Dick Barnett, legendary Knicks NBA champion, dead at 88

Dick Barnett, whose unorthodox left-handed “Fall Back Baby” jumper thrilled Knicks fans en route to the team’s 1970 NBA championship and who later authored multiple books, earned a doctorate from Fordham University and taught classes in sports management at St.John’s, has died this weekend, the Knicks announced Sunday.

He was 88.A three-time All-America at Tennessee State, where he led his teams to three consecutive NAIA national championships, Barnett, enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2024, spent 14 seasons in the NBA — eight of those with the Knicks — and one in the old American Basketball League.While a limping Willis Reed inspired his team and Walt Frazier played the game of his life in Game 7 of those 1970 Finals, the overlooked Barnett scored 21 points in the decisive game and had taken on the responsibility of guarding Jerry West for most of that series.Barnett was also part of the 1973 championship Knicks team.

His No.  12 was retired by the team in 1990.“He’s one of the architects who built the legacy of what the Knicks were about,” once said Earl Monroe, who replaced Barnett in the starting backcourt after the Knicks acquired him during the 1971-72 season.“No one can ever forget that.”A three-time Little All-America at what was then called Tennessee A&I, Barnett was chosen in the first round of the 1959 NBA Draft by the Syracuse Nationals (now the Philadelphia 76ers).

He spent the first two years of his career with the Nationals before jumping to the new ABL and the Cleveland Pipers, who were owned by George M.Steinbrenner, who years later would purchase the Yankees.After one successful season with the Pipers, who won the ABL championship that year, Barnett returned to the NBA with the Los Angeles Lakers, with whom he spent three seasons.

At the age of 29, he was traded to the Knicks, just before the start of the 1965-66 season.He averaged 23.1 points per game in his first season in New York, bu...