The Herald-Journal Logan, Utah Tuesday, January 04, 1972 - Page 6
Knicks Edge Bucks In Closing Seconds: Frazier Plays Game Pros Dream About by Milton Richman
New York (UPI)— Bill Russell has seen a couple of basketball games in his time.
He isn't easily impressed. Especially by what he sees on a basketball floor.
What he saw Monday night at Madison Square Garden impressed him though. Tremendously.
Bobby Fischer, the international chess grand master who meets Russia's Boris Spassky for the world championship soon, hasn't seen as many basketball games as Bill Russell.
But he's an even tougher nut to crack.
He doesn't get impressed about anything.
It was different Monday night. He showed up for his first basketball game in more than five years and he was impressed, too.
So were such otherwise cold cucumbers as Willis Reed, Earl “The Pearl” Monroe, Oscar Robertson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. They all paid the highest praise one professional can pay another and all talked about the same man—Walt Frazier of the New York Knicks.
Walt Frazier played the king of game Monday night kids like to dream about. Grown men, too.
What's more he picked the perfect time. With the game nationally televised and a capacity 19,588 on hand, Frazier ran off 13 straight points in the final 2:38, collaborated with Phil Jackson in a vital heart-stopping “steal” 20 seconds from the end and wound up receiving one of the most tumultuous ovations ever accorded any athlete at Madison Square Garden for leading the Knicks to a 101-99 win over the Milwaukee Bucks in a move-like finish.
“Great!” that's the only way to describe it,” said Bill Russell, on hand to do the color commentary for national TV. “The last time I ever saw anything like it was in 1958 when Bob Pettit scored 51 points in the final game of the playoffs against us (Boston). They (St. Louis) beat us and he got 19 of their last 21 points.”
Bobby Fischer blinked his eyes when he saw the Knicks gain possession 20 seconds from the end with the scored tied 99-all. Earl Monroe passed off to Bill Bradley on his left. Bradley gave the ball to Frazier, who nearly lose it, but quickly regained control and began his move with eight seconds left.
Frazier killed five more seconds and then with only three remaining, he hit with a jumper and the whole place went plumb mad.
“You're used to complete quiet when you play,” Dave Debusschere said to Bobby Fischer in the Knicks' dressing room afterward. “What did you think?”
“Very exciting,” Fischer said, giving the question proper thought before answering.
“What did you think of Frazier?” someone else asked the blond chess whiz.
“Extraordinary,” Fischer said, much more quickly this time.
“Fantastic,” put in DeBusschere. “He was just incredible at the end.”
Willis Reed, sitting on the Knicks' bench with tendonitis, called Frazier's performance “unbelievable” and Monroe remarked “It's getting so you sort of expect it from him.”
Oscar Robertson, who vainly tried to keep Frazier from getting off his game-winning shot, said, “You can't take it away from him, he played a great game” and Jabbar agreed “he hit some tough shots there at the end.” Tough wasn't really the word.
Bucks Out Front
The Bucks were out front the whole game, once by as much as 13 points, and the Knicks never led until Frazier's final shot.
“I thought it would hit the rim,” said the Knicks' beared backcourt dynamo who wound up with 31 points for the night. “I had some doubts about that last one because all my shots were a struggle. I was pulling to the left or to the right all night.”
Why, because of the pressure?
“It could've been,” laughed Frazier. “I know the game was just another game in the standings but I was a little tight. Really, I was embarrassed the way I was playing. I knew it was a national televised game and my parents were watching in Atlanta, Georgia. I wanted to play well, but I realized I wasn't I had only six points at the half.”
Walt Frazier got a little better as the game went on.
Enough so that he got a rise out of Bill Russell. That seldom happens. Enough so that he also got one out of Bobby Fischer.
And that simply never happened before.
