Comments on: “Bock to the Future”: 1970 NBA Finals, Game 7

By: ATCQ

ATCQ — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 20:59:24 +0000

I was seven and living in Port Chester when this game was played. The TV broadcast was blacked out in the New York area, available only on tape delay at 11:30. So I listened to Marv Albert on the radio, with increasing joy at every Knick basket. It’s one of my happiest memories from childhood.

Even though the next day was not a school day, my parents would not let me stay up to watch the tape delay. So I never saw the game until recently, when I got a Knicks’ DVD collection that included this game. What most surprised me about it was just how much the Knicks relied on the jump shot here, and just how well they shot that night. I knew that the early 70s Knicks were a jump shooting team, but it was still pretty amazing to see a team score that consistently from outside. It was also amazing to watch the Lakers let Clyde victimize them time and time again with his ball-hawking.

Thanks for bringing out those happy memories.

By: ATCQ

ATCQ — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 20:58:57 +0000

By: Jim Cavan (@JPCavan)

Jim Cavan (@JPCavan) — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 20:51:19 +0000

A belated thanks for your thanks! Glad you enjoyed it, Z-man.

@kaine — Challenge accepted!

By: Z-man

Z-man — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 00:27:28 +0000

A belated thanks for this Jim. I was in 12-13 year old heaven during this time and listened to virtually every minute of every non-televised regular season and playoff game on the radio with Marv doing the play-by-play. Even after my Mets and Jets had just done the impossible, nothing compared to this moment in my life as a sports fan. While I loved Clyde, Dave D, Dollar Bill, Tricky Dick and the rest, it is difficult to impress upon the current fan how far above them Willis Reed was in the eyes of the fan of that day. He was literally larger than life, a truly revered, heroic, and inspirational figure that far transcended his stats. In 1969-70, Bill Russell had just retired, and Wilt, then viewed by many as the most imposing figure in all of sports (in 1971 there was serious talk of him fighting Ali), was still out there, starving for a championship, without Bill Russell to get in the way, and with Baylor and West to boot. The Knicks, despite being one of the NBA’s original franchises and playing in the greatest city in the country, had not yet won a title, and the entire city was in an absolute frenzy over this series. Then Willis goes down in Game 5, and Wilt, the mythical giant who every kid in schoolyard knew had gone for his legendary 100 against us, goes off in game 6. With the title so close I could taste it, I was absolutely devastated, resigned to the fact that it wasn’t gonna happen, not with Wilt and West in the way, not without The Captain. Then the impossible happens:Willis, the stoic Captain, drags himself out of the tunnel, sticks the first two shots, and lifts his formerly hapless franchise on his back, even if for just a few minutes, and wills them to the title in front of the home fans.

In short, I hope the Knicks win another title or 10 before I take the deep six, but I wouldn’t trade ten titles for that awesome childhood memory, and will never tire of its re-telling.

By: kaine

kaine — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 08:17:49 +0000

I vote for knicks-bucks with the duel between alcindor & reed

By: Nick C.

Nick C. — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 10:47:56 +0000

Good stuff. So this big 3 thing is not original. My my. :-) Barnett was known, or at least I have read and heard, for his unique shooting style. Every now and then Clyde will pop out with the “fall back baby jumper” in reference to Barnett.