By Steve Marsh
Article Reprint
So when Carly Simon released “You’re So Vain” in 1972, are we sure she wasn’t referring to Knicks legend Walt “Clyde” Frazier? The original NBA fashion icon—first NBA player to make the fashion magazines, first NBA player to drive a Rolls Royce—is a more plausible answer than David Geffen, right? Check out the YouTube footage: he brought the ball upcourt like he was walking onto a yacht. And there’s gotta be evidence of Clyde wearing an apricot scarf somewhere. Anyway, Clyde landed his sartorial nickname when he started wearing wide brimmed Borsalinos on the same week Carly’s old flame Warren Beatty dropped his gangster classic Bonnie and Clyde in 1967. Since then he’s won two NBA championships, spit rhymes as the Knicks colorman alongside Mike Breen, and opened a restaurant in New York’s Hells Kitchen. We caught up with #10 at Clyde Frazier’s Wine and Dine on 10th Ave (the fur wallpaper!) to talk about lapel width, blue suede Ponys and the white walls on his Rolls.