To me, there will never be an era in the NBA that replaces the ‘90s. From the players, to the uniforms, to the rivalries, basketball has just never been the same. Sure, we got the NBA on NBC back this year, but Vince Carter, Melo, and T-Mac are no Ahmad Rashad, Marv Albert, or Bob Costas. It still doesn’t hit the same.
Although the Knicks and Magic battles were never as epic or memorable as the wars with Chicago or Indiana, there was always something special when Ewing and Starks took on Shaq and Penny.
Maybe it also had a little to do with my cousin in Orlando.
When the Orlando Magic entered the NBA in 1989, they were the new kid trying to make noise in a league full of legends. The Knicks were already part of the furniture. Madison Square Garden was packed, the defense was brutal, and Patrick Ewing stood tall as the symbol of New York basketball.
It didn’t take long for the two teams to find each other. Orlando grabbed an early win over the Knicks in their first season, a small footnote in a long year, but the seeds were planted. By the time Shaquille O’Neal and Penny Hardaway arrived, the Magic were a real threat, and the battles with New York started to mean something.
When the Big Fella’s Ruled
From 1993 to 1995, the Knicks and Magic gave fans a glimpse of what basketball looked like when giants ruled the earth. Patrick Ewing versus Shaq was a battle of pure strength. Every game felt like a fight in the post, a test of who could take the hit and still finish at the rim.
The Knicks played with attitude. Charles Oakley threw his weight around, John Starks talked to everyone, and Ewing took every matchup personally. Orlando came with youth and flash. Penny made the game look easy, and Shaq was rewriting the rulebook on what a center could be.
In 1995, the Magic broke through and reached the Finals after knocking out Jordan’s Bulls. The Knicks, a year removed from their own Finals run, were sent home by Indiana. It felt like the basketball gods robbed everyone of the showdown that should have happened: Ewing vs. Shaq with the East on the line.
1996 marked the beginning of the end for those special Knicks–Magic matchups. Shaq headed west to La-La Land, Penny couldn’t stay healthy, and Li’l Penny got packed away on a shelf. Ewing and Starks were nearing the end of their Knicks runs with their best battles behind them. Coincidentally, Ewing finished his career in Orlando.
The Next Chapter
The next era brought a little bit of “Magic” back to Orlando with Tracy McGrady lighting up scoreboards, dropping 40 like it was nothing. For a stretch, he and Kobe were going bucket for bucket as the league’s most unstoppable scorers. Meanwhile, the Knicks were just trying to stay afloat, entering a long stretch where relevance was hard to come by and the losses piled up.
Then came Dwight Howard dominating the paint and Carmelo Anthony giving the Garden something to cheer about again.
Even when neither team was elite, their matchups still carried weight. Melo once dropped 39 on the Magic in one of those “you can’t stop me” nights. Before that, Dwight had his way inside while Knicks fans begged for calls. The tension never disappeared.
Their all-time record shows just how close it’s been. Orlando has 68 wins to New York’s 66. Over three decades, it’s basically been a coin flip. The Knicks once won eight straight between 2012 and 2013 just to close the gap.
The New Era
Fast forward a few decades, and both franchises find themselves in familiar positions again. Young, hungry, and determined to climb their way back into the Eastern Conference spotlight. The names have changed, but the energy feels the same.
The 2023–24 season made that clear. Orlando took three of the four meetings, using their size, length, and athleticism to disrupt New York’s rhythm. Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner attacked the Knicks from every angle, pushing the pace and turning defense into offense. For a young team trying to establish its identity, those wins mattered.
When the two met again in March at Madison Square Garden, the tone completely shifted. The Knicks locked in defensively and responded with a 98–74 blowout that felt like a throwback to 1990s basketball. Orlando shot just 34 percent from the field and 23 percent from deep. Jalen Brunson controlled the tempo, Josh Hart did all the dirty work, and the Garden crowd made sure the Magic felt every possession. It was one of those nights where New York reminded everyone that effort, toughness, and defense still define winning basketball.
Their battles carried into the following season as part of the NBA’s new In-Season Tournament. In December of 2024, the Knicks dominated again, winning 121–106 behind a balanced team effort and crisp ball movement.
Over the past three seasons, the two sides have essentially split the series, which perfectly mirrors their all-time record that has remained close for more than three decades.
Both rosters are built to win this year. Both fanbases believe their time is coming. And when these two finally meet in the postseason for the first time, it won’t feel like something new. It’ll feel like something that’s been waiting to happen since the 90s. To date, they still haven’t met in the playoffs, but you can feel that this year history could be changed.
