Willis Reed died at the age of eighty.
The only two championships in the history of the New York Knicks — 1970 and 1973 — were won by him; The only two Finals MVPs in team history belong to him; The only regular-season MVP in team history that belongs to him.
and the 1969-70 season, when he won that year's regular-season MVP, Finals MVP, and All-Star MVP. The next time this happens will have to be Jordan in 1996.
And most famously, in Game 7 of the 1970 Finals, he returned with an injury and led the Knicks to the championship.
It is said that the top honors in the Knicks' team history were all won by him; But the media has always been listed as the greatest player in New York history, and Reid is not necessarily the first. His teammate Fraser, as well as Ewing Sr., occasionally lined up ahead of him.
- Because Ridnicks only has 12,000 points in his career - Ewing 23,000.
Because the Yuejin Knicks played more than a thousand games, Reid 650.
Of the great centers, probably only Bill Walton has played fewer games than Reid.
The most legendary moment of Reid's career, the seventh game of the 1970 Finals with an injury, can actually be a microcosm of his career:
He burned his career and lit up New York team history.
Reid was a centre, but he had only 206 centimeters.
Russell is not tall as a center, but the photo comparison shows that Reid is not as tall as Russell; As for the confrontation against Chamberlain, Thurmond and later Tianjiao, Reid had to look up to them even more.
Not tall enough, try to make up.
In 1964, Reid entered the industry and played center; A year and a half after the Giants Bellamy came to the Knicks, Reid went to play power forward: He spent a summer working a jumper. In fact, he was the best center pitcher of his time.
Let's put it this way: Reid has 75 percent of his career free throw percentage — and contemporary centers: Oxlade-Chamberlain 54 percent, Thurmond 66 percent, Bellamy 63 percent. Later, McAdoo, a three-time scoring champion who "shot like silk", had a career free throw percentage of 75%.
The only contemporaneous center who made free throws than Reid was Covings, an old Celtics maniac. The reason is simple: Reed 206 cm 107 kg, Covance 206 cm 104 kg.
Not tall enough, try to make up.
In 1967, the Knicks welcomed Walter Fraser, and two years later Russell retired, ending the Celtic dynasty, and the New York Knicks rose in the East.
At the time, Knicks coach Red Holzman decided to create a special force.
The previous year, the Knicks gave up the 211cm giant Bellamy and got back 198cm forward Deboucher; In this year, De Buscher at 198cm, Reid at 206cm and Bill Bradley at 196cm formed the striker, and defenders Fraser and Dick Barnett, also 193cm, supported the backfield. Their offensive and defensive styles are unique. Defensively, Reid's nimble, Debcher's versatility, and Fraser enough to stifle the opponent's defense of the ball; On the offensive end, Jerry West describes them as "everyone can shoot from 15 feet away," with teamwork, selflessness, quick passing, and multi-point shooting being their hallmarks.
From today's perspective:
Space swing array.
The mid-range shooting that Willis Reed practiced to change to power forward also paid off: this year he became a mainstay of the Knicks, defensively he made up for his height with ferocity, and on offense he relied on mid-range shots to keep the giants at a loss. He complemented Fraser and Debscher to make the Knicks' defense like an iron lock. In fact, they played the earliest oppressive defense in NBA history.
Coach Holzman tends to simplify everything, and he often chants:
"Playing basketball is not rocket technology! It's people who play basketball! Just get people! ”
The New York Knicks played as a team in such a rapport atmosphere. The regular season was 60-22 and No. 1 in the NBA, and Willis Reed was named the 1969–70 regular-season MVP.
In the playoffs that year, the Knicks passed the bullets with Unced, and the Bucks with rookie hooks.
In the 1970 Finals, the New York Knicks faced the Los Angeles Lakers - the Lakers, who had Chamberlain, West and Baylor, who had lost the Celtics 3-4 the year before and missed out on the championship.
Digression: West averaged 31.2 points per game this year, winning the only scoring title of his career. He was named to the NBA First Team, as well as the NBA's First Defensive Team that year.
In addition to West, as many as three other members — De Buscher, Fraser and Reid — are members of the New York Knicks.
In Game 1 of the Finals, the Knicks relied on Ridra to make space, Fraser played strongly, and the Knicks made multiple shots. At one point, the Knicks led by 20 points in the second quarter. West scored 33 points on 17 free throws, but in the final moments, the Knicks went 31-12 to finish the game and Fraser made a layup to seal the game.
Reid had 37 points and 16 rebounds on 206 cm, and Chamberlain with 216 cm had 17 points and 24 rebounds but made 1 of 10 free throws.
In the final moments of the second game, West and Chamberlain chased the gap to 101. The Lakers' Dick Garrett hit a corner shot to keep the Lakers trailing by 2 points, with 46 seconds left, and Chamberlain didn't want to watch Reed anymore, covered his layup, and the Lakers won.
