Happy Birthday Dick Barnett

[quote="Beast of the East" post=399369][quote="BrookJersey Redmen" post=399367]Fantastic memory of those Knick teams, loved '70 more. Dick B was so good at scoring and bringing those legs close in like that was not to be replicated. After '73, I lost interest in the NBA and frankly the Knicks too, though from '65 to '75 I was an avid Knicks fan. I followed them only casually during the Ewing years.

Happy Birthday Dick!

Red Holzman was the driving force, his "see the ball, see the man" defense was a pleasure to watch. His "hit the open man" offense was unselfish basketball at its finest. The ball almost always ended up with the best open shot in the sequence. No chucking it up from anywhere with a guy draped on you. If you did that Red sat you down. No one on that team was hung up on individual stats, it was all about the team and winning.

What a brilliant team, right down to Dayton U's own Donnie May, Ohio State's Bill Hosket and our own John Warren (2.5 ppg)

Interesting Phil Jackson was not on that team, but he was on the '73 team.

I am old enough to remember when Knicks were coached by Dick McGuire/Eddie Donovan and had Howie Komives, Walt Bells Bellamy and Dick VanArsdale and lost a lot. The Dave DeB trade along with Holzman turned it all around.[/quote]

Cardiac or back problems.[/quote]
As someone pointed out, it was a back problem. However it was the late Dave "The Rave" Stallworth who sat out a year due to cardiac problems. The lanky 6-7 (at best) ex-Wheat Shocker busted his gut having to defend Wilt after Willis Reed went down. I feel sorry for fans who never saw those Knicks teams; they were something special; basketball at its best.
 
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[quote="redken" post=399479][quote="Beast of the East" post=399369][quote="BrookJersey Redmen" post=399367]Fantastic memory of those Knick teams, loved '70 more. Dick B was so good at scoring and bringing those legs close in like that was not to be replicated. After '73, I lost interest in the NBA and frankly the Knicks too, though from '65 to '75 I was an avid Knicks fan. I followed them only casually during the Ewing years.

Happy Birthday Dick!

Red Holzman was the driving force, his "see the ball, see the man" defense was a pleasure to watch. His "hit the open man" offense was unselfish basketball at its finest. The ball almost always ended up with the best open shot in the sequence. No chucking it up from anywhere with a guy draped on you. If you did that Red sat you down. No one on that team was hung up on individual stats, it was all about the team and winning.

What a brilliant team, right down to Dayton U's own Donnie May, Ohio State's Bill Hosket and our own John Warren (2.5 ppg)

Interesting Phil Jackson was not on that team, but he was on the '73 team.

I am old enough to remember when Knicks were coached by Dick McGuire/Eddie Donovan and had Howie Komives, Walt Bells Bellamy and Dick VanArsdale and lost a lot. The Dave DeB trade along with Holzman turned it all around.[/quote]

Cardiac or back problems.[/quote]
As someone pointed out, it was a back problem. However it was the late Dave "The Rave" Stallworth who sat out a year due to cardiac problems. The lanky 6-7 (at best) ex-Wheat Shocker busted his gut having to defend Wilt after Willis Reed went down. I feel sorry for fans who never saw those Knicks teams; they were something special.[/quote]

Yup. Dead on. Stallworth was great in game 5, when the knicks neutralized wilt with reed out. Bradley if I recall was great in game 5 also.
 
[quote="redken" post=399479][quote="Beast of the East" post=399369][quote="BrookJersey Redmen" post=399367]Fantastic memory of those Knick teams, loved '70 more. Dick B was so good at scoring and bringing those legs close in like that was not to be replicated. After '73, I lost interest in the NBA and frankly the Knicks too, though from '65 to '75 I was an avid Knicks fan. I followed them only casually during the Ewing years.

Happy Birthday Dick!

Red Holzman was the driving force, his "see the ball, see the man" defense was a pleasure to watch. His "hit the open man" offense was unselfish basketball at its finest. The ball almost always ended up with the best open shot in the sequence. No chucking it up from anywhere with a guy draped on you. If you did that Red sat you down. No one on that team was hung up on individual stats, it was all about the team and winning.

What a brilliant team, right down to Dayton U's own Donnie May, Ohio State's Bill Hosket and our own John Warren (2.5 ppg)

Interesting Phil Jackson was not on that team, but he was on the '73 team.

