Anybody who experienced the old-school NBA knows the deal: Today’s league is nothing like the rough-and-tumble old days. New York Knicks fans old enough to remember the Pat Riley days.

No matter the season, Riley’s players swore by the “no blood, no foul” rule, which began in the 1991-92 season, when the Hall of Fame coach allowed two of his players to engage in a physical altercation during his first training camp practice.

While on the “LeBetard Show” recently, Riley explained why he not only allowed Xavier McDaniel and Anthony Mason to get things going physically but also intended for it to happen.

“We had traded for Xavier McDaniel, who I loved,” Riley said. “He’s from Seattle, in Charleston [and] shows up the first day [while] I’m looking at my practice plan. I was very precise with my practice plans—the master plans for training camp, and this was our first day of training camp.

“To define the message via what we were going to do out on the court, about what kind of team we were going to be, the very first drill was going to be a defensive rebounding drill—blocking out, you know. So we started after we warmed them up and they got a full sweat, and we went live and matched up X against Anthony Mason.”

The altercation ended in the only way Riley wanted it to conclude.

“Both of those men looked at each other, shook hands, and they said, ‘Okay, we understand each other, right?’” Riley added. “That was it, and they were great teammates.”

Riley, 80, is still the president and minority owner of the Miami Heat, who remain one of the Knicks’ most bitter rivals. Interestingly, how the rivalry commenced deals directly with the scrappy Riley.

Despite lifting the Knickerbockers to new heights during his four-year run in New York, Riley abruptly resigned via one of the most famous faxes in sports history. After a season away from the NBA, he took his talents to South Beach to join the Miami Heat (in 1995-96).

From that point forward, the Knicks-Heat rivalry took on an intensely physical and emotional tone, particularly in the playoffs. Incidents like the Jeff Van Gundy leg jockey to Alonzo Mourning and P.J. Brown flipping Charlie Ward are just two of the moments that will forever be etched in Knicks history.

As far as Riley’s story is concerned, stirring up the emotions on his first day set the tone for that Knicks team. Ultimately, the 1991-92 New York Knicks won 51 games and took the eventual NBA champion Chicago Bulls to seven games in the second round of the playoffs.