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00:14welcome back to another edition of new york got game it is dexter henry we are less than 24 hours
00:21away from the knicks first ever championship parade and i have two longtime knick fans joining
00:30me and what's an incredible story i can't wait to talk to these guys about it to my left is
00:36doug
00:36bertinelli and to my right is pat hannafin they both joined me and they are longtime knicks fans
00:44and they both were at the knicks last championship celebration because remember there was not a parade
00:49so there was a championship celebration and these two gentlemen were there they had a sign at the
00:56parade it was captured by all the papers they were there for that so i want to welcome them to
01:00the
01:00show doug and pat how are you guys doing this morning very good very good you see right there
01:05doug yeah looking forward to tomorrow oh yeah i know you guys are i am too um and doug i
01:11saw you
01:11just hold up the photo there um and we'll show it to people here in this interview you guys made
01:18that
01:18sign back in 73 right and it's a great sign and i saw you guys had a picture that you
01:24recently took
01:24together uh holding the sign all those years later what what do you remember about standing outside of
01:31the city hall celebration outside of city hall celebrating the championship 53 years ago
01:36what do you both remember about that well well it was very exciting everybody was you know having a
01:43great time and uh we had brought the banner there and um we noticed that we were standing in the
01:52back
01:52of the crowd where the uh the news channels cameras were and they were up on a platform so pat
02:01and i said
02:02why don't we just open this up right here and you know we'll get it we'll get a reaction so
02:08we opened
02:09it up and then we noticed that all the local tv channel cameras just zoomed straight down onto
02:15the banner and everybody was going crazy so that was that was like really enjoyable so pat you obviously
02:25remember that too you guys made the sign or did did you talk about this the night before well what
02:31was
02:31the decision uh for you to make that sign and then what do you remember about standing outside of city
02:35hall with that sign 53 years ago well it was uh basically uh i i tried to copy it off
02:43of the banner
02:45from uh 70 uh to 70s at madison square garden and uh actually my my uh my oldest brother kevin
02:55his girlfriend helped me do it you know like we we died we got a bed sheet we dyed the
03:02bed sheet orange
03:03and uh she she helped me do it and we actually did the original one had a nerf ball on
03:09it but
03:11i i don't know i think i lost in the sauce or whatever but so it's it the banner that
03:17you see
03:17it doesn't have the nerf ball like uh basketball but uh she she actually helped me uh do it and
03:24ironed
03:25it was it was a project you know like uh so then you know when dougie got involved we said
03:32you know
03:33because we we used to go we saw the uh the the games in 71 when we were freshmen in
03:40high school
03:41and we actually slept overnight we met at the ferry slept overnight to get tickets to uh the playoffs
03:49and back in the day those you couldn't buy individual tickets you you had to buy the strips
03:55for you know the whole series and we actually slept overnight both years when we were freshmen
04:01and and uh seniors in high school and we were there for both championships you guys were a dedicated
04:11i should have let the people know long time friends right because you guys told me your friendship
04:15goes back to 68 69 so before the knicks even won titles you guys were long time friends growing up
04:21on staten island now doug you showed me the picture you held it up and we'll have it for the
04:28people in
04:28this interview but you both also recently took a picture with this sign which is how i saw this
04:33came across this on social media and i saw this when i saw that i said huh most people would
04:38have thrown
04:39the banner the sign away right like they would have thrown that away decades ago it got lost somewhere
04:44in your homes or or whatever how did that banner sign how did that survive all these years who was
04:51responsible for keeping it intact so you could pull it out today how did it survive well i i'm a
04:59trivia guy
05:00so i i have you know tons of trivia wall frazier you know like uh i actually uh i was
05:08on tv when
05:09what they um they retired well frazier's uh uh will street was there and uh i don't know if you
05:18know
05:18that show beginnings on msg on msg so i'm actually on there uh with with a sign that says welcome
05:27home
05:27clyde because he was actually traded to cleveland as you know so pat you you pat you were the sign
05:34guy
05:35you have multiple signs here okay yes yes yeah welcome back billy nice billy martin was uh this was
