This article, written by Murray Janoff, first appeared in the May 23, 1970, issue of The Sporting News. The issue was released two weeks after the Knicks won the 1970 NBA title with Willis Reed claiming NBA Finals MVP. This has been lightly edited for clarity.
NEW YORK — It was a simple statement, one of any that flowed like the champagne they poured after the New York Knicks won their first NBA championship in 24 years. It was offered by Walt Frazier at the team's victory parter held the night after the dramatic ending of the season.
All Frazier said was, "We'll do it again next year."
This was a fun night, a good-guy night. The team and the Madison Square Garden brass and some friends were there for the celebration. And suddenly Frazier goes and says a thing like that. He was not waiting for the normal declaration from critics who always look upon a champion and say: "Let them go out and prove it now."
Prove what?
The 60-22 season which included a record 18-game victory string? Or the dramatic ending as they overcame injury to Willis Reed. Willis playing in the final game with Los Angeles, dragging his leg, and setting an emption-packed favor to the May 8 conclusion of the eight-month season.
MORE: How the NBA world reacted to Willis Reed's death
The statistical data of the Knicks' surge to the title which eluded them all these winters are known global facts. All Frazier did was churn a little thinking mechanism. Is this the sart of a New York dynasty?
Tribute from Wilt Chamberlain
Wilt Chamberlain, whose return from knee surgery wasn't sufficient to stop the Knicks and bring Los Angeles its first title after seven disappointments in the Finals, smiled at the question.
"They were just great," he said after the last game the Knicks won, 113-99, at home. "Let's say they are the greatest now because they won and we lost. But they'll have to win a couple more titles before they can be compared with the Boston Celtics."
Joe Mullaney, who came close to being the first rookie coach to win a championship since George Senesky did it with the old Philadelphia Warriors back in 1956, offered this:
"This could be the start of a dynasty in New York. The Knicks are a young team and fit together like a jigsaw puzzle. They fit perfectly. I'm sure Eddie Donovan (former general manager) and Red Holzman (who scouted most the current player and now is their coach and general manager) fitted them together piece-by-piece. It's the only way a team like this could have happened."
In the fifth game of the finals, the came from 16 points down without Willis Reed who had been forced out of the action by a muscle injury in his right thigh.
"This was the greatest comeback in basketball," said the Celtics' John Havlicek. A week later, Fred Schaus, Lakers general manager, said, "We lost the series in the fifth game. We had our big chance and blew it."
Or, go back in the third game played in Los Angeles, when the Knicks had victory temporarily snatched from their hands on Jerry West's 55-foot shot that sent the game into overtime. "It took a lot out of us," Dick Barnett said of that shot. "It took a lot to come back." But they did and they won that game. A lesser team would have shattered.
Wilt Chamberlain broke loose
Two nights before, in L.A., Reed was unable to take his MVP form onto the Forum floor because his leg was hurtling and Wilt demolished Nate Bowman and Bill Hosket and Dave DeBusschere and Dave Stallworth...
... the same four who had embarrassed him in the fifth game, especially DeBusschere and Stallworth. Chamberlain scored 45 points and grabbed 27 rebounds and the Lakers were in a 3-3 tie and next day headed for New York with great optimism.
But Willis was already home. He had left right after that game with Dr. James Pares, the team's bone man, and had begun two days of intense treatment. "I'll play if I have to crawl," he said.
"I sure hope he does," said DeBusschere. "He's better on one leg than anybody else we have."
MORE: Willis Reed officially named one of the greatest 75 players in NBA history
But New York fans (they're not fans, according to Bill Bradley, but 19,500 participants) were worried. There wasn't an optimistic breath taken in al of the cement canyons.
And you had to be there to believe in depth what happened that night. It was pure drama, a psyched atmosphere, and no script writer could have done a better job.
Holzman, accused of setting the machinery in motion, one that had to lift the Knicks and maybe start the Lakers thinking a little, denied this. "I'm not that smart."
Reed stayed in the locker room when the teams went out for pregame warmups. He was given shots of carbocaine and cortisone. His leg was supposed to be numbed and stay that way. And five minutes before the game began, he came shuffling out. He was dragging the right leg behind him, Chamberlain and Keith Erickson looked at each other and smiled. Then the game began and Willis may be the first guy ever to win for a team by merely showing up. Statistically, only four points in 15 minutes. But...
Walt Frazier's Game 7 stats also made him a hero
"Just Willis' presence was a psychological lift for us," said Frazier, who could have been the hero if Reed hadn't produced such an emotional turn, because Frazier scored 36 on 12-17 FG, 12-12 FT and tied a playoff record with 19 assists, a record shared by Cousy and Chamberlain. He also won the party bet with the Lakers' gifted rookie Dick Garrett. Both are Southern Illinois alumni and the party is going to be there this summer. The loser has to pay.
In the sixth game, when the Lakers tied the series and Garrett had hit his first eight shots against Frazier, Walt said, "Garrett made a lot of trouble for himself tonight."
"It's hard to explain, there's so much emotion," DeBusschere said after his 18 points and 17 rebounds, helping on the bards while Reed couldn't jump. "Willis getting hurt was a major setback, but this proved we could come bak. It proved what a great team we are."
"Incredible" courage
"The courage Willis demonstrated was his faith in us," studious Bradley said after his 17-point contribution. "His courage is incredible. I had chills before this game. Willis not only played on one leg, he kept Wilt from hitting."
Chamberlain had only 16 shots. Reed kept forcing him out, cutting off his path to the basket.
"I feel real proud," Barnett said after his 21 points and a hounding job that confined and frustrated Jerry West to 9-19 shooting as West failed to win yet again in his seventh finals (it was the eighth for Elgin Baylor). "But Willis was something. Everyone was on pins and needles waiting on him. Even the Lakers were watching the corridor for him to come out. It had to have some effect on them."
"All we wanted from him was defense," Bradley said. "And then he hit his first two shots and I said, 'Hold on a minute. Maybe he's got something else.'"
He did.
The Knicks caught fire and were up by 29 before halftime.
Now Reed, his leg very uncomfortable, asked for another shot at intermission. The teams were about to start play, Bowman vs. Chamberlain, when he came hobbling out the dressing room again. The game was delayed a few seconds until he could replace Bowman and 19,500 ear drums cracked. He lasted only six minutes in the second half... but it was enough.
"It was rough," Reed said later. "The legs started to hurt from the opening jump."
It was the expected champagne bedlam in the dressing room. "He can barely walk and we asked him to run," Cazzie Russell said.
"It took guts and I found I was gutted up with him," Dave Stallworth said, the same Stallworth who had returned this season following a heart attack two ears ago. And Red Holzman summed it up by saying "Willis rates with the greatest in courage. Bur that's what you can expect from him."
At the party the next night, Reed cut the victory cake.
It was this night the Knicks voted shares in the $118,000 bundle they had won.