Frank Isola

It was the end of the 96-97 season.

The Bulls coming off a 73-win season had 69 wins on the final day of the season.

The Knicks went into Chicago with 56, right?

All the guys that you would expect played.

Patrick Ewing played.

And the game didn't mean anything in the grand scheme of things.

Then Patrick Ewing played 40 minutes.

Jordan played 39 minutes and 39 seconds.

The final day of the season.

And when I think of guys that...

I covered mostly covering Patrick.

I was at all of Jordan's finals game.

But you talk about like competitive dudes.

Those are the guys that you want on your team.

40 minutes and 39 minutes in the last game of the season and a game that in the grand scheme of things didn't mean anything other than the fact that they were getting paid to play 82.

So they figured I should play in the 82nd game of the season.

Yeah, so back in 2019, we heard all about how great that draft was going to be, and it was Zion yet to play in the playoff game, John Morant, who knows where his career is right now, and then R.J.

Barrett, who's been a good role player for...

Toronto, they went one, two, and three.

So we're hearing the same thing this year, and it does seem, I mean, this was going on before the All-Star break, and that's why the league reacted, because Adam Silver was going to have to be at All-Star weekend addressing tanking, you know, at the All-Star weekend, which he's not going to want to do.