The Knicks legend who played through the pain

Willis Reed became a hero to basketball fans—and won a place in sports history—for his sheer determination. After dominant performances in the first four games of the 1970 NBA Finals, the New York Knicks’ captain tore a muscle along his thigh, and his team lost its next game to the Los Angeles Lakers. Nobody expected him to play the decisive Game 7, but after getting an injection of painkillers, Reed limped out onto the court. Madison Square Garden erupted. “I thought, this is what an earthquake must feel like,” he said. The 6-foot-9 center scored the Knicks’ first two baskets—his only points of that game, but they were enough to inspire his teammates to victory. Reed, who played an injury-limited 10 seasons, all with the Knicks, was brilliant on the court, but he was forever revered for the night he simply suited up. “I didn’t want to be a guy who didn’t come out and show he had the guts and grit to be there,” he said.

Reed was born in the tiny town of Hico, Louisiana, and grew up on his grandparents’ 200-acre farm in nearby Bernice, said The New York Times. In a childhood spent in the Jim Crow South, he attended an all-Black high school, then became a basketball standout at what’s now Grambling State University, a historically Black college. Drafted by the Knicks, Reed quickly established he was not a player to be messed with, said The Washington Post. In one 1966 game against L.A., a brawl erupted and “Reed wound up fighting almost the entire Lakers team.”

He was a consummate leader, said the New York Post, known as “the Captain” long after his playing days. Reed was named the NBA’s Most Valuable Player in 1970, and was finals MVP when the Knicks won their second championship, in 1973. His No. 19 was the first number retired by the Knicks, and in 2021 he was named one of the NBA’s 75 greatest players. He went on to briefly coach the Knicks and the Creighton University men’s basketball team, then work for several NBA teams. A day rarely passed when he wasn’t reminded of his 1970 Game 7 heroics. “There are times,” Reed said, “when I swear I wake up and I hear the cheers from that night.”