[The NBA Finals are here, making it a good time to revisit Willis Reed’s legendary 1970 Game Seven in New York’s Madison Square Garden. What follows is Reed’s own thoughts on the game published in June 1977 as part of Basketball Digest’s “The Game I’ll Never Forget” series. This series is great in theory for its access to former players of all stripes. But in practice, the player narratives are clearly not only ghost-written, they are majorly reworked to answer basic journalistic questions that make the articles more readable. It leaves you wondering how much each player actually contributed to threshing out their unforgettable memory. Here, Reed’s remembrance is written up by veteran New York Post reporter Jim O’Brien. He still reworked the narrative, but it’s less processed than the articles bylined by his Basketball Digest colleague Bert Rosenthal. You can hear Reed’s voice more clearly, and that’s what makes it worth a quick read. Enjoy!]
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The most enjoyable and the most important game was the seventh game of our championship series with the Lakers on May 8, 1970. That’s the one where I scored the first two baskets the first two times down the floor, and that’s all I scored. We got off to a great start and never let up on the Lakers, and we won the first NBA title the Knicks ever won in the history of the franchise. That was my ultimate goal.
Hey, I would’ve liked to have scored 35 points against Wilt Chamberlain and to have dunked one over him like Dr. J did over Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in this year’s all-star game. But I’m satisfied with those four points and the way we won that title.
I said afterward that it was the greatest game of my career. Reporters asked me how I’d ever be able to explain to my son that in the most important game of my career, I scored only four points. But that’s like when they asked me if I would prefer to win the championship on our homecourt in New York’s Madison Square Garden rather than in The Forum outside Los Angeles. Hey, I’d take a championship back home in Bernice, Louisiana or anywhere.
I didn’t know what I was going to be able to do that night. But there was no way, after waiting all that time . . . all those years, that I wasn’t going to play. My right knee was killing me. I have tendinitis in it, and it had bothered me late in the season. It still bothers me. I hurt it worse in the championship series with the Lakers and missed the sixth game in Los Angeles. But if I had to hop on one leg, I was going to be in that final game. That was it. There was no way I could sit out and [not] be a man. When the opportunity knocks, you have to answer. Let me give you some background on what led up to that final game.
I was hurting going into the playoffs. The pain in my knee hampered my plan. I had to regularly submit to injections of cortisone, a drug that reduces inflammation and soreness. We opened up the playoffs for the second-straight year against our good friends, the Baltimore Bullets. I went against Wes Unseld, who also had a sore knee in that one. It was a tough series, and we went the seven-game limit before beating out the Bullets by 127-114 at the Garden. My best game in that series was the fifth one, in which I had 36 points and 36 rebounds. Afterward, I called it “the best” important game I ever played.” Of course, I didn’t know what was yet to come.
In the second round, we were opposed by the Milwaukee Bucks. They had a rookie center named Lew Alcindor, now called Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Between rounds, I went to the doctor’s to have my aching knee checked out. It wasn’t any better, but it wasn’t any worse, either.
We beat the Bucks in five games and were particularly impressive in the deciding game, which I felt would give us good momentum for the Lakers, who’d knocked off the Suns in seven games and the Hawks in four to get to the finals. Playing in the finals was nothing new to the Lakers. Since moving to Los Angeles in 1960, they had appeared in the finals six times in nine seasons. Boston had always beaten them in the championship series. They had some team with Elgin Baylor, Chamberlain, Jerry West, Gail Goodrich, Happy Hairston, Keith Erickson, and Dick Garrett. In West, Baylor, and Chamberlain, they had three superstars.
Chamberlain was coming back from major surgery on his knee. Few expected him back at all during the season, even for the playoffs, and some even thought he might be finished for good. But he returned just in time for the playoffs, and he was great. I was curious as to how Chamberlain was playing or how he might’ve changed his style after the surgery. Chamberlain didn’t move as much as he used to, which was important to know because he overmatched me physically.
We won the opening game, 124-112, and I had 37 points and came away with a sore shoulder as well. The Lakers won the second game at the Garden, getting 34 points from West and 24 rebounds by Chamberlain in a 105–103 victory.
