INDIANAPOLIS — The thing is, Knicks fans of a certain vintage know this melody far too well. They know the words by heart. It may feel like OG Anunoby missing Friday night’s Game 3 of the best-of-seven Eastern Conference semifinal (and Jalen Brunson limping into it) is just one more example of karma, of the basketball gods paying back Knicks fans for the prosperous times of the early ’70s and mid-’90s.
But even the greatest Knicks teams have had to deal with the injury bugaboo. Most famously, of course, was 1970, when Willis Reed tore his thigh muscle in Game 5 of the Finals against the Lakers. They survived that one, of course, thanks to large doses of Dave Stallworth (to ignite a rally toward victory in that game) and carbocaine (injected in generous supply into Willis so he could inspire the troops in Game 7).
But that was the outlier.
The fact is, students of those beloved Knicks teams will forever believe that if they’d only been able to remain healthy they would’ve won the two titles in between the ones they claimed in 1970 and ’73, and if they’d put up a four-peat right after the Celtics dynasty was done that team might be remembered even more celestially than it already is.
In ’71, it was Reed, again. He was already leaking oil on his bad leg entering the playoffs. Then he damaged his left shoulder — his shooting shoulder — early in the second round against the Bullets, a team the Knicks drew six straight years in the playoffs and always found a way to beat — except this time.
This time, the teams held serve in each of the first six games, with Reed becoming less and less effective and wilting under the strain of matching up with Baltimore’s Wes Unseld. He managed only six points in a Game 5 win at the Garden, only three in a Game 6 loss in Baltimore.
“It got to where I couldn’t lift my hand over my head,” Reed told me years later, sitting in his Nets’ office, still wincing at the memory. “Have you ever tried shooting a basketball, or rebounding one, when you can’t lift your hand over your head?”
In Game 7 at the Garden, Reed was shot up like a racehorce, and everywhere: knees, shoulders. He gritted his way through all 48 minutes, years before many of the officers of the Minutes Police were ever born. He scored 24 points and grabbed 12 rebounds with one arm and about half a leg. And the Knicks lost by two.
A year later, the Knicks lost Reed for good on Veterans Day but newcomer Jerry Lucas acquitted himself fine. And after throttling favored Boston in five games in the conference finals they blew out the Lakers — winners of 33 straight and a league-record 68 games that year — 114-92 in Game 1 of the Finals.
“We were going to sweep them,” Lucas said many years later. “We knew it. They knew it. And then …”
And then in Game 2, leading the Lakers again, Dave DeBusschere went up for a rebound, got elbowed, and pulled a muscle just north of his pelvis. He tried to play through it but was barely a shadow of himself the rest of the series. The Lakers won the next four.
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The 1990s Knicks also met their share of injuries. Remember, early in the ’93-’94 season, Doc Rivers tore up his knee at a time when he’d established himself as Patrick Ewing’s chief lieutenant. The Knicks did well in quickly trading for Derek Harper but the capital expended to make that happen could’ve instead been put to better use at the deadline acquiring their biggest need — a dead-eye sharpshooter — which would’ve been most helpful in the Finals when John Starks grew cold and Rolando Blackmon fell out of favor with Pat Riley.
Five years later, the last Knicks playoff ride that seemed sprinkled with pixie dust was chilled when Ewing was lost after Game 2 of the East finals with a torn Achilles tendon. The Knicks somehow survived the heavily-favored Pacers — perhaps a positive omen for the days ahead — but had little chance matching up with Tim Duncan, David Robinson and the Spurs in the Finals without Ewing.
So, yes: Knicks fans have traveled this pathway before. With a cane. Or a crutch. Or a walker. It isn’t fun. It isn’t fun at all.
