WILLIS REED - LEGACY OF A CHAMPION

22 Mar 2023 - New York Post
By DON BURKE - dburke@nypost.com

Beloved Reed was the ultimate leader

From page 60 Willis Reed, the heart and soul of the Knicks’ most recent NBA championship teams, and the man who gave New York City sports one of its most iconic moments, died Tuesday, the Knicks announced. He was 80.

Known simply as “The Captain,” years before Derek Jeter was born, Reed played 10 seasons in the NBA, all with the Knicks, for whom he also served as coach and general manager after his playing career ended in 1974. He also coached and was an executive with the Nets when they played their games in New Jersey and was an executive with the New Orleans Hornets from 2004-07.

“As we mourn, we will always strive to uphold the standards he left behind,” the Knicks said in a statement. “His is a legacy that will live forever.”

The first member of the Knicks to have his number retired, Reed was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1982 and was named among the 50 Greatest Players in NBA history during the 1996-97 season.

But it was during Game 7 of the 1970 NBA Finals that Reed carved his name in the hardwood history of Madison Square Garden and the league.

Injured early in Game 5 against the Lakers when he fell hard to the floor on a drive to the basket — a game the Knicks managed to win without their leader, who had scored 37, 29, 38 and 23 points in the series’ first four games — Reed missed Game 6 in Los Angeles as the Lakers evened the series at three games each.

And when the series returned to the Garden for Game 7, no one — not even his teammates — was quite sure whether Reed, who had injured his right thigh in that fall a few days earlier would be able to play. In fact, the Knicks hit the floor for pregame warm-ups without him.

“We left the locker room … not knowing if Willis was going to come out or not,” Bill Bradley, a forward on those championship teams, said years later.

Some 15 minutes later they had their emphatic answer. The Garden erupted when Reed limped out of the tunnel (forever after known as “the Willis Reed tunnel” until it disappeared when the building was remodeled some 30 years later) and onto the court. Reed’s arrival drew the rapt attention of the Lakers as they warmed up. Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West, Elgin Baylor, hearing the ear-splitting ovation, all turned their gaze toward the other end of the floor, where Reed had joined his teammates.

“I saw the whole Laker team standing around staring at this man,” said Reed’s teammate Walt Frazier, who erupted for 36 points and 19 assists that night. “They stopped doing what they were doing to look and see how Willis was. Something told me then man, they’re very concerned. We may have these guys.”

Years later, Reed, who endured a pregame cortisone injection, said he never doubted he would play.

“This was something we all wanted very badly,” he said. “It was so close you could touch it. It’s one game. It was what I dreamed of as a high school kid. It was what I worked so hard in college for. Not only me, but everyone in that locker room. The coaches. Management.

“For me to not go out there to try and be a part of that, to try and give whatever I could — and I didn’t know what it was — then I would be letting them down and letting myself down. If I tried and failed that’s the way I wanted it. I didn’t want to be a guy who didn’t come out and show he had the guts and grit to be there. … That was the moment to try.”

The left-handed Reed, his thigh heavily wrapped, scored the game’s first basket from the top of the key. He hit another 20-foot jumper the next time down the court. Reed didn’t score another point. He didn’t need to. The Knicks, who led by as many as 29 points in the first half, were on their way to a 113-99 win and their first NBA title.

“I thought the game was over at that point,” Reed said. “Once I made those two shots … I didn’t score any more points but from that point on Clyde and [Dave] DeBusschere and the rest of the guys took over.”

Willis Reed Jr. was born June 25, 1942 in the tiny town of Hico, La. — “They don’t even have a population,” he once said — and grew up on a farm in nearby Bernice, La. He attended Grambling State University, where he led the Tigers to an NAIA title and three Southwestern Athletic Conference titles. The Knicks selected him with the first pick of the second round in the 1964 NBA Draft — the eighth selection overall.

With Walt Bellamy at center, the 6-foot-10 and 235-pound Reed played power forward for several seasons as the Knicks continued to lose. After Red Holzman replaced Dick McGuire as coach during the 1967-68 season, the Knicks finished 43-39, their first winning season since 1958-59.

On Dec. 19, 1968, the Knicks traded Bellamy and Howard Komives to the Pistons in exchange for DeBusschere, the power forward. That deal allowed Reed to move to center.

