Ballin’ & Brawlin’
The 1996-97 NBA season tipped off on November 1, 1996, marking the league’s historic 50th Anniversary. Fittingly, the opening night matchup mirrored the very first game in NBA history, as the Toronto Raptors faced off against the New York Knicks. For rookie forward Walter McCarty, it was the start of a decade-long NBA career. Joining a veteran-laden Knicks roster loaded with All-Star forwards, Walter knew his rookie season was going to be a season of learning with limited playing time.
McCarty didn’t see action in the season opener against Toronto, but he didn’t have to wait long for his NBA debut. Two nights later on November 3rd, 1996 in the Knicks’ home opener against the Charlotte Hornets, McCarty logged 12 minutes of playing time scoring a season-high eight points on 3-of-6 shooting.
Going from playing a key role on a championship team to the end of an NBA bench required patience and perseverance. But McCarty embraced the learning experience, soaking in knowledge from the seasoned veterans who he had looked up to years before becoming teammates.
Growing up as a UNLV Runnin’ Rebels fan, McCarty developed his flair on the court by emulating the high-flying style of Stacey Augmon, Moses Scurry, and Larry Johnson. Johnson, in particular, made a lasting impact, influencing McCarty’s intensity, swagger, and signature primal screams after thunderous dunks. Fast forward to 1996, and McCarty was no longer just a fan, he was now learning firsthand from “Grandmama” himself. For McCarty, the chance to sit next to and play with not just Larry Johnson, but Charles Oakley and Patrick Ewing was even more special to him than the minutes he logged on the court as a rookie in Madison Square Garden.
Johnson wasn’t the only Knick who made a lasting impression on the young rookie. McCarty remembers taking in every ounce of information from Knicks point guard Charlie Ward. “On the planes, I would sit next to Charlie Ward, and he would always give me little tidbits and talks.” McCarty recalled, “He was the Heisman Trophy winner! So, I sat by him for every flight on the plane… that locker room was the most special thing about that team.”
The long plane rides weren’t just about learning; the veterans made sure they were packed with plenty of fun too. When McCarty wasn’t soaking up wisdom from Ward, he remembers the intense wrestling matches the veterans would challenge the rookies to. “It was myself, John Wallace, Dontae’ Jones against Larry Johnson, Charles Oakley, and Herb Williams. They made it so much fun. They would tease us but we would not back down.” McCarty remembers, “We were forty-thousand feet in the air, and we were wrestling. It was their way of seeing if we were tough, if we were going to back down, and if something popped off, what were we going to do.”
Unbeknownst to the players at the time, those trials of strength and resilience that the Knicks veterans imposed on their rookies would later prove critical during one of the most epic brawls in NBA history.
Photo by Rocky Widner/NBAE via Getty Images
New York closed out the 1996-97 season with an impressive 57-25 record, the same as the 1994 NBA Finals team, but this time with an arguably stronger and deeper team. After sweeping former Knick Anthony Mason and his Hornets in the first round of the 1997 Playoffs, the Knicks went on to the second round to face their arch-nemesis, the Miami Heat. The animosity between the two teams was undeniable. Knicks fans still burned with resentment over Pat Riley’s abrupt departure in 1995, while the personal feud between former teammates Alonzo Mourning and Larry Johnson still lingered heavily from their time together in Charlotte. “It was really intense because for whatever reason when Alonzo and Larry Johnson were both with Charlotte, they had some disdain for each other”. McCarty recalled, “It was already tense, we already knew we were going to battle. Whether it was true or not that these guys didn’t like each other, you got that feel that they had some bad history together.
The Knicks entered the series as the favorites, with many fans and media members viewing them as the team most likely to represent the Eastern Conference in the 1997 NBA Finals. “We should have been,” McCarty acknowledged. “I thought we were good enough, and I thought we had (the Heat’s) number.” Fueled by Ewing’s season-long dominance and a deep supporting cast, featuring Charles Oakley and Larry Johnson in the frontcourt, along with Allan Houston, John Starks, Chris Childs, and Charlie Ward in the backcourt, it wasn’t just the fans and media who believed in the Knicks. The players did, too.
Many fans alike believe that even Pat Riley knew it as well.
Through the first four games of the series, the Knicks asserted their dominance, surging to a commanding 3-1 series lead over the Heat. “Those games were tough. Tim Hardaway was tough. P.J. Brown was their enforcer. It just all played out the right way as far as it being a tough series.”
Just one win away from their first Eastern Conference Finals appearance since 1994, the Knicks returned to Miami for Game 5 looking to close out the series on May 14th, 1997. But instead of a win, the game would forever be remembered for one of the most epic brawls in league history.
The Knicks came out firing, jumping to an early lead and locking down Miami to just 30% shooting in the first half. But the Heat, fighting for their playoff lives, weren’t about to go down easily. They battled back in the second quarter, scrapping their way to a one-point lead as the two teams headed into halftime.
In the third quarter, Voshon Leonard caught fire, pouring in 12 points to push Miami ahead by seven with one quarter remaining. The Heat carried that momentum into the fourth, extending their lead to 73-65. But the Knicks weren’t finished. Their bench, led by John Starks, mounted a charge of their own, looking to close the gap.