I am old enough to remember when Knicks were coached by Dick McGuire/Eddie Donovan and had Howie Komives, Walt Bells Bellamy and Dick VanArsdale and lost a lot. The Dave DeB trade along with Holzman turned it all around.[/quote]

Cardiac or back problems.[/quote]
As someone pointed out, it was a back problem. However it was the late Dave "The Rave" Stallworth who sat out a year due to cardiac problems. The lanky 6-7 (at best) ex-Wheat Shocker busted his gut having to defend Wilt after Willis Reed went down. I feel sorry for fans who never saw those Knicks teams; they were something special; basketball at its best.[/quote]

Equally as special as watching those teams, was listening to Marv call the games on radio. "Yes!!!"
 
[quote="Monte" post=399481][quote="redken" post=399479][quote="Beast of the East" post=399369][quote="BrookJersey Redmen" post=399367]Fantastic memory of those Knick teams, loved '70 more. Dick B was so good at scoring and bringing those legs close in like that was not to be replicated. After '73, I lost interest in the NBA and frankly the Knicks too, though from '65 to '75 I was an avid Knicks fan. I followed them only casually during the Ewing years.

Happy Birthday Dick!

Red Holzman was the driving force, his "see the ball, see the man" defense was a pleasure to watch. His "hit the open man" offense was unselfish basketball at its finest. The ball almost always ended up with the best open shot in the sequence. No chucking it up from anywhere with a guy draped on you. If you did that Red sat you down. No one on that team was hung up on individual stats, it was all about the team and winning.

What a brilliant team, right down to Dayton U's own Donnie May, Ohio State's Bill Hosket and our own John Warren (2.5 ppg)

Interesting Phil Jackson was not on that team, but he was on the '73 team.

I am old enough to remember when Knicks were coached by Dick McGuire/Eddie Donovan and had Howie Komives, Walt Bells Bellamy and Dick VanArsdale and lost a lot. The Dave DeB trade along with Holzman turned it all around.[/quote]

Cardiac or back problems.[/quote]
As someone pointed out, it was a back problem. However it was the late Dave "The Rave" Stallworth who sat out a year due to cardiac problems. The lanky 6-7 (at best) ex-Wheat Shocker busted his gut having to defend Wilt after Willis Reed went down. I feel sorry for fans who never saw those Knicks teams; they were something special; basketball at its best.[/quote]

Equally as special as watching those teams, was listening to Marv call the games on radio. "Yes!!!"[/quote]
If I remember correctly, the 1970 title series games at MSG were blacked out in New York. However, I was "lucky" enough to have been drafted six months earlier and was assigned to a post in Atlanta, where I got to see every game. The only time I was happy to be in the Army.
 
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The seventh game of the 1970 finals was blacked out in NYC on regular tv but was available on some cable station. Watched it in a friends apartment in Stuyvesant Town. After Willis Reeds entrance the game was actually a bore unless you were a Knick fan.
 
[quote="Enright" post=399484]The seventh game of the 1970 finals was blacked out in NYC on regular tv but was available on some cable station. Watched it in a friends apartment in Stuyvesant Town. After Willis Reeds entrance the game was actually a bore unless you were a Knick fan.[/quote]
I "watched" it live on a snowy, grainy, wavy CH 3 a Connecticut station all the while playing with the rabbit ears of my 19 inch black and white television set and then if I remember correctly later that night on tape delay on a NY station.
 
[quote="Monte" post=399481][quote="redken" post=399479][quote="Beast of the East" post=399369][quote="BrookJersey Redmen" post=399367]Fantastic memory of those Knick teams, loved '70 more. Dick B was so good at scoring and bringing those legs close in like that was not to be replicated. After '73, I lost interest in the NBA and frankly the Knicks too, though from '65 to '75 I was an avid Knicks fan. I followed them only casually during the Ewing years.

Happy Birthday Dick!

Red Holzman was the driving force, his "see the ball, see the man" defense was a pleasure to watch. His "hit the open man" offense was unselfish basketball at its finest. The ball almost always ended up with the best open shot in the sequence. No chucking it up from anywhere with a guy draped on you. If you did that Red sat you down. No one on that team was hung up on individual stats, it was all about the team and winning.

What a brilliant team, right down to Dayton U's own Donnie May, Ohio State's Bill Hosket and our own John Warren (2.5 ppg)

Interesting Phil Jackson was not on that team, but he was on the '73 team.

