An NBA great has passed away — Willis Reed. His 10-year basketball career with the New York Knicks was outstanding and will be remembered by all who followed the game during those years.
Reed, a Hall of Famer, was a class act, team player, captain, MVP, All-Star, two-time NBA champion and role model for how to play the game. He was also a humble winner.
Reed’s record should show at least one more “assist,” an assist to me in the all-important game of life.
As a 16-year-old getting ready for my junior year in high school, I attended the first Willis Reed Basketball Camp in New York. It proved to be a turning point in my basketball development.
The camp’s director was Bobby Knight; the assistant director was Mike Krzyzewski. The former was the head coach and the latter the assistant coach of Army’s college basketball team at the time. Imagine that — being trained by two men who would go on to become the two winningest coaches in NCAA Division 1 basketball history.
But it gets better. Because it was Reed’s camp, we had many New York Knicks players come as daily visitors and instructors. I played pick-up games with some of them at night when the formal training had ended.
I first met my grade school basketball idol — Bill Bradley, who was a guest instructor at the camp for a session. Decades later we would serve in Congress together, with Bradley in the Senate and me in the House of Representatives.
It was an amazing experience, a godsend.
I learned a lot about basketball while sharpening my skills. I also learned their training habits and saw how hard those guys worked to become professional players.
The results were dramatic the following year in high school. I was an occasional starter in my sophomore year, averaging a modest five points a game. Following Reed’s camp I would average between 20 and 30 points per game for the next three years, including a 25 points per game average during my freshman year at Yale.
In my three last collegiate basketball games against Harvard, nationally ranked Penn and NIT champion Princeton, I averaged about 25 points per game. This allowed me to become a free agent with the New Orleans Jazz in 1975.
My friendship with Reed continued beyond my being a “camper.” It spanned decades. He invited me back as a camp counselor. He used me as an example of someone who was at his first basketball camp and who had “made good.”
Willis was proud of my political achievements. When I served in Congress, he invited me to join him at a New Jersey Nets game when he was running the team as its senior vice president.
Early in his career, after winning the Rookie of the Year award, Willis spent a night at our house as a guest and friend of my sister and joined us at our church for Mass. All eyes were on this gentle giant of a man, not known by many at the time.
I remember him telling my mother over dinner that he hoped the reporters would start getting his name right — newspaper stories and headlines often referred to him as “William Reed.” We all laughed.
Rest in peace, Number 19 for the New York Knicks — Willis Reed.
They don’t make basketball players like you anymore.
Gary Franks served three terms as U.S. representative for Connecticut’s 5th District. He was the first Black Republican elected to the House in nearly 60 years. He is the author of “With God, For God, and For Country.” @GaryFranks