Chamberlain had 19 points and 24 rebounds and West had 34 points. Fraser had 11 points, 12 rebounds and 11 assists, and Reid had 29 points and 15 rebounds.
The Lakers led 56-42 in the first half of Game 3, but West's hand injury, combined with fatigue, allowed the Knicks to tenaciously catch up. West's old teammate Barnett kept raiding West. At the end of the game to 100 draws, Bradley relied on Debscher to cover and hit a mid-range shot, leading 102-100, leaving only 3 seconds for the Lakers. Chamberlain made a free throw, West received the ball and advanced from 55 feet away in the half, and immediately before the end of the game, a long-range shot was raised: the ball crossed a rainbow and fell straight to the basket. 102 draws, both sides overtime. This is the half-time lore of the West legend.
At that time, the Lakers commentator Hern yelled:
"Good ball! If such a ball doesn't save the Lakers... Oh, my God! ”
However, the Lakers lacked overtime. De Busher covered Baylor's shot and sealed the win for the Knicks himself with a jump shot. The Lakers trailed 2-1.
In Game 4, West was shaky, shooting 13-of-26 for 37 points and 18 assists: the Lakers scored a total of 33 goals except him. Baylor had 30 points and 13 rebounds, and Chamberlain had 18 points, 25 rebounds and 7 assists, but Baylor was a little confused after the game, and he felt that there was always something wrong without Bill Russell and the Celtics in the Finals.
"It's kind of unreal. We're playing the finals, right? But I always felt that we won the Knicks and where the Celtics were waiting for us. ”
In the fifth game of Tianwang Mountain, the Lakers shot 12 of the first 15, once led 25-15, led by 13 points at halftime, and Reid played 8 minutes of the game before being injured; At the time, it seemed like the Knicks were going to die. But the Knicks' perimeter defense began to show its fangs: The Lakers made 30 turnovers and shot 40 of 66 free throws, while the Knicks made 103 shots in 19 free throws. Six of the Knicks scored more than 12 points, while the Lakers had only three aces over 20. The Knicks won 107-100 and led 3-2.
But in Game 6, without Reid, the Knicks were powerless to fight back. Chamberlain did whatever he wanted, shooting 20-of-27 with 45 points and 27 rebounds to completely dominate the game, plus West's 33 points and 13 assists, the Lakers won 135-113, 3-3.
This is the antecedent of Game 7:
The Knicks were supposed to lead 3-2, but Reid was injured; In Game 6, Chamberlain had 45 points and 27 rebounds, and in Game 7, the Knicks needed someone to deal with Chamberlain, otherwise they would let Chamberlain do whatever he wanted at home.
And so came the legendary moment:
Before the game, fans at Madison Garden in New York were worried and struggling, and then, when they saw Willis Reid limping out of the stadium aisle, "The crowd went wild." "- the fans are crazy.
Although many years later, Fraser said, the team knew of Reid's appearance in advance — "I went to the locker room and he was already bandaged." "—But the moment of the king's return did ignite the fans of Madison Garden and gave the Lakers a head start.
In the opening game, Reid faced Chamberlain with two mid-range shots and scored the Knicks' first 4 points, which made the fans explode: watching Reid limp to defend Chamberlain, it seemed that even the Lakers had a complete mental breakdown.
In that game, Reid played only 27 minutes, scoring only two opening goals to score four points. In fact, that game was a Knicks victory: Fraser, Bradley and DeBusher hit 15 of their first 21 shots, giving the Knicks a 69-42 lead in the first half. Fraser had 36 points and 19 assists against West, including a legendary ball stealer, and many years later the game was hailed as the greatest seventh show. West still had 28 points, Baylor still had 19 points and Chamberlain still had 21 points and 24 rebounds.
But the most crucial detail of that game was momentum.
Chamberlain, who had 45 points and 27 rebounds in the previous game, still had 21 points and 24 rebounds this time. But the terrible thing is that in the most intense moments of the game, Chamberlain was constantly sent to the free throw line:
113-99, the Knicks defeated the Lakers in Game 7 and won the championship 4-3. The first championship in the history of the New York Knicks. Willis Reed became the Finals MVP and became the first full-length MVP in NBA history to win the regular-season, All-Star Game and Finals MVP in the same year. In the locker room after the game, Howard Cassel, who was later hailed as the first sports journalist in American history, said to Reid, who returned from the injured battle king, with tears in his eyes:
"You embody the best of all things in the human spirit!"
Momentum.
Many years later, Tianhook spat on Chamberlain in his famous open letter:
"Russell and the Celtics snatched the title from you once in 1969, and the Knicks did the same thing in 1970. People wonder why you disappeared from those games.
