Here's what random Youtube browsing can do for you...
In 1990, the Knicks faced off against Pop 84 Split in the McDonald's Open, a basketball championship that pitted an NBA team against a foreign team 9 times from 1987 to 1999.
The following video, although grainy, is a good watch because you get to see Ewing, Oakley, and Toni Kukoc in their younger days, as well as a few shots of Stu Jackson when he wasn't ruining the playoffs. It's the first five minutes of the Knicks matchup with Split in Barcelona.
A few notes:
- What's with the rosters at the beginning. Why are some of the names displayed in full and others as just the last name? Why are there random Croatian names/words thrown in with the Knicks roster? Who the fuck are Tomic and Mustaf?
- It's weird to hear a game between Croatians and Americans announced in Spanish. (It is Spanish, right? I should be able to tell, but it's tough.)
- They had some pretty fancy camera angles in 1990, eh?
- Kukoc's three poiner at the end of the video was filthy. One thing I remember about Toni was his ability to hit shots that looked absolutely impossible. It was sickening. The more I think about it, the more I remember how much I loathed that man.
- The Knicks won this game, by the way. In 9 McDonald's Open matchups, the NBA team never lost to the foreign team. God Bless America.