Spike Lee, the Oscar-winning director, has been a courtside fixture at Madison Square Garden for decades. Before Game 3 of the Knicks' playoff series against the 76ers on Friday, he recalled attending Game 7 of the 1970 NBA Finals as a 13-year-old.
“Today is May 8,” Lee said. “I was at Madison Square Garden, May 8, year of Our Lord, 1970, Game 7 versus the Lakers. I was 13. I was there.” The Knicks defeated the Los Angeles Lakers 113-99 to clinch their first NBA championship.
The game is famously known as 'The Willis Reed Game'. Reed, the Knicks captain and NBA MVP, had been sidelined with a badly bruised right hip in Game 6. He limped onto the court for the opening tip, outjumped Wilt Chamberlain, and scored the first basket. Despite playing only 27 minutes and scoring just two more points, his presence inspired the team to victory.
Lee vividly recalled the moment Reed emerged from the tunnel. “Both teams were in the layup line,” he said. “On my parents' grave, the Lakers' layup line froze. I've been to Super Bowls, World Cups and everything, I never heard the noise as loud as when Willis dragged his leg up the court. I'm talking about Wilt Chamberlain! Jerry West! Elgin Baylor! The rest of those guys! They froze.”
Reed, who died in 2023, created one of sports' most enduring examples of playing through pain. Lee noted that Reed's delayed entrance was due to the time needed for painkilling drugs to take effect. “I have a picture in my office of Willis Reed on the training table getting a needle,” he said.
Lee has held season tickets since Patrick Ewing's rookie year and remains as passionate as ever about the Knicks' quest for their first NBA title since 1973.
