Newspaper Page Text
■Knicks shoot 72
■percent in win
I By JIM COUR
I INGIJEWOOD, Calif. (UPD
■The New York Knicks, a club
■which struggled during the
■regular season, may be on the
■verge of pulling one of the
■biggest upsets in National
Association history.
I Playing outstanding team
■defense and shooting at a 72
■per cent clip from the floor in
■the first half, the underdog
■Knicks knocked off the Los
■Angeles Lakers, 114-92, Wednes
■day night to take a 1-0 lead in
■the NBA championship series.
I “You have to shoot well and
■play good defense to beat Los
■Angeles,” said New York Coach
■Red Holzman after his club’s
■easy victory over a team which
■beat the Knicks four out of five
■times during the regular
■season.
I The best-of-seven game title
■series continues here Sunday at
■1:40 p.m. PST before moving
■to New York next for games
■No. 3 and 4 Wednesday and
■Friday nights of next week.
Many fans pulling
for Jerry West
By MILTON RICHMAN
UPI Sports Writer
NEW YORK (UPI) -Okay,
so this’ll get me drummed out
of the press section.
I can’t help it. In this one I’m
telling you right off I won’t be
completely neutral.
I’m rooting.
To make it worse, you could
even say I’m rooting against
the “home” team, the New
York Knicks. But I’m not really
pulling against them or for the
Los Angeles Lakers.
The guy I’m rooting for is
Jerry West.
When this NBA thing is all
over, it would do my heart good
to see him smiling and glowing
there on the winning side. I
think it would do a lot of other
hearts good also.
Jerry West has been bouncing
a basketball professionally 12
years now and never has been
a member of a world cham
pionship team.
Ernie Banks Knows
Only someone like Ernie
Banks knows how he feels. Al
Kaline has a pretty good idea,
too, because he waited 16 years
before he finally knew how it
felt to win one.
One scene involving Jerry
West keeps coming back to me
all the time.
It was a scene in the Lakers’
dressing room two years ago
right after the Knicks had won
the title in seven games.
Jerry West did everything
humanly possible in that final
playoff series with the Knicks,
including sinking one shot from
three-quarters the length of the
court at the final buzzer. The
shot tied the score but the
Lakers lost in overtime. They
also lost the seventh game and
now, even though he had been
named the playoffs’ outstanding
players, Jerry West made a
pathetic figure in the losers’
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Bradley-Lucas Lead
Dollar Bill Bradley and long
shooting Jerry Lucas led the
Knicks’ attack with 29 and 26
points, respectively. Bradley
was 11 of 12 from the floor
while Lucas lobbed in 13 of 21
attempts. Eleven of Lucas’
shots were in the 20-foot range.
“New York just played a
great game,” conceded Bill
Sharman of the Lakers the day
after he was named the NBA’s
Coach of the Year. “They had
great movement and always
seemed to hit the open man.”
The Lakers, who set an all
time NBA record of 69-13
before eliminating defending
champion Milwaukee from the
playoffs, went into the series as
5-2 favorites to get their first
league championship.
But they were out of the first
game after one half.
Although Bradley was the
Knicks’ high scorer, the 6-foot-8
Lucas figures to be Lakers’
biggest headache in the series
because of his outside shooting.
quarters.
He sat on a bench, his head
down and his hair mussed.
Some of the other Los
Angeles players didn’t care to
answer any questions. Jerry
West didn’t particularly care to
either but his characteristic
graciousness got in the way. He
answered every last question.
It’s Tough
And when he picked his head
up you could see the moist film
around his eyes.
“Tough, isn’t it, Jerry?”
someone said to him, not really
knowing any other way to put
it.
“Yes,” answered weary Jerry
West. “Maybe it just isn’t in
the cards for me ever to be a
championship club.”
Now pushing 34, Jerry West
is getting still another chance
after having failed to make it
in 10 previous playoffs.
Few men in the history of the
NBA have taken the physical
beating West has, playing as he
does, a 6-3, 180-pound toothpick
among the bruising 7-foot
redwoods.
He has played with a broken
hand, sprained ankles, pulled
muscles and torn ligaments but
he always keeps coming back
for more, always hoping it will
all lead to that one elusive
championship.
Ballplayers in all sports are
notoriously selfish. Yet, at
times, inordinately feeling for a
fellow competitor also.
Held His Hand
When the Lakers lost to the
Boston Celtics in the finals for
the sixth time, for example, big
Bill Russell, who iai’t supposed
to be overly emotional, tried to
comfort West in some way
after the last game but found
he simply couldn’t. So he just
held his hand a moment.
