NBA witholding footage

[jlip]

I was watching Mike and Mike this morning and actor, Michael Rapaport was discussing the new 30 for 30 episode that he's directing about the 70's Knicks. He mentioned that during a home opener one season the Knicks were playing the Lakers and a fight broke out between Willis Reed and basically the entire Laker team. Supposedly Reed knocked out a player. (Pic) Rapaport expressed how the NBA had hidden the footage of this fight, but eventually released it to him for the documentary.

This is simply a rhetorical question and me thinking "out loud", but I wonder how much classic footage does the league have that they won't release. Why would they not want the world to see these games?

[gasolina]

I was watching Mike and Mike this morning and actor, Michael Rapaport was discussing the new 30 for 30 episode that he's directing about the 70's Knicks. He mentioned that during a home opener one season the Knicks were playing the Lakers and a fight broke out between Willis Reed and basically the entire Laker team. Supposedly Reed knocked out a player. (Pic) Rapaport expressed how the NBA had hidden the footage of this fight, but eventually released it to him for the documentary.

This is simply a rhetorical question and me thinking "out loud", but I wonder how much classic footage does the league have that they won't release. Why would they not want the world to see these games?

Reminds me of that scene in Semi-Pro where they'd fight during commercial breaks

[L.Kizzle]

http://knickerblogger.net/unsung-kni...bench-and-won/

Willis Reed vs Rudy LaRusso and the Lakers in the greatest fight in NBA history.

picture is in the link.

[Rake2204]

I am quite interested in seeing this Reed footage.

More on topic, I've always imagined the NBA is sitting on a substantial amount of video, pictures, and otherwise that they have not released. In some cases, I'm assuming they'd just rather not (say, if it's footage of a brawl). And in other cases, I'm betting they just haven't really had a reason to put all that footage out there.

It's interesting when NBA.com filters in great quality footage of rare moments (Leon Wood had a short mixtape when the 1984 Draft documentary came out). I'm sure they're sitting on a ton of media but just opt to trickle out whatever they choose, however they choose.

[RedBlackAttack]

I was watching Mike and Mike this morning and actor, Michael Rapaport was discussing the new 30 for 30 episode that he's directing about the 70's Knicks. He mentioned that during a home opener one season the Knicks were playing the Lakers and a fight broke out between Willis Reed and basically the entire Laker team. Supposedly Reed knocked out a player. (Pic) Rapaport expressed how the NBA had hidden the footage of this fight, but eventually released it to him for the documentary.

This is simply a rhetorical question and me thinking "out loud", but I wonder how much classic footage does the league have that they won't release. Why would they not want the world to see these games?

There is actually a pretty valid reason for not wanting to release the fight video. It sort of gives the NBA brand a "black eye," so to speak. I don't see a good reason for them holding back standard basketball footage.

[glidedrxlr22]

That was a good read. Damn....Willis Reed went ape sh!t all over those guys!

[Pointguard]

There are 700 conveniently missing Wilt games... I did a similar thread a few years back. They are definitely being withheld. There is no article saying the NBA lost 3000 games in a fire.

[L.Kizzle]

There is actually a pretty valid reason for not wanting to release the fight video. It sort of gives the NBA brand a "black eye," so to speak. I don't see a good reason for them holding back standard basketball footage.

A fight that happened 50 years ago will not give the NBA a black eye. All these players wanting a shorter season, touch fouls, ect is more damaging to the league than a brawl that happened in 1966.

[CavaliersFTW]

There are 700 conveniently missing Wilt games... I did a similar thread a few years back. They are definitely being withheld. There is no article saying the NBA lost 3000 games in a fire.

No.

The NBA just never saved games. No fire is needed. Plain and simple, the NBA did NOT have a process to archive film of games in the 1950's, 60's, nor most of the 70's. And some games didn't even have cameras in the arena.

The Knicks saved a few silent short game clips in the late 60's and early 70's for coaching/film review reasons of that time that were lucky enough to survive and most of these clips can be found on MSG tv from time to time and they will even go through the trouble of adding their own "sound" (commentary) to make it broadcast worthy. That's probably the only reason why a clip of this fight exists.

[ArbitraryWater]

The NBA does this from time to time.. and would still do this if they could get away with it. But with todays live streaming, broadcasts with so many people capturing games.. it's impossible (unless they start banning videos like they did on and off back in 06-08 on YouTube).

What are you talking about?