I am old enough to remember when Knicks were coached by Dick McGuire/Eddie Donovan and had Howie Komives, Walt Bells Bellamy and Dick VanArsdale and lost a lot. The Dave DeB trade along with Holzman turned it all around.[/quote]

Cardiac or back problems.[/quote]
As someone pointed out, it was a back problem. However it was the late Dave "The Rave" Stallworth who sat out a year due to cardiac problems. The lanky 6-7 (at best) ex-Wheat Shocker busted his gut having to defend Wilt after Willis Reed went down. I feel sorry for fans who never saw those Knicks teams; they were something special; basketball at its best.[/quote]

Equally as special as watching those teams, was listening to Marv call the games on radio. "Yes!!!"[/quote]

Sounds ridiculous, but listening to Marv on radio was in many ways better than watching on TV. So many ways to describe him, but he had this cadence that beyond words illustrated what was going on.

Sometimes they were short machne gun bursts - "Frazier top of the key swings to Bradley on the right baseline. he dribbles left cross court Barnett, Side jump - Yes." Band-bang-bang.

Other times, it was a building excitement in his voice, where he could feel that something great was about to happen. "Frazier across the midcourt line, behind the back dribble, finds Debusshere on the right side, pass in the lane to Monroe, spinning on Goodrich, put it up and in! YES and it counts! Beautiful move by Monroe! The Pearl to the line for a e point play! Time out by the Lakers..."

Without those Knicks, a generation of New Yorkers would not have fallen in love with basketball. Not sure if Albert has a banner at MSG, but he should.

Every crappy grade in middle school and HS could be blamed on the Knicks, who at the time, were much more important than school to me.
 
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[quote="Beast of the East" post=399563][quote="Monte" post=399481][quote="redken" post=399479][quote="Beast of the East" post=399369][quote="BrookJersey Redmen" post=399367]Fantastic memory of those Knick teams, loved '70 more. Dick B was so good at scoring and bringing those legs close in like that was not to be replicated. After '73, I lost interest in the NBA and frankly the Knicks too, though from '65 to '75 I was an avid Knicks fan. I followed them only casually during the Ewing years.

Happy Birthday Dick!

Red Holzman was the driving force, his "see the ball, see the man" defense was a pleasure to watch. His "hit the open man" offense was unselfish basketball at its finest. The ball almost always ended up with the best open shot in the sequence. No chucking it up from anywhere with a guy draped on you. If you did that Red sat you down. No one on that team was hung up on individual stats, it was all about the team and winning.

What a brilliant team, right down to Dayton U's own Donnie May, Ohio State's Bill Hosket and our own John Warren (2.5 ppg)

Interesting Phil Jackson was not on that team, but he was on the '73 team.

I am old enough to remember when Knicks were coached by Dick McGuire/Eddie Donovan and had Howie Komives, Walt Bells Bellamy and Dick VanArsdale and lost a lot. The Dave DeB trade along with Holzman turned it all around.[/quote]

Cardiac or back problems.[/quote]
As someone pointed out, it was a back problem. However it was the late Dave "The Rave" Stallworth who sat out a year due to cardiac problems. The lanky 6-7 (at best) ex-Wheat Shocker busted his gut having to defend Wilt after Willis Reed went down. I feel sorry for fans who never saw those Knicks teams; they were something special; basketball at its best.[/quote]

Equally as special as watching those teams, was listening to Marv call the games on radio. "Yes!!!"[/quote]

Sounds ridiculous, but listening to Marv on radio was in many ways better than watching on TV. So many ways to describe him, but he had this cadence that beyond words illustrated what was going on.

Sometimes they were short machne gun bursts - "Frazier top of the key swings to Bradley on the right baseline. he dribbles left cross court Barnett, Side jump - Yes." Band-bang-bang.

Other times, it was a building excitement in his voice, where he could feel that something great was about to happen. "Frazier across the midcourt line, behind the back dribble, finds Debusshere on the right side, pass in the lane to Monroe, spinning on Goodrich, put it up and in! YES and it counts! Beautiful move by Monroe! The Pearl to the line for a e point play! Time out by the Lakers..."

Without those Knicks, a generation of New Yorkers would not have fallen in love with basketball. Not sure if Albert has a banner at MSG, but he should.

Every crappy grade in middle school and HS could be blamed on the Knicks, who at the time, were much more important than school to me.[/quote]

At the same time, Spencer Ross was calling the Net games on WMCA I think. Spencer also an enjoyable listen, but Marv was in a class by himself.
 
