Barbara Barker: Knicks legend Walt Frazier sees destiny in club's playoff run
MSG Network announcer and former Knicks great Walt Frazier stands on the court before a game between the Knicks and Wizards at Madison Square Garden on March 22, 2026. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
SAN ANTONIO — Pandemonium. Pure orange-and-blue pandemonium.
That is the only way to describe what transpired in the bowels of Frost Bank Center on Friday night minutes Victor Wembanyama’s potential game-winning jumper just before the buzzer clanked off the back rim and the Knicks earned a 105-104 win and a 2-0 lead over San Antonio in the NBA Finals.
Patrick Ewing and Allan Houston exchanged celebratory daps as they walked off the floor. A teary Fat Joe hugged almost everyone in his path. Ben Stiller and Timothee Chalamet embraced so tightly that for a moment, it looked as if they were going to fall to the floor.
And then there was Walt Frazier. Looking regal in an orange-and-blue-checkered jacket and paisley pocket square, the Knicks legend stood off to the side soaking it all in.
Frazier has not only seen this story before, he has lived it as the immortal point guard on the Knicks teams of 1970 and 1973, the only two Knicks teams to win titles.
Knicks fans have been waiting 53 years to hang another championship banner at Madison Square Garden. Frazier, after watching the way they pulled off a win in San Antonio on Friday, is convinced that wait soon will be over.
“It’s destiny,” Frazier told me. “At the end of the season, we feared Detroit and Boston and they fell out. We didn’t want OKC and they fell out. We got the guys we wanted because of their lack of experience. You saw that tonight. They had us on the ropes, but they didn’t know how to finish it.”
The question right now seems to be how quickly the Knicks can finish it. With their next two games at Madison Square Garden, is it possible that they could sweep San Antonio just as they swept Philadelphia and Cleveland in their previous two series?
This Knicks team joins the 1992 Chicago Bulls and 1995 Houston Rockets as the only teams to win the first two games of the NBA Finals on the road. Both of those clubs became champions.
The Knicks have won 13 playoff games in a row. If they win two more, they will tie the 2017 Golden State team for the longest winning streak in the playoffs.
Only one other Knicks team has ever had a two-game lead in the NBA Finals. That was the 1972-73 team that finished the season with 57 wins, jumped out to a 2-1 lead on Wilt Chamberlain’s Lakers in the Finals and ended up winning that series 4-1.
The Knicks’ starting lineup from that team — Frazier, Earl Monroe, Bill Bradley, Dave DeBusschere and Willis Reed — is the only starting lineup in NBA history in which every player is a member of the Hall of Fame.
Frazier said the feeling he gets watching how connected this Knicks team has become in the playoffs reminds him of those championship teams he played on.
“Frazier, Bradley, DeBusschere, Reed. It’s the same thing,” he said, listing the four starters who were on both championship teams. “That togetherness is really core. This year, we’ve been a 10-man team. Guys are stepping up . . . All these guys have been very productive.”
That togetherness was what clearly was on display late in Game 2. The Knicks didn’t panic when the Spurs went on a 14-0 run to tie the score at 97 with 2:59 left. A number of players came up with big plays down the stretch.
Jalen Brunson, who struggled all game as he was harassed by San Antonio’s defense, hit a tough fadeaway jumper to tie it at 104 and came up with his fifth steal of the game on Wembanyama’s brain cramp with 9.5 seconds left. OG Anunoby hit three big free throws on a critical challenge by Knicks coach Mike Brown. Mitchell Robinson’s tight defense on Wembanyama at the end of the game resulted in the potential game-winner clanging off the back of the rim.
“It’s an amazing feeling as a coach to know how mentally tough your team is no matter what the situation is in front of them,” Brown said. “To see them continue to fight and fight and fight and fight, no matter what the score is, no matter how much time is on the clock, it’s just a fantastic feeling.
“The NBA is tough. You don’t experience what I’m experiencing with this group a ton, and it is a freaking joy to be around.”
That clearly was on display backstage at the Frost Bank Center on Friday.
Barbara Barker is an award-winning columnist and features writer in the sports department at Newsday. She has covered sports in New York for more than 20 years.
