{"id":265747,"date":"2026-06-13T19:09:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T19:09:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/265747\/"},"modified":"2026-06-13T19:09:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T19:09:12","slug":"it-was-1973-and-the-knicks-were-heading-to-game-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/265747\/","title":{"rendered":"It Was 1973, and the Knicks Were Heading to Game 5 \u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Amid the possibility of the first championship win for the Knicks in 53 years, some New Yorkers are experiencing a sense of d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu (albeit, a belated one). Though there is an abundance of nostalgia reels<\/a> on social media reliving the close call of 1999, part of the local population experienced the Knicks\u2019s last championship win, in 1973. (And before then, in 1970.)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a bit of a drought. We\u2019re ready for this,\u201d said Carol Becker, a native New Yorker and the owner of William Greenberg Desserts in Manhattan, where the black-and-white cookies have been iced in blue and orange in honor of the Knicks.<\/p>\n

Becker was at Madison Square Garden for the championship game in 1970, the year that \u201cWillis Reed hobbled out onto the court, and the place went wild,\u201d Becker said, referring to an iconic moment<\/a> involving the injured center. \u201cHe made one shot and that was the end of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jasmine Chang, 66, a former fashion editor in the Clinton Hill neighborhood of Brooklyn, grew up in the Bronx. Her teenage crush was Dave DeBusschere, a beloved player who helped bring the Knicks to victory in 1970 and 1973.<\/p>\n

She treasured his book, \u201cThe Open Man: The Championship Diary of the N.Y. Knicks.\u201d \u201cI wrapped it up in Saran Wrap and I put it under my pillow at night,\u201d Chang said. Why Saran Wrap? \u201cBecause I wanted to just keep it forever,\u201d she said. (She still has it.)<\/p>\n

She also has a bag with autographs from players she pursued \u201caround town,\u201d plus clippings of them from papers like The New York Daily News: \u201cBill Bradley, Willis Reed, Phil Jackson, just holding up their fingers: No. 1.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her interest continued into adulthood. \u201cOf course I voted for Bill Bradley because I was just obsessed with all of those team members,\u201d Chang said, referring to the two-time champion who became a U.S. senator in 1979, and ran for president in 2000.<\/p>\n

The way New Yorkers tuned into the game back then was, from a modern perspective, prehistoric. Bob Byer, 64, a junior high athletics coach from Bedford-Stuyvesant, in Brooklyn, recalls listening to the 1969-70 season on his father\u2019s car radio as an 8-year-old. \u201cIn \u201973, I had a little transistor radio that I would fall asleep to games on,\u201d Byer said.<\/p>\n

By 1973, he also viewed them on TV, but on \u201ctape delay,\u201d not live. \u201cThe games were played in the afternoon, and we\u2019d have to wait until sometime after 8 o\u2019clock to watch them,\u201d Byer said. But back then, you were hard-pressed to encounter spoilers. Late editions of newspapers like The New York Post and The Daily News came out in the afternoon, so \u201cthere was really no way to find out unless you listened to, like, news radio,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The best times for the Knicks were some of the most desperate for the city, which was in a state of financial crisis. Fred Weinberg, 84, a retired restaurateur born in the Yorkville neighborhood of Manhattan, has been following the team since he was in college in the \u201960s, \u201cbefore it was a big deal,\u201d he said. He recalls the New York of the early \u201970s as \u201ca dangerous and a gritty, grimy city.\u201d<\/p>\n

But basketball had the power to uplift. \u201cWhen the Knicks won, it was like a different New York City,\u201d Weinberg said. \u201cThey united everybody just the way they do now, even more so. And everybody was just happy as hell.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though he watched games on TV at home because he couldn\u2019t afford tickets, prices were still within reach then. \u201cThey had regular people in the stands, not just celebrities and people who had big bucks,\u201d Weinberg said. \u201cAnd you could afford to go to a game and that was a real gift.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tom Allon, a newspaper publisher, former mayoral candidate<\/a> and lifelong Knicks fan, said that while the city had changed over the years, the team remained \u201csingular in people\u2019s imagination.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEven though you\u2019ve got Celebrity Row<\/a> there, and you\u2019ve got a lot of wealthy people going to the games, it\u2019s still a blue-collar audience,\u201d Allon said, adding that many fans had probably played the game at one point or another.<\/p>\n

\u201cBasketball is a sport of New York,\u201d he said. Like many Knicks followers, Allon fondly remembered the 1973 championship team, as well as the near champions of the 1990s.<\/p>\n

Like those squads, whose members became well known on the city\u2019s streets (and sometimes its nightlife scene<\/a>), Allon says that the 2026 Knicks seem approachable and friendly.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can imagine hanging out with them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

And while the team is still one win away from the championship, Allon, 64, said he was enjoying the moment as much as he did as a kid. \u201cI\u2019ve suffered through the last, you know, 53 years, and I watch them even when they\u2019re bad,\u201d said Allon, calling the playoff run magical. \u201cI haven\u2019t felt this good in a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Phil Hartman, a downtown filmmaker<\/a> and co-founder of Two Boots Pizza, said that \u201ceverybody loved those Knicks teams from the \u201970s,\u201d in part because they lived in the city and were seen out and about by reporters and gossip columnists.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019d hear where Earl \u2018the Pearl\u2019 had been the night before,\u201d Hartman recalled of the famed Knicks guard Earl Monroe<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is definitely a different kind of ownership of the Knicks than there is of the other teams, which sometimes feel like they\u2019re owned by the suburbs,\u201d Hartman said. Both of the city\u2019s football teams, after all, play their home games in New Jersey.<\/p>\n

As a Mets\/Jets\/Knicks fan, Hartman, 70, said his teenage years were full of champions, and he once thought the trend would continue indefinitely.<\/p>\n

That wasn\u2019t so. \u201cMy son\u2019s 41. He\u2019s never experienced a championship,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I\u2019m so excited for him because he\u2019s just so into the Knicks right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

But while the team is close to its goal, Hartman says he\u2019s loath to predict another title for a reason very familiar to almost anyone who has ever rooted for the Knicks \u2014 a fear of cursing it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll believe it,\u201d he said, \u201cwhen I see it.\u201d<\/p>\n