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It’s not over yet, but if history holds, the New York Knicks are headed to their first NBA championship in more than half a century.
The Knicks last hoisted the O’Brien Trophy in 1973.
What’s changed then?
Lots.
Richard Nixon was in the middle of his second term as President. He wouldn’t resign from office for another year and change, in August of 1974.
Major League Baseball consisted of 24 teams, 12 per league (There are 30 now). Oldheads might remember that the Atlanta Braves and Cincinnati Reds played in the same division – the National League West. Meanwhile, teams in Central time zones like the Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals played in the East. Doesn’t make sense, does it?
In the NFL, later that year, someone topped 2,000 rushing yards in a season for the first time in league history. That player’s name? OJ Simpson. There were 26 teams in the NFL, as opposed to the 32 nowadays. A little perspective on just how long it’s been since the Knicks last won an NBA crown. Not only were the Colts still in Baltimore, they wouldn’t leave Charm City in the dead of night for Indianapolis for another decade – early 1984, to be precise.
The 1973-74 academic year also marked the first under NCAA Division I. Prior to that, D-I was called the University Division. In the spring of 1973, before the Knicks bested the Lakers in five games to win the NBA Finals, John Wooden led UCLA to its seventh consecutive national title and the ninth in Wooden’s coaching career. His top player on the 1972-73 team? Bill Walton.
Staying in basketball, Ray Mears coached the Tennessee men’s team. Lady Vols basketball … did not exist yet. The program didn’t play its inaugural season for another year-plus, in 1974-75. Pat Summitt? She had just graduated college at UT Martin.
Bill Battle coached the Tennessee football team. Battle went 10-2 in 1972, his third straight season with double-digit wins in as many years. He was 8-4 in 1973, and out of a job three years later. His replacement? Johnny Majors.
In 1973, the Football Championship Subdivision did not even exist. ETSU played at the Division II level, as part of the Ohio Valley Conference. Ray Frazier coached the football team. Madison Brooks had retired months earlier as ETSU men’s basketball coach, after a 25-year stint in Johnson City with 370 wins, seven conference titles, and five 20-win seasons. ETSU women’s basketball did not exist.
The average price of a gallon of gas in 1973 was 39 cents. However, gas mileage was poor, to put it mildly. The average 1973 automobile got about 11.9 miles per gallon.
Not a good year for fuel economy, but a very good year for movies. The Godfather won three Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Actor.
As for the current series, as mentioned at the outset, history is on the Knicks’ side.
Only five times has a team gone ahead 2-0 in the NBA Finals and failed to win the championship. The last was 2021, when Milwaukee rallied from 0-2 to defeat Phoenix. This New York team, incidentally, is just the third NBA Finals team to take a 2-0 lead on the road, and the first since the 1995 Houston Rockets.
The Knicks head into Monday’s Game 3 with 13 consecutive playoff wins. Only the 2017 Warriors, who also won it all, have won more – 15 straight. The Knicks haven’t just won, they’ve dominated. Their 13 wins have come by 273 total points; that’s an average margin of 21 points per game.
History suggests the Knicks’ path to the championship is clear.
And if you don’t like the Knicks? If me writing that doesn’t put the jinx on them, nothing will.