When I sat down with NYC basketball royalty Kenny Anderson for Scoop B Radio, we didn’t just talk about the past; we talked about the soul of New York basketball. Kenny, a Queens legend who was “Kyrie before Kyrie,” lived through an era where the Nets and Knicks didn’t just play—they collided.
Revisiting this conversation in December 2025, it feels even more poignant. We’re in an era of “load management” and “friendly” rivalries, but Kenny reminded us of a time when the Hudson River was a war zone and every fast break carried a risk.
The “90s Foul” That Changed Everything
On February 28, 1993, the Nets were “rolling” under Chuck Daly. Kenny was averaging nearly a triple-double (16 points, 8 rebounds, and 9 assists) and the Nets were sitting in second place. Then came a nationally televised moment at Brendan Byrne Arena that defined the era’s brutality.
Anderson stole the ball from Patrick Ewing and hit the jets for a 3-on-1 fast break. In mid-air, Knicks guard John Starks bodyslammed him. It was a play that would be an automatic ejection today, but in the 90s, it was just “Knicks basketball.” Kenny landed hard, breaking his left wrist and ending his season.
“We were just rolling, man,” Kenny told me. “But it was a bad moment with one of those crazy, 90s fouls.”
2025 Vision: Rivalry by the Numbers
While Kenny has long since forgiven Starks, the sheer talent density of those two rosters remains the gold standard for New York hoops. In 2025, we use AI and machine vision to track “force of impact,” but back then, the “analytics” were written in the ice packs players wore after the game.
The talent density of that era was unparalleled, breaking down into a championship-level hierarchy of grit:
- The MVPs (The Icons): Patrick Ewing and Derrick Coleman, the anchors who made the paint a “no-fly zone.”
- The Snipers (The Emotional Leaders): John Starks and Dražen Petrović, shooters who didn’t just want to beat you—they wanted to demoralize you.
- The Defensive Anchors (The Enforcers): Charles Oakley and Anthony Mason. These weren’t just players; they were the original “injury prediction algorithms” because if you went to the rack, they predicted you’d be on the floor.
The Legacy of “The Collision”
Today, in 2025, the Nets and Knicks are battling for bragging rights again, but the context has shifted. We have tracking data that monitors a player’s “collision risk” 25 times per second. If Kenny Anderson were playing today, the “Snipers” of Machine Vision would have flagged the danger long before the impact.
But Kenny doesn’t look back with bitterness. He told me, “Everything is an afterthought. You forgive and you move on.” His nostalgia isn’t for the injury, but for the intensity. “When it came to the Knicks and the Nets, that competition just came out of all of us. Those were the Knicks teams with Starks, Oak, Ewing, and my man Mase. We were really going at each other.”
The Final Scoop: A Culture, Not Just a Game
Kenny Anderson’s story is a reminder that New York basketball isn’t about the highlights; it’s about the heat. Whether it’s the 90s Nets-Knicks rivalry or the high-tech battles of 2025, the heartbeat remains the same.
Chuck Daly “gave Kenny the ball and let him rock,” and for a brief moment, the Nets were the kings of the tri-state. As we look at the current landscape of the NBA, where tech manages every movement, we have to respect the OGs who played through the “bodyslams” to build the culture we love today. In 2025, we have the data, but guys like Kenny Anderson will always have the stories.
