Walt Frazier: Never Discombobulated

The current New York Knicks are hard to stomach. So the other day, I flicked on ESPN Classic and focused on a 1989 NBA playoff game between the Chicago Bulls and the Atlanta Hawks. It was an unremarkable classic except for the announcers. Current voice of New York Yankees radio John Sterling was calling the play-by-play partnered with a loquacious, high-pitched rookie color man who struggled to keep up with the action, seizing on the obvious and getting excited over just about everything. That rookie was New York Knicks legend, Walt Clyde Frazier. Classic indeed. A Hall of Famer (1987) and quarterback of the only two Knicks championships (1970, '73), Frazier was a seven-time All-Star, made the first team NBA All-Defensive team a noteworthy seven consecutive seasons and was named One of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History. Yet what separated Clyde from his peers (and successors) and endeared him to New Yorkers was his regal sense of style and his effortless manner of cool. Since 1989, Frazier has been doing color commentary for Knicks radio and television broadcasts. Behind the mic, Frazier established a penchant for semi-malapropism which, though at first perceived as goofy, now is imitated by Knicks fans as much or more then Marv Albert's signature YES! call. The New York sports icon who never fell from grace remembers stealing a few hubcaps, reveals his vocabulary-building secrets and relives the greatest Game 7 in Knicks history. 

Willis Reed once said that your hands were so fast, you could steal hubcaps off a moving car. Ever tried it?

(Chuckles.) I've stolen hubcaps, but not off a moving car. 

Really?

Some folly in high school when the flippers first came out. Me and my friend went around one night looking to steal hubcaps. I think back on that, man. It could've been tragic.

As a Color commentator for MSG, you're known for your flowery turns of phrase. How did you develop such an extensive vocabulary? 

I started out doing pre-game, half-time and post-game for the Knicks with Greg Gumbel. I was kind of petrified. I said, Man, I've got to improve my vocabulary. I started reading the Sunday Times Arts and Leisure sections. I liked words like riveting, mesmerizing, provocative, profound. You know, all those different words. I would write down how they were utilized in sentences. It just started from there.

Did you use Word Power or any other vocabulary-building programs?

Yeah, I used Word Power a bit as well. But my greatest advantage was my girlfriend, who was an English major. I ran everything by her. She showed me how to use the dictionary. She's the one that dubbed me the word man.

You've definitely trademarked some phrases. When was the first time you said dishing and swishing?

When I came back to the game, I'd be in bars talking to average New Yorkers. I'd be saying fast break, and they'd say transition, and I'd say passing, and they'd say dishing. So I said, Man, that's how I should sound, and I'm getting paid to do this. They really put the pressure on me to work diligently at it. So when I heard the word dishing, I just added the word swishing. 

How about shaking and baking?

Well, that's a term we used to use back in the day. Shaking and baking, wheeling and dealing. And I added posting and toasting and a few others. 

My grandmother made Shake 'n Bake Chicken a lot. I think it's an underrated product. You ever had it? 

No, I never tried that. I do all my own cooking, though. The George Foreman Grill, man! That's my baby. 

There's a great photo of you in your Manhattan apartment, circa 1971, sprawled out comfortably on a king-size round bed. Why did round beds go out of style?

I think it's the decline of taste today. These guys don't really know how to dress. On the old Knicks we competed to see who was the best-dressed. Now the players don't seem to be doing that. Just like players today don't buy Rolls-Royces. Everybody's got SUVs.

During your rookie year in 1967, Knicks trainer Danny Whelan named you Clyde, because your fashion sense mirrored the gangster style popularized that year in the motion picture Bonnie and Clyde, starring Warren Beatty. Last year Warren Beatty's wife, Annette Benning, lost the Best Actress Oscar for a second time to Hilary Swank. Maybe it could happen once, but how could Hillary Swank be a better actress than Annette Benning twice? 

Well, you know there's politics in everything, man. Whether it be sports or whatever you're doing. Like they say in college, it's not so much what you know, it's who you know. It's unfortunate, but it's true.

Off the court, you exhibited a flamboyant style, but on the court you were known for being cool and incredibly clutch. The bigger the game, the better you played. Your scoring average in 93 playoff games was always a few points higher than your season average. What separates clutch players from ordinary players? 

I was kind of groomed for that. I'm the oldest of nine kids. I was always in charge when my parents weren't around. My parents said, Walt, you gotta set a good example for the other kids coming up. I was a catcher in baseball, quarterback in football and a point guard. When things went awry, the coach would always pull me over: Hey Walt, you gotta do this, you gotta do that, you gotta keep the guys calm. I realized that I had to have a poker face, so when everyone else was upset, I said, Shut up man, I'm calling the plays. 

That fourth quarter poiseis it something you're born with or something you can teach?

It's acquired over time. When the game is on the line, I'm actually more relaxed. I like pressure. That's when my focus is unequivocally magnificent When the game is on the line, a lot of guys start thinking, How are we gonna lose the game? I always think I'm gonna make the basket. That's how championship teams think. More than anything, it's about confidence and positive thinking that develops over the course of your life even before your pro career. I developed that type of demeanor as a kid. Once you get to the NBA, you are what you are. If you are not a pressure player, you won't become one in the NBA.

Do you miss it? 