Photo by Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE via Getty Images
Known for his fearless play throughout his entire Knick career, Starks put the team on his back with a team-high 21-point performance. As the minutes ticked down with New York trailing by six, Starks pushed the pace on a fast break, finding an open Allan Houston on the wing. Houston’s clutch three-pointer cut the Knicks’ deficit to just three, keeping their hopes alive.
That was as close as the Knicks got before things turned ugly. Really ugly.
With the game slipping out of reach, tensions between the two teams boiled over. Down by 12, Charles Oakley and Alonzo Mourning got into a heated exchange, resulting in both players being ejected.
Moments later, with Tim Hardaway at the free throw line, and just 1:53 remaining, Heat forward P.J. Brown lifted Charlie Ward by the waist and flipped him upside down, and tossed him head-first into the baseline under the basket.
As the game was already out of the Knicks reach, the Knicks starters were either on the bench or in Oakley’s case, the locker room. Wallace and McCarty found themselves at the epicenter of the chaos. Ready to stand their ground, just like they did during their wrestling matches on the team’s flights, they weren’t about to let anyone push them around, especially not their smallest teammate.
“I remember looking at the refs like what the f*** is that? You’re not going to call that? The refs didn’t even react how they should’ve reacted. It all happened so fast. The next thing I saw was John going after P.J. and now I have to get over there too… If it’s going down this way, that’s my teammate and I have to get in there.”
With Ward, Wallace, and McCarty already entangled in the scuffle, the rest of the Knicks weren’t about to stand by and watch their teammates fight alone. In an instant, much of the roster rushed onto the court, Patrick Ewing, John Starks, Allan Houston, and Larry Johnson all leaving the bench in an attempt to break up the altercation. Given the Knicks’ reputation for physical play in the ‘90s, when bench-clearing skirmishes were commonplace, it’s possible they weren’t fully mindful of the league’s newer rule, implemented in 1995, prohibiting players from leaving the bench during such incidents.
Regardless, when it’s your brother getting tossed around like that, rules go out the window. This wasn’t just a basketball game anymore; it was a battle. And the Knicks weren’t backing down.
McCarty recounted, “It wasn’t a basketball play and for us, Charlie Ward was like the next thing to Jesus Christ as far as the love and the affection that that you have for him by the way that he walks, by the way that he carries himself, and by the way he speaks. He was the guy that always said and always did the right thing. And for PJ to make a dirty play on him, it was like, what are you doing?”
With the new rule in place regarding players leaving the bench, NBA Commissioner David Stern and Executive Vice President Rod Thorn faced a critical decision ahead of Game 6. Navigating uncharted territory, the league had multiple paths it could have taken. They could have allowed the series to conclude before enforcing suspensions at the start of the following season or limited punishments to only those directly involved in the altercation. Instead, they handed down a sweeping, unprecedented ruling that ultimately derailed the Knicks’ championship hopes.
The league opted to act swiftly without any hesitation by suspending Allan Houston, Patrick Ewing, Larry Johnson, and John Starks for Game 6, with Starks and Johnson also sidelined for Game 7. Meanwhile, Miami’s P.J. Brown, who instigated the altercation, received only a two-game suspension. “I think the league really try to make a point and they really hit us hard, and they didn’t have to.” McCarty divulged, “I don’t know why they came to the decision that they made because the guys who they suspended, never did anything to warrant the type of suspension that they received, and it literally took the series away from us by over penalizing us for something that they didn’t need to be penalized for…it was not fair. The way they split the suspensions was bizarre and there is something fishy about it.”
Knicks fans have long speculated that Pat Riley orchestrated the incident, strategically targeting the smallest player on the court to provoke a reaction from his former team. With Miami facing elimination, some believe Riley saw an opportunity to shift the series’ momentum and deliberately sent P.J. Brown, an expendable role player in the Heat’s rotation, as the instigator.
With the Knicks roster reduced to just nine available players for Game 6, Miami capitalized on the advantage, pulling out a 95-90 victory to extend the series back to Miami. Despite the return of Patrick Ewing and Allan Houston for Game 7, New York remained shorthanded without John Starks and Larry Johnson. The Heat went on to win 101-90 to close out the series in seven games, leaving the Knicks players and fans to forever wonder what could have been had they not been over penalized.
As the 1996-97 season came to a close, so did Walter McCarty’s rookie campaign. He appeared in 35 regular-season games, seeing limited action, but the experience of learning from Knicks veterans and legends proved invaluable. That knowledge would stay with him over the course of his 10 year career which included a new chapter right before the start of the 1997 season when the Knicks traded him to the Boston Celtics where he would make an immediate impact, playing in all 82 games, earning 64 starts, and posting a career-high in points, a testament to his growth and readiness for the next stage of his career.
Stay tuned for Part 3, the conclusion of our series with Walter McCarty, where we explore his eight-year career with the Boston Celtics and how he became one of the franchise’s all-time fan favorites. Plus, we catch up with McCarty to see where life has taken him since his playing days.