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<\/p>\nHe became Muhammad Ali\u2019s dear friend, a young man with a camera and a dream 50 years ago who grew into The Greatest in his field, and over the weekend, Garden photographer George Kalinsky mourned the passing of the heavyweight champion of everyone\u2019s world, and reminisced about an unforgettable journey that shaped his life.<\/p>\n
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Kalinsky would chronicle the buildup to The Fight of the Century, Ali-Frazier I, and all of Ali\u2019s Garden fights after that, and the bond between him and The Greatest in the ring kept growing over the years.<\/p>\n
Before he got his iconic photos of Ali and Frazier head to head and nose to nose at Frazier\u2019s Philadelphia gym, Kalinsky got in the ring with each of them for one round.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey would sort of swing at me, and I would have my camera in front of my face and I told each one \u2014 I started with Ali \u2014 I said, \u2018Muhammad, I want you to make believe my camera is Joe Frazier.\u2019 I want people to see what it is to face you, what it looks like,\u2019 \u201d Kalinsky said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI could not believe that Ali could swing and hit a needle exactly where he wanted. I had no fear at all because his precision was so sharp. And at the end he puts his two hands up in victory and he says, \u2018I am The Greatest.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cI started doing the same thing with Joe. That lasted seven seconds because Joe had no control. And I realized immediately, I said, \u2018Joe, that\u2019s enough, you\u2019re gonna hit me.\u2019 Joe did not have that precision, but what he did have was the power and the ability to make me really afraid.\u201d<\/p>\n
A conversation with Ali before his third fight, at Yankee Stadium, with Ken Norton in 1976, rang louder than any boxing bell for Kalinsky Saturday. It was after Ali had showered, after he had asked Kalinsky if he wanted to capture him from the back of a station wagon doing roadwork at 4 a.m. Kalinsky was sitting at the edge of the bed in Ali\u2019s Concord Hotel room.<\/p>\n
\u201cI said, \u2018Muhammad, you shouldn\u2019t be fighting,\u2019 \u201d Kalinsky recalled. \u201c\u2018You\u2019re gonna damage yourself in such a way that it\u2019ll be irreparable.\u2019 What do you think?<\/p>\n
\u201cHe said, \u2018I know you\u2019re right, but the ring is my stage. If I don\u2019t fight, people are gonna forget who I am. But right now, I think I have the most famous face in the world, and that\u2019s how I make my living.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kalinsky was asked what prompted his advice.<\/p>\n
\u201cI saw his confidence changing to concern,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Sadly, for five more years, Ali kept fighting, kept deteriorating. Kalinsky last saw him at Frazier\u2019s funeral 4 \u00bd years ago in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe looked very frail. He seemed to be very thin and very smallish. I remember being almost afraid to go over to him because it was like a different person that I was seeing,\u201d Kalinsky said.<\/p>\n
But he did.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis eyes started to smile,\u201d Kalinsky said. \u201cI went through our lives together and some of the moments that we had. He put his hand out and touched me when I said Rope-A-Dope.\u201d<\/p>\n
You see, Kalinsky actually changed the course of boxing history, and Ali\u2019s career, one month before Ali\u2019s 1974 fight against George Foreman in Zaire.<\/p>\n
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\u201cAli calls me up. \u2018Can you meet me Monday at 6:30 in the Garden with [Garden guru] John Condon?\u2019\u201d Kalinsky said. \u201cI just want to talk to you.\u201d<\/p>\n
They met in the press room at an empty Garden.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2018I\u2019m fighting George Foreman in another month,\u2019 \u201d Kalinsky recalls Ali saying. \u201c\u2018He\u2019s too young, he\u2019s too fast, he\u2019s too quick, he\u2019s too strong, he\u2019s too big \u2014 I can\u2019t beat him. I don\u2019t know what to do.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n
There was silence. Kalinsky thought back to the first time he watched Ali train 50 years ago at the Fifth Street Gym in Miami before the Ernie Terrell fight, and finally said: \u201cYou know Muhammad? You\u2019ve been training all your life for this fight. What you were always doing was leaning against the ropes and you let your sparring partner hit you and hit you and hit you in the stomach. So what you have to do with Foreman is the same thing \u2014 act like a dope on the ropes. The more he pounds away at you, the more tired he\u2019s going to get.\u201d<\/p>\n
A playful cracked:\u201cYou want me to be a Rope-A-Dope!\u201d<\/p>\n
Over the years, in his trademark whisper, Ali would thank Kalinsky.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt worked,\u201d Ali said.<\/p>\n
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Kalinsky\u2019s journey began on a day when he had interviewed with the Miami Herald for a sports and political cartoonist job.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was walking on Fifth Street and I see Howard Cosell on the corner, and as I asked him what he was doing on the corner, he said, \u2018I\u2019m here to interview the Champ,\u2019\u201d Kalinsky recalled.<\/p>\n
Ali was training for his fight with Terrell. \u201cAnd at that moment, Ali was crossing the street, shook hands with Cosell, and they both went into the Fifth Street Gym. So I followed them, and Angelo Dundee stopped me at the door and said, \u2018You can\u2019t come in the gym unless you pay a buck.\u2019 And it just came out of my mouth, I said, \u2018I\u2019m the photographer at Madison Square Garden.\u2019 And Angelo looks at me and says, \u2018OK comedian, come on in.\u2019\u201d A week later, he became the Garden photographer.<\/p>\n
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Parkinson\u2019s doesn\u2019t care if you\u2019re The Greatest. Kalinsky cried when he learned of his friend\u2019s passing.<\/p>\n
\u201cMuhammad Ali had a heart that was bigger than anyone else. I just felt tremendously lucky and honored that I was able to share a certain amount of time with him, and that whenever there\u2019s a situation that I run into, where I say, \u2018Gee, I don\u2019t know if I\u2019m going to be able to do that or not, I think of Muhammad Ali and I immediately know I\u2019m going to do it,\u201d Kalinsky said. \u201cI\u2019m gonna get it done.\u201d<\/p>\n