Sports Poets Society

https://unclemikesmusings.blogspot.com/2023/03/willis-reed-1942-2023.html?fbclid=IwAR0cAhExCfgaZo0HjajHxJfJJHo9uaDOj6GCaajjSAOjge56HdJhGdUt9UI Tuesday, March 21, 2023 The Captain is dead. No, not Derek Jeter. Not Scott Stevens. Not Denis Potvin. Not Mark Messier. Not Harry Carson. The most important Captain in the history of New York Tri-State Area sports. Willis Reed Jr. (no middle name) was born on June 25, 1942 in Hico, Louisiana, and grew up in nearby Bernice. He played basketball at the nearby historically black Grambling State University, which is better known for its football program. He led them to 3 Southwestern Athletic Conference Championship and an NAIA Championship. He was also a member of the U.S. team that won the Gold Medal at the 1963 Pan American Games, although he turned professional before the 1964 Olympics, and was the ineligible to participate under the rules of the time. The New York Knicks drafted him in 1964, and in the 1964-65 season, he was named the NBA...

Willis Reed of the Knicks grabbed a rebound as Wilt Chamberlain of the Los Angeles Lakers  looked on in a playoff game at Madison Square Garden in 1970. Credit...Larry C. Morris/The New York Times He was beloved by New York fans for his willingness to play hurt, as memorably exemplified in the decisive Game 7 of the 1970 N.B.A. finals at Madison Square Garden. By Harvey Araton March 21, 2023 - THE NEW YORK TIMES Willis Reed, the brawny and inspirational hub of two Knicks championship teams that captivated New York in the early 1970s with a canny, team-oriented style of play, died on Tuesday. He was 80. His death was confirmed by his former teammate Bill Bradley, the former United States senator. He said Reed had congestive heart issues. It was not clear where Reed died, but he had been under treatment at the Texas Heart Institute in Houston, Bradley said. Reed was notably absent last month, for health reasons, when the Knicks celebrated their 1972-73 championship team during a 50th...

22 Mar 2023 - New York Daily News BY STEFAN BONDY “Here comes Willis Reed.” Marv Albert now says it was a throwaway line before Game 7 of the 1970 NBA Finals, but it became a signature sound byte of his Hall of Fame career — and the signature moment of the Knicks. Albert made the call on the radio knowing prior Reed’s intention of playing that night. The Madison Square Garden crowd, however, was in the dark until The Captain limped through the tunnel. “What I recall was the decibel level of the roar from the crowd in the building,” Albert said. “It was an explosion.” The Knicks famously beat the Lakers that night for their first championship, at least partly due to Reed’s presence intimidating the opposition into jitters. Almost 53 years later, Reed died Tuesday at 80 and Albert, upon hearing the news, immediately thought of the fitting nickname. “He was literally The Captain,” Albert said. “That’s my first thought. He’s the heart and soul of the team.” “Willis was so respected,” Alber...

Willis’ heart made him a champ, his Game 7 moment made him a legend 22 Mar 2023 - New York Daily News MIKE LUPICA It couldn’t have happened without all of them, without Clyde who played the game of his life in that Game 7 against the Lakers that May night in 1970, the night at Madison Square Garden when the Knicks finally won it all, 36 points from him and 19 assists and seven rebounds. It wouldn’t have happened without Dave DeBusschere, the bartender’s kid from Detroit, and Bill Bradley, the Rhodes Scholar out of Crystal City, Mo., and then Princeton. And it sure wouldn’t have happened without Red Holzman, the basketball lifer out of the NBA in the 1950s, the quiet leader of the band, growling at them to all see the ball. But none of it could possibly have happened without Capt. Willis Reed, who limped out that night on a ruined leg and made two jumpers against Wilt Chamberlain and the Lakers, in the greatest basketball moment of them all in New York City, the one that officially turn...

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 5...

Taking court in Game 7 cemented Reed’s legacy, but he was so much more 22 Mar 2023 - New York Post Mike Vaccaro - Mvaccaro@nypost.com THE MOMENT was captured first on radio, on WHN, 1050 on the AM dial in those days. Marv Albert was behind the microphone, and he was the only conduit to a basketball city sitting on tenterhooks, awaiting Game 7 of the NBA Finals. The game was blacked out in New York City and its suburbs, so if you weren’t among the 19,500 people inside Madison Square Garden on May 8, 1970, Albert was the only way you would know if Willis Reed would try to play on a hip ruined by a fall inside this building four nights earlier. Albert’s pitch was higher than normal, because the crowd was already fevered and furious. “For the Knicks and the Lakers, it comes down to this,” Albert said. “Who will win the final game of the season. And on this one game alone you can almost throw out all previous performance …” And here is where the crowd nearly drowned Albert’s voice. At this ...