05:46on the front page of the news welcome back billy you know when he was fired and rehired for the
05:55sixth
05:55time i had a sign and he was coaching third base at the time because he he liked the limelight
06:01too
06:01so i've been around i i got inspired by that that guy uh remember the met guy with all the
06:09signs
06:10oh yeah yeah yeah i got inspired by him so so did you so so pat was it you that
06:16that kept the sign or
06:17doug was it no no no no i i kept the sign you kept it okay so you kept the
06:22sign where was it he was
06:24it somewhere tucked away in your home yeah tucked away in the upstairs in the closet whatever but
06:29with all the rest of my memorabilia that my wife hates but i'm one of those hoarders that you know
06:38doesn't like to uh yeah well hey it was it was a good thing because you knew exactly where it
06:43was
06:43and you knew where you could go and get it and you guys were able to take the take that
06:47picture so
06:4853 years guys it's that's a lifetime in sports i'm only 43 years old 53 years is a lifetime in
06:57sports
06:57you look good for 43 though well thank you i appreciate i appreciate that through through
07:02you guys have watched a lot of knicks basketball right so you've seen in the last 53 years all the
07:06heartbreak the near misses the rebuilds the disappointments that we've seen what kept you
07:13both i'm very curious as a long-time fans what kept both of you believing that one day the knicks
07:19would get back to what you were able to see in 1973 what what kept you guys believing in that
07:24well when you're a fan of a certain team in any sport you never give up like i'm a jet
07:32fan so
07:33that'll tell you right there you know you uh you just keep you persevere and you hope and you
07:41like when the jets would have a draft every year i would tell my son they had a good draft
07:46this is
07:46going to be they're going to they're going to do something this year and he would say dad come on
07:50you
07:50say that every year but that's how you have to you have to feel and you have to believe that
07:55that
07:55sometime they're going to turn it around sometime you have to believe that pat when the on saturday
08:03i want you i want to go back to saturday with you where were you when the final buzzer sounded
08:08for game five and i guess for you both i'd love to hear this both can you describe the emotions
08:13that
08:13you felt when you finally got to that point where you saw the knicks win another championship and i know
08:18you guys might have both said i don't know if we're going to see this again it had been 53
08:22years
08:22but where were you on saturday game five and what were the emotions that you felt when that final buzzer
08:26sounded okay you could answer all right i was at uh the previous game when og tipped in the ball
08:37we were at a unbelievable social uh gathering it was a baseline social in ocean port new jersey
08:46i've been there i've actually been there okay okay so you know that giant wall that screen and we
08:53were in there great place to watch a game oh my good and just the way that ended we i
08:59mean we were
08:59actually jumping up and down holding on to each other like they had already won the championship so
09:06saturday we went to long beach island which is down near manahawk in south jersey and we went to a
09:14bar in there called um the blue marlin so my family and all we all met and we walked in
09:22and we were
09:23there right after the game started and you really couldn't even move and they had little tvs above the
09:29bar and things were hanging down you really couldn't see you had to move your head around so we found
09:35in
09:35the back of the bar they had a projection screen big so we worked our way through the crowd we
09:41went back
09:41there and the kids sat on the floor i had a stool with my wife and we sat like right
09:46in front of the
09:46big screen and when that game ended i mean they were playing new york new york they had a dj
09:53people
09:53were singing and dancing it was like nobody knew anybody it was like it was like a big party it
09:58was
09:58beautiful that's beautiful that's the beauty of sports and how how it can connect everyone and
10:04when you have a moment like that to make sounds like you had a great time there
10:08where where were you for game five and how'd you feel after that buzzer sounded i didn't actually
10:12see the game i was sleeping i i was like i was like no i was like i don't know
10:19we got to take
10:19the next card i'm only joking i was in a local tavern you know not not far from my house
10:27with my brother
10:27and my sister-in-law they're big uh nick fans too and uh you know it was like i like
10:34to see the game
10:35i don't like crowds i i like crowds but when you want to concentrate on the game you you want
10:41to
10:41you want to actually see so i actually left uh at halftime at the bar and i came home and
10:48i watched
