The Finals

It’s not always the incredible plays that make the Finals unforgettable. For some, it’s the meal after or the championship parade that brings back the fondest memories.
The NBA Finals have certainly provided their share of indelible moments over the years. For Sam Perkins, who played for the Los Angeles Lakers in the 1991 Finals against the Chicago Bulls, one such moment could also be classified as inedible.
The 1991 Finals represented a changing of the guard in the NBA as Michael Jordan and the Bulls captured the first of six championships. But before Jordan was to wear the crown shared by Magic Johnson, Larry Bird and Isiah Thomas in previous years, he would have to get by Johnson, who brought the Lakers into Chicago Stadium for Game 1 eyeing an upset.
With Chicago nursing a two-point edge late, Perkins nailed a 3-pointer with 14 seconds left to give the Lakers a one-point lead. Byron Scott then added a free throw to give the Lakers a hard-fought 93-91 victory. At the time, it appeared to be the defining moment in Perkins’ career. What Perkins strangely remembers most about Game 1, however, is what transpired a few hours later when he and a group of friends walked into a Chicago restaurant hoping to enjoy a postgame meal.
While Perkins waited for what he was told would be approximately 10 minutes, an employee at the restaurant recognized him as the guy who had just hit the game-winning shot a few hours earlier. Mysteriously, the wait for the table began to grow.
“One of the guys who worked at the restaurant saw who I was,” recalled Perkins. “I heard him saying to some of the other people who worked there, ‘Hey that’s the kid who hit the shot, that’s the guy.’ And suddenly the wait went from 10 minutes to almost an hour.”
He was eventually given a table and went on to enjoy what, at the time, had to be an extremely satisfying meal. Perkins’ digestion would soon worsen as the Bulls regrouped and posted four straight victories to earn their first NBA title. Afterward, reservations were made for many more Finals appearances by Jordan and Co.
Here are a few fond memories from those who watched and played in the Finals.
Rick Fox (watching the Bulls vs. Lakers in 1991): “I went to Game 1 in Chicago, when I was at pre-draft camp (Fox was drafted by Boston in 1991), and the Bulls lost that first game, but they won the championship. But I remember being behind the basket and watching Michael score 36 points. Being a North Carolina guy, I ran into him after the game, and I remember thinking he’d be so dejected at the fact that they lost the first game. Instead he had nothing but confidence. They went on to win the next four, and the rest, as they say, is history.”
John Salley (a member of the Detroit Pistons when they won in 1989 and 1990): “My favorite part of the Finals is finally winning it. This is probably the craziest comment you’re going to get, but the best part of the NBA Finals is the next morning after you’ve won. Because you don’t remember you won the night before. I literally woke up and thought I was late for practice. I forgot it was all over. And in 1989, when we won, I remember I took a shower and put on a clean shirt – one of our championship shirts – and went downstairs and danced with Downtown Julie Brown at the postgame party. That was important.”
Julius Erving (on winning in both the NBA and the ABA): “I think the two Finals that I would recall as being the most significant to me were the second one in the ABA and the first one in the NBA. In the first two games against the Nuggets, I opened up with 48 and 45 points on back-to-back nights, but we split the games. And both of those teams (New Jersey and Denver) went into the NBA, of course ours was intact, and proved to be worthy competition for a long time. And then in 1983, sweeping L.A., sweeping with Andrew Toney and Mo Cheeks and Moses Malone on the team. That was interesting because our team was very dominant, but because we had gone to the Finals three times previously and not winning, there was nothing that could be taken for granted or left open to chance. And I really didn’t until there was no time on the clock. That was big because there’s a very thin line between success and failure. So for me, I think the ’83 championship, going 12-1, collectively reaching our goal, was the most memorable.”
