1999 NBA Finals

The 1998–99 NBA season was shortened due to a labor dispute that led to a lockout. The owners and the National Basketball Players Association reached an agreement to end the dispute on January 20, 1999.^[3] The 1998–99 season, which began on February 5, 1999,^[4] was shortened from the usual 82-game schedule to 50 games per team.^[5] The three-time defending-champion Chicago Bulls did not make a fourth consecutive Finals after a roster turnover that saw Phil Jackson and Michael Jordan temporarily retire and Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman move on the other teams.^[6]

The Finals were played using a 2–3–2 site format, where the first two and last two games are held at the team with home court advantage. The NBA, after experimenting in the early years, restored this original format for the Finals between 1985 and 2013. In 2014, the Finals returned to a 2–2–1–1–1 site format.

During the Finals, Larry Johnson received criticism when he characterized the Knicks as a band of "rebellious slaves". Bill Walton later called Johnson and his performance a "disgrace". When Johnson was asked about the play of San Antonio Spurs point guard Avery Johnson in Game 4, Johnson again shifted the topic to slavery: "Ave, man, we're from the same plantation. You tell Bill Walton that. We from Massa Johnson's plantation."^[20] Johnson added, "The NBA is full of black players, and people say, ‘Look, they have great opportunities, they’ve made incredible strides.’ But when I go back to my neighborhood, I see the same thing. I’m the only one who came out of my neighborhood. Everybody I knew is either dead, on drugs, in jail, or selling drugs." This led to a war of words in the media when Walton stated Johnson spent "too much time railing against humanity and practicing his posing rather than developing his game".^[21] Johnson answered back by telling Walton to “trace his history and see how many slaves his ancestors had".^[22] Johnson was ultimately fined for his "rebellious slaves" comment and was outplayed throughout the Finals by Tim Duncan.^[23]

The Spurs won the NBA Finals 4 games to 1.^[2] Spurs forward Tim Duncan was named the Most Valuable Player of the finals.^[24] On June 25 (two years to the day that Duncan was drafted by the Spurs), with 47 seconds to go in Game 5, Avery Johnson hit the game-winner.^[25] The Knicks scored 39 points in the second half, and Latrell Sprewell scored 25 of them, with fourteen of his points coming in the fourth quarter. However, he could not hit either of his jump shots in the last half-minute of the game that could have affected the outcome. Tim Duncan scored 31 points and nine rebounds in the decisive Game 5 while averaging 27.4 points and fourteen rebounds with 2.4 assists and 2.2 blocks in the Finals.^[26]

San Antonio Spurs

New York Knicks

The 1999 NBA Finals was aired in the United States on NBC (including WNBC in New York City and KMOL-TV in San Antonio), with Bob Costas and Doug Collins on play-by-play and color commentary respectively. Hannah Storm served as the studio host while Isiah Thomas, Bill Walton and Peter Vecsey served as studio analysts. Ahmad Rashad and Jim Gray served as sideline reporters.^{[citation needed]}

Locally, the Finals also marked the comeback of Marv Albert following his infamous sex scandal two years prior. Albert served as the Knicks' radio play-by-play announcer on WFAN with long-time partner John Andariese. NBC Sports rehired Albert shortly after and he eventually returned to the lead play-by-play role in 2000.^{[citation needed]}

In 2000, the Spurs became the first NBA champion since the 1985–86 Celtics to fail to win a second consecutive title.^[27] However, the Spurs eventually went on to form a dynasty, winning additional NBA titles in 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2014.

Game 2 at the Alamodome was the last NBA Finals game to take place at what is known as a multi-purpose stadium. Due to this fact, the 39,554 in attendance for the game will likely never be topped again, as the Chicago Bulls' United Center is the largest NBA arena by capacity with 20,917 seats.

As of 2026, this remains New York's last NBA Finals appearance. The following season, the Knicks won 50 games but fell to the Indiana Pacers in six games in the Eastern Conference finals. After that season, the Patrick Ewing era came to an end when he was traded to the Seattle SuperSonics.

The next eighth seed to make the NBA Finals was the Miami Heat in 2023. The result was the same, with the Heat losing to the Denver Nuggets in five games.

Both the Spurs and the Knicks would meet again 26 years later in the championship game of the 2025 NBA Cup, where the Knicks defeated the Spurs, 124–113.

• 1999 NBA playoffs