May 8, 1970: The Knicks Triumphant

May 8, 1970: The moment that New York Knickerbockers fans had been waiting for finally arrived. Although, given what was seen the year before, with the New York Jets winning Super Bowl III and the New York Mets winning the World Series, it was far closer to a "miracle" than "guaranteed."

The Knicks (almost nobody calls them by their full name) were founded in 1946, as a charter franchise in the Basketball Association of America, which became the National Basketball Association in 1949. They and the Boston Celtics are the only 2 charter franchises still playing in their original cities. The only other charter franchise still playing is the Philadelphia Warriors, who moved to San Francisco in 1962, and have been known as the Golden State Warriors since 1971.

The Knicks reached the NBA Finals in 1951, but lost in 7 games to the Rochester Royals, who are now the Sacramento Kings. They reached the Finals again in 1952, losing to the Minneapolis Lakers in 7. They reached the Finals again in 1953, losing to the Lakers in 5. They had not reached the Finals since.

The Lakers, on the other hand, won the 1948 National Basketball League title, and were admitted into the NBA, where they then won 5 of the next 6 titles. In 1959, they lost the Finals to the Celtics. After the 1960 season, they were moved to Los Angeles, where they won the Western Division title in 1962, 1963, 1965, 1966, 1968 and 1969 -- and lost to the Celtics every single time, including in 7 games in '62, '66 and '69.

By this point, the Knicks had been rebuilt under head coach William "Red" Holzman (who had played for the '51 Royals), chief scout Dick McGuire (who had been a star on those early 1950s teams), and general manager Eddie Donovan. Playing at the new Madison Square Garden that had opened in 1968 were future Hall-of-Famers Willis Reed, Walt Frazier, Dave DeBusschere and Bill Bradley.

Red Holzman

In 1969, the Knicks got to the Eastern Division Finals, losing to the Celtics. The 1969-70 season was when it all seemed to be coming together. They had an 18-game winning streak, an NBA record (but for only 2 more years).

In the Playoffs, despite the presence of Earl "the Pearl" Monroe, one of the few players who could match "Clyde" Frazier for flashiness, the Knicks beat the Baltimore Bullets in 7 games. Then, despite the presence of Alcindor and already-all-time great Oscar Robertson, the Knicks beat the Milwaukee Bucks, to reach their 1st NBA Finals in 17 years.

Clyde. 'Nuff said.

Let's put this in perspective. At this point, the Yankees had won 20 World Series. The Giants had won 4 NFL Championships. The Rangers had won 3 Stanley Cups. And in the preceding 16 months, the Jets had won the Super Bowl, and then the Mets had won the World Series. The Jets had only been in existence since 1960, the Mets since 1962. The Knicks had been a founding franchise of the NBA, in 1946, and in 24 years, they had gone 0-3 in Finals, and had never won a Championship. They needed one.

In their way were the Lakers, who had 3 of the defining figures of the NBA's 1st quarter-century: Wilt Chamberlain, the best player the game has ever known; Elgin Baylor, the 1st man to really make the game stylish; and Jerry West, the best shooter the sport had yet seen and a really good defensive player, too. The Knicks would have home-court advantage, but they were huge underdogs. The Lakers seemed to have both talent and hunger on their side.

Elgin Baylor, Wilt Chamberlain and Jerry West

*

April 24, 1970. Game 1 at The Garden. It was surprisingly easy for the Knicks, as they won, 124-112.

April 27, 1970, Game 2 at The Garden. So much for easy: The Lakers struck back, and won 105-103.

April 29, 1970, Game 3 at The Forum, in the Los Angeles suburb of Inglewood, California. The Knicks thought they had the game won when DeBusschere made a basket with 3 seconds left. But then came the first true "buzzer-beater" in NBA history: West fired a shot from behind half-court, and it went in. No 3-point field goals in those days (although the American Basketball Association used it), so this sent the game to overtime.

Instead of being stunned by West's shot, the Knicks showed their professionalism, shook it off, and got the job done, winning anyway 112-108.