Larry Bird (on defeating the Lakers in the 1984 Finals): “I’d have to say in 1984 beating the Lakers and Magic, sort of getting a little revenge on him after what happened in college in 1979. The one thing that sticks in my mind is when we got beat by 32 out in L.A. in Game 3 and then in Game 4 when Kevin McHale, while he was coming back on defense, clotheslined Kurt Rambis. That play seemed to turn the whole series around.”
Robert Horry (a member of the Houston Rockets when they beat the Orlando Magic in 1995): “I think setting the record for steals (seven on June 9, 1995) for me personally, was my most memorable Finals moment. That was something I was happy about. I know one game Scottie Pippen was getting close to (breaking) it, and I was saying, ‘Don’t throw it toward Scottie, don’t throw it toward Scottie.’ But the record wouldn’t have meant anything if we hadn’t won the series. Winning the series and getting that record is what sticks out in my mind.”
Don Chaney (on the 1969 Finals, won in seven games by the Boston Celtics over the Los Angeles Lakers. Bill Russell and Sam Jones retired after this series, and Chaney was in his rookie season): “The Celtics had finished really low (fourth place in the Eastern Division) in the standings but ended up in the Finals against the Lakers. It’s the seventh game, the game would be over and they would win the championship. They had balloons in the ceiling, they had the champagne in the locker room. They were celebrating a victory before the end of the game. We won that game. It was one of the greatest disappointments for one team that I had ever witnessed before. The odds were against us, finishing where we did and going up against one of the better teams in the league and with them being at home in the seventh game. And we took it away from them. You could just see the disappointment in their faces, not just the players but the fans as well. It was a great competitive series. But that one was special, because the odds were against us and we walked away with the ring.”
Bill Walton (on the Finals in general): “In basketball, there are two moments where everything is different and that’s at the championship parade and at the Hall of Fame. The relationship with your coach is different that day. The whole world is different on those days and if you can capture one day in your life, it would be at the championship parade because of that incredible sense of achieving your goal. It’s your whole life coming together in one day.”
Michael Jordan (on the 1998 Finals): “The last championship was the hardest because everyone expected us to win, and then when everyone expects it, that makes it harder. The best game was the last game because Scottie Pippen didn’t play much and we had to win it or go to a Game 7 in Utah. I will obviously always remember the last shot, but that was just the end of it. The whole game is something I will never forget because it was a very hard game to win.”
Marv Albert (on Jordan against the Portland Trail Blazers in 1992): “I remember him looking over – it was myself, Mike Fratello and Magic Johnson doing the game – and we had talked to him before the game about shooting threes. Michael’s one of these guys who would say, ‘Today I’m going to be an assist guy,’ ‘Today I’m going to do this’ – you know, control the game. I guess Bird could do that also. And he said he felt he had to shoot threes. And then he comes out and hits six, and he gave that expression when he looked over to the table, he shrugged, like, ‘I can’t believe I’m doing this.’ That was a major moment.”

