1994 NBA Finals - New York Rangers Win Stanley Cup

New York Rangers Win Stanley Cup

Game 4 took place at Madison Square Garden with its corridors smelling of beer and champagne. Less than 24 hours before, it hosted the New York Rangers first Stanley Cup celebration in 54 years following their 3–2 win over the Vancouver Canucks in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals.

Rangers Captain Mark Messier attended the game, bringing the Stanley Cup in a bid to inspire the Knicks, first to their locker room before the game, and again out onto center court at halftime, much to the delight of the fans. During NBC's broadcast of Game 4, Marv Albert, who himself handled the radio call of the Rangers' win, and Matt Guokas mentioned the Rangers' win and that the Knicks were happy that their arena was "the scene of one of the glorious moments in the history of New York sports."

Then-Chicago Bulls Coach Phil Jackson (himself a former Knick) said that the Knicks championship run and the Rangers' win would become great parts of a great chapter in New York City sports history, because Rangers Coach Mike Keenan had been part of a concurrent finals series in hockey and basketball taking place in the same city, having seen it in Chicago two years earlier when he coached the Blackhawks to the Stanley Cup Finals as Jackson coached the Bulls, led by Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen to their second straight NBA championship. However, Riley experienced this for the first time, as the Los Angeles Kings did not reach their finals during any of the 7 years he coached the Lakers to the finals.

Game 5 took place hours after the ticker-tape parade in the Canyon of Heroes in Lower Manhattan honoring the new Stanley Cup champions. Players and representatives of both the Knicks and the Rockets were among 1.5 million who attended it. However, those on both teams who rooted for the Canucks, especially if they were from the Pacific Northwest, did not attend, as they would have wanted to see a rally in the atrium in Grouse Mountain, overlooking downtown Vancouver.

The Knicks losing Game 7 meant Keenan saw New York get the same verdict he saw in Chicago two years before, as his Blackhawks got swept by the defending champions, the Pittsburgh Penguins, in their finals in 1992. Nevertheless, he was able to draw many parallels between the two concurrent NBA/NHL championship runs, according to Jackson. Among them a second round playoff series between the Knicks and the Bulls that went the full seven games.

For both teams, their motivation came from the way things to the Rangers' win ended: "The New York Rangers have done it here on a hot June night in New York! The Rangers are Stanley Cup Champions!"