May 1, 1970, Game 4 at The Forum. The Lakers had already shown the Knicks that they weren't going to give up without a fight, and they tied the series up again, winning this game 121-115 in overtime.

May 4, 1970, Game 5 at The Garden. A surreal day. Earlier, on the campus of Kent State University in the Cleveland suburb of Kent, Ohio, a demonstration was held, protesting President Richard Nixon's decision to expand the Vietnam War to Cambodia. This would have disastrous consequences for Southeast Asia, both short-term and long-term. Ohio National Guardsmen shot 13 students, resulting in 4 deaths and 1 permanent paralysis.

Al Albert was a student at Kent State at the time. His brother, Marv Albert, was a broadcaster for the Knicks, the Jets, and the New York Rangers. Marv had heard of the massacre, and, not knowing the names of the dead and the wounded, had made some calls to find out if his brother was all right. He got no answer. He had to broadcast the 1st half of the game not knowing if his brother was alive and well, alive but in a hospital, or dead. Finally, during halftime, he was handed a note saying that Al had been reached, and was fine, that he was nowhere near the demonstration.

In the middle of Game 5, Knick Captain Reed went down with a torn thigh muscle. Up until then, he had been keeping Chamberlain in check. But without Reed, their biggest physical presence and their emotional leader, the Knicks were in trouble. 

DeBusschere stepped up, and kept Chamberlain from running riot across the Garden floor, although he finished with 22 points and 19 rebounds. The Knicks won, 107-100.

May 6, 1970, Game 6 at The Forum. Without Reed available, this was the least close game of the series. Chamberlain ran riot across the Forum floor, and DeBusschere couldn't stop him: 45 points and 27 rebounds. West couldn't be stopped, either: 33 points and 13 assists. The Lakers won, 135-113. To put that in perspective, until this point, the highest point total in the series was the Knicks' 124 in Game 1; the Lakers' highest, 121 in Game 4.

Wilt Chamberlain and Walt Frazier

It meant that the Knicks needed Reed for Game 7. And the nature of his injury made it look like he wouldn't be available. At this point, pretty much everybody expected the Lakers to win the game easily, and thus win the title.

*

There were 19,500 paying customers at The Garden that Friday afternoon. Among them, Woody Allen was sitting courtside. Also from Brooklyn, but sitting up at the very top, in what were then known as the Blue Seats, was 13-year-old Shelton "Spike" Lee, who would also later become a renowned film director, and would also eventually be sitting courtside. And the one thing on the minds of Woody, Spike, and everybody in between was, "Will Willis play?"

On radio station WHN, 1050 AM (now WEPN, the flagship of ESPN Radio), Marv Albert himself asked, "The big question is, 'Will Willis Reed play tonight?'" Shortly, he got his answer, "And here comes Willis! The crowd is going wild!"

Reed limped out onto the court for warmups, and hit a few shots. The Lakers stopped and watched. It was over: He was in their heads. They were already beaten.

The game tipped off at 4:00 PM. Willis dragged his bad leg around the court, took the Knicks' 1st 2 shots, and made them both. It was effectively over. Willis played only 27 of the 48 minutes. That was more than enough.

Everyone remembers it as The Willis Reed Game. But Frazier had his best game: 36 points to lead all players, 19 assists to lead all players, 7 rebounds. Barnett had 21 points. DeBusschere had 18 points and 17 rebounds. Bradley had 17, Nate Bowman 6, Mike Riordan 5, Dave Stallworth 4, Cazzie Russell 2.

Despite 28 points from West, 21 points and 24 rebounds from Chamberlain, and 19 points from Baylor, the Knicks won, 113-99, and were World Champions for the 1st time. It became a particular point of pride for the Knicks that they held the Lakers to under 100 points in that Game 7.

Nationally, the game was broadcast on ABC. In the locker room afterward, Howard Cosell told Reed, "You exemplify the very best that the human spirit can offer."

