Hall of Fame center, Knicks legend Reed dies at 80
Willis Reed, who dramatically emerged from the locker room minutes before Game 7 of the 1970 NBA Finals to spark the New York Knicks to their first championship and create one of sports' most enduring examples of playing through pain, died Tuesday. He was 80.
Reed's death was announced by the National Basketball Retired Players Association, which confirmed it through his family. The cause was not released, but Reed had been in poor health recently and was unable to travel to New York when the Knicks honored the 50th anniversary of their 1973 NBA championship team during their game against New Orleans on Feb. 25.
Nicknamed “The Captain,” Reed was the undersized center and emotional leader on the Knicks' two championship teams, with a soft shooting touch from the outside and a toughness to tussle with the era's superstar big men on the inside.
His accomplishments — seven All-Star selections, two NBA Finals MVP awards among them — would have warranted Hall of Fame induction by themselves. During the 1969-70 season, he became the first player to sweep the MVP awards for the regular season, All-Star Game and NBA Finals.
But his spot in history was secured simply by walking onto the floor on the final night of that season.
Reed had injured a thigh muscle in Game 5 of the series between the Knicks and Lakers, tumbling to the court in pain. He sat out Game 6 as counterpart Wilt Chamberlain had 45 points and 27 rebounds in a Lakers romp that forced a deciding game at Madison Square Garden.
Reed's status was unknown even to his teammates as he continued getting treatment until shortly before Game 7. Both teams were warming up when Reed came out of the tunnel, fans rising and roaring when they saw him emerge from the tunnel.
The Lakers stopped to watch Reed, who then made two quick jump shots in the early minutes of the game, running back down the court after both with a noticeable limp. He wouldn't score again but the Knicks didn't need it, with their captain's return and Walt Frazier's 36 points and 19 assists energizing them to a 113-99 romp and their first NBA title.
Reed wouldn't be able to recover so quickly from injuries in the coming years. He was limited to just 11 games in 1971-72 but came back strong the next season to spark the Knicks to a second title in what was his last full season.
Reed would play only 19 games in 1973-74 before retiring because of a knee injury after just 10 seasons.
That was long enough to collect 12,183 points and 8,414 rebounds over 650 regularseason games. He added 1,358 points and 801 rebounds in 78 postseason games.
Reed was born June 25, 1942 in Hico, Louisiana. He stayed in his home state for his college career, leading Grambling State to the 1961 NAIA championship and a third-place finish in 1963. The school retired his number and named its court after Reed in 2022.
A second-round pick in 1964, he quickly proved that standing only 6-foot-9 wouldn't keep him from becoming one of the NBA's top centers. He was voted Rookie of the Year and earned the first of his seven straight All-Star selections.
Reed was the anchor as the Knicks became one of the best teams in the NBA, with Hall of Famers such as Frazier, Bill Bradley and Dave DeBusschere.
Reed provided them with 18.7 points and 12.9 rebounds per game for his career, along with plenty of toughness.
His No. 19 was the first number retired by the Knicks and he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial
Hall of Fame in 1982.
Reed went on to coach the Knicks to a playoff berth in 1977-78 but coached them only 14 more games the following season. He also was a head coach at Creighton and the New Jersey Nets.
In 1989, he was hired as the Nets' general manager and vice president of basketball operations. In 1996, Reed moved to the position of senior vice president of basketball operations, with the Nets reaching the NBA Finals in 2002 and 2003.
He next took the position of vice president of basketball operations with the New Orleans Hornets in 2004. He retired from that post in 2007.
Fairleigh Dickinson's Anderson now at Iona
Tobin Anderson is leaving NCAA Cinderella Fairleigh Dickinson after one fairy-tale season and replacing Rick Pitino at Iona.
Iona athletic director Matt Glovaski announced the hiring a day after Pitino left to take the job at St. John's.
Anderson led the No. 16 seed Knights to a win over No. 1 Purdue in the opening round of the NCAA tournament last week, only the second time a No. 16 seed has knocked off a topseeded team. UMBC beat No. 1 Virginia in 2018.
Iona of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference was knocked out of this year's tournament by UConn on Friday.
Anderson led FDU to a 21-16 overall record and 10-6 in Northeast Conference play. The Knights lost to Merrimack in the conference title game but got the NCAA berth because Merrimack
was ineligible to compete as a transitioning school from Division II.
FDU, one of the shorter teams in the 68-team field, beat Texas Southern in a First Four game and followed that with the upset over Purdue. Florida Atlantic knocked the Knights out of the tournament on Sunday.
FDU had a 4-22 record in 2021-22. Anderson was hired after running the program at St. Thomas Aquinas, located less than 25 miles from Iona's campus. In nine seasons, he turned the team into a perennial Top 25 program in Division II after inheriting a team that won just five games prior to his hire.
Anderson got his first taste of Division I coaching, serving as an assistant at Siena for two seasons from 2011–2013.
Bills add ex-Patriot running back Harris
The Buffalo Bills restocked their offensive backfield by signing free agent Damien Harris to a one-year contract.
Harris spent his first four NFL seasons with the division-rival New England Patriots, and his signing comes a day after Buffalo lost starter Devin Singletary, who agreed to a deal with Houston.
Harris led the Patriots with 2,094 yards rushing and 20 TDs rushing since being taken in the third round of the draft out of Alabama.
His best season came in 2021, when he finished with 929 yards rushing and scored 15 times.
Harris is projected to compete with second-year running back James Cook, and Nyheim Hynes, who was acquired by Buffalo in a trade with Indianapolis, to fill Singletary's job as the Bills' lead running back.
Singletary rushed for 3,151 yards and 16 touchdowns in four seasons with the Bills.
• The Pittsburgh Steelers have signed longtime Philadelphia Eagles guard Isaac Seumalo to a three-year, $24 million contract.
The deal fortifies the interior of the Steelers offensive line as Pittsburgh builds around second-year quarterback Kenny Pickett.
The 29-year-old Seumalo, a Hawaii native who played at Oregon State, started 60 games across seven seasons with the Eagles, who selected him in the third round of the 2016 draft. Seumalo appeared in 81 games in all for Philadelphia and won a Super Bowl following the 2017 season.
• The Atlanta Falcons signed wide receiver Mack Hollins to a $2.5 million, one-year deal. Hollins could open the season as the No. 2 wide receiver, joining 2022 rookie Drake London as big playmakers for quarterback Desmond Ridder.
Hollins, 29, set career highs with 57 catches for 690 yards for the Las Vegas Raiders last season and matched his high with four touchdown catches.
• The Raiders signed unrestricted free agents Jordan Willis and O.J. Howard.
Willis, a defensive lineman, played for the San Francisco 49ers the past 21/2 seasons and has 92 tackles, and 101/2 sacks over a sixyear career.
Howard, a tight end, played for the Houston Texans last season. Over a six-year career, he has 129 catches for 1,882 yards with 17 touchdowns.