Willis Reed obit

Willis Reed, legendary Knicks Hall of Famer, dead at 80

 

 He was not on the list.

Willis Reed, the heart and soul of the Knicks’ most recent NBA championship teams, and the man who gave New York City sports one of its most iconic moments, died Tuesday, The Post has confirmed. He was 80.

Known simply as “The Captain” years before Derek Jeter was born, Reed played 10 seasons in the NBA, all with the Knicks, for whom he also served as coach and general manager after his playing career ended in 1974. He also coached and was an executive with the Nets when they played their games in New Jersey and was an executive with the New Orleans Hornets from 2004-07.

The first member of the Knicks to have his number retired, Reed was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1982 and was named among the 50 Greatest Players in NBA history during the 1996-97 season.

But it was during Game 7 of the 1970 NBA Finals that Reed carved his name in the hardwood history of Madison Square Garden and the league.

Injured late in Game 5 against the Lakers when he fell hard to the floor on a drive to the basket — a game the Knicks would manage to win without their leader who had scored 37, 29, 38 and 23 points in the series’ first four games — Reed missed Game 6 in Los Angeles as the Lakers evened the series at three games each.

And when the series returned to the Garden for Game 7, no one — not even his teammates — was quite sure whether Reed, who had injured his right thigh in that fall a few days earlier would be able to play — even his teammates. In fact, the Knicks hit the floor for pregame warm-ups without him.

“We left the locker room … not knowing if Willis was going to come out or not,” Bill Bradley, a forward on those championship teams, said years later.

Some 15 minutes later they had their emphatic answer. The Garden erupted when Reed limped out of the tunnel — it would forever after be known as “the Willis Reed tunnel” until it disappeared when the building was remodeled some 30 years later — and onto the court. Reed’s arrival drew the rapt attention of the Lakers as they warmed up. Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West, Elgin Baylor, hearing the ear-splitting ovation, all turned their gaze toward the other end of the floor where Reed had joined his teammates.

“I saw the whole Laker team standing around staring at this man,” said Reed’s teammate Walt Frazier, who would erupt for 38 points and 19 assists that night. “They stopped doing what they were doing to look and see how Willis was. Something told me then man, they’re very concerned. We may have these guys.”

Years later, Reed, who endured a pregame cortisone injection, said he never doubted he would play.

“This was something we all wanted very badly,” he said. “It was so close you could touch it. It’s one game. It was what I dreamed of as a high school kid. It was what I worked so hard in college for. Not only me, but everyone in that locker room. The coaches. Management.

“For me to not go out there to try and be a part of that, to try and give whatever I could — and I didn’t know what it was — then I would be letting them down and letting myself down. If I tried and failed that’s the way I wanted it. I didn’t want to be a guy who didn’t come out and show he had the guts and grit to be there. … That was the moment to try.”

The left-handed Reed, his thigh heavily wrapped, scored the game’s first basket from the top of the key. He would hit another 20-foot jumper the next time down the court and the Knicks, who would lead by as many as 29 points in the first half, were on their way to a 113-99 win and their first NBA title. Reed wouldn’t score another point. He wouldn’t need to.

“I thought the game was over at that point,” he said. “Once I made those two shots … if there was ever any doubt in our minds, there was no doubt. I didn’t score any more points but from that point on Clyde and [Dave] DeBusschere and the rest of the guys took over.”

Willis Reed Jr. was born June 25, 1942 in the tiny town of Hico, Louisiana a small community in Lincoln Parish. — “They don’t even have a population,” he once said — and grew up on a farm in nearby Bernice, La. He attended Grambling State University where he led the Tigers to an NAIA title and three Southwestern Athletic Conference titles. The Knicks, perennial losers in those days, selected him with the first pick of the second round in the 1964 NBA Draft — the eighth selection overall.

With Walt Bellamy at center, the 6-foot-9 and 235-pound Reed played power forward for several seasons as the Knicks continued to lose. When Red Holzman replaced Dick McGuire as coach during the 1967-68 season, the Knicks finished 43-39, their first winning season since 1958-59.

