Magic Johnson led the Lakers to the first five titles in the 1980s 30 years ago.
Though he was already known as a glamorous player and NCAA Champion, Magic Johnson’s legacy as an NBA all-time great had its cornerstone in an NBA Finals game played 30 years ago today.
Leading the Philadelphia 76ers three games to two in the NBA Finals, the Los Angeles Lakers were still in a somewhat challenging position as the team headed to Philly without the services of their MVP center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who had been injured in game five and stayed home in Los Angeles to nurse his injured ankle.
The 20-year-old Johnson took up the slack scoring 42 points with 15 rebounds and seven assists to lead the Lakers to to a dominating 123-107 victory.
After that victory, Johnson’s reputation as the leader of “Showtime” was secure and he went on to lead the Lakers to four additional titles during the decade.
Enjoy some of the great moments from the sixth game of the 1980 NBA Finals:
If you’re old enough to remember Deep Throat (the Watergate figure or the movie) you’re old enough to get the allusion, when I identify the mystery man who’s been contacting me about a subject close to my heart. I call him Brave Throat.
It all started with the demolition of Buffalo’s old “Aud” (Memorial Auditorium) and the death of one of its greatest tenants, Randy Smith, coming up on a year ago.
After being away from the area for most of my adult life it happened that I was spending significant blocks of time back in Buffalo on business. I had the opportunity to walk up to the Aud while demolition was in progress, a gaping hole on one end of the building allowing me to look in at the rest of the building, eerily still intact. I felt like Moses at the burning bush. It was holy ground.
Not long after that, when there was little left of the Aud but a pile of bricks, I found myself standing in the same spot, this time on command. I was meeting with a man in a trench coat, big shades, and a Buffalo Braves cap, who refused to identify himself. I had received a mysterious text message an hour earlier to meet him there in 60 minutes sharp. Alone.
“The time has come,” he said. “The Braves must come home.”
“Say, what?”
“Yes, we realize it will be hard enough to keep the Bills from leaving without trying to bring back a franchise that has been gone for thirty years, but we think both are not only possible but necessary to fix the sports karma in Buffalo.” Read the rest of this entry →
Kevin Durant and Oklahoma City are the most recent "upstart" team to challenge a perennial power.
There are a lot of similarities between the Oklahoma City Thunder, their current position in the NBA Playoffs versus the Los Angeles Lakers, and another “most improved” NBA team taking on Goliath, more than 35 years ago.
Like Buffalo in 1974, Oklahoma City is enjoying recent admission to the NBA. Like Buffalo, one of the smallest markets in the league in 1974, Oklahoma City is the smallest market in the NBA. Like Buffalo in 1974, the Oklahoma City Thunder have taken two young stars (Bob McAdoo, Ernie DiGregorio) and a core group of role players, let them mature, and a year later they have won almost 30 games more than the previous season, making the playoffs for the first time. And like Buffalo in 1974, Oklahoma City is holding their own with one of the league’s institutional powers. This year in Oklahoma City it’s the Lakers. In Buffalo in ’74 it was the Celtics. And like Oklahoma City this year, with their arena jam packed with loud partisan fans wearing team colors, Buffalo had filled the old “Aud” to capacity to urge their team on.
Travel back in time with me to April 6, 1974, to the greatest moment in the history of the Buffalo Braves. The following is an excerpt from The Buffalo News. Read the rest of this entry →
Will this be the year when LeBron James and Kobe Bryant meet in the NBA Finals?
After a season in which several new faces and teams made some noise, most still anticipate the NBA Playoffs to be a showcase for the top stars in the league.
With LeBron James now only weeks away from decision day regarding his future, the Cleveland Cavaliers will enter the 2010 playoffs as the favorites in the Eastern Conference. However, there are a number of tough challengers ready to follow the lead of the Orlando magic from a year ago and crash the playoff party.
Kobe Bryant and the defending champion Los Angeles Lakers are the favorites in the Western Conference, but with every team in the Western Playoffs having at least 50 victories, it could be a tough road back to the championship for the Lakers.
Eastern Conference:
With a 61-21 record, the Cavaliers enter the playoff with the best record in the NBA. The key for the Cavs will not necessarily be the play of superstar LeBron James, but whether his supporting cast can play at a high level throughout the playoffs. Center Shaquille O’Neal was brought to Cleveland to help James win a title, but he played in only 53 games and his availability for the playoffs is in question.
The defending conference champion Orlando magic went 59-23 and appear to be as strong, if not stronger, than a year ago. They won’t surprise anyone this time around, but with Dwight Howard, Vince Carter and a quality supporting cast, the Magic are a formidable opponent. Read the rest of this entry →
The uneven distribution of talent is structural. Can you spell LOTTERY?