The third game will be best remembered for West hitting an incredible shot estimated at 55 to 60 feet to send the contest into overtime. We won it, 111-108. I had 38 points and 17 rebounds, but Chamberlain came up with 21 points and 26 rebounds. West jammed his thumb badly in the ballgame, and he was a doubtful starter in the fourth game.
We went into overtime again in the fourth game, and West played 50 to 55 minutes to score 37 points and had 18 assists. His 20-footer broke a 103-103 tie in the overtime to put the Lakers out front to stay, and they went on to win, 121-115. Baylor had 30 points and 13 rebounds, Chamberlain 18 points and 25 rebounds. And I remember John Tresvant, who didn’t get to play much, coming up with some clutch help. Dick Barnett had 29 points to pace us.
I won’t soon forget the fifth game. The Lakers raced to a 25-15 lead. With less than four minutes remaining in the first period, I was driving to the hoop, and I fell to the floor with a strained hip muscle. As I lay on the floor, clutching my right hip, I remember hearing DeBusschere groan, “Oh my God.” The Garden fell silent. I think everybody was in shock. I was through for the night.
Red Holzman really showed his stuff after that. He improvised and had Nate Bowman, then Bill Hoskett, and finally DeBusschere play center in my place. At halftime, Holzman told the team, “Let’s win this one for Willis. He’s won a lot of games for us, let’s win one for him.” Before they took the court, Dave Stallworth and Cazzie Russell, who both came back from physical disasters themselves, stopped by the trainer’s room, where I was lying on a long table, and said, “We’re going to win it for you.” And darned if they didn’t, outlasting the Lakers to win by 107-100.
In the sixth game at Los Angeles, I sat on the bench in street clothes and watched as Chamberlain poured in 45 points and piled up 27 rebounds as the Lakers let us have it, 135-113. West had 33 points and 13 assists. DeBusschere was the best for us with 25 points, and Russell had 23.
As we left Los Angeles that night, DeBusschere came over to me and spoke about the next and final game. “Try to make it just half a game,” he pleaded. “Just come out on the court Friday night, and we’ll be champs.” I said I’d try.
That Friday, I underwent treatment for several hours in the afternoon. When I warmed up that night, I just shot one-handed push shots. I didn’t do any jumping at all. Donnie May shagged rebounds for me.
When I was coming off the court after the warm-up, Wilt asked me, “How is it?” I smiled, “Well, I can’t move to my right too well.” That was a joke, of course, because I never could do that. I smiled, but it hurt like hell.
The doctors assured me I couldn’t hurt myself any more if I played. I came out on the floor just before the tip-off because the doctor delayed in giving me my shot. He didn’t want it to wear off before the first half was over.
When I appeared in the arena, the crowd went crazy. They exploded in a traumatic roar, and that helped as much as the shot to keep me going. I needed something more than emotion to carry me, though. I had a gameplan. I went out to try and contain Wilt, if possible, on one leg. I was determined that he wouldn’t score the way he did in the sixth game, but I felt he couldn’t play any better than he did that night. After the tip-off, I moved oh-so deliberately downcourt and shot one of my little one-handers. In it went. The crowd roared. Chamberlain scored for the Lakers, Bill Bradley hit a free throw for us, and then I hit another one-hander from outside the foul circle.
I crumpled going for a rebound late in the first period and had to come out for a while. We were doing all right, however. We’d taken a 19-10 lead and were up by 38-24 at the quarter. The Lakers never got back into the game. Walt Frazier was fantastic for us. He had 36 points and 19 assists, which tied Bob Cousy’s playoff record for assists. DeBusschere had 17 rebounds and 18 points. Barnett had 21 points and Bradley 17.
Chamberlain finished with 21 points and 24 rebounds, while West had 28 points. Those were pretty good numbers, and they looked even better next to mine: I played 27 minutes, hit 2 of 5 shots for 4 points. I had 3 rebounds and an assist.
Not very pretty, but you couldn’t prove that by me. I had some nerve going up against the greatest all-around center in NBA history in my condition, but I’m glad I made the effort. It was worth it.
From Way Downtown 