George Kalinsky was on vacation when he spotted Muhammad Ali and the sports commentator Howard Cosell walking together on a street in Miami Beach. Camera dangling from a shouldermegapanalo, he followed them to a boxing gymnasium and talked his way in by claiming to be a photographer for Madison Square Garden.

At the time, in 1966, Mr. Kalinsky said, “I was lucky to be the photographer for my own family.”

He capitalized on his contrived access by approaching The Miami Herald and selling it a photo of Ali training for an upcoming fight. As soon as he returned home to New York, Mr. Kalinsky used the one roll of film he had shot of Ali, the world heavyweight champion, to land a freelance assignment from the Garden’s boxing department.

He began shooting boxing matches regularly, as well as working Knicks basketball games and Rangers hockey games, and by the time a new Garden opened on the West Side of Manhattan in 1968, he had become its first official photographer.

Mr. Kalinsky — perhaps best known for his photo of Willis Reed, the Knicks’ wounded captain, stepping onto the Garden floor for Game 7 of the 1970 N.B.A. finals against the Los Angeles Lakers — died on Thursday at a senior living facility in Manhattan. He was 88. His son, Lee, said the cause was complications of Parkinson’s disease.

Adam Silver, the N.B.A. commissioner, said in a statement: “I can’t think of anyone who has been part of more events at Madison Square Garden than George Kalinsky. He was a gentle soul who loved many generations of Knicks players, who in turn loved him back.”

We are having trouble retrieving the article content.

Overall, violent crime fell 3 percent and property crime fell 2.6 percent in 2023, with burglaries down 7.6 percent and larceny down 4.4 percent. Car thefts, though, continue to be an exception, rising more than 12 percent from the year before.

But the move backfired in a way that few supporters expected. Californians in 2021 actually tossed nearly 50 percent more plastic bags, by weight, than when the law first passed in 2014, according to data from CalRecycle, California’s recycling agency.

Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

Already a subscriber? Log in.

Want all of The Times? Subscribe.megapanalo