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[quote="Monte" post=399565][quote="Beast of the East" post=399563][quote="Monte" post=399481][quote="redken" post=399479][quote="Beast of the East" post=399369][quote="BrookJersey Redmen" post=399367]Fantastic memory of those Knick teams, loved '70 more. Dick B was so good at scoring and bringing those legs close in like that was not to be replicated. After '73, I lost interest in the NBA and frankly the Knicks too, though from '65 to '75 I was an avid Knicks fan. I followed them only casually during the Ewing years.

Happy Birthday Dick!

Red Holzman was the driving force, his "see the ball, see the man" defense was a pleasure to watch. His "hit the open man" offense was unselfish basketball at its finest. The ball almost always ended up with the best open shot in the sequence. No chucking it up from anywhere with a guy draped on you. If you did that Red sat you down. No one on that team was hung up on individual stats, it was all about the team and winning.

What a brilliant team, right down to Dayton U's own Donnie May, Ohio State's Bill Hosket and our own John Warren (2.5 ppg)

Interesting Phil Jackson was not on that team, but he was on the '73 team.

I am old enough to remember when Knicks were coached by Dick McGuire/Eddie Donovan and had Howie Komives, Walt Bells Bellamy and Dick VanArsdale and lost a lot. The Dave DeB trade along with Holzman turned it all around.[/quote]

Cardiac or back problems.[/quote]
As someone pointed out, it was a back problem. However it was the late Dave "The Rave" Stallworth who sat out a year due to cardiac problems. The lanky 6-7 (at best) ex-Wheat Shocker busted his gut having to defend Wilt after Willis Reed went down. I feel sorry for fans who never saw those Knicks teams; they were something special; basketball at its best.[/quote]

Equally as special as watching those teams, was listening to Marv call the games on radio. "Yes!!!"[/quote]

Sounds ridiculous, but listening to Marv on radio was in many ways better than watching on TV. So many ways to describe him, but he had this cadence that beyond words illustrated what was going on.

Sometimes they were short machne gun bursts - "Frazier top of the key swings to Bradley on the right baseline. he dribbles left cross court Barnett, Side jump - Yes." Band-bang-bang.

Other times, it was a building excitement in his voice, where he could feel that something great was about to happen. "Frazier across the midcourt line, behind the back dribble, finds Debusshere on the right side, pass in the lane to Monroe, spinning on Goodrich, put it up and in! YES and it counts! Beautiful move by Monroe! The Pearl to the line for a e point play! Time out by the Lakers..."

Without those Knicks, a generation of New Yorkers would not have fallen in love with basketball. Not sure if Albert has a banner at MSG, but he should.

Every crappy grade in middle school and HS could be blamed on the Knicks, who at the time, were much more important than school to me.[/quote]

At the same time, Spencer Ross was calling the Net games on WMCA I think. Spencer also an enjoyable listen, but Marv was in a class by himself.[/quote]

I also would add and ask, In my neighborhood, given the chance to stay home and watch a sport on TV, or go to a schoolyard and play, we'd choose to play and hope someone had a transistor radio. What about in yours?
 
Marv still going strong at 79 although he skipped Orlando bubble for safety reasons.
Amazing to think he was just about to turn 29 at the time the Knicks won that first championship.
 
[quote="NCJohnnie" post=399569]Marv still going strong at 79 although he skipped Orlando bubble for safety reasons.
Amazing to think he was just about to turn 29 at the time the Knicks won that first championship.[/quote]
The first radio voice for Knicks games that I remember hearing was that of the great Marty Glickman. He always tried to set things up in the listener's imagination by starting with something like the following just before the opening tip-off: "The Knicks line up against the Celtics. They'll be defending the basket at the 8th Avenue end of the Garden." Made you almost feel like your were there ... and still brings a smile to my face.
 
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[quote="Beast of the East" post=399567][quote="Monte" post=399565][quote="Beast of the East" post=399563][quote="Monte" post=399481][quote="redken" post=399479][quote="Beast of the East" post=399369][quote="BrookJersey Redmen" post=399367]Fantastic memory of those Knick teams, loved '70 more. Dick B was so good at scoring and bringing those legs close in like that was not to be replicated. After '73, I lost interest in the NBA and frankly the Knicks too, though from '65 to '75 I was an avid Knicks fan. I followed them only casually during the Ewing years.

Happy Birthday Dick!

