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The Willis Reed Game: Revisiting Knicks’ legendary first NBA title 50 years later
The fourth quarter was about to start when Willis Reed hobbled along the bench, slapping hands and legs in encouragement and maybe that’s all he thought he could do then, crippled as he was. But he’d already done enough for a one-legged man. That was the lede typed in by New York Post columnist Milton …
The fourth quarter was about to start when Willis Reed hobbled along the bench, slapping hands and legs in encouragement and maybe that’s all he thought he could do then, crippled as he was. But he’d already done enough for a one-legged man.
That was the lede typed in by New York Post columnist Milton Gross 50 years ago Friday in salute of Reed’s heroism on May 8, 1970.
The Knicks’ burly center took 400 milligrams of carbocaine and 8 cc’s of cortisone via Dr. James Parkes’ needle to mask the pain of a torn right thigh muscle.
The new Garden on 33rd and 8th was only in its third season, but it has never seen a night like that since – when Reed’s courage and Walt Frazier’s magical skill willed the selfless Knicks past the Lakers, 113-99, for their first NBA championship.
In what is arguably the most significant moment in New York sports history, Reed limped down the Garden tunnel 15 minutes before tip-off after receiving injections. The night halted and NBA history changed.
“We were all shooting around,” Frazier told The Post last month. “When Willis came out everybody stopped. The Lakers stopped, our team stopped. The crowd went berserk. I know I was facing the tunnel. I didn’t have to turn around when he came out. I saw him right away. It was so emotional and the crowd never shut up from that point on. They were only able to sing half the anthem before (the crowd) drowned it out.”
Reed had crumpled to the court with the torn thigh early in Game 5 at the Garden. The Knicks’ first trip to the Finals since 1953 would end sourly.
But the Knicks’ trademark playmaking guile got them past the Lakers on May 4. The Reed-less Knicks were routed in Game 6 in Los Angeles by 22 points. Wilt Chamberlain dominated for 45 on a Reed-free court.
Reed’s status for Game 7 was a mystery.
“When we get to the game, Willis is in the trainer’s room, everybody keeps going in, checking him out,” Frazier said. “He’s in there getting the treatment. (Red) Holzman said, ‘Hey close the door.’ He said ‘Whether Willis plays tonight or not, guys, we got to play. Forget about Willis. Focus on what you guys are doing.’ We’re on the court, Willis is in the trainer’s room with the door closed. We had no idea if he’d play or not. I was thinking how are we going to do this without Willis?”
Former Knicks forward Bill Bradley had just lifted a warmup shot when he heard thunder.
“The Garden erupts,” Bradley told The Post. “It doesn’t erupt. It explodes. You look at the other end of the court and there’s Elgin Baylor, Jerry West and Chamberlain, they all stopped shooting. Chills were going up and down my spine when he came out.
“I learned later (Dave) DeBusschere was the last one to leave the locker room,” Bradley added. “He said, ‘Can you give us just some minutes? We’ll be able to do the rest.’”
In The Post 50 years ago, Lakers coach Joe Mullaney said, “You could see Willis hobbling and we thought we could take advantage of it.”
And that is not how the story went. And it never gets dusty in its retelling, especially on its 50th anniversary. Reed hit his first two shots – baskets that elevated the Knicks to a championship-level performance.
“On the first two plays, he gets an open shot around 15 feet, Chamberlain hangs under the basket,” Bradley said. “He hits it. He hobbles up and down two times more. Then he gets another shot, 17 feet. He hits it — Chamberlain again backing off. After that, it was all over.”
Reed, who now lives in Louisiana, said on MSG Network this week it was Frazier’s idea for Reed to launch early.
“Clyde wanted to see if I could make it,” Reed said in excerpts obtained by The Post. “I was surprised that he passed (to) me that first shot. But that’s the kind of team we had, open man.”
Frazier went on to be an unstoppable force on May 8 – in 44 minutes, Frazier dropped 36 points on 12 of 17 shooting, 12 of 12 from the line with 19 assists and seven rebounds while harassing West on defense.
Bradley calls it “the best seventh game of any NBA player. Frazier flew that night.”
“When I started the game I had no idea I’d score like that,” said Frazier, then in his third season. “Red Holzman in the playoffs, he’d always pull me to the side. If we were playing the Bullets, he’d say ‘Clyde, forget about offense, just focus on defense.’ This time, he pulled me aside and said ‘Clyde, hit the open man and get everybody involved in the offense.’
“But I was coming off the pick-and-rolls and Wilt wasn’t coming over. Wilt would just stand by Willis so I was open. When I came down on the break, sometimes I was just standing there alone.”
Reed played 27 minutes, but the final 25 were anti-climactic. Still, he earned Finals MVP. That’s the one element at which Frazier still bristles – for all his love of Reed as a consummate leader and a “man’s man,” Frazier’s best-ever performance is still called The Willis Reed Game.
”I was like ‘c’mon, man,’ I had that kind of game. I was pissed off when they did that,” Frazier said. “But if he didn’t do what he did, I wouldn’t have had that game. He was so instrumental and once we saw him come on the court, the die was cast.
“I’ve never held a grudge against him because of that. But at the time I was upset. I was trying to get on par with Oscar Robertson, West. I was 25 years old. If I could’ve been the MVP, that would’ve meant a lot at that time.”
Instead, being a Knicks champion became everlasting. “’Your money is no good in here’ – I got that all over town for a long time after the championship,” Frazier said. “Free cab rides, drinks. It was really amazing. I couldn’t pay for anything.”
MSG Network will air the epic Friday at 5:30 p.m. and again at 8 p.m. with Reed, Bradley and Frazier also featured as Zoom guests in an anniversary special airing at 5 p.m.
“I didn’t know what was going to happen when I got on the floor,” Reed said, according to MSG’s excerpts. “I was hoping that once they gave me the cortisone shot that I would be great. And when I felt the pain in my leg, that wasn’t quite the case. But all of the guys came in and said, ‘We’re going to win this one tonight, the championship is going to be ours.’”
It’s as crystal clear 50 years later. “He put his whole career on the line for the team,” Bradley said. “That courage is what got the audience – and then got the team.”