MJ vs MJ

Four NBA greats dish out advice on dealing with the Finals spotlight for the first time
First-time jitters. No one is immune. Be it a date, job interview or athletic competition, the first time can be the toughest time. To make life a bit easier for first-time participants in this year’s NBA Finals, we sought advice from some of the modern era’s premier players and coaches concerning how a first-time Finals player should handle the pressure.
LARRY BIRD
PRESIDENT OF BASKETBALL OPERATIONS,
INDIANA PACERS
FIVE-TIME FINALS PARTICIPANT AS A PLAYER WITH BOSTON CELTICS;
FIRST TIME: 1981
“The first thing I would tell (a new finalist) is that it’s so hard to get to the Finals, but that the only thing anyone remembers is whether or not you win. I came in second two times, but nobody ever says a word about that. They only want to talk about your success. If you get to the Finals and come in second, nobody cares.”
Asked if he remembered the intensity level of his first Finals experience as being notable, Bird replied, “Oh, yeah. The intensity is there. It seems like everybody in the whole country knows who is playing. It’s an ultimate feeling, but it’s a lot of pressure, too.
“I would tell first-time Finals players that, mentally, they’ve got to stay in the game. Emotionally, they’ve got to stay in the game. You can’t get too high over a victory or too low over a loss. You just got to keep plugging away, knowing that with four victories you will be world champions.
“In terms of preparation, unlike the regular season, you really have time to prepare for the other team, because in the Finals, you are going to see them game after game. I always feel the preparation is the key, and in the Finals, you should know everything that your opponents are going to do.”
Was Larry Bird, the great competitor, at all scared during his first Finals?
“Scared?” he responded incredulously, his light blue eyes seemingly blazed, if that’s possible. “I’ve never been scared in my life. I always thought we were going to win.”
Beginning when?
“Before we started.”
PHIL JACKSON
COACH, LOS ANGELES LAKERS
10-TIME FINALS PARTICIPANT, ONCE AS A PLAYER WITH THE NEW YORK KNICKS, SIX TIMES AS A COACH WITH CHICAGO, AND THREE TIMES AS A COACH WITH LOS ANGELES;
FIRST TIME: 1973
“What we like to tell players is that, even though (the Finals are) not like practice, you build things from practice that you can take to games. And, if you remember the poise and execution training that’s really an important part of our program, then you can take that to the Finals or to any critical games and perform properly. If players lose their concentration or their poise, then trouble arises.
“The method (of maintaining poise and concentration) is very simply to always carry with you the basic fundamentals: That you always have to be a threat for a shot, that you always have to keep the ball in a protected place, and that you use your footwork to clear your opponent. Those little, simple things that you teach at the very beginning are the things that take a player the farthest. Focusing on the fundamentals brings you back inside your body and that makes you centered.”
Jackson was asked what made him more nervous, his first Finals as a player or as a coach?
“Definitely as a coach,” he said. “I was much more nervous as a coach. When you play, your body is involved. You’re running. You’re energized. You’re playing the game. You may lose focus or track on the floor, but your energy is a function of what you are doing. As a coach, you are just participating through your mind.”
“In my first Finals as a coach (1991),” Jackson continued, “we came into the first game as nervous as can be, and we lost the first game. Everybody said we weren’t ready for the Finals, but we felt good about where we were. We went back and watched (game) film and concentrated on what had gotten us to that point.
“We felt good because we had a shot to win it. We had played a veteran, experienced (L.A. Lakers) playoff team and they had given us their best shot and we had responded. And even if we didn’t win with that response, we felt as if we were capable of winning it.”
MICHAEL JORDAN
GUARD, CHICAGO BULLS
SIX-TIME FINALS PARTICIPANT AS A PLAYER;
FIRST TIME: 1991
“I would tell players to relax and never think about what’s at stake. Just think about the basketball game. If you start to think about who is going to win the championship, you’ve lost your focus.”
As for his first Finals (in which the Bulls beat the Lakers, 4-1), Jordan recalled, “It surprised me that I was able to overcome the fears of playing in the Finals. Everybody back then said that you needed to go there a couple of times to get a feel for it. The first game we lost a close one and we didn’t play that well, but we gained confidence from a (home) loss. We didn’t play well at all. They played good basketball, and yet we still had a chance to win. So all we had to do was play good basketball, and the next thing you know it happened.”
Is there some way you can help a new Finals player keep his focus and not get distracted?
“It’s hard,” Jordan said. “You pretty much got to do it yourself. You can try to give them ways to relax, but, when you venture against an unknown, it’s hard to maintain confidence.”

ISIAH THOMAS
GUARD, DETROIT PISTONS
THREE-TIME FINALS PARTICIPANT AS A PLAYER;
FIRST TIME: 1988
“The first thing I would tell any first-timer is that you have to be mentally prepared and mentally strong. When you’re playing for the championship, it’s not about your skill – it’s about your will. Everybody at that stage of the game is physically gifted, so it’s about how mentally tough you are.
“The second piece of advice I’d give them is to not be afraid of the big crowd or be intimidated by all of the media around you. Because when you walk out onto the floor for the first time and you see the media herd from around the world, your natural response is to think, ‘Oh my god, there are going to be so many people watching.’ You really have to stay focused on the game and what you are there for.”
Can a player learn to focus and get mentally tougher?
“It’s possible. You have to sustain concentration on your opponents.”
Did Thomas, a ferocious competitor, have a method of doing that?
“I just stayed in my hotel room and watched tape. I never got involved in the atmosphere of the Finals. My first Finals we’d played the Lakers, and we went out there and won Game 1 and lost Game 2. But we wanted to make sure we didn’t get caught up in the whole Hollywood atmosphere of Los Angeles. The people there tried to suck us up into that; they sent limousines to our hotel to take us to the Playboy Club and to parties. But we didn’t go for it. Instead, 24 hours a day I was thinking about the opponent I was going to play against.
“I used a lot of visualization in terms of who I would be guarding and who would be guarding me. When I was walking down the street for, say, lunch, I’d imagine those individuals in front of me. I’d imagine going around them.
“Most of the time I was guarded by Byron Scott and Magic Johnson. But whenever I got on a roll, Michael Cooper would guard me. Preparing for him, I’d visualize myself as being George Gervin, because Gervin was a player who gave Cooper problems. So I’d try to imitate some of the things that Gervin did when he came off a screen – how he got his feet square and set and shot the ball. But when I was playing against Byron, I’d visualize different moves. I knew I’d have to break him down off the dribble, get into the lane and use penetration. With Cooper, I wasn’t able to do that.”

