50 years later, champion Knicks remind us of sports at their best
With pro sports still on hiatus, fond memories grow even fonder still
It’s early May, the beauty of spring in rural Athens, Ohio, and I’m in my freshman dorm room at Ohio University when my father calls with an offer I could never refuse: Through someone at work he has an e[tra ticket to the Game 7 NBA championship finals at Madison Square Garden between the New These were the .nicks of Willis Reed, Walt “Clyde” Fra]ier and Dave DeBusschere versus the Lakers of Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West and Elgin Baylor. Would I like to fly home to New Jersey and see my beloved .nicks bid for their first title on May 8, 1970 — 50 years ago. There had been tons of e[citement for me and my dorm buds building up to this. Without TV, we’d cram into my triple room, guys from New Jersey, New In one game, before three-pointers, Jerry West heaved up at the bu]]er a 56-foot shot — I never forgot the distance — that tied the score. I tossed my desk chair at the wall and it was quickly in pieces. But the .nicks still won in overtime. See 50 , page A2 In Game 5, Willis, the burly 6’9” team captain from Grambling and heart of the Knicks, a southpaw shooter who could do it all, went down hard on his leg, tore a muscle and had to be helped off the floor. The 7’1” Wilt — who some years before scored 100 points against the Knicks — must have licked his chops. Instead, Knicks’ coach Red Holzman employed this short, swarming defense on Wilt with players like DeBusschere and Dave Stallworth, giving up half a foot of height, and the magic double-teaming hands of Frazier, constantly stealing the ball and confusing Chamberlain. Somehow the Knicks won Game 5 and our dorm room, like the Garden crowd in the background, was in frenzy. At that time, I had actually met Stallworth and Reed because in those days, before the big sports money, players like them would come and visit summer camps like mine in West Goshen, Connecticut. In Game 6, Wilt scored at will and the series was tied 3-3. That game was played in Los Angeles, and because of the three-hour West Coast time difference, it was well past midnight when a knock on the door was the dorm R.A. complaining about the noise. When I told him we were listening to the NBA Finals on the radio, he flat out did not believe it, particularly since the college basketball season had been over for weeks in those days. The burning question for New I couldn’t believe I was there sitting lower down near center court with my dad and his colleagues. Afterwards, I remember I had absolutely no voice left at all. The fierce rebounder and defender seemed to have one assignment: lean into Wilt and keep him away from the basket and rebounds. I remember one play when he did that and the leaping Frazier tapped a rebound in over a perple[ed Wilt. And DeBusschere, the best rebounder besides the two centers, cleaned up on the boards. Baylor and West were clearly in the down time of their fabulous careers, though the latter shooting guard still had juice in the tank. While the Knicks just destroyed L.A. in the first half, a play with seconds to go before the break stood out: Frazier’s quick hands flicked the ball from West, bringing the ball up near half court, where he proceeded to steal the ball and put it in for a layup. And West fouled him! I can just hear Marv Albert, in his third game broadcasting the Knicks, calling that one. I don’t remember what I ate or much that happened at halftime at MSG that night. I’m sure I was grinning from my seat to the rafters. But as the two teams lined up for the second-half tip — they did that both halves then — there was no Willis Reed. Instead, the Knicks’ lanky and pretty lame backup center Nate “the Snake” Bowman was ready to jump against Wilt. Because our seats were low and centered, I could not only see Wilt antagonizing Bowman and the Knick center laughing at him, I could see Wilt’s profanities coming out about what he was going to do to the Snake’s rear end. I could not see what is probably the highlight entrance of any New So that happened 50 years ago today, and three years later, when I was a college junior, the Knicks beat the Lakers again, in L.A., for their second. They’ve never won another one, making that first one, in particular, all the more precious. In Ohio, those were also memorable times because of the Vietnam War and college protests. Just a few days before Game 7, on May 4, four students were shot and killed at Kent State. There were college protests and riots throughout the state and country. That included Ohio U, where on May 15, shortly after I had returned from the New Armed National Guardsmen lined the long road leading into and out of Ohio University that day, as we joined a line of cars leaving our college. Two days later, I turned 19.