On Dec. 19, 1968, the Knicks traded Bellamy and Howard Komives to the Pistons in exchange for power forward Dave DeBusschere. That deal allowed Reed to move to center.

“Since that trade, I feel like a new person,” Reed said at the time. “Center is my position.”

The Knicks, buoyed by a much-improved defense, would win 54 games and make the playoffs that season, setting the stage for their world championship the following year. They would win the title again in 1972-73, besting the Lakers in five games. Reed was again named Finals MVP.

He appeared in seven All-Star games and averaged 18.7 points and 12.9 rebounds per game during his career, was named rookie of the year following the 1964-65 season — the first member of the Knicks to win that honor — and the league’s MVP after that 1969-70 season.

He would play in just 19 games during the 1973-74 season and did not play at all the following season before officially retiring. Reed replaced Holzman as coach in 1977, guiding an aging team to a 43-39 record. He was replaced as coach 14 games into the next season.

Reed, who briefly served as an assistant coach at St. John’s, was head coach at Creighton for four seasons in the early 1980s and was an assistant coach with the Atlanta Hawks and Sacramento Kings.

He took over as coach of a bad Nets team in late February 1988 and coached them through the following season when he joined the front office. In 1993, he was named the team’s general manager.

“Not a day goes by that someone doesn’t remind me of that game,” Reed said of that memorable night in 1970. “It was our moment in time.”

He grew up in Bernice, Louisiana. His parents worked to ensure Reed got an education in the segregated South. Reed showed athletic ability at an early age and played basketball at West Side High School in Lillie, Louisiana.

The Knicks slipped to a 52–30 record in the 1970–71 season, still good enough for first place in the Atlantic Division; and in mid-season, Reed tied Harry Gallatin's all-time club record by grabbing 33 rebounds against the Cincinnati Royals. Once again, Reed started in the All-Star Game. For the season, he averaged 20.9 points and 13.7 rebounds per game, but the Knicks were eliminated by the Baltimore Bullets in the Eastern Conference Finals. In 1971–72, Reed was bothered by tendinitis in his left knee, limiting his mobility. He missed two weeks early in the season and returned, but shortly thereafter the injured knee prohibited him from playing, and he totaled 11 games for the year. Without Reed, the Knicks still managed to make the NBA Finals, but were defeated in five games by the Los Angeles Lakers.

The 1972–73 Knicks finished the season with a 57–25 record and went on to win another NBA title. Reed was less of a contributor than he was two seasons earlier. In 69 regular season games, he averaged only 11.0 points. In the playoffs, the Knicks beat the Bullets and upset the Boston Celtics, and again faced the Lakers in the NBA Finals. After losing the first game, the Knicks captured four straight, claiming their second NBA championship with a 102–93 victory in game five, as Reed scored 18 points, grabbed 12 rebounds, and recorded 7 assists in the deciding victory. After the win, Reed was named NBA Finals MVP.

Reed's career was cut short by injuries, and he retired after the 1973–74 season. For his career, Reed averaged 18.7 points and 12.9 rebounds per game, playing 650 games. He played in seven All-Star Games.

Reed debuted as head coach of the New Jersey Nets on March 1, 1988, one week after the Nets' star forward (and Reed's cousin) Orlando Woolridge was suspended by the league and was to undergo drug rehabilitation. He compiled a 33–77 record with the Nets. In 1989, he was hired as the Nets' general manager and vice president of basketball operations (1989–1996). During this time, he drafted Derrick Coleman and Kenny Anderson, acquired Dražen Petrović, and made the Nets a playoff contender throughout the early 1990s. Reed hired Chuck Daly to coach the Nets for the 1992–93 and 1993–94 seasons. In 1996, Reed moved to the position of senior vice president of basketball operations, with the continued goal of building the Nets into a championship contender. The Nets made the NBA Finals in 2002 and 2003.

Reed next took the position of vice president of basketball operations with the New Orleans Hornets in 2004. He retired from that position in 2007.