Miami Heat's key pieces evoke memories of the L.A. Lakers of old

The makeup of the Miami Heat's key pieces evoke memories of the L.A. Lakers of old
You can’t blame Pat Riley if his Heat making the NBA Finals caused him to feel a little déjà vu.
A 37-year-old Riley coached a 23-year-old star guard and a 35-year-old veteran center to The Finals in 1982.
It’s 2006, and while Riles might have a little bit of gray adorning his slicked-back coif, he once again has a 24-year-old star guard and 34-year-old veteran center on a team of his that is playing for the Larry O’Brien trophy.
The coach is hoping that Dwyane Wade and Shaquille O’Neal can lift the Miami Heat over the Dallas Mavericks the same way that Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar carried his Los Angeles Lakers back in the day.
“There's a bond there, there's no doubt,” Riley said of Wade and O’Neal. “I think there's just so much respect there for each other, and it also works on the court.”
Like Abdul-Jabbar and Johnson, O’Neal and Wade harbor respect for Riley, the same intense X’s-and-O’s guy he was back when Ronald Reagan was in office, but Flash and Shaq are hardly carbon copies of Magic and Kareem.
By 1982, his third season in the league, Earvin “Magic” Johnson already had a collegiate national championship and an NBA championship under his belt. At 6-foot-9 and 255 pounds, he was a point guard the size of a power forward and the toast of the league, having downed the Philadelphia 76ers in the ’80 Finals and garnered the series MVP in the process.
He did not win Rookie of the Year -- that trophy rests in Larry Bird’s possession -- but his ability to play all five positions on the court led to rings in back-to-back years as a member of Michigan State and the Lakers.

Wade, a 6-foot-4, 212-pound combo-guard, finished his third NBA campaign sixth in MVP voting. Where Magic had size, Dwyane has quickness. His baseline-to-baseline abilities led his Marquette team to the Final Four and his Miami squad to three straight playoff appearances.
During Marquette’s tournament run, Wade dropped a triple-double on Kentucky in the Elite Eight, joining Johnson as one of only four players to ever record a triple-dip in the NCAA tourney (the others were Cincinnati’s Oscar Robertson and Utah’s Andre Miller).
He has not tasted success quite as fast as Johnson, however. While Johnson and Bird were the featured gems of their ‘79 rookie class, Wade was initially overshadowed by fellow ’03 picks LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony.
It was James that went No. 1 overall and won the Rookie of the Year, and it was Anthony’s Syracuse Orange that won the NCAA title by taking out the Kansas squad that bested Wade and Marquette in the Final Four
But just as Johnson won on the biggest stages, putting him slightly ahead of Bird in the race for bragging rights in the neophyte stages of their careers, Wade has outperformed James and Anthony in the playoffs thus far.
While James did not make the playoffs until this season, and Anthony’s Nuggets have gone 3-12 in the three playoff series he has played in, Wade's is a different story. As a rookie, he helped lead Miami to its first playoff series win in four years. Last year, he reached Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals and was arguably a rib injury away from beating the Pistons. And now he sits just four victories away from his first NBA championship.
Three years into each of their pro tenures, Johnson and Wade shared the same responsibility on their teams -- Be a playmaker. And lucky for both of them, they had a dominant, seasoned man in the middle making it a pleasure to go to work every day.
The Kareem Abdul-Jabbar that played with Magic in ’82 and the Shaquille O’Neal that plays with Dwyane in ’06 are comparable in the fact that both players were enjoying the latter stages of brilliant, shining careers.
Abdul-Jabbar was in his 13th season when the 1982 Finals tipped off. His accolades -- Rookie of the Year, two-time scoring champion, two-time NBA champion with one Finals MVP and six league MVPs -- were staggering.
O’Neal is in his 14th season and he too was ROY and a two-time scoring champ, but he differs from Abdul-Jabbar slightly: Shaq is a three-time NBA champion with three Finals MVPs and one league MVP.
At 7-foot-2, 267 pounds, Abdul-Jabbar seemed to be all appendages, his lengthy arms and legs sprouting from his jersey like tree branches. His patented move on offense, the “skyhook,” relied on agility and grace.
Shaq, meanwhile, with his 7-foot-1, 325-pound frame, is all tree trunks. He uses his meaty arms and powerful legs to help him execute his go-to move on offense, a move that doesn’t have a melodic nickname that can be placed in quotation marks. O’Neal’s bread-and-butter is a back-you-down, put-the-leather-in-the-iron-with-ferocity exercise every time down the court (although he has had to tone down the physical play in recent years to stay out of foul trouble and stay on the court).
No matter the method, the results for Abdul-Jabbar and O’Neal were the same. They were truly elite members of the game whose production was matched only by their consistency.
But, like an aging Abdul-Jabbar needed Johnson to get back to the highest level and often deferred to his pupil’s rapid development as a marquee player, O’Neal needs Wade to reach his goal of winning another championship.
Comparing his current crew with his tandem of old, Riley said: “I mean, Magic and Kareem I think is equal, but I also had (James) Worthy and (Byron Scott) and (Michael) Cooper and (Bob) McAdoo. You talk about a great team, but I think that they're similar. So I've been very fortunate.
“I wouldn't say that one (duo) is better than the other. I love those guys in L.A. I want them to talk to me when I get old. These guys (in Miami) will always talk to me because I'm paying them (laughter).”
This is Riley’s ninth trip to The Finals -- seven with the Lakers, one with the Knicks and now one with the Heat. He has four championships as a head coach thus far, and if he is to earn his fifth by beating the Mavericks, he will need Wade and O’Neal to accomplish what Johnson and Abdul-Jabbar did back in 1982.
And, if they do, it will be déjà vu all over again.