West understood.
Another Celtic player, John
Lucas Presents Problem
“Lucas definitely presents a
problem for me,” admitted Los
Angeles’ 7-1 goliath Wilt Cham
berlain.
Lucas had 18 points at
halftime and Bradley 16 as the
Knicks, who finished only 14
games over .500 in the regular
season, left the court with a 67-
49 advantage. The Lakers
closed to within 13 with a pair
of baskets at the start of the
third period but the Knicks
responded with six unanswered
points and that was the game.
Dave Deßusschere came
through with 19 points and
contributed 18 rebounds. The
Knicks wound up outrebounding
Los Angeles, 55-44.
For the Lakers, Gail Good
rich had 20 points, 16 of them
in the first quarter. Chamber
lain picked off 19 rebounds.
Los Angeles’ Jerry West, who
shot only 35 per cent from the
field against Milwaukee, conti
nued to have his shooting
problems, hitting only 3 for 15.
Havlicek, was similarly moved
by West’s tremendous efforts in
that same playoff. He came
over to him and said quietly:
“I love you.”
To understand something like
that, you would’ve had to
played professional basketball
yourself. Playing on the same
court with a Jerry West would
make it all perfectly clear.
“I’ve always considered him
the greatest basketball player
I’ve ever seen under seven
feet,” says a young man I know
from Norwalk, Conn. “The
thing that draws me to him is
that he seems to have so much
class, no matter what he does.
Watch him the next time he
commits a foul. He raises his
hand and puts it down. That’s
all. No show or anything else.
He sets a marvelous example
for everyone.”
Now you know why I’m
rooting for Jerry West.
| Sports Briefs |
TOURNEYS EXPANDED
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (UPI)-
The National Collegiate Athletic
Association basketball cham
pionships will be expanded to 32
teams in 1975, the NCAA
announced Wednesday. The 1973
and 1974 tournaments will still
contain 25 teams. The NCAA
said a two-year waiting period
for enlarging its tournament
was necessary because of
scheduling adjustments by
member institutions.
MEMORIAL SERVICES
LOS ANGELES (UPI) —
Memorial services will be held
Saturday for Forrest Twogood,
former University of Southern
California basketball coach and
assistant athletic director. Two
good died Wednesday morning
at Glendale Memorial Hospital.
He would have been 65
Saturday.
LAVER STILL TOPS
DALLAS (UPI) —Rod Laver
continues as the top money
winner on the World Champion
ship Tennis tour with $59,250.
Fellow Australian Ken Rosewall
is second with $52,700 while
Tom Okker of The Netherlands
is third at $30,100, Marty
Riessen of Evanston, 111., is
fourth with $25,000 and Cliff
Drysdale of South Africa is
fifth at $24,700.
2 main
events
on card
Two main events headline the
wrestling card Saturday night
at the Sports Palace.
Buddy Colt will face El
Mongol in the first main event
and Assassin No. 2 will tangle
with Rocket Monroe in the
second.
In other matches Bob Arm
strong will face Flash Monroe,
Jerry Oates will wrestle
Roberto Soto, L. D. Lewis will
tangle with Mr. X and Oki
Shikina will square off against
John Sullivan.
★★★★★★★★
SPORTS
★★★★★★★★
VFW, RBM
win games
VFW 8480 outscored Experi
ment Station 27-16 yesterday in
the Commercial Softball
League. RBM Motors beat
McDonald Chapel, 17-5.
Luther Dennis hit four
doubles for VFW and Ralph
Merritt hit a home run and
double. David Parvin hit a
home run, double and single for
Experiment Station and Norma
Schaad hit two doubles and a
single.
Benny Powers led RBM with
two doubles and a single.
Moore hit a home run
and single. Donnie Clark hit a
home run and double for Mc-
Donald Chapel and Benny
McMichael hit a triple and
double.
LONG RUN
Milwaukee Buck coach
Larry Costello scored 32
points without missing a shot
while playing for Syracuse in
a 1961 game, hitting 13 field
goals and six free throws
w ithout a miss.
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HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif.—Lee Meyers, the flamboyant
baseball “bonus baby” who was briefly wed to actress
Mamie Van Doren, died at age 25. He died of injuries suffered
— Griffin Daily News Thursday, April 27, 1972
Page 19
Monday when his sports car swerved to avoid a collision and
went out of control. He is shown in left photo with Miss Van
Doren shortly after their wedding. (UPI)