Cosell (before his infamous toupee, but dripping with champagne),

Reed and Holzman

The Knicks finally had their title, and this game has only grown in New York sports legend. It's one of those games where a person who doesn't remember it must think that the venue must have held a million people, because that's how many people have said they were there that day.

In 1997, NBC had a promo for their sitcom Mad About You, with the following exchange:

Jamie Buchman (Helen Hunt): "What was the most amazing moment of your life?"

Paul Buchman (Paul Reiser): "Okay, you ready? 1970, NBA Finals, Game 7, Willis Reed limps onto the court, scores 4 points, Knicks win. I was there."

Jamie: "For me, it was our wedding."

Paul: "Okay, ask me that same question again." (Too late, fool. I don't know if the real Paul Reiser was there. He was 14 years old at the time, and lived on the East Side of Manhattan.)

In 2006, as part of the league's 60th Anniversary celebrations, the NBA took an online poll to determine "The NBA's 60 Greatest Playoff Moments." Willis Reed taking the court on May 8, 1970 came in 3rd, behind Michael Jordan's last shot to clinch the 1998 title for the Chicago Bulls, and Magic Johnson switching to center for an injured Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to win the 1980 title for the Lakers.

The moment is still there. Willis limping up the court is up there with the fans storming the field at Shea 7 months earlier, and Joe Namath waving that "We're Number 1" finger 14 months earlier. There have been huge moments since: The Yankees and Mets having many, the Giants having their Super Bowl wins, the Islanders winning 4 Stanley Cups, the Devils 3, and the Rangers the 1 that "will last a lifetime!"

But the Knicks have won just 1 title since, and that 1972-73 title just didn't have a signature moment that everybody remembers. Ask the average Knick fan how many games the Finals took, or if the title was clinched at home or on the road, or who the leading scorer was in the clincher, and they might not even know. (It was Game 5, at The Forum, and Earl "the Pearl" Monroe, obtained from Baltimore early in the 1971-72 season, scored 23. It was May 10, and the Knicks won 102-93.)

With the Mets having won the World Series the preceding October 16, this title by the Knicks made New York the 1st city ever to have an MLB-NBA "double." The San Francisco Bay Area (in 1975) and Los Angeles (3 times: in 1988-89, 1990-91, and 2002-03) are the only other cities to do this.

*

May 8, 1970 was a Friday. This was also the day of "The Hard Hat Demonstration" or "The Hard Hat Riot" in New York. I have a separate entry for that event.

It was an off-day in the American Basketball Association Playoffs, which would be won 17 days later by the Indiana Pacers over the Los Angeles Stars. It was also an off-day in the Stanley Cup Finals, which would be won 2 days later by the Boston Bruins over the St. Louis Blues. And football was out of season.

These Major League Baseball games were played that night:

* The New York Yankees lost to the California Angels, 4-3 at Anaheim Stadium. (It was renamed Edison International Field in 1997, and Angel Stadium of Anaheim in 2004.) Clyde Wright outpitched Ron Klimkowski. Former Yankee Roger Repoz and future Yankee Jim Spencer hit home runs for the Halos, while Ron Woods hit one for the Bronx Bombers.

* The New York Mets lost to the San Francisco Giants, 7-1 at Shea Stadium. Ken Boswell hit a home run for the Mets, but Willie Mays hit 2 and Bobby Bonds 1 for the Giants.

Somehow, I don't think either Yankee fans or Met fans cared that much. They were overjoyed about the Knicks.

* A doubleheader was split at Jarry Park in Montreal. The San Diego Padres won the opener, 11-1. The Montreal Expos won the nightcap, 7-6. In the bottom of the 11th inning, Jimmy Qualls scored the winning run on a wild pitch by Gary Ross with Bobby Wine at bat.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 8-4 at Connie Mack Stadium. The Phils' bullpen collapsed in the top of the 12th inning, including allowing a home run to Bill Sudakis.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Chicago White Sox, 6-1 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Boog Powell hit a home run, Brooks Robinson went 2-for-4, and Frank Robinson went 1-for-4.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 8-7 at Atlanta Stadium. (It was renamed Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium in 1975.) For the Cards, Dick Allen went 2-for-5, but no RBIs. Lou Brock went 0-for-5, Joe Torre 0-for-3. For the Braves, Hank Aaron hit his 566th career home run, and Hal King his 2nd. Aaron would finish his career with 755, King with 24.

