The New York Knicks last won the NBA Championship in 1973. It was a different world back then. Watergate was dominating the news. The U.S. wound down military operations in Vietnam. The Supreme Court made its famous decision on Roe v. Wade, and a global energy crisis caused by an oil embargo wreaked havoc on the world’s economy.
Like today, the New York sports fans were hungry for a championship, and the Knicks provided them with one. The Yankees hadn’t appeared in the World Series since 1964. The Mets had won the series in 1969 and would go on to play in it again in ’73 but lose in seven games to the Oakland A’s. The Nets were still playing in the fledgling ABA. The Rangers hadn’t won the Stanley Cup since 1940, and the Islanders were closing out their first season in the NHL.
The New York Jets, after winning Super Bowl III in 1969, became very ordinary after injuries limited star quarterback Joe Namath to 28 games over four seasons. The New York Giants had just played their last full season at Yankee Stadium and were forced to relocate for the next three years while their new stadium was being built in the New Jersey swamps.
The Knicks won the NBA Championship in five games over an aging Los Angeles Lakers team. It was the second time in four years the Knicks had bested the Lakers for the title. Who knew they would virtually disappear for the next 50-plus years?
The fans weren’t as rabid then. The availability of games was limited. Home games were largely blacked out, shown only on cable television, which was not available in Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island until the mid-to-late 1980s.
The reason? Teams wanted their fans to attend games in person, an issue that has largely resolved itself over the years.
Game 5 of the 1973 series was played at The Forum in Los Angeles on May 10, a Thursday night, and was televised on ABC. Tip-off was at 10:30 p.m. Eastern. The game ended around 12:40 a.m. New York time. Few were still awake to see the celebration, never mind participate in it.
That won’t be a problem this time around, should the Knicks win the finals. American team sports have fully embraced the power of television and now place games in prime time, no matter where they are played.
The fans’ reaction to the Knicks’ sweep of the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference finals should be a reminder to the other teams in the area what a special thing it can be to win a championship in The Big Apple.
That is not lost on John Harbaugh, the new head coach of the Giants. He took the job this past January, with the intention of winning it all in New York.
“To be on the biggest stage in the biggest sport, I know the challenges,” Harbaugh said at his introductory press conference. “I understand the expectations. I know the fans are hungry for a winner. We’re here with one mission: to become, to earn the right to be called the world champions in New York, and that’s what we plan to do.”
The Giants have a long road ahead of them coming off three miserable seasons that saw them go 13-38. Harbaugh will have to take things one step at a time.
“I just want to win games. I want you driving home from MetLife Stadium happy,” Harbaugh said.
Now it’s up to the Knicks to finish and Harbaugh’s Giants to follow the path most recently blazed by Mike Brown, three young men from Villanova, and a cast of characters completely embraced by the greatest fans in the world.
This article originally appeared on Giants Wire: Knicks have raised the bar — can John Harbaugh’s Giants reach it?
Reporting by John Fennelly, Giants Wire / Giants Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
