YouTube Gold: Walt Frazier
One of the finest guards of the 1960’s and ‘70’s, Frazier remains perhaps the finest point guard in the history of the Knicks.
Walt Frazier, who became a legendary point guard for the New York Knicks, was born in segregated Atlanta in 1945.
A star high school athlete, he was also an excellent football player but chose basketball he said because “there were no black quarterbacks.”
Like a lot of Southern Black athletes of his day, his collegiate options close to home were limited due to segregation. Frazier accepted a scholarship to Southern Illinois and helped to really put the Salukis on the map, winning the NIT in 1967, which was the school’s first year in D-I.
He was taken with the 5th pick of the 1967 NBA Draft by the Knicks and quickly grew into a great player.
Willis Reed made his stunning appearance in the 1970 Finals Game 7, despite having a torn thigh muscle and scored New York’s first four points, but that was about as much as he could do.
It was Frazier who took over after that, scoring 36 points. He also had 19 assists, seven rebounds and six steals to lead New York to an amazing championship over Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West and the rest of the Los Angeles Lakers.
The Knicks did it again in 1973.
Frazier was named one of the 50 greatest NBA players on the league’s 50th anniversary in 1996 and, later, one of the 75 greatest on that anniversary in 2021.
New York traded him to Cleveland in 1977 and he played two years there before retiring.