RIP The Captain Willis Reed

Despite being one of the original NBA teams, the Knicks really don't have a ton of true stars in their history. At least not ones that were in their prime during their time in New York. But Willis Reed was the epitome of everything you'd want in a star. A Hall Of Famer drafted by the Knicks that led the franchise to its only two championships and had maybe the most incredible Game 7 moment of all Game 7 moments in NBA history when he walked out of the tunnel to play despite missing Game 6 with a TORN thigh muscle followed by him hitting the first two shots of the game.

Pulling a Willis Reed has forever been the gold standard of playing through pain in a big moment and for good reason. Can you imagine seeing that happen now? The internet would melt down from all the takes. I've heard a bunch of people at MSG that fateful night say once Willis showed up on the court, you could see Wilt Chamberlain's will leave his body and from that point, you knew the Knicks were going to win. Based on every story you heard about Willis Reed, he lived up to his nickname of The Captain, which his teammates still called him today. The man was an absolute grinder that also was the first player to win the NBA All-Star Game MVP, the NBA regular season MVP, and the NBA Finals MVP in the same season.

Now put a number 19 patch on the jerseys of the best Knicks team I've seen since the 90s Knicks made playoff runs an annual rite of spring and let's go win some series for The Captain.