10:48the rest of the game with my wife and that was satisfying you know for me because i was able
10:54to
10:54pay attention to every play you know when you're at when you're at a local tavern it's like
10:59so much noise and you know like you really can't focus on the game you know so i was glad
11:06that i
11:06left at halftime i got a little of both you know like with the crowd and then i came home
11:11and relaxed
11:12on the couch and and watched the rest of it but i i could not believe that they they did
11:17it you know
11:18i i definitely thought it was going to go seven or at least six they they just what they only
11:25lost
11:26what one one game right yeah that that was incredible no one no one will ever forget that
11:33run that they had it was no no and it it wasn't even close you know like they they just
11:40blew away
11:40every every you know the game they they won were like you know they crushed the other team it was
11:46incredible it's an incredible incredible run and they they compare this team to uh the old nick team
11:54and i i do too because they they played like a team like back in the day willis reed and
12:02and and
12:02in those days the bush or whatever they you had to pass the ball three or four times before someone
12:09would shoot now these days like uh they they just go running gun running gun three pointers that
12:17changed the whole game around but now that this team that they have now they play like the team
12:23you know like they they pass the ball and there's you know besides brunson you know like which i'm glad
12:30they he changed his game around a little bit because he i think he last year he dribbled a little
12:36bit too
12:36much and then threw up that three-pointer at the end you know of the shot clock now you know
12:43like
12:43they you know he's got a different role on the team now where you know they they pass the four
12:49more
12:50i'm glad i think that changed the whole team wise you know like that reminds me of the but they
12:57compared them i i i don't think they're better than the team back then you're not gonna say you're not
13:03gonna say that they're better than the 73 team and i'm glad you i'm glad you brought that up pat
13:07because i was going to ask the both of you because whenever i get a chance to talk to seasoned
13:13veteran
13:13knicks fans that's how i'm gonna put it that have been been around for a while and seen some things
13:17whenever i talk to people older than me who've watched the knicks for that long that saw the 73
13:23champion i always love to talk to them about that team and you know mike breen i had an interview
13:28with
13:28mike breen recently and he talked about how clyde had compared this team he wasn't saying they were
13:33the same but kind of the point you were making pat that they were similar to the 73 team and
13:38how they
13:38played for each other right and there was that the movement of the ball and that that love and wanting
13:43to see your teammate uh succeed too um doug you heard what pat said because you've watched in 73 you
13:52had willis reed obviously and you had walt claude frazier leading the team um you watched jail and
13:58brunson lead this team doug how do you think this championship team in your eyes how does it compare
14:04to the one back in 70 do you see any similarities at all like patsies or what do you see
14:10when you look
14:10yeah i do see similarities yes they uh they they work the ball around they they don't shoot a lot
14:18of
14:19threes as compared to some other teams but they pick and choose their threes and they just work
14:25the ball and they're they're very they're very close unit you can see that there's no one's bigger
14:31than the next guy they're they're all on the same plane and they all play the same way hard and
14:38even the
14:38guys on the bench they they come in the game and they fit right in and they they do the
14:44job and they
14:45hold the score or get the lead and you know it it proved it showed at the end yeah it
14:53did it showed
14:54that this was a very very uh great put together team very tight knit and i think fans have loved
15:00that
15:00so i wanted to ask you guys right because you guys saw the previous two championships
15:06the 70 team the 73 team they didn't have a parade there was no parade there was a championship
15:11at city hall celebration city hall you guys were there tomorrow you'll finally get to experience
15:18something that knicks fans of all ages have never experienced which is a championship parade
15:23i guess a couple questions for you how special is that for you both and what does it mean for
15:29you
15:30guys to share this moment with younger knicks fans who are experiencing their first championship
15:35as veterans that you guys are who now are seeing the third championship what's it going to be like
15:40to experience the parade and then also experience it with younger knicks fans