“Since that trade, I feel like a new person,” Reed said at the time. “Center is my position.”

The Knicks, buoyed by a much-improved defense, won 54 games and made the playoffs that season, setting the stage for their world championship the following year. They won the title again in 1972-73, besting the Lakers in five games. Reed was again named Finals MVP.

He appeared in seven All-Star games and averaged 18.7 points and 12.9 rebounds per game during his career, was named rookie of the year following the 1964-65 season — the first member of the Knicks to win that honor — and the league’s MVP after that 1969-70 season.

“Not a day goes by that someone doesn’t remind me of that game,” Reed said of that memorable night in 1970. “It was our moment in time.”

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Bradley grateful for his Captain

22 Mar 2023 - New York Post

By STEVE SERBY steve.serby@nypost.com

Dollar Bill Bradley, like every Knicks fan, will never forget the sight of Captain Willis Reed limping out of the tunnel before an inspired Knicks team beat the Lakers in Game 7 of the 1970 NBA Finals at a rocking Madison Square Garden for their first championship.

“We were all out warming up, and we know that he was probably gonna take a shot,” Bradley told The Post. “Although quite frankly, I didn’t know he was gonna take a shot. But [Dave] DeBusschere said he knew.

“And when he came out, it was like electricity coursed through the whole arena. I remember [Elgin] Baylor, [Jerry] West and [Wilt] Chamberlain stopped warming up and watched him. I figured at that moment we were in pretty good shape.

“And then when he hit his first two shots, that was amazing, that took it to another level. And then Walt Frazier had the best seventh game of any player in history, picking up on that inspiration.”

Bradley received the sad news from Reed’s wife, Gale, that her husband had passed away Tuesday morning at the age of 80.

“He was The Captain — that says it all,” Bradley said. “He was the backbone of the team. He was the guy that took us to the first championship by his courage, and by his unselfishness. And he was a big Knick all his life.”

Reed was The Captain in every way.

“Willis always was fair to everybody,” Bradley said. “He insisted on making sure you gave 100 percent all the time. He was a supporter of [coach] Red [Holzman], obviously. He was somebody who we knew that if anybody got into trouble out there on the court, for whatever reason, Willis had your back.

“And that went from whether there was some kind of physical altercation, or whether it was having the courage to take the last-second shot. Or, whether it was setting the time in the locker room for the guy that did take the shot and missed it . ... He was the best kind of leader for our team.”

Bradley last spoke to The Captain a couple of months ago.

“He did that video for the 50th anniversary [celebration last month of the 1973 championship team] from his hospital,” Bradley said. “So that’s an example of how dedicated he was to the Knicks. Just an extraordinary human being.

“I was lucky to know him. Forget the championship, just as a human being.”

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Marv: ‘It’s a sad day’

22 Mar 2023 - New York Post

By STEVE SERBY

Legendary voice of the Knicks Marv Albert knew — knew that Willis Reed would show up for that triumphant Game 7 of the 1970 NBA Finals against the Lakers at the Garden even with his torn thigh muscle.

“I was in the trainer’s room with him when he got the shot,” Albert told The Post on Tuesday. “I did a pregame radio interview with him. He said, ‘I’m gonna play tonight.’

“So I went to the broadcast booth, and he’s not out on the court when they’re warming up, I heard a roar, and I looked down, and it’s Willis limping his way on the court and the Lakers at the other end, led by [Wilt] Chamberlain and [Jerry] West have this look on their face like they cannot believe it. It was like, ‘What is going on?’

“Then they announce the lineups, and he starts, and pretty quickly he hits a jumper — that was a ‘YES!’ I believe — and the crowd goes crazy. Minutes later he hits another one from the other side. And that’s all he did in that game. It overshadowed one of the greatest games ever played by a point guard [Walt Frazier] in the playoffs.”

Asked what made Reed The Captain, Albert said: “He had such respect for the way he carried himself, the way he dealt with his teammates and the way he played. And how fierce and physical he was on the court, but off the court, he was a low-key guy. But he played bigger than his size [a listed 6-foot-10, 235 pounds] . ...

“He was the heart and soul of those two Knick championship teams. He was so well-respected, not only by his own teammates but around the league. As I got to know him, saw what a wonderful guy he was.

“It’s a sad day.”