When Mike Breen and Walt Frazier, announcing on television, discussed how Kristaps Porzingis had tied the Knicks’ rookie single-game mark of seven blocked shots, Butch Beard had a flashback to the player who had set it.
For the record, it was Lonnie Shelton, at Portland against Bill Walton, Maurice Lucas and that season’s eventual champion Trail Blazers in a 119-93 defeat on Nov. 7, 1976.
“Lonnie Shelton — are you kidding me?” said Beard, a former teammate with the Knicks. “Heck of an athlete for a power forward. Six-foot-8, about 250 pounds, really strong, quick off his feet, could run like a deer.