Former National Basketball Association and National Hockey Players still sharing good relationship
New York Rangers and New York Knicks are two teams based in the same city but from two different sports but their players still have very good relationships between them as they once used to be together.
New York Rangers feature in the National Hockey League (NHL) of ice hockey whereas New York Knickers is a team that plays in the National Basketball Association (NBA), in Basketball.
Both the teams were together in 1994 in Madison Square Gardens and wins made their relationship and friendship very strong.
Adam Graves, a former New York Rangers’ player, who is working in the team’s prospect development and the community relationships, told that both of the teams live under same roof so it is natural and good if they have become friends, as he said,
"It's a close-knit family. We have our training center up in Westchester and because both teams live under the same roof there as well as down in the city at the Garden, it's one big family”.
Both the teams were impressive and phenomenal in 1994 season. The season in which New York Rangers went on to win the Stanley Cup after 54 long years whereas New York Knicks lost in the finals of the NBA championship. They both enjoyed a great run in the
playoffs.
John Starks, who is now working for alumni relations and development of the team and also working as the team’s adviser, was a guard of New York Knicks. He also shares his views about the relationships of both teams as in his opinion it was their coach Pat
Riley who made both sides feel like one faily
"[Knicks] coach [Pat] Riley made sure we were a family”.
In Starks’ opinion it was Riley’s brought up which made him like that, because he came from a family which loved each other and were together very united. This was the reason Riley made everyone do the same, as Starks added,
“He made sure we all appreciated one another and respected one another and fought hard for one another”.
The 47-year-old former player also appreciated Rangers’ player’s effort in the bondage as he said,
“With the Rangers, it was the same exact thing. Playing six, seven months together, you develop a close bond. The Rangers were no different than the Knicks”.
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