The KNICKS only championship teams contained such white players, DeBusschere and Bradley and Lucas. But the black players on those teams, Frazier, Reed, Barnett, etc., played in that unselfish way too. Even the hot dogs like Monroe and Cazzie Russell, blended in too. Those were the days!
We want our institutions (colleges, corporations, businesses), to 'look' like America. Basketball hasn't 'looked' like America for years.
Dawkins makes the same points about the black guys playing team ball on the Portland team that he lost to in the NBA Finals.
Yah, Knicks too. They dang near won with Jerry Lucas at center vs. Wilt---quite a challenge.
The Knicks were selective with their shots! Great passing game and great 'D'! Monroe gave them the drive-to-the-hoop angle. Frazier had ice-water in his veins and Bradley was called 'Dollar Bill'!
All the good teams back then played the intelligent game... not the 'in-your-face' circus you see today.
I will offer this commentary. Basketball has its focus, and the NBA has become strictly a sales vehicle. To allow punk kids...18 years old...to just walk in, and play punk basketball...has become the standard. Unselfish players aren't part of the money-making scheme. Nor are unselfish players recruited from the colleges. Jerry West, Dave DeBusschere, and Kevin McHale...would not make it to the NBA today. Ask yourself why? Ask yourself why the Pistons simply walked all over the Lakers? Ask yourself why we are paying slugs like Kobe millions to play Kobe-ball? I could go out today and recruit seven DeBusscheres...and cream every team in the NBA. I could establish a destiny that would survive ten years, with players that played as a team. This is what we all remembered from the past. When Jaber went through his migrane episode and they called upon Magic as a rookie to come and deliver his greatest game ever in the champion series...he played with passion and pushed the whole team as a unit to make up for Jaber. You can't say that Iverson or Kobe could do that today. Neither can inspire...neither can play with an unselfish attitude. The sad truth is...I would rather watch games from 1974...than to watch a live NBA game today. And half the fans might agree with that statement.