* The Houston Astros beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 7-5 at the Astrodome in Houston. Roberto Clemente only entered the game as a pinch-hitter, and did not reach base.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Cleveland Indians, 7-6 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Harmon Killebrew hit a home run, and Rod Carew went 2-for-4 with an RBI.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the Detroit Tigers, 9-3 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Dalton Jones and Bill Freehan hit homers for the Tigers, but it wasn't enough. Al Kaline did not play.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Cincinnati Reds, 10-7 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Ernie Banks went 0-for-5, but hit his 500th career home run 4 days later. Billy Williams hit 2 home runs. Pete Rose went 0-for-4, Johnny Bench went 1-for-4 with an RBI, and Hal McRae and Tony Perez each hit 2 home runs for the Big Red Machine, but it wasn't enough.

* And the Oakland Athletics beat the Boston Red Sox, 7-1 at the Oakland Coliseum. The only Boston run came on a home run by Carl Yastrzemski. Reggie Jackson did not play for Oakland.

* And the game between the Milwaukee Brewers and the Washington Senators at Milwaukee County Stadium was rained out. It was rescheduled as part of a doubleheader 2 days later. The Brewers won the opener, 6-5. In the bottom of the 9th, Ted Kubiak led off with a game-tying home run, followed by a walk by Ted Savage (not quite a leadoff walk, but every bit as deadly, as it turned out), a double by Danny Walton, an intentional walk by Jerry McNertney, and a single by Wayne Comer.

The Brewers also won the nightcap in walkoff fashion, 7-6, with McNertney singling home the winning run.

April 21, 1951: The Rochester Royals' Title

Left to right: Bill Calhoun, Bob Davies, Paul Noel, Joe McNamee,

Arnie Risen, Jack Coleman, Arnie Johnson and Bobby Wanzer

April 21, 1951: The NBA Championship was also decided that day, and also in overtime, but in a Game 7. The Rochester Royals defeated the New York Knicks, 79-75 at the Edgerton Park Arena in Rochester, New York.

For the Knicks: Max Zaslofsky and Vince Boryla each scored 16 points, Harry Gallatin 12, Nat "Sweetwater" Clifton (the 1st black player signed to an NBA contract) and Connie Simmons 11, Ernie Vandeweghe (father of future NBA player Kiki) 5, Dick McGuire (brother of Hall of Fame college coach and announcer Al) 4, and Ray Lumpp none.

It wasn't enough, as Arnie Risen scored 24, and former Seton Hall star Bob Davies scored 20. Scoring 2 points for the Royals in this game was William "Red" Holzman. Ed Mikan, brother of Minneapolis Lakers star George, was on the Royals' roster at the start of the season, but was traded.

The Knicks would win 3 straight NBA Eastern Division Championships, but lose the Finals all 3 times: This one to the Royals, and 1952 and '53 to the Lakers. It would take them until 1970 to win their 1st title, with Holzman as their coach. They won again in 1973. But haven't won one since, also losing in the Finals in 1972, 1994 and 1999.

At least the Knicks still exist. The Royals don't, at least not under that name. Rochester proved too small a market for a growing sports league. In 1957, they moved, becoming the Cincinnati Royals. In 1972, they moved again. Since Kansas City already had a baseball team called the Royals, they became the Kansas City Kings. And in 1985, they became the Sacramento Kings. In the early 2010s, they came close to moving yet again, to Anaheim and to Seattle, before the building of their new arena was negotiated. Come to think of it, Minneapolis lost the Lakers to Los Angeles in 1960.

Nevertheless, at their arena, the Golden 1 Center, the Kings still hang a banner proclaiming themselves to be the 1951 NBA Champions.