1971 Bucks

With Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Oscar Robertson, it’s no surprise that the Bucks won the 1971 Finals. What’s surprising is Milwaukee was in only its third NBA season
His name wasn’t pulled from a hat, nor was his triumph and place in Milwaukee Bucks history the result of a famous coin flip.
R.D. Trebilcox of Whitefish, Wis., was one of 45 fans who suggested the name “Bucks” for the NBA’s newest expansion franchise in 1968. More than 14,000 fans had participated in the search to find a suitable nickname. What won Trebilcox the car was the reasoning behind his choice: “Bucks are spirited, good jumpers, fast and agile,” he said.
The famous coin flip actually came a year later when the Bucks, after winning 27 games during the inaugural1968-69 season, won the rights to draft Lew Alcindor, who later changed his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Suddenly, Trebilcox’s vision for the Bucks began to take shape.
In the spring of 1970, the Bucks traded for Oscar Robertson, forming the “KO Combination,” a tag coined by Eddie Doucette, the team’s colorful radio broadcaster. Robertson had already logged 10 brilliant seasons in the NBA without attaining his ultimate goal of winning a championship. Though not as “fast and agile” as he once was, he still owned the game’s highest I.Q. and a burning desire to be a champion.
Through the expansion draft in 1968, trades and the college draft, the team secured the rights to Jon McGlocklin, Greg Smith, Bobby Dandridge, Bob Boozer, Lucius Allen and Dick Cunningham. Smith and Dandridge were the “good jumpers,” able to run the floor and give the team opportunity baskets. McGlocklin, in addition to owning an accurate outside stroke, played the game with “spirit” and passion. Boozer, Allen and Cunningham provided outside shooting and depth. Head coach Larry Costello was brought in straight from his playing days in Philadelphia to give the team direction in 1968. In only two years, all the pieces had been assembled to make a run at a championship.
After winning 56 games in 1969-70 and losing to the New York Knicks in the Eastern Division Finals in five games, the Bucks, now with Robertson in the fold, had the look of a championship team in 1970-71. And they didn’t disappoint.
The Bucks won 66 games during the regular season, which included streaks of 20 and 16. They marched through the first two rounds of the playoffs with an 8-2 record, dispatching the