The challenges of the last couple of months have sent many a sports enthusiast on a hunt for the opportunity to relive some of the happier moments provided by their favorite teams, particularly in the absence of live sports programming. Fans of the NBA’s New York Knickerbockers already knew of the dearth of feel-good moments during the team’s history. The franchise’s struggles over the past two decades combined with the disappointment of never winning a title during the Patrick Ewing era have only been accentuated by the lack of available footage of the championship runs of 1970 and 1973. Fortunately, during a recent internet search I stumbled upon the YouTube posting of one of my most treasured childhood possessions: The New York Knicks’ 1973 title season on vinyl, an LP entitled “Holzman’s Heroes.”
HOLZMAN’S HEROES – THE LONG-PLAYING ALBUM
Yes, I said “album.” As a teenager back in the mid-1970s, I owned this album which provided a recap of the 1972-73 New York Knicks’ journey to the second—and to date, last—NBA championship in their history. Holzman, of course, referred to the Knicks’ head coach and choreographer of the team’s team-oriented style on both ends of the floor, Red Holzman. The coach was also tasked with blending the individual talent on his roster into a cohesive unit, just as he’d done during the 1969-70 championship season.
Side One of the album covered the regular season. Side Two covered the post-season, which ran only three rounds as the league consisted of only 17 franchises back then. I’m not sure what happened to my copy of this album, but I’d listened to that thing so many times I had it memorized. So imagine my reaction when, while searching through YouTube for some old footage of anything basketball-related, I stumbled upon this gem.
This recap of the 1972-73 championship season was all about Marv Albert. The youthful Marv was the radio voice of the Knicks at that time, as well as the album narrator. To those of us who listened to Knick games on the radio back then, Marv was as much a part of the team as the players were. His colorful description of the season as well as the priceless audio of game action captured the memorable season in one 55-minute package.
THE MORE THINGS CHANGE, THE MORE THEY CHANGE
Holzman’s Heroes also served as another reminder of how things have evolved over time. Game Five of the NBA Finals against the Los Angeles Lakers was the deciding game, as the Knicks won four straight after losing Game One at Madison Square Garden. After risking my existence as a nine-year-old to watch a few minutes of the replay of Game Seven in 1970, I listened to the 1973 finale exclusively on the radio and actually fell asleep off and on throughout the contest. I did, however, wake up in time to hear the fourth quarter, including the final minutes. Pretty sure I dozed off with a smile on my face after that. Game Five was played in Los Angeles on a weeknight and had a 10:30 PM start time on the East Coast. The game was televised live by ABC, but it was a school night, so the radio was the answer.
The album contains some memorable regular-season highlights, including a stirring fourth-quarter comeback over Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Oscar Robertson and the Milwaukee Bucks at Madison Square Garden. The Knicks swept a home-and-home series against the Boston Celtics to take the division lead and afterwards, the home crowd chanted “We’re Number 1!” instead of “Uuuhhh-UH-uh-uh-OH-oh!” And, almost as if to remind us now how much better the National Football League has done in documenting its history, some of the background music on the album is clearly recognizable to fans of NFL Films.
KEY ROSTER ADDITIONS
The 1972-73 Knicks’ roster was a little different from the 1970 championship roster. Sure, Walt Frazier, Dave DeBusschere and Bill Bradley were still there. Willis Reed was still around as well, but although he only missed 12 regular-season games, the knee injuries were clearly taking their toll, and Reed would only play one more season afterwards. The Knicks had since added reinforcements like Earl Monroe and long-distance shooter Jerry Lucas to their already star-studded core. Complimentary players like the long-limbed Phil “Windmill Effect” Jackson, the local hero and defensive wizard Dean Meminger and John Gianelli all provided some huge moments during the post-season, particularly during the memorable seven-game Eastern Conference final series against the Celtics.
There was initally some concern about how the Knicks would integrate Earl “The Pearl” Monroe, one of the sport’s best one-on-one players, into the Knicks’ team-oriented scheme after adding him to the roster from Baltimore in 1971. But Monroe sacrificed his personal scoring ability and incorporated his flashy game into the already established championship roster, resulting in another title.
The Knicks actually caught a bit of a break in the Eastern Conference finale against the Boston Celtics who’d won the Atlantic Division going away, finishing 11 games ahead of the second-place Knicks while winning 68 games against only 14 losses. After eliminating the Baltimore Bullets in five games in the conference semifinals, the Knicks went into the conference finals as underdogs against the Celtics, who also had the home court advantage. A shoulder injury to John Havlicek slowed him down, and he was only able to tally four points in the decisive Game Seven at the Boston Garden as the Knicks won the conference crown on the road.
A REAL FIND
Back then the highlight was reliving the Knicks’ second championship run in three years, over and over. I wore the grooves off that album. Even if I knew where it was, it probably wouldn’t matter as it would be inaudible through all the scratches. But as I listened to it again for the first time in over 40 years, it brought back memories of those cold, winter nights with the heat blasting from the radiator of our Brooklyn apartment as the action was being described on the radio. And if these last few months have served as a reminder of the dearth of NBA footage from that era, try finding some radio play-by-play from that time period.
By 1973, the network covering the league (ABC) had begun showing the home playoff games for the Knicks in New York (this was not the case in 1969-70), and had been for a couple of years. They’d even tossed in a couple of weeknight games from Madison Square Garden during the regular season as well, but this was a new thing. It’s unimaginable today that fans couldn’t watch their favorite team in a regular or postseason home game because of some blackout rule. This is exactly why Marv Albert and other local radio voices were so appreciated in their cities. They described the action so thoroughly we felt as if we were in the building.
STILL HUNTING FOR THE CLASSICS
Of course, I wanted more. This long-playing album was too short as 55 minutes hardly seemed like enough time to adequately cover a championship run, but it was well done. I’ll continue my futile search for old basketball footage wherever I can find it, but this one will be hard to top. If you’re old enough to remember the Knicks’ 1973 championship run and listened to a bulk of it on the radio (I believe the station was WHN 1050 AM in New York City), or if you’re not old enough but want to experience it and hear Marv Albert before he went national, give Holzman’s Heroes a listen on YouTube.
Those were fun times that become more cherished with each passing year.
Photo by Pierre Gui on Unsplash