Davies, Wanzer, Risen, and Holzman as a coach have been elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame. The Kings retired Davies' Number 11. Nevertheless, when the NBA named its 50th Anniversary 50 Greatest Players in 1996, the '51 Royals were 1 of 4 teams with no representatives, the others being the 1947 Philadelphia Warriors, the 1948 Baltimore Bullets, and the 1979 Seattle SuperSonics.

*

April 21, 1951 was a Saturday. The Stanley Cup was also decided that day. Game 5 of the Finals, and the Cup itself, were won at 2:53 of overtime, when Bill Barilko scored for the Toronto Maple Leafs, beating the Montreal Canadiens, 3-2 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. I have a separate entry for that event.

There were also Major League Baseball games played that day:

* The New York Yankees beat the Washington Senators, 8-7 at Griffith Stadium in Washington. The Yankees led 5-0 going into the bottom of the 6th inning, but Frank "Spec" Shea imploded. Allie Reynolds was brought in to stop the bleeding, but couldn't, and the Senators scored 7 runs.

But in the top of the 8th, Mickey Mantle, who had made his major league debut only 4 days earlier, doubled home Phil Rizzuto with the winning run. Joe DiMaggio, the man that right fielder Mantle was being groomed to replace in center field, also had an RBI double. Tom Ferrick ended up as the winning pitcher.

* The Brooklyn Dodgers beat the New York Giants, 7-3 at the Polo Grounds. Jackie Robinson hit a home run off Larry Jansen. Ralph Branca won the game in relief of starting pitcher Chris Van Cuyk. For the 1st 3/4ers of the season, the Dodgers would have the edge over the Giants. Even the arrival of Willie Mays from the minor leagues in May didn't help much at first. But in mid-August, things began to change, resulting in the game that would make Bobby Thomson the Bill Barilko of baseball.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Philadelphia Athletics, 6-3 at Fenway Park in Boston. Ted Williams hit a home run.

* The Boston Braves beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 8-6 at Shibe Park in Philadelphia.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 8-3 at Crosley Field in Cincinnati.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Chicago White Sox, 7-6 at Comiskey Park in Chicago.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the St. Louis Browns, 9-1 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.

* And a game at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis was rained out, and rescheduled for June 29. And they still couldn't find a winner: The Chicago Cubs and the St. Louis Cardinals were tied 6-6 after 9 innings, when it rained again, and it was called. The next day's game was rained out, too. Eventually, the June 30 game was made up, but the April 21/June 29 game never was.

Also, Arsenal drew with Bolton Wanderers, 1-1 at Highbury in North London.

And actor Tony Danza was born on this day.

January 6, 1951: The NBA's Longest Game

Ralph Beard. No, he didn't have one.

January 6, 1951: The longest game in National Basketball Association history is played. You might not recognize the name of either team, though. And the building in which it was played is long gone.

The building was the Edgerton Park Arena, in Edgerton Park, in Rochester, New York. It was built in 1892, had an artificial ice surface installed in 1935, and was home to the Rochester Royals from 1945 to 1955. But, at 4,200 seats, it was too small to be a major league sports facility, and the Royals moved to the Community War Memorial Arena.

The Royals had won the Championship of the National Basketball League in 1946, before joining the Basketball Association of America. The BAA and the NBL merged in 1949, to form the NBA, although the NBA now recognizes the BAA's founding in 1946 as its own founding. Their players included former Seton Hall University All-American Bob Davies and a flashy (for the time) point guard from Brooklyn named William "Red" Holzman.

Their opponents were the Indianapolis Olympians. They were so named because they signed up several members of the U.S. team that won the Gold Medal at the 1948 Olympics in London. Three of those were still there, men who had led the University of Kentucky to National Championships in 1948 and 1949: Alex Groza (brother of Cleveland Browns lineman and kicker Lou Groza), Ralph Beard and Cliff Barker.