The NBA lottery has not dispersed success the way people originally expected.
You can blame Patrick Ewing for the mess in the NBA.
Is there a mess? Don’t you “love this game?” Aren’t the games better attended, the media exposure better than ever, the league’s popularity and fan base broader than ever? Perhaps, but it won’t last. One of these days fans in 24 cities will wake up and realize the fix is in. It is always in.
Now it is true that “Amazing things happen” in the NBA, but not necessarily in the sense that their current tagline implies. What is amazing, is that the league has gotten away with fixing outcomes, if not fixing individual games, and the victims—most of the league’s fans—are none the wiser. But people are starting to figure it out.
In the 24 years since 1985 when the NBA adopted a lottery to determine draft order, there have been six league champions. The league has expanded to 30 cities in that time but there have been only six champs. Five of them have been from the league’s largest markets.
Since the inception of the lottery, the Lakers have won six titles, Chicago six, Detroit three, Boston two, Houston two, Miami one. That’s 20 titles out of 24 total, to teams from the league’s 11* largest markets. That leaves little San Antonio (37th* largest in US, 27th of 30 in NBA), with four.
By contrast, in the nineteen years between the Celtics eight straight titles (1959-1966) and the implementation of the lottery (1985), there were nine different champions. One third of those were small market teams: Milwaukee, Portland, and Seattle.
(It is true that the Celtics and the Lakers– including six titles in Minneapolis– dominated the league in its early years, but the draft was not fully operational until the sixties, and it could be said that the institution of the draft brought down the Celtics dynasty.)
So, you do the math: nine different champions in 19 years versus six champs in 24 years; three small market teams out of nine versus one out of six. And you can blame Patrick Ewing, even though his Knicks never won a title. Read the rest of this entry →
Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points in a game on March 2, 1962.
Given his larger than life personality and talent, it is very possible that were he playing in today’s modern media era, Wilt Chamberlain would dwarf Kobe, LeBron, D-Wade, Shaq and the rest both on and off the court.
At 7-foot-1, Chamberlain was a scoring machine like no other. For much of his career, scoring as many as 50 or 60 points in a game wasn’t a “special” night, it was a routine. During the 1961-62 season, Chamberlain averaged 50.4 points per game and became the only NBA player to top 4,000 points in a season.
In fact, his career scoring average of 30.1 points is actually higher than the 2009-10 average of the NBA’s current leading scorer (LeBron James averaging 30.0).
It was 48 years ago today that Chamberlain had his finest offensive night and one that will certainly never be duplicated.
As a member of the Philadelphia Warriors, Chamberlain scored 100 points on March 2, 1962 against the New York Knicks in a game played at Hersheypark Arena in Hershey, Pennsylvania.
The late season game wasn’t expected to be overly exciting and in fact there is no known video from the game. There is a radio broadcast that I have included below.
Chamberlain scored 41 points in the first half, which wasn’t overly exciting considering he had topped 60 points 17 times already during the season and 32 times in his three year NBA career.
However, Warriors coach Frank McGuire instructed his players to keep feeding Chamberlain the ball during the second half and the points started to pile up.
As he neared 100 points, the Knicks started fouling the other Warrior players to keep Chamberlain from getting the ball. The Warriors then started fouling the Knicks to slow down the game and give Chamberlain more chances.
He finally reached 100 points in the final minute and the game was halted for nine minutes as fans ran onto the court to celebrate Chamberlain’s milestone.
What made Chamberlain’s 100 point game possible was his uncanny free throw shooting for that game. Chamberlain converted 28 of 32 foul shots (.875), which is far greater than his career average of .511 from the line. He also connected on 36 of 63 field goal attempts in the 169-147 victory.
Who Is The Greatest Center in NBA History?
Wilt Chamberlain (34%, 13 Votes)
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (29%, 11 Votes)
Bill Russell (24%, 9 Votes)
Shaquille O'Neal (11%, 4 Votes)
George Mikan (3%, 1 Votes)
Total Voters: 38
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Below are some audio and video clips that remember Chamberlain and his record setting night: Read the rest of this entry →
Louie Dampier’s name might not resonate as widely as other basketball legends, but the Sports Then & Now Vintage Athlete of the Month’s impact on the game, particularly during the American Basketball Association (ABA) era, is undeniable. Known for his pinpoint shooting, exceptional ball handling, and relentless work ethic, Dampier enjoyed a stellar basketball career that saw him thrive in both the ABA and NBA. As one of the most consistent and prolific guards of his time, Dampier left a lasting legacy, and his role in the ABA’s history solidified his place in the annals of basketball greatness.
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