Just how hard is it to win an NBA title?

No players know this more than the members of the 1990s Knicks, the players on teams who were good enough to win it all but for various reasons — including the existence of Michael Jordan — just couldn’t get over the hump.

Maybe because of that, no one seems to be enjoying this Knicks team’s run to the NBA Finals more than this group of Knicks alumni. Like proud uncles, Patrick Ewing, John Starks, Allan Houston, Larry Johnson and Latrell Sprewell  often are seen sitting together at Madison Square Garden, cheering on Jalen Brunson and company.

What has it been like for them to watch the current group of Knicks steamroll their way through the Eastern Conference? I recently checked in with Johnson, a key member of the last Knicks team to make it to the NBA Finals, to find out.

“It’s been a great run for us this year,” said Johnson, a power forward on that 1999 team. “I’ve been believing in this team since last year. I thought the Indiana loss really hurt us a bit. I felt they were on the way to doing something great. Hopefully this will be the year.”

Johnson and other members of that squad from 27 years ago have a unique connection to the current team, given that it is led by Jalen Brunson, whose father, Knicks assistant coach Rick Brunson, was a reserve on the 1999 team.

Johnson said he can remember Jalen running around the locker room as a toddler. For what it’s worth, he also can remember Steph Curry running around the locker room when Johnson and Dell Curry were teammates in Charlotte.

“Jalen, I'm so proud of him and I’m especially proud of Rick,” Johnson said. “Jalen is showing all the attributes Rick had. We know he didn’t have the talent his son has and he didn’t have the career, but Rick stayed on ballclubs because of his work ethic. That’s the same work ethic he put into his son.

“I’m so proud to see Jalen doing what he’s doing. This guy’s a winner. He was a winner at Villanova. I’m proud of that because of Rick.”

Rick Brunson totaled 18 minutes of play in the Knicks' last run to the NBA Finals. He and Jalen are one of a dozen or so father-son duos to both play in a Finals. They are the only pair, however, to have made it to the Finals playing for the same franchise, unless you want to count Matt Guokas, who made it to the NBA Finals with  Philadelphia in 1947 and Matt Guokas Jr., who won a title with the  Philadelphia 76ers in 1967 (the elder Goukas' team now is known as Golden State). 

The elder Brunson may not have played much, but he was the mastermind behind one of the most memorable celebrations of that Knicks playoff run.

Remember the “Big L”, that move Johnson started using in the playoffs to celebrate big plays, including his famous four-point play in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals?

“It was all Rick Brunson, believe it or not,” Johnson said with a laugh.

“Big L” was the name of an influential Harlem rapper in the 1990s, and Johnson’s teammates had started calling him that. During the season, Rick began using both arms to throw an L sign whenever Johnson hit a big shot.

“I would hit a three and look at the bench and he would give it to me,” Johnson said. “I started throwing it just back to him at first. And then after a while I just started throwing it every time I hit a big shot.”

Of course, Johnson’s most memorable shot was the go-ahead four-point play against Indiana. The shot is so legendary that it is replayed nearly every time Johnson is shown on the Jumbotron at Madison Square Garden

To put the shot and its magnitude in context, it helps to look back at the way that eighth-seeded squad from 27 years ago captivated the city by upsetting top-seeded Miami in the first round before sweeping Atlanta in the second. Next up was archrival Indiana.

The Knicks split the first two games but suffered a devastating blow when Ewing tore an Achilles in Game 2 and was ruled out for the rest of the playoffs.

Back at Madison Square Garden for Game 3, it looked as though the Knicks were going to need a miracle to pull this one off. Down by three points with 11.9 seconds left, Charlie Ward threw the inbounds pass to Johnson.

The short version, as all Knicks fans know, is that Johnson hit a three-pointer with 5.7 seconds left was fouled by Indiana’s Antonio Davis and sank the free throw to win the game.

The long version with back story? Johnson says it started with his game preparation before the series.

“Tom Thibodeau was my shooting coach at the time, and we had been getting in the gym and putting up shot after shot,” Johnson said of the man who took the Knicks to the Eastern Conference Finals in 2025 and was an assistant on the 1999 team under Jeff Van Gundy. “We were posting our guards, Allan Houston and Latrell Sprewell, so I was on the outside. It was understood by everyone that I was going to have to hit some of those threes, that they were going to kick it out and I was going to have to hit it.

“I was so prepared for that play when we walked out of the huddle. Jeff drew up the play and it was for Allan and the second was for Sprewell. But when we walked out of the huddle, Marcus Camby grabbed me and said, “The ball is coming for you’ . . .  I told him I hope it does, because I am going to shoot. I was prepared to shoot.

“The ball comes to me. [Antonio and Dale Davis] were big guys. If I tried to post them, they had the advantage over me. I got most of my points 15, 20 feet from the basket. I would face them and now they would have to put up with my quickness. They would back up and I would just shoot it. Once I popped out of the three-point line and Antonio had to come to the three-point line, I knew I could go around him. Or I could make a quick jab and shoot the three.”

That season was the first year that the league implemented the “no hand check” rule, making it illegal for a player to reach out and impede another player's movement. Johnson’s quick move baited Davis into reaching out, and he was whistled for a foul.

The pandemonium that erupted at the Garden was so overwhelming that Chris Childs had to grab Johnson at  midcourt and remind him that he still had a free throw to make. Johnson hit it, of course, to give his team a 92-91 victory — he had 26 points and eight rebounds — and the Knicks went on to win the series.

Without Ewing in the NBA Finals, however, the banged-up Knicks had little chance against Tim Duncan, David Robinson and the budding Spurs dynasty and lost in five games.

Johnson, who now works for the franchise as a community ambassador, believes this year’s Knicks have a better chance.

“These guys really believe they can win it. That’s the main thing,” he said. “The way they are executing right now, it’s going to be tough for anyone to beat them. It’s not going to be easy. They have to stay mentally tough. They can’t get down if they lose a game. I would say to them, 'If you just stay mentally tough, you can win this thing.' ”

And there is nothing that the current team would like to do more — for themselves, for the fans and for the former players who have supported them.

“It truly means a lot. When they’re on the sidelines or baselines, they make their presence known,” Jalen Brunson said. “They’re full of energy. That’s just who they are. They want the best for us. It’s a really cool sight to see.”