3 NBA legends you forgot played for the Cleveland Cavaliers

1. Walt Frazier

Who’s the first player that comes to mind when you think of the New York Knicks? Okay, some of you will say Patrick Ewing. But for those who go back further, to the last time the Knicks won NBA titles (1970 and 1973), it’s certainly Walt “Clyde” Frazier who comes to mind first (with a secondary nod to Earl “The Pearl” Monroe).

Frazier moved into the broadcast booth as a color commentator for Knicks’ games when his career was over, and it’s a job he still has today. He may very well bleed blue and orange.

But Frazier was traded by the Knicks to the Cavaliers in October of 1977, which fans certainly saw as a sour way to deal with a franchise legend (this is where I cite the “it’s not personal, it’s business” line from The Godfather).

Frazier averaged just over 16 points per game over 51 games during his first season in Cleveland. But then he played just 15 games over the following two seasons before calling it a career midway through the 1979-80 campaign after the Cavaliers waived him.

Frazier is an all-time great New York Knick and an all-time NBA great who has remained in the public eye as a broadcaster. Which makes it easy to forget that his playing career ended on a real downer after being in a Cavaliers uniform for 60-some games.