All the Lakers needed was a win in front of Willis Reid, who was injured and couldn't move. But Willis still fought to the end and was still able to motivate his teammates. For quite a while, the Knicks played center with a 201cm 91kg Dave Starworth and 208cm 98kg Knight Bowman, and you didn't feel like you didn't exist in that game. ”
Momentum.
Two years later, Reid was injured and missed the entire playoffs. In 1972, the Knicks still reached the Finals, losing 4-1 to the Lakers. Chamberlain won the only Finals MVP of his career.
The next season, Reid returns. That year, he was so injured that he could only play 27 minutes per game and score 11 points. The Knicks' front line that year was bizarre:
198cm all-around swinger Dave DeBuscher, 203cm rebounding madman Jerry Lucas, 206cm injured Reid, and a 203cm hippie curly forward Jackson.
With such a small lineup, the Finals met the Lakers for the third time in four years. It was also the last time Fraser met West.
"It's great to see Jerry again." Fraser sneered, "It's a battle of dignity between us." "He's 28 and he's at his peak, while West is 35.
"I'm really struggling with things right now, especially on the offensive end." West said. "I used to find a good shot at any time, and now I can – but maybe the opportunity is not as good as it used to be."
The Lakers won one game, and the Knicks turned over four games in a row. In the fifth game, West ran out of energy and ended his immortal Finals career with 12 points on 5-of-17 shooting. Chamberlain had 23 points and 21 rebounds, but unsurprisingly shot 5 of 14 free throws. The Knicks scored double-doubles for five points, with Reid having 18 points, 12 rebounds and 7 assists and Monroe 23 points.
The Knicks successfully solved the Lakers' revenge 4-1 and won the 1973 championship. Reid won his second Finals MVP.
Chamberlain showed his terrifying bouncing power with a jamming ball in the final moments of the game, as well as his unwillingness:
In the fourth year of Russell's retirement, he only won one championship, and sat back and watched Willis Reed and the Knicks take two championships.
In 1972, when Reid was absent, he won the championship; In both Reid's 1970s and 1973, Chamberlain could only watch the Knicks win the championship.
It is said that Russell is Chamberlain's hit star - in fact, Reid can also be.
Especially in 1973, he was injured and the offensive end deteriorated significantly, but he also won a Finals MVP: it was just to anger Chamberlain!
Later stories.
After the 1973 Finals, Reid burned himself out with an injury and retired with West and Chamberlain.
But the Knicks' style of play became popular, in the words of West's lament in 1970:
'They're so smart, Reid is so active, they're so successful with Reid, all of them can shoot, and they're all able to get 15-foot shots and shoot accurately as a team that can run through the cuts.
In the 1972–73 season, the Celtics won 68 regular season wins with a 206-centimeter Covans center, and Lucas said Covance was "almost like a 206cm West, he's so fast, one moment in front of you, and he's already under the basket." He appeared everywhere. ”
In 1974 and 1976, the Celtics won two championships.
To put it another way:
The 1970 and 1973 championship Knicks, center Reid is 206 cm tall.
The 1974 and 1976 championship Celtics, center Coevens is 206cm tall.
The 1975 championship Warriors, center Ray is 206 cm tall - they have previously sent away the 211 cm giant Thurmond.
The 1978 championship bullet, center Unsail is 201 cm tall.
The other side:
The 1971 and 1972 championship champions Bucks and Lakers, centers Tengou and Chamberlain, are 218 and 216 cm tall.
1977 championship Blazers, center Wharton is 211 cm tall.
The 1979 championship was supersonic, and center Sickma was 211 cm tall.
In a way, Reid, an early space center, and the Knicks' "everyone can shoot 15 feet" space swing lineup, the success of Chamberlain's Tyrannosaurus rex, made the small center team popular in the 1970s.
People are no longer so obsessed with big centers like Chamberlain, Bellamy, and Thurmond in the 1960s, and they are trying more variety of routines.
A little further:
The tallest of the Knicks' 1973 championship line, besides Reid, was curly-haired hippie forward Phil Jackson.
He witnessed how small strikers strangled giants and learned how peripheral defensive devils like Fraser and all-around strikers like Debscher can affect games.
Many years later, he became the head coach of the Chicago Bulls, not so much as a super center, but with a nimble swing formation, with Jordan, Pippen and Rodman's pinching rotation to deal with the league's giants.
That Knicks, Fraser, Barnett, Bradley, Deboucher, Monroe, Lucas, Reed's Knicks, that's it.
So Reid's return from the injured king in Game 7 of the 1970 Finals against the giant Chamberlain, who had 45 points and 27 rebounds in the previous game, was the team's most glorious moment: tenacity, hard work, speed, fighting spirit.
In the end, Reid's career, and the Knicks team behind him, the four-year-two-championship New York team in history, all returned to that sentence:
Not tall enough, try to make up.