15:45well um i have been to parades for the yankees and um i know the feeling it's it's really it's
15:56unbelievable you know when you just the crowds and then when you see the the players right in front
16:02of you on the float you know going up the street and it's just uh it's just crazy the confetti
16:08coming
16:08down it's just everyone is just so happy you know for that moment and these young kids well i can
16:17i can
16:18feel what they're feeling because we felt it back in the day so they're uh it's it's great for them
16:24it's great at least they could say we saw a new york knicks championship right yeah and we could say
16:33in our lifetime we saw three but thank god that they wanted this year because we're both 70 years
16:41old so you know like whatever i don't know how many more we're gonna see but at least we could
16:47say we
16:47saw all three of them you know yeah right yeah no that's that's something hey sometimes look i look i
16:54know doug you've been waiting for a long time you're still waiting for the jets you'd like to see them
16:59so i know i know that is beautiful i guess we could end on this well i ask you both
17:04because
17:05of what i just said you know tomorrow will be the first championship parade in nick's history
17:11when you look around tomorrow because i think we all as we get older we try to savor these moments
17:16right you guys just mentioned it you don't know if you're when you may see another one you don't know
17:21if you're going to see multiple championships we don't take these things for granted
17:24um as as sports fans when you look around tomorrow you're at the parade what do you think
17:31that moment is going to mean to both of you lifelong friends who've grown up rooting for the
17:36knicks who love basketball who now get to see a parade together you guys both being 70 years old
17:41what do you think that moment is going to mean to you tomorrow when you look around at the crowd
17:44and
17:45everybody there it's going to be unforgettable you know i know it's going to be kind of like a zoo
17:53you know with the amount of people that that's saying i don't know how many millions of people
17:57are going to be there but you know we're just going to work our way around and eventually we
18:03wanted to go down to city hall but i don't think that's going to happen and flash the banner again
18:10you know like just 53 years later you know flashing the banner again i don't know we'll get as much
18:17attention as we did last time but we're gonna have the banner tomorrow though you know and and i just
18:24want to show you uh my favorite paper yeah hey you made a good choice you made a good choice
18:30that's a
18:31great back page too you made a good choice i wanted to ask you a question do you know harvey
18:36araton i did not i did not know him um personally but i believe so this is my second stint
18:43work for
18:44the post and i believe he was working there before so yes i didn't know him personally though he's a
18:49chief or something with the times i grew up with him in staten island ah okay so he's he's he's
18:54he's
18:55he's in he's in the field too so yeah pad just pad actually answered the question i had you will
19:00be
19:00bringing the banner the sign tomorrow which is good because i think younger fans need to see the sign
19:05from 73 i think that's important doug before we go what is this going to mean to you tomorrow when
19:12you look around you're going to be there with your friend and you're going to see all the people
19:15there what's it going to mean to you to be at that parade it's going to mean an awful lot
19:18especially
19:19being with pat you know emotion my wife my wife actually did this last night we're going to add this
19:29to the the banner but we're not going to i don't know if you can see yeah okay 26 we're
19:37going to add
19:37it to the to the banner but we're going to keep the banner original so we'll just we'll just pin
19:43that
19:43on so we'll have 73 and uh 26 26 i love that i love it a little a little just
19:52a little bit a little
19:53update to the banner i i i love i love it man i i love it that is uh guys
19:58doug bertinelli panhandle in
20:00i i have to thank you both i i think this was a great story to talk to you both
20:04i love the banner
20:05i loved hearing about your fandom and your friendship because i think that's the thing
20:10that matters most through this is this the friendship and how long you guys have lasted
20:14as friends and kept that connection i think that's what's beautiful about sports this is beautiful
20:18about basketball so i want to thank you both for joining me on this show new york got game and
20:23enjoy the parade maybe i'll see you guys out there tomorrow okay we'll be looking for you
20:28hey i'll be looking for you and the sign thank you guys all right thank you no problem thank you
20:36and thanks for watching new york got game
20:39boob shakalaka
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