Shoot Out the Lights: The Amazing , Improbable, Exhilarating Saga of the 1969-70 New York Knicks

by Bob Spitz

Chronicling the season that brought New York its first NBA title, the story of the New York Knicks, its players, general manager Eddie Donovan, and coach Red Holtzman follows their notable winning streak and difficult play-off challenges. 25,000 first printing.

Genres: Sports

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Bob Spitz is the award-winning author of The Beatles, a New York Times best seller, as well as seven other nonfiction books and a screenplay. He has represented Bruce Springsteen and Elton John in several capacities. His articles appear regularly in magazines and newspapers, including The New York Times Magazine; The Washington Post; Rolling Stone; and O, The Oprah Magazine, among others.

Reviews

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

A blast from my early teen years, Bob Spitz's 1995 book "Shoot Out the Lights" is about the the 1969-1970s championship year of the New York Knicks -- a time when I really did care about professional basketball. It was pleasure to go back in time and remember the great team led by Walt Frazier, Willis Reed, Dick Barnett, Dave DeBusschere, Bill Bradley and the rest of Knicks coached by Red Holtzman.

It's hard to believe that in 2012 - 42 years ago -- that we still see members of that team. Bill Bradley -- a Rhodes Scholar from Princeton University -- became a U.S. Senator for New Jersey. Walt Frazier, who scored 36 points in the 7th game of the NBA title match against the Lakers, works as a broadcaster on Knicks games on MSG Network (he also is seen with former NY Mets star Keith Hernandez on "Just for Men" hair color commercials). Reed went on to be a successful college and professional coach, as well as a respeected NBA administrator. Also a member of the 1969-1970 team who missed the entire season with an injury was young forward who went on to better success as coach of the Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers -- 11-time NBA Championship coach Phil Jackson.

Back in 1969-1970, there were only 14 NBA teams. The Boston Celtics legacy ended with the retirement of Bill Russell. The Knicks were the heir-apparent, but faced challenges from Baltimore Bullets led by Earl Monroe and Wes Unseld, and the Milwaukee Bucks, led by rookie center Lew Alcindor (now Kareem Abdul-Jabbar). The book details all background scenes of how the Knicks established themselves as the team to beat with a balanced attack featuring the aforementioned starting five, plus key role players such as Mike Riordan, Dave Stallworth and Cazzie Russell. The coverage starts before the season began and showed how the Knicks built themselves -- using the draft to get Reed, Frazier and Bradley and making timely trades to build the team.

Spitz has a tendency to use some "colorful" language in the book to emphasize the attitudes and times of the players, but is not overly offensive. A strong point of the point is how he takes time away from the season chronology to highly key Knicks players from their youth, high school and collegiate careers and show how they were molded into the championship team.

This was the first of two NBA titles for the Knicks...the same starting five, supplemented by the addition of a healthy Phil Jackson, Jerry Lucas and Monroe, would also win the 1972-1973 title.

Excellent read for those wanting to know about the lower saleries, tough competition and the early stars of the NBA -- before Dr. J., Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant.

[Tom Gase · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book as I didn't know much about the 1970 New York Knicks outside of them winning a title and Willis Reed limping on to the court in Game 7. But I couldn't get into this book because of the writing. It just wasn't good at all. I felt like the writer, Bob Spitz, who has written for some very good publications, wrote like he was just a fan. Like a 16-year-old fan that realized he could cuss and get away with it for the first time. I enjoy an occasional cuss word here and there, and if it's a quote than nothing you can do about it. But just a lot of goddamn's and for chrissakes for no reason. It just got old. And the sentences repeated in italics? Just got old. The book starts out okay, but then felt rushed in the end. I felt more was written about the playoff series against the Bullets than the Finals against the Lakers when Reed limps back on to the court before Game 7. That huge game and iconic moment had about four pages written about it. I felt the writer didn't interview anyone for this book and just went off his memories of the events as a kid. Could have been done so much better. Avoid.

[Rick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely great book about the 69 knick season. Loved it.