I’M OLD ENOUGH to remember the mid-1990s Chicago Bulls/New York Knicks slugfests, when thugs like Xavier McDaniel and Anthony Mason attempted to muscle Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen into submission night after night after night.
Never worked. Hah.
I’m also old enough to remember when Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns, et al led the Knicks to 53 wins and the three-seed in the playoffs. Because that was, like, two days ago.
But I’m not old enough to remember the Knicks’ true glory days, a four-year stretch between 1969-1973 in which Willis Reed, Walt Frazier, Dave DeBusschere, Bill Bradley, Dick Barnett, and Phil Jackson dragged New York’s finest to a combined 217-111 regular season record and a pair of championship trophies.
Veteran Knicks followers — and, for that matter, plenty of newbie New Yorkers — spend way too much time discussing which of the two championship teams was better, 1969-70 or 1972-73.
Me, I don’t really care — because, Chicago — but I’m all about keeping my readers happy, even if they’re New York fans. To that end, I hit up my buddies at Strat-O-Matic, and asked them to simulate the ultimate Knicks clash.
Turns out, it was kind of a beatdown. Fuhgettaboudit.
Willis Reed scored 20 points, including the go-ahead layup with 1:07 remaining to haul the ’72–73 Knicks to Game 1 victory. Walt “Clyde” Frazier led the ’69–70 squad with 20 points, while the ’72–73 Clyde poured in 18 in the win.
Reed again dominated with 29 points and 15 rebounds as the ’72–73 Knicks pulled away late. A 31-point fourth quarter led by 8 surprising points from, of all people, Phil Jackson sealed it.
Dave DeBusschere led a balanced attack with 15 points and 11 boards as the ’69–70 Knicks controlled the game throughout to earn their first W of the series. Frazier scored 25 and dished 10 assists for the ’72–73 team.
The ’72–73 Knicks took a 3–1 series lead with the first blowout of the matchup. Frazier scored 28 points, and DeBusschere added 21 points and 13 rebounds. The ’69–70 version of Reed had 19 points and 10 rebounds in the loss while holding his future self to just 2 points.
The ’72–73 Knicks closed it out with a wire-to-wire win behind 25 points from DeBusschere and a 24 point/19 assist masterpiece from Frazier.
Game recaps courtesy of Strat-O-Matic.