Marv Albert Talks Knicks’ Title, OJ Chase During ’94 NBA Finals Game w/ Rich

Rich called Marv Albert the reason he does what he does for a living, the voice on Knicks and Rangers radio that made him fall in love with sportscasting. So having Albert on after the Knicks ended their 53-year drought, on a day that also marked a strange anniversary, was something Rich said he doesn't take for granted.

Albert was happy for the Knicks, though honest that the 1970 title remains the most exciting to him, the team of Walt Frazier, Willis Reed, Bill Bradley, Dave DeBusschere, and Dick Barnett, with Earl Monroe joining for 1973. What set this group apart was the surprise. Good but not great in the regular season, they reeled off 13 straight playoff wins with dramatic comebacks, and the city, lacking watch parties in his day, fell in love to a point that occasionally went over the top.

On Jalen Brunson, Albert cited a New York Times letter to the editor asking how to measure his greatness, noting Brunson has apparently edged out Pope Leo XIV as Villanova's most celebrated alum. Having hosted so many Michael Jordan performances in the 1990s, Albert called Brunson's run one of the greatest playoff performances of all time. Rich pointed out the symmetry: Brunson's 45 points in San Antonio tied Jordan for a road closeout Finals game, and Jordan was the avatar who once blocked the Ewing-era Knicks. This time the Jordan-like performance won it for New York. Albert marveled that a player listed at 6-foot-2 operates the way Brunson does while handling himself so well, part of what makes this an unusually likable championship team.

The Patrick Ewing photograph led Albert to reflect on how the Hall of Famer changed. Tough to talk to and uneasy with the media as a player, Ewing became a different, warmer person Albert got to know as an assistant to Doug Collins in Washington, now traveling with the team and visibly thrilled for the current group. And when Rich relayed the numerology of Red Holzman's 613 wins hanging in the rafters as the Knicks clinched on June 13, Albert knew immediately Holzman would have loved this defense-first team, the same way he'd loved the great defenders of the championship era.

Then Rich pivoted to the 32nd anniversary of O.J. Simpson's slow-speed chase, which ran underneath the Knicks-Rockets Finals game Albert was calling. He described it as the most unusual day of his broadcasting career, cutting back and forth with Tom Brokaw, watching Kenny Smith jog over during a timeout to report they were chasing O.J., and Dick Ebersol directing from courtside. The challenge was turning the page on a dime, dropping from the chase footage straight back into play-by-play. Albert shared his best O.J. story too: Simpson, who worked NBC's NFL pregame show, would lift the rehearsed material Albert and Paul McGuire prepared, so the two started feeding him fake lines and watched him run with them on air.

Rich closed by thanking the man he says he rips off every day in words and cadence. Albert, gracious as ever, returned the kindness, and signed off with the only phrase that fit: and it counts.