MIAMI — Walt “Clyde” Frazier said he’d been “meandering” all day on Wednesday, one day after the loss of his longtime friend, captain and championship teammate, Willis Reed.
“It took me so long to get dressed today,” the famously fashionable Frazier said softly before working Wednesday’s game between the Knicks and the Heat as the longtime analyst for MSG Networks. “It’s been devastating. After seeing him on the video for the 50th anniversary, I didn’t know he was that far gone. Everybody was really surprised.”
Despite the heavy emotions, Frazier told story after story about Reed, including one more time about the Hall of Fame center suiting up to play with a leg injury in Game 7 of the NBA Finals against the Lakers during the Knicks’ first championship season in 1970.
The franchise legends won another title together in 1973, the 50th anniversary of which was celebrated last month at the Garden without Reed, who instead sent a video message.
“I turned the TV off today because every time I looked up there was Willis. I had to turn the phone off. Everybody’s calling,” the 77-year-old Frazier said. “I’m happy to be at the game. Maybe that’ll give me three hours where I can just react and not really [think about it].”
Clyde told terrific tales of what Reed truly was like on and off the court, beginning with the veteran showing up an hour late picking Frazier up at the airport when the latter was drafted in 1967 but then taking his new teammate to Wilt Chamberlain’s nightclub in New York.
Willis Reed and Walt Frazier at the Garden in 2010.Paul J. Bereswill “Got me a date. It was a night I’ll never forget,” Frazier said. “He was that type of person. I copied his handwriting, the way he writes his name. His tenacity on the court, always giving 110 percent, how he dealt with you guys [in the media] and the fans. He was a tremendous role model for me in that respect.
“They don’t make them like that anymore. Kind guy, he’d loan you his car, loan you his money. I remember when he picked me up, we went by his house. He lived in Queens. I didn’t know his kids from the neighborhood kids. His house was like Grand Central Station. People were just in and out. That’s how the man is. He shares everything. He was always loaning guys his car. [Dick] Barnett probably owes him thousands of dollars right now. He was always borrowing money from Willis. He was quite a man.
“But more than anything it was the personal things,” Frazier continued. “We know about his exploits as a player, but as a person he was even better. You always had the rookie room with him, taking him under his wing. Even with me, he’d take me out. He was a big guy on going out, wining and dining, taking me out, telling me about the nuances of the game early on — and how he was going to kick my butt if I didn’t guard Oscar [Robertson].”
Walt Frazier, left, and Willis Reed of the New York Knicks pose together in the dressing room at New York’s Madison Square Garden, on April 14, 1969.APFrazier also pointed out that he had “the game of my career and my life” in Game 7 against the Lakers in 1970. Reed stunningly hobbled onto the court and scored the Knicks’ first four points, his only scoring in the game. Frazier finished with 36 points, 19 assists and seven rebounds.
“I was just thinking that Game 7 epitomizes a lot of things about Willis and New York, especially the fans,” Frazier said. “I was thinking just, the fans helped a guy run who could barely walk. Willis Reed, when he came out of the locker room, he could barely walk, and their cheers and stuff got him running.
New York Knicks Jerry Lucas, Walt “Clyde” Frazier, Willis Reed, Phil Jackson, and Bill Bradley celebrate after defeating the Knicks in Game 5 to win the NBA Championship in 1973.From the lens of George Kalinsky “He was the catalyst for us, because we were a team that were doubtful we could win without him. So, when we saw him, we perked up like, ‘We can do it.’ And I’ll never forget, I saw Wilt; I saw [Elgin] Baylor and [Jerry] West. When Willis came on the court, they stopped doing what they were doing. They were so concerned. And I said to myself, ‘Man, we got these guys.’ And then he would come out and make his first two shots. The rest was history from there on, and that was Willis Reed, man.”