[jlip]

http://knickerblogger.net/unsung-kni...bench-and-won/

Willis Reed vs Rudy LaRusso and the Lakers in the greatest fight in NBA history.

picture is in the link.

Yeah. That's where I got the pic from in the OP.

[sportjames23]

I am quite interested in seeing this Reed footage.

More on topic, I've always imagined the NBA is sitting on a substantial amount of video, pictures, and otherwise that they have not released. In some cases, I'm assuming they'd just rather not (say, if it's footage of a brawl). And in other cases, I'm betting they just haven't really had a reason to put all that footage out there.

It's interesting when NBA.com filters in great quality footage of rare moments (Leon Wood had a short mixtape when the 1984 Draft documentary came out). I'm sure they're sitting on a ton of media but just opt to trickle out whatever they choose, however they choose.

Hell, yeah the NBA sits on a whole crapload of footage.

Ok, MJ fan that I am (and yes, for the asswipes that complain about me always mentioning MJ, I'm using him in this example), I used to get tired of seeing the same highlights of him from the NBA. I was like, all these games he played and you jokers show the same footage all the time?

Thank God for YouTube, as I've seen so much footage of MJ's games that I wouldn't see from the NBA. And not just MJ, of course. Old footage of Magic, Bird, Barkley, Dr. J, etc.

[fpliii]

No.

The NBA just never saved games. No fire is needed. Plain and simple, the NBA did NOT have a process to archive film of games in the 1950's, 60's, nor most of the 70's. And some games didn't even have cameras in the arena.

The Knicks saved a few silent short game clips in the late 60's and early 70's for coaching/film review reasons of that time that were lucky enough to survive and most of these clips can be found on MSG tv from time to time and they will even go through the trouble of adding their own "sound" (commentary) to make it broadcast worthy. That's probably the only reason why a clip of this fight exists.

OT: Which of these Bucks Kareem games do you have?

Oct 18, 1969 Detroit Milwaukee 110-119 [Full Game]
Oct 30, 1969 Milwaukee Detroit 102-81 [~15 mins highlights]
Apr 11, 1970 SF 1 Milwaukee New York 102-110 [~15 mins highlights]
Oct 17, 1970 Milwaukee Atlanta 107-98 Details [Full Game]
Oct 20, 1970 Milwaukee Detroit 114-115 Details [~15 mins highlights]
Nov 27, 1970 New York Milwaukee 103-94 Details [Full Game]
Apr 30, 1971 F 4 Milwaukee Baltimore 118-106 Details [Second Half]
Jan 9, 1972 LA Lakers Milwaukee 104-120 Details [Full Game]
Nov 18, 1972 Milwaukee New York 86-87 Details [9min and 18min highlights versions]
Nov 17, 1973 Milwaukee New York 93-100 Details [32 mins]
May 10, 1974 F 6 Milwaukee Boston 102-101 Details [part of 4th quarter + OTs]
May 12, 1974 F 7 Boston Milwaukee 102-87 Details [4th quarter]

[Thorpesaurous]

No.

The NBA just never saved games. No fire is needed. Plain and simple, the NBA did NOT have a process to archive film of games in the 1950's, 60's, nor most of the 70's. And some games didn't even have cameras in the arena.

The Knicks saved a few silent short game clips in the late 60's and early 70's for coaching/film review reasons of that time that were lucky enough to survive and most of these clips can be found on MSG tv from time to time and they will even go through the trouble of adding their own "sound" (commentary) to make it broadcast worthy. That's probably the only reason why a clip of this fight exists.

This really is most likely the case. Many many games probably just never had footage kept on them, as there was little reason to think anyone would ever have had to. Up until like 81 the finals was being shown on tape delay, and the league had to get footage from the broadcasting network for game tapes because it wasn't even their property. Even some of that footage is missing.

And the Knicks do probably have the biggest archive. They've probably got more footage of their own team than the league does. The old footage they air on their "MSG Vault" show is often really fascinating. Sometimes there'll be half a Rangers game then the tape was reused so there'll be some of an old Knick game. It wouldn't shock me if the reason it took the league so long to get material for Micheal Rappaport was because they had to go through the Knicks for the footage. I like the guy, but he's a boob. So who even knows if what he spouts on a sports talk radio show means anything.

There's also probably plenty of footage the NBA has that they just have never gotten around to archiving. That shit can take forever.

[jlip]

I didn't feel like starting a new thread, so I am just going to post this here since it's somewhat related.

1977 Sports Illustrated Article about "enforcers" and NBA fights.

"[B][I]