan back at full strength in 1995-96, the Knicks lost to the Bulls in five games in the semifinals before Chicago won the title again as they began what would be their second three-peat.
The 1996-97 playoffs were also painful for the Knicks, with a fight and dubious NBA ruling costing them a chance to take on the Bulls in the Conference Finals.
With New York up three games to one in the semifinals against the Heat, P.J. Brown flipped Charlie Ward to start a fight near the end of Game 5. That fight led to crippling suspensions for the Knicks in Games 6 and 7 as they lost the series. Had the Knicks advanced, they would've gotten one final shot at the Bulls.