Red Holzman was the driving force, his "see the ball, see the man" defense was a pleasure to watch. His "hit the open man" offense was unselfish basketball at its finest. The ball almost always ended up with the best open shot in the sequence. No chucking it up from anywhere with a guy draped on you. If you did that Red sat you down. No one on that team was hung up on individual stats, it was all about the team and winning.

What a brilliant team, right down to Dayton U's own Donnie May, Ohio State's Bill Hosket and our own John Warren (2.5 ppg)

Interesting Phil Jackson was not on that team, but he was on the '73 team.

I am old enough to remember when Knicks were coached by Dick McGuire/Eddie Donovan and had Howie Komives, Walt Bells Bellamy and Dick VanArsdale and lost a lot. The Dave DeB trade along with Holzman turned it all around.[/quote]

Cardiac or back problems.[/quote]
As someone pointed out, it was a back problem. However it was the late Dave "The Rave" Stallworth who sat out a year due to cardiac problems. The lanky 6-7 (at best) ex-Wheat Shocker busted his gut having to defend Wilt after Willis Reed went down. I feel sorry for fans who never saw those Knicks teams; they were something special; basketball at its best.[/quote]

Equally as special as watching those teams, was listening to Marv call the games on radio. "Yes!!!"[/quote]

Sounds ridiculous, but listening to Marv on radio was in many ways better than watching on TV. So many ways to describe him, but he had this cadence that beyond words illustrated what was going on.

Sometimes they were short machne gun bursts - "Frazier top of the key swings to Bradley on the right baseline. he dribbles left cross court Barnett, Side jump - Yes." Band-bang-bang.

Other times, it was a building excitement in his voice, where he could feel that something great was about to happen. "Frazier across the midcourt line, behind the back dribble, finds Debusshere on the right side, pass in the lane to Monroe, spinning on Goodrich, put it up and in! YES and it counts! Beautiful move by Monroe! The Pearl to the line for a e point play! Time out by the Lakers..."

Without those Knicks, a generation of New Yorkers would not have fallen in love with basketball. Not sure if Albert has a banner at MSG, but he should.

Every crappy grade in middle school and HS could be blamed on the Knicks, who at the time, were much more important than school to me.[/quote]

At the same time, Spencer Ross was calling the Net games on WMCA I think. Spencer also an enjoyable listen, but Marv was in a class by himself.[/quote]

I also would add and ask, In my neighborhood, given the chance to stay home and watch a sport on TV, or go to a schoolyard and play, we'd choose to play and hope someone had a transistor radio. What about in yours?[/quote]

Same. During the Yankee 1970s playoff and world series games, we jerry rigged a TV to the light post outside the PS 123 schoolyard, which was well lit by a spotlight. So we could watch the game(s) and play ball at same time. Regardless, there was always guys around who had a transistor radio with them.
 
[quote="Enright" post=399484]The seventh game of the 1970 finals was blacked out in NYC on regular tv but was available on some cable station. Watched it in a friends apartment in Stuyvesant Town. After Willis Reeds entrance the game was actually a bore unless you were a Knick fan.[/quote]

The accounts of the looks on the Laker faces was like they were seeing a ghost. Disbelief, defeat.
 
Watching that game I recall thinking how inept the Laker coaching staff was and how even Jerry West ,one of the greatest all around ball players of all time had a weakness in his game of getting the ball down low to the big man.
Wilt was slightly past his monster years but he had seven inches and fifty pounds on Stallworth and De Buchere and the Lakers could not get him the ball.
 
[quote="Enright" post=399619]Watching that game I recall thinking how inept the Laker coaching staff was and how even Jerry West ,one of the greatest all around ball players of all time had a weakness in his game of getting the ball down low to the big man.
Wilt was slightly past his monster years but he had seven inches and fifty pounds on Stallworth and De Buchere and the Lakers could not get him the ball.[/quote]

[URL]https://www.nba.com/video/2020/05/08/tdih-may-8-1970-knicks-game-5-nba-finals[/URL]



Watching those clips shows a few things:

1) Knicks were incredibly fundamentally sound. Everyone boxed out, an d as a result, guards and small forwards could rebound.
2) Knick shooters all had quick releases. Even today they could likely all get their shots off and make them with just a little room to shoot
3) Everyone played defense, hardnosed in your face defense without being the bruisers that Oakley's Knicks were.
4) DeBuuschere really put a body on Chamberlain. DB was a stud in terms of physique, but Chamberlain probable outweighed him by 70 lbs and was a weightlifter. He had to be much stronger than Dave, but he just didn't like to be muscled like that.
 
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