The Royals came into the game a strong 18-11. The Olympians were shuffling along at 16-15. Apparently, those Kentucky Wildcats weren't used to professional competition. But, at least on this night, they adjusted: At the end of the 1st quarter, the Olympians led, 20-10.

The Royals came back, and it was 38-33 Indianapolis at the half. After 3 quarters, it was 57-53 Indianapolis. A strong 4th quarter resulted in the game being tied at the end of regulation, 65-65.

Unlike the NFL and the NHL, the NBA, then as now, had no provision for ties: Teams have always played until somebody won. But this was the era before the shot clock: In overtime, the idea was to get the ball, and stall until you could make a last-second shot; and, if you lost the ball, foul away.

Each team scored only 2 free throws in overtime, so it went to a 2nd overtime. Nobody scored in it, so the game went on. And on. And on. Each team scored only 2 free throws in the 3rd overtime. Nobody scored in the 4th. Each team scored 4 free throws in the 5th overtime. 

And so, for what remains the only time in professional basketball history -- neither the old ABL, nor the 1967-76 American Basketball Association, nor any women's league including the WNBA has had one go that long -- a 6th overtime was needed.

Finally, with 1 second left in that 6th OT, Beard put up a shot, and it went in. The Olympians had won, 75-73.

The game went 78 minutes, and Holzman, who later coached the Knicks to the 1970 and 1973 NBA Championships, played 76 of them. Harvey Frommer, better known as a travel writer but also the author of a few sports books, wrote Holzman's authorized biography, and quoted him as saying that this was 1 of 2 games in the 1950-51 season that led to the creation of the shot clock. The other was a game in which the Fort Wayne Pistons tried to freeze the ball against George Mikan and the Minneapolis Lakers.

The following season, Groza and Beard were charged with shaving points at Kentucky, and were banned from the NBA for life. Both men went on to work in the ABA, but their NBA bans were never lifted. Nor have they ever been elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame, as they likely would have if not for the scandal. The Olympians survived until the 1953 season, but, without their big stars, they couldn't draw fans, and folded.

The Royals went on to win the NBA Championship in 1951, beating the Knicks in the Finals in 7 games. In 1955, they moved to the Community War Memorial Arena, which still stands, now known as the Blue Cross Arena at the War Memorial, and home to minor-league hockey's Rochester Americans. 

But Rochester, the 3rd-biggest city in the State of New York behind New York City and Buffalo, was, and remains, too small to host a major league team. In 1957, the Royals moved to Cincinnati. They moved to become the Kansas City Kings in 1972, and again in 1985, becoming the Sacramento Kings.

Since 1951, the longest game in the NBA has been a 5-overtime game at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee on November 9, 1989, the day the Berlin Wall came down. The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Seattle SuperSonics, 155-154.

*

January 6, 1951 was a Saturday. Three other games were played in the NBA that day:

* The New York Knicks lost to the Syracuse Nationals, 87-85 at the old Madison Square Garden. This game only needed 1 overtime.

* The Baltimore Bullets beat the Philadelphia Warriors, 64-57 at the Baltimore Coliseum. No overtimes necessary. The Bullets folded in 1954, and the Warriors moved to San Francisco in 1962, taking the name "Golden State" in 1971. The aforementioned Syracuse Nationals took the Warriors' place in 1963, renaming themselves the Philadelphia 76ers.

* And the Fort Wayne Pistons beat the Washington Capitals, 91-76 at the Uline Arena. No overtimes necessary. The Capitols folded at the end of this season. However, their arena, later renamed the Washington Coliseum, still stands. The Pistons moved to Detroit in 1957.

There were 2 games played in the NHL that day: The New York Rangers beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 4-2 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto; and the Montreal Canadiens beat the Detroit Red Wings, 5-2 at the Montreal Forum.

And Arsenal played Carlisle United at Highbury in North London, in the 3rd round of the FA Cup, and the game ended in a 0-0 draw. That forced a replay at Carlisle, which Arsenal won, 4-1.

Also on this day, Kim Wilson, the leader singer of the rock band The Fabulous Thunderbirds, was born.