Willis Reed, Hall Of Fame Knick And Team Captain Who Led Franchise To Its Only Two Titles, Dies At 80

The original Captain — Willis Reed, not Derek Jeter — will always be remembered for his iconic Madison Square Garden entrance. The hobbled walk. Marv Albert’s signature radio announcement, “Here comes Willis, and the crowd is going wild.” The grainy video showing a delirious, sold-out World’s Most Famous Arena.

Reed, the Hall of Fame New York Knicks player who died Tuesday at age 80, only scored four points in that decisive Game 7 of the 1970 NBA Finals against Wilt Chamberlain and the Lakers, as the Knicks went on to win the game and celebrate their first title.

But Reed’s legend was forever solidified in New York sports history after his inspiring performance on basically one leg, an athletic feat that ranks alongside Joe Namath’s famous guarantee a year earlier, in January 1969, when the Jets quarterback correctly predicted his team would topple the favored Baltimore Colts in the Super Bowl.

Reed would later help the Knicks to their second title, in 1973 — to this day, the last time the Knicks won a championship — before transitioning to coaching and front office posts after his playing days ended. In addition to coaching the Knicks, he was Creighton University’s head coach in the early 1980s, and later coached the New Jersey Nets before being hired as that team’s general manager.

Despite Reed’s iconic status in basketball and New York sports circles, however, the Hico, Louisiana native was always humble to a fault, never gloating or eager to steal the spotlight like so many athletes past and present.

“I tell everybody all the time, the greatest that ever played for the Knicks? I say Patrick Ewing,” said Reed in a 2017 interview, referring to the former Knicks great and fellow Hall of Famer Ewing.

“I wish I’d have had his height,” Reed added with a laugh.

Reed’s playing status was in doubt leading up to the 1970 Game 7 at the Garden. He had injured his right thigh in Game 5 — also at MSG — and he was a scratch for Game 6 at the Forum in Los Angeles, a Lakers’ rout. When the series returned to the Garden for the clinching Game 7, all the buzz was centered around whether Reed would play or sit.

The rest is history.

As Reed appeared in the Garden tunnel before tipoff, the home crowd thundered with excitement. Reed’s entrance and game performance even overshadowed teammate Walt (Clyde) Frazier’s 36-point/19-assist effort. Frazier was the game’s leading scorer, besting both Chamberlain (21 points) and Jerry West (28 points).

As the decades wore on, and the Knicks continued to fall short of the NBA mountaintop, whenever Reed was asked about his Knick title years, and his basking in the Gotham championship glory, he would always mention his teammates ahead of any individual accomplishments.

“We got lucky, a lot of guys gave a lot,” said Reed in that ‘17 interview. “We had some great moments, really great moments.”

During a 2016 interview for a New York Daily News story, before he was honored at The Miami Project’s “Great Sports Legends” gala that fall, Reed paid a rare compliment to himself when he said his greatest professional accomplishment was when the Knicks retired his No. 19 jersey to the Garden rafters.

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“I was the first jersey ever retired by the Knicks,” said Reed. “That says something. It says that you played there for a few years and you’ve done something better than a lot of people. That to me was my biggest individual award.”

There were great Knick players who followed Reed, including Ewing, and in the decades after Reed last graced the hardwood, the sport’s global popularity and player salaries have continued to balloon.

Reed never showed anything but gratitude and respect for the game and the people around it. He even took a neutral stance when former Knick enforcer Charles Oakley had a legal spat with Garden chairman and Knicks owner James Dolan in 2017.

“It’s a bad situation that saddens me as a former player and a fan of the Knicks and Mr. Dolan and Charles,” said Reed. “I grew up in time when it was a little different. Hell, I remember, when (Knicks founder and president Ned) Mr. Irish used to come through the Garden, everybody got busy doing something. You would have thought that he was some really big, bad guy, but he really was a nice man. I hope (Oakley’s and Dolan’s situation) works out for the betterment of everyone.”

That Knick loyalty never waned, and Reed always projected hopefulness for the only NBA franchise he played for, even as the title drought continued.

“I’ll always be a fan,” Reed told the Daily News in 2016. “I tell people, ‘You don’t appreciate winning if you haven’t been a loser.’ Hopefully the Knicks will get a chance to get it done. I think it could happen. The sooner the better.”