"When the Garden Was Eden," the newest in ESPN's 30 for 30 documentary film series, debuted on Tuesday night, and it chronicles the great New York Knicks teams of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Based on the book by Harvey Araton, the Michael Rapaport-directed feature has interviews with everybody involved. It also has never-before-seen footage of the 1966 fight between Willis Reed and the Los Angeles Lakers. Like, all of them.

It's kind of incredible to watch, though it's also a bit scary. Reed just went after everybody and he was only fined $50. Here's how it was described in the New York Times' game story, via Deadspin's Kevin Draper:

In the confusion Reed flattened [Darrell] Imhoff, a 6-foot-10-inch, 220-pound center, with a punch over the left eye. [John] Block, a 6-9, 210-pound rookie center, suffered a bloody nose, which turned out to have been fractured.

Imhoff, holding a bloodied towel to his face, lay sprawled in front of the Laker bench for several minutes while the police restored order among a few of the 15,755 spectators who had run onto the court for a ringside view.

Imhoff needed one stitch to close a cut on his left eyelid. LaRusso, who is 6-8 and weighs 225, later admitted that "Reed hit me a couple good ones." Both were ejected from the game.

In Bill Bradley's 1976 book, "Life on the Run," he describes his teammate Reed as a fearless leader who had earned the respect of his teammates and opponents:

He was always the one to speak up when [Knicks head coach Red] Holzman asked if anyone had something to add, and when Red was absent, Willis would sometimes speak to the team alone. If Holzman was "the boss," Willis was the "player boss," yet he kept enough distance from management to maintain his integrity in the team's eyes. He also acted as a counselor, talking individually with a depressed or angry player. His dominance came in part with his position: A team is only as strong as its big man. A center has to fight for his teammats or, more specfiically, has to make the opponents believe he will fight. Willis never had trouble convincing anyone.

Reed never had trouble convincing anyone he'd fight? Fancy that.  

(HT: PBT)