I'm much happier as a person today than when I played. Because as a player, you had these rivalries. I had a rivalry with Willis about who's popular, and with Earl. You were always competing, man, even competing for women. Now, I fought my battles, I won my wars. When I see a current Knick making $100 million, I say, God bless him. I'm not envious of what he makes. When I walk around New York, people show me so much respect. 

I am willing to bet that even in a competition for women with today's Knicks, you'd do better than most of those guys.

(Laughs.) Thanks. I can just laugh at them because I've been there. Let them kill themselves. No more for me.

Everybody likes to remember Willis Reed limping onto the court in Game 7 of the 1970 finals. But that game belonged to you. Without Willis, you recorded one of greatest performances in a Game 7 ever36 points, 19 assists and five steals. What would you like people to remember about that game?

When it happened, I was pissed. I was like Willis?! Hey man, momentum can only carry you so far. 

Then you have to play the game. 

It was only my third year in the league, and I'm seeking recognition. I wanted to be like Robertson and West. No one has ever had a Game 7 like that, but whenever they mention it, they mention Willis. But he really galvanized the team by just coming onto the court. A lot of guys would not have done that. The man could barely walk. When he showed up, it catapulted my confidence. I'll never forget Chamberlain, West, Baylorthey just stopped what they were doing to stare at Willis. And I said to myself, Man, we got these guys. 

Among your five steals that night was the steal when you stripped the ball from Jerry West at midcourt during the second quarter. West fouled you on the breakaway, and you completed the three-point play. 

I still don't know how I did that. 

He still doesn't know either. On the Lakers' next possession, the Knicks' Mike Riordan forced West into a shot-clock violation. Was that game won or lost in the second quarter? 

Yeah, because when you see your leader discombobulated, that's a downer.  I had stripped West and now Riordan, a guy off the bench, is forcing the turnover. You could see their body language at that pointdropping those heads and shouldersand the crowd was in a frenzy!

You were named to the NBA All-Defensive first team seven consecutive times. Former teammate Bill Bradley once told Sport magazine, It's not only that Clyde steals the ball, but that he makes them think he's about to steal it, and that he can steal it any time he wants to. Today, NBA defenses are more physical. What's happened to the mental aspect of defense?

We used to say, Let sleeping dogs lie. If we're beating you by 30 points, we told you, Good shot. I wouldn't tell you anything to bring you out of your stupor. These guys today they dunk on youthey're profiling and styling. People have pride. They will retaliate. 

So, you're right, the savvy of the game has been replaced by stylestyle over substance. A lot of times I could steal the ball at any time, but I was waiting for that impact moment. Let's say the whole game the guy has been dribbling with the ball in front of him, not protecting it, and now the game is on the line, last three minutes, the game is tight. Now, I make a steal and go down and score. That changes the momentum of the game. That has impact. 

But the whole game I set this guy up. He's comfortable. 

My thing was, I loved defense. Throughout grade school, high school and college, my coaches stressed defense. We never played a zone. My junior year in college I was ineligible to play. So every day in practice, my coach made me play defense only. I couldn't blame the coach, but I said to myself, I'm gonna be the best goddamn defensive player I can be. It was my way of getting back at the coach. It'd be me and four other scrub guys, and I'd create so much havoc stealing the ball and trash-talking, Coach would have to say, Hey, Frazier, sit down. I mastered defense, man: the stance, the anticipation of the ball and what guys would do in certain situations. That year I perfected my defense. 

In 1973, you and Earl Monroe combined for the Rolls-Royce backcourt. Was it better to have him as a teammate than to guard him?

I missed guarding him, man. That was my supreme challenge: Deny the Pearl. I looked forward to it. He looked forward to it. We asked no quarter. We gave no quarter. But we never trash-talked. My friends would say, Clyde, what do you say to Earl? 

I'd say, Man, we don't say nothing. 

He says, C'mon, man, you're all over this guy, and you don't say nothing? 

Sometimes Earl says, Good defense, Clyde, and sometimes I say, Good shot, Earl. 

So when he came to the team, people didn't understand the respect we had for each other. And that's why it worked. 

Have you talked to Marv Albert since he defected to the Nets?

Not since it happened. I've only seen him a couple of times since he left the network. Sometimes he's doing TNT when we're doing MSG, so I bump into him. Rivalry is what this city's about, man.

What will it be like for New York City to have two teams, with the Nets in Brooklyn?

I think it's great, because this city is large enough to handle two teams. Competition is always good. It's the fans who live on that. It keeps 'em talking. Looking back, if I could do it over again, I'd relish the moments more. When you're playing, you just assume you win one championship and you'll be there forever. 

You tried to relish a bit. After you retired you moved to the U.S. Virgin Islands and obtained a charter-boat captain's license. But you lost both a home and boat to Hurricane Hugo. So in 1989 you moved back to New York to work as an analyst on Knicks broadcasts. If you could send any one of this year's Knicks on a three-hour cruise, who would be on that boat?

It would be one of the older guys. They're more laid back. The young guys are like, You're gonna get out there on all that water? They're petrified. 

I say, Hey, man, that's the beauty of it all.

Dave Hollander is the author of 52 WEEKS: Interviews with Champions!, a collection of his interviews with famous sports figures and memoirs of his experiences in sports.