Unfortunately, so few games were on TV back then- really sucked. You might have heard that the Reed entrance game WAS NOT televised in NYC- had to see it on tape delay.

The thing about their offense though, is that you had what was arguable the most intelligent team ever assembled in the NBA playing team ball- so you just had to wind them up and get out of the way.

No 3s at that time, although DeBusshere and Bradley would have hit some, but every guy in the starting 5 could hit a jumper

A Senator/Rhodes Scholar, a future doctor, coaches and GMs, announcers, a player/coach. Lucas was an author and wrote a book on memory. Bibby, and Dean Meminger, one a gunner, the other a classic PG.

Cazzie Russell, a fitness freak, Action Jackson who hung around Holtzman a lot and squeezed his brain for wisdom, Dave Stalworth who hit that famous shot on Chamberlain in the game Willis got hurt, and Earl who gave up his game to be a Knick.

Think DeBusschere got hurt in the second LA finals after we blew them out in game 1, and was not the same for the rest of the seriies, or we would have beaten them 3 times.

Willis' injury probably kept us from another title- so we easily could have had 4 titles back then.

I think Jackson has done the type of thing you are talking about when he was coaching.

D, to me, is all about awareness, desire, and pride. You had a lot of these things on those teams.

If he and Fisher can transform Anthony, so he buys into things, you might be able to get something done on D, and offense.

GS has done this, to some extent, as has Cleveland...at least on the defensive end.

Still tear up when I see the Reed entrance and hit his first shots, but the way they played to beat LA in game 5, the game Willis got hurt in also brings back feelings.

Rosey wrote:I remember those teams very well. In fact, I was at the 1970 Eastern Conference Final against the Bucks when the beat Lew Alcindor to advance to the finals against the Lakers. Those teams didn't have great size but they were a good passing and jump shooting team and they were the best team defensive team in the league. On the 1973 team, the only non-shooters were Phil and Dean Meminger (who I knew some years later). You can tell by Phil's talk about team movement, passing and his focus on mid-range shots that he's influenced by those teams. Unfortunately, the game today has evolved differently and the rules have changed. Players come into the league at much younger ages and don't have the fundamentals and maturity - but there are more superior athletes. Hopefully, Phil can successfully blend elements of old and new. I just hope he's fully invested in the process. The draft and free agency should be interesting because nobody knows what he will do. He's a strong individual and very much his own man.

Tough life for Dean the Dream- son does some broadcasting, I think- looks a lot like him.

Remember Bill Russell as a broadcaster getting pissed off at Meminger because he was hitting some jumpers from the top of the key as Russell was commenting that they should just let him shoot from there. He was right, but he still hit them that day.

WaltLongmire wrote:

Rosey wrote:I remember those teams very well. In fact, I was at the 1970 Eastern Conference Final against the Bucks when the beat Lew Alcindor to advance to the finals against the Lakers. Those teams didn't have great size but they were a good passing and jump shooting team and they were the best team defensive team in the league. On the 1973 team, the only non-shooters were Phil and Dean Meminger (who I knew some years later). You can tell by Phil's talk about team movement, passing and his focus on mid-range shots that he's influenced by those teams. Unfortunately, the game today has evolved differently and the rules have changed. Players come into the league at much younger ages and don't have the fundamentals and maturity - but there are more superior athletes. Hopefully, Phil can successfully blend elements of old and new. I just hope he's fully invested in the process. The draft and free agency should be interesting because nobody knows what he will do. He's a strong individual and very much his own man.

Think what Alcindor could do with the new rules protecting him. Reed used to rough him up early on.

Tough life for Dean the Dream- son does some broadcasting, I think- looks a lot like him.

Remember Bill Russell as a broadcaster getting pissed off at Meminger because he was hitting some jumpers from the top of the key as Russell was commenting that they should just let him shoot from there. He was right, but he still hit them that day.

Bill Russell never succeeded off the court. He was player coach on the celts and I think made him the first black coach. He was revered for his incredible accomplishments but as a coach or GM in Seattle he did not fair well. On TV, he was ok but kind of goofy if I recall. KC jones was an ok coach who was seens as a guy that got out of the way and let his stars do it. Tommy Heinsmen was a fireball type coach and did well but he was perhaps too intense and not invovative. Cousey was with the kings for a while, with no real success of note. Don Nelson had the best post playing career. Ainge seems to be a good GM over the years.

Reed as coach and GM was largley Unremarkable. Debusschere was unremarkable as GM and was the briefly the commish of the ABA. Earl did some off broadway producing, Clyde did pretty good in realestate in the Caribean and broadcasting, Henry Bibby succeeded as a coach in college and assistant in pro's, nothign remarkable but had a long career. Bradley and Phil are well documented. Lucas has a crazy memory and can memorize phone books. Not so smart but its the abilty to recall the data read that is incredible.

On the court they did wonderful things. Its why I am a fan all these years later. I basically came of age and recall the 1971 season and later. between the knicks and Dr J coming to NY nets in 1974 there was always something good happening until 1977.