RIP Willis Reed

[texasdave]

https://www.aol.com/willis-reed-knic...191029832.html

A member of the NBA's 50th and 75th anniversary teams, Reed personified resilience in sports, famously playing Game 7 of the 1970 NBA Finals with a torn muscle in his right thigh. His effort in what is now known as the "Willis Reed Game" is often referenced whenever an athlete performs admirably through injury.

[GAC]

Sad to hear this. Back when I followed basketball, and even though I was a Celtic's fan, I was also a huge fan of "The Captain". First Knick to have his number retired.

[Roy Tucker]

I can’t remember what I had for lunch yesterday, but I remember the starting five for the ‘69 Knicks. Willis Reed, Dave DeBusschere, Bill Bradley, Walt Frazier, and Duck Barnett. And Don May of UD played on that team.

RIP Willis

[cumberlandreds]

Willis Reed in that Game 7 of that 1970 NBA Finals is the definition of inspiration. The Knicks were not going to lose after he came onto that court. Just a great player and human being. RIP Willis Reed.

[Ky Fried Redleg]

Loved watching Willis and Clyde on those Knickerbocker teams.

[Kingspoint]

I was actually a Lakers' fan (a respected franchise back then) before I started listening to Bill Schonely (RIP, "The NBA is Faaaaantastic!") do radio play-by-play for the Trailblazers Franchise's inaugural '70-'71 season when Princeton Grad Geoff Petrie won Co-Rookie-of-the-Year with Dave Cowens (see picture a couple posts above). The next season of '71-'72 UCLA's Sidney Wicks won Rookie-of-the-Year.

Now in 8th Grade I began going to my first NBA games in person in the '72-'73 season. Our group that went on weekends only (Harry Glickman would always put in bids so that he got a majority of our home games on Friday, Saturday or Sunday), was a group of about 7 or 8 kids. A ticket cost $2 General Admission, but together our entire group struggled to come up with $2 for the price of one ticket. We managed to got to about 20 games that year and 25 the next, always finding a way to sneak into the games. At worst, we'd scrounge for one ticket to get one person in and that person would open the exit doors so the rest of us could get in and scatter away from "the redcoats". We sat everywhere and got to know all the ushers. I even sat midcourt on the floor just to do it once. You had to bold to pull it off.

We'd get there three hours before tipoff when they used to let you inside to watch shoot-arounds, sometimes getting on the floor to grab some basketballs and get some shooting of our own after the players were done and before they'd chase us off. We'd also be early enough before that to get autographs for those of us like myself who cherished that. The Blazers actually had a good team at home, leading most of their home games going into the 4th Quarter only to collapse and lose (often due to free-throw disparity....typical would be a FT-Rate difference of 20 percentage points). So, the games were a lot of fun. After the game was also an opportunity to get autographs. Most of the autograph seeking was at the outside doors of the arena, but you had to be instinctive to get an autograph as some players would try to sneak into the building at another location.

I bring all of this up because of those 45 games I went to those first two seasons, it was the Knicks that I got the most autographs (some players two or three times), though it was Cleveland I saw the most as the NBA had us play each other more often in order to try to get the two young franchises more wins on their resume. POR actully beat the Knicks in March at the end of the season before NY went on to win the NBA title ten weeks later.

I wanted autographs so badly that I went to the Holiday Inn where the Knicks were staying after the game and walked into the building, up the stairs and stood outside their hotel room where they were celebrating a win that night. I stood there contemplating whether to knock on the door or not for about five minutes, but in the end decided it was too intrusive and left. But, it was those Knicks teams that had the most personality of any NBA franchise at the time. They added Dean Meminger to play alongside Clyde. That team went 10 deep in a league where only 8 and sometimes only 7 players played in a game.

Most players played over 40 minutes per night, sometimes 47 or 48 minutes. They were in so much better shape back then over today's players. They ran three times as many miles on a season on the court than today's players who just stand around and watch and play in sets. Most teams got over 30 Assists per night because of the super-fast transition game. You better try to run when you can because of it becomes a half-court set, nobody's getting into the paint without being sent to the floor. Teams shot about 35-40 Free Throws per night (except POR only shot about 20-25), as they had the 3-to-make-2 rule (if you were in the bonus, you'd get 3 attempts to make 2 free throws). Most players would get to the 5 free throw limit, where many nights you'd have four players with 5 fouls (when your 6th fouled you out).

The Knicks were definitely my favorite road team to watch back then. The Washington Bullets were my second favorite. A typical night would see Lloyd Neal gather 18 Rebounds and 19 points, Sydney Wicks score 24 points, grab 14 Rebounds and hand out 12 Asssists, and Petrie score 27 points with 5 Rebounds and 6 Assists,...and they would lead going into the 4th Quarter, and lose by 3-9 points. The old Memorial Coliseum was home (still playing minor league hockey there next door to the MODA Center, and that's where they held Bill Schonely's Memorial last week.... he was buried at Willamette National Cemetary with full Marine Military honors two months ago with the lead Marine bending down on one knee, looking up at his Wife Dottie, and with tears in his eyes, thanked her for giving him to us...he was the most loved sports person to ever be an Oregonian. There is no close second. Dottie died a month later.) Our neighborhood was about a 40-minute bus ride home and the bus game at 32 minutes after the hour until 1:32 a.m., so if I missed one, I'd call Mom and tell her I'd get the next one. I've more than paid them back for all of those free games. I just wish we had had an MLB team because the REDS were always and still are my favorite sports' team. If we had gotten our own MLB team, that team probably would have been my second favorite MLB team. There isn't anything that could usurp the REDS.

Of course, most of the teams had something to root for or something to hate for. Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, Buffalo. Always hated Boston, but that eventually waned to a could-care-less attitude as the hatred magnified for the Lakers after West retired. Never, ever like Oakland/Golden State, as Rick Barry was an easy personality to detest and then was replaced before they became a laughing stock in the league for a very long time (like the Clippers). Always hated Seattle the way the Oregon Ducks hate the Washington Huskies and the Portland Buckaroos hated the Seattle Totems and the Portland Winterhawks hated the Seattle Thunderbirds, and the way Celtics fans hate Yankees fans and vice-versa. I like the Kings franchise from Cincinnati to Kansas City to Kansas City/Omaha to Sacramento, except for Nate Archibald, the player I detested the most during his career because he was an Ass with a capital A, setting the tone for a long line of them to come into the NBA and ruin the game. Many franchises I was just ho-hum about, not liking or disliking them. Phil Jackson ruined the Bulls for me, another Ass with a capital A. While I hated the Jazz in a way that was a rivalry type of hate, and John Stockton was an Ass with a capital A, I respected Karl Malone a ton even with his dirty elbows to the face of Brian Grant. I respected his game. Never liked Mark Eaton, but I loved Jerry Sloan. Sloan was the very definition of the Jazz. Frank Layden was entertaining, but Sloan had my respect. If we lost a fight (and every game was a fight) to the Jazz, I could hang my head high as I know it was well fought by both teams. I wanted to kick Stockton's ass for his flopping and dirty play. He'd hit five times as many guys in the jewels than Draymond Green has ever done, and always get away with it.

RIP Willis Reed and thank you for giving me fond memories.