RIP, Captain.
RIP, Captain.
He was a great player!!
Back when they were good.
He was a teammate of Earl the Pearl and Phil Jackson. They won the championship in 1970 and 1973.
That would the only Knicks championships. (1970 and 1973) While no where near the Red Sox and Cubs droughts it's getting up there in time.
Legendary. Another from my youth.
70's don't feel like it was that long ago.
great teams, though: Reed, DeBuscher, Frazier, Monroe, and that liberal Senator from New Jersey...
Shouldn’t have got the jab
Great memories!
RIP 19
I never knew what he was talking about.
Prayers to his family...RIP, Mr. Reed!!
December 1968, during Christmas break, just after the All Star Game, I and some friends were shooting hoops in the gym at St. Johns University in Queens. There were a couple of black guys shooting at the other end of the gym, and I suggested we ask them to join us. Somebody said “Those guys are Knicks.” They look different from below.
Then some guy came and cleared us off the gym floor. The Knicks were using the gym to practice, so we went in the stands to watch. I recall Dick Barnett making a buzzer noise as he took a jump shot and yelled “END”, and when the shot clanged off the rim and missed, he finished his sentence, “OF THE FIRST QUARTER!”.
Willis Reed, who had been MVP of the All Star Game, did not joint the practice. Although in uniform, he stood next to Knicks Coach Nate Holzman the whole time, spinning a basket ball in his hands. The season before, was the last season the Knicks played in the “old” Madison Square Garden on 50th Street and 8th Avenue (old in quotes because the original MSG was a garden and was on Madison Square, and was opened by P.T. Barnum around 1865). Me, and a bunch of the boys attended the last game, on our GO (General Organization) cards for 50 cents. The Knights of Columbus owned MSG, and Catholic High School kids were issued GO cards which entitled you to general admission for 50 cents. The Knicks, who were a dismal lower division team and out of the play offs, were playing the Lakers, also their last game of the regular season, though I believe they lost to Celtics in the finals that year. Anyway, the Lakers routed the Knicks, but Willis Reed broke Jerry West’s nose. West left the game, but not the bench. He sat on the bench the rest of the game holding a bloody towel against his bloody nose. He was not happy.
The game was poorly attended, and we snuck down to ground floor seats a few rows from the court, and had a great view of the spectacle. We didn’t even have to bribe the usher, who sort of despaired of getting a couple bucks from these punks.
What great memories.
RIP Willis Reed. A gutsy player and leader of some great Knicks teams.
Odd that they phrase it that way... as the most recent is 1973. Maybe they didn't want to say last?
One of the great ones playing for one of the all-time great teams. The 70s Knicks.
I get so sick of the racist crap that goes around. You know what I mean? It’s like, when I was a kid in the 70s, all my friends (white) wanted to be either Willis Reed or Walt “Clyde” Frazier or Earl the Pearl Monroe, etc. We didn’t see these players as black; no sir, we saw them as great basketball players.
When I heard that he died, I wondered how many sports figures are best remembered for one moment that was bigger than, or at least not just about, in-game performance. Reed will always be remembered for 1970 game 7, but not because he dominated the game - he only scored the two baskets.
Another one I thought of was Rick Monday. A really good player, but he will always be remembered for saving the flag from those b*st*rds trying to burn it at Dodger Stadium in 1976.
Damn one of my favorite players from back in the days when they actually played basketball without showboating for the girls and the swishy white boyz.
Father would take us to exhibition games in upstate Ny to watch Knicks
Years later company worked for was having promotion and he was one of spoke people
Standing next to him felt small and I’m 6 ft 5 in !!
The Knicks were a great team to watch in those days
I remember him, including his memorable entrance to the Garden in their 7th and final championship game against the lakers where he actually came back to play after injuring his leg in his previous game. The standing ovation at his entrance lasted several minutes.
He won two championships for the Knicks (1970 and 1973), together with the great and flashy point guard, Walt Frazier. Those were the ONLY NBA championships for the Knicks. The Knicks almost had another ring when Pat Ewing was their center but fell short against Houston, who had Hakeem Olajuwon.