THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE.
There are older rivals. The Knicks and Celtics have been playing since stamps cost three cents. There are more accomplished rivals. The Lakers have won championships in seven of the eight decades the NBA's existed; the only time they didn't, in the 1960s, they reached seven finals. There are one-sided rivalries and rivalries whose spoils were split right down the middle. Yet in all of Knick history, there is but one rivalry born of injustice.
After being destroyed by Chicago in the first round of the '91 playoffs, New York had been declining for a couple of years, to the point that Patrick Ewing took the Knicks to arbitration to gain free agency (he lost).