MSG discovers ‘lost tape’ from 1973 NBA Finals


MSG Network has discovered and refurbished a tape from the original broadcast of the 1973 NBA Finals Game 5 and will air it at 7 p.m. Sunday, April 14.

The New York Knicks defeated the Los Angeles Lakers that night to win their second NBA title in four years, but few have seen the game since that night because a recording of the original broadcast never surfaced.

“Lost and Found: The ‘73 Knicks Championship Tape” will be a one-hour presentation and include new interviews with starts from that team, including Willis Reed, Walt ‘Clyde’ Frazier, Bill Bradley and Earl Monroe.


MSG found the tape from a sports video collector, whose copy was an off-air home recording on a rare Cartrivision tape format and was in extremely poor condition. Cartrivision, an ahead-of-its-time all-in-one television home recording system that was the precursor to the VCR, was shuttered in 1973 after only 13 months on the market.

MSG Network commissioned DuArt, a New York film and video production house that owns one of only a handful of working Cartrivision units in existence, to handle the repair. Through a process of two months, DuArt refurbished the tape.

Categories: TV
Pete Dougherty

2 Responses

  1. mackay says:

    Thank God…. Now Lose The 1994 NBA Tapes….

  2. craig says:

    Is there a way to purchase this tape on DVD?