Top 100 NBA Players: #39

Walt Frazier

(Kalb: #31, Simmons: #32, BBR: #24)

The New York Knicks have won only two championships in their entire history, in 1970 and 1973, and Walt Frazier was the biggest reason for both victories, despite the fact that Willis Reed was voted the MVP of both series. I believe that Walt should have won both times, and I'm going to show you why.

In 1970, Willis Reed was injured near the end of New York's game 5 victory and missed the entire game 6 due to a major leg injury. The Knicks lost that game and appeared to be in danger of losing the series, but Reed limped onto the court for game 7 and gave the Knicks a huge energy boost, and when the Knicks won the game and the title, everyone credited Reed for it. The truth is, Reed scored only 4 points in the game, all in the first minute, while Walt Frazier scored 36 points, handed out 19 assists, and grabbed 7 rebounds in that deciding game. Here are their overall stats for that year's playoffs:

Frazier - 16.0 pts, 7.8 reb, 8.2 ast, .478 FG%, .764 FT%
Reed - 23.7 pts, 13.8 reb, 2.8 ast, .471 FG%, .737 FT%

Reed outscored Frazier by quite a bit during the playoffs, and outrebounded him by 6 per game, although that  margin is kind of small considering Frazier was a point guard and Reed was a center. Walt had just as big a lead in the assist category, and somehow shot the ball better than the big man throughout the playoffs. When you consider that he played the single greatest game of his career in game 7, you have to give him the MVP.

While an argument can be made both ways for MVP of the 1970 Finals, giving Reed the 1973 Finals MVP is a complete travesty. It was by far the worst playoff performance of his career, but Frazier was still his usual productive self. Here are the stats from the 1973 playoffs:

Frazier - 21.9 pts, 7.3 reb, 6.2 ast, .514 FG%, .777 FT%
Reed - 12.5 pts, 7.6 reb, 1.8 ast, .466 FG%, .857 FT%

You'd have to know absolutely nothing about the game of basketball to think that Reed was the best player on that team. In fact, I would rank him as their worst starter in the playoffs, but somehow he was awarded the Finals MVP anyway. There has never been any example in history of a player deserving the MVP less, and Frazier was cheated again.

Frazier was not only a great playoff player, he was also great during the regular season. For six straight seasons he averaged at least 20 points, 6 rebounds, and 5 assists per game, something very few players do anymore. He was also named to the All-Defensive First Team for 7 straight seasons, which was a testament to his all-around skills.

From 1969 to 1974 Frazier got the Knicks at least to the Conference Finals, with three trips to the NBA Finals and two championships during that six-year stretch. Frazier was the best player on five of those teams, and was the second-best once. It was clear that Frazier was a winner as well as an amazing player. The thing that held him back on this list is how short his career was. After just his tenth season, he basically disappeared, leaving the Knicks for Cleveland, where he would play only 66 games over 3 seasons before retiring.

The only way in which Gasol can be seen as superior to Frazier is in career longevity, since he's played at an all-star level his entire career, while Frazier did for only about 8 seasons. Frazier was great and very steady at his peak, but it ended early. Both players participated in 3 NBA Finals, winning two championships apiece, but Gasol was the #2 guy on those teams, while Frazier was the star of his. That's what sets him ahead of Pau all time.