In
New York, we applaud defense, because we have seen how it is meant to be
played. That is why it was so painful to watch the dysfunctional teams of the
Isaiah Thomas era. Even today, the teams of Walt “Clyde” Frazier, Willis Reed,
and Earl “the Pearl” Monroe cast a long shadow over Madison Square Garden. The
glory years of the New York Knicks are chronicled in Michael Rapaport’s
documentary When the Garden Was Eden, which screens
during the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival.
New
York has always been a basketball town, but the Knicks played second fiddle to
the Big East during the early 1960s. It was not just the Knickerbockers. At the
time, the NBA had less prestige than Arena Football at its nadir, but the
Knicks were especially bad. However, they had a scout named Red Holtzman who
had an eye for talent. Players like Frazier and Reed gave the team some
credibility just as the league’s prospects were improving, but the highly
touted Bill Bradley captured the City’s imagination—at least until his deferred
Garden debut.
Although
still better known as an actor, Rapaport is building a nifty body of work as a
documentarian. Beats, Rhymes, and Life,
his compulsively watchable rise-and-fall profile of A Tribe Called Quest deserved
to breakout beyond the obvious hip-hop audience, but Eden, based on Harvey
Araton’s national bestseller, is
probably playing to the fanbase more. Still, isn’t everyone a Knicks fan when
you get right down to it?
If
so, the 1970 and 1973 teams are a major reason why. Rapaport talks with just
about all of the surviving starters and role players, getting some classic
Clydisms from Frazier and some ironic reminiscences from Cazzie Russell (the
final L.A. Laker the wear #32 before Magic Johnson) regarding his rivalry with
Bradley (whom he also faced as a National Guardsman when the politically
ambitious small forward was protesting in the streets).
