IDK about NY, but I'd say GT gear was 2nd to Miami gear down here at the time. And GT also had a bit of a cocaine/dope boy culture surrounding their program. Dope boys funded a lot of the AAU programs that John Thompson got His players from. And Alonzo Mourning was Rayful Edmond's homeboy...
We were the only team that had Black players that played the way we did. Funny because I can show you numerous clips of White players celebrating big plays the same way we did pre-Big Time Miami, crickets from the media...as soon as we did it, here comes the pearl clutchin'.
It was a race issue no matter how deep you want to bury your head in the sand. They were calling our Black players all kinds of monkeys & apes when we played BYU over there that one year.
The precursor to the Miami's, Georgetown's, UNLV's,, & Michigan's of the world, in terms of swagger , was Phi Slamma Jamma, every one their starters could take flight on yo' ***.