PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Spike Lee had a bag seemingly made out of a basketball slung over his shoulder — even his fashion sense got game — and took his front row seat ahead of yet another Knicks’ playoff game.
The Oscar winner leveled up in his playoff seats for Game 3 on Friday night between the Knicks and the 76ers from a more famous Knicks postseason game on the same date.
Spike Lee wanted to teach a history lesson.
“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.”
Where did you sit, Spike?
“NOT COURTSIDE,” he said as he burst into laughter.
The 69-year-old Lee was at the Knicks’ clincher when his beloved team defeated the Los Angeles Lakers for their first NBA championship.
It’s more commonly known in NBA circles as The Willis Reed Game.
Reed, the captain of the Knicks appeared to be sidelined by a badly bruised right hip that kept him out of Game 6, a win by the Lakers that forced a seventh game. The NBA MVP famously limped onto the court at Madison Square Garden. He outjumped Wilt Chamberlain for the opening tip and scored the first basket from the top of the key.
Reed hit another jumper but didn’t score again in 27 minutes. He had done enough as the Knicks clinched the title with a 113-99 win.
Reed, who died in 2023, created one of sports’ most enduring examples of playing through pain.
And Lee was in the house.
“Back then, the Garden had different colors,” Lee said in a train-of-thought interview with The Associated Press. “My father’s lawyer had season tickets for the yellow seats. May 8, 1970. The Knicks won Game 7! The Lakers had Wilt Chamberlain. Jerry West. Elgin Baylor.
“I have a picture in my office of Willis Reed on the training table getting a needle. Listen to this, though. The reason why he came out late was because it took time, it takes times for the drugs to go through your body.”
Reed’s spot in history was secured simply by walking onto the floor on the final night of that season.
Reed had injured a thigh muscle in Game 5 of the series between the Knicks and Lakers, tumbling to the court in pain. He sat out Game 6 as Chamberlain had 45 points and 27 rebounds in a Lakers romp that forced a deciding game at Madison Square Garden.
Reed’s status was unknown even to his Knicks teammates as he continued getting treatment until shortly before Game 7. Both teams were warming up when Reed came out of the tunnel, fans rising and roaring when they saw him emerge.
“Both teams were in the layup line,” Lee 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.”
Lee was forever hooked on the Knicks.
He interrupted his story when he spotted Knicks great and Hall of Famer Patrick Ewing enjoying pregame warmups from the bench. Lee brought a reporter down with him and shouted at Ewing “I’ve had season tickets, Patrick Ewing, rookie year, my brother right here, from Georgetown!”
Ewing joked Lee would shout “I’m up here! Get me down here! Get me down here!” when they first met and talked about the director’s Madison Square Garden seat location.
“As soon he made that movie, he’s been right where he’s been all these years,” Ewing said.
“‘Do The Right Thing’ did it,” Lee said of his 1989 breakout hit.
Lee has been a courtside fixture on Celebrity Row at MSG — still as excited as ever the Knicks can win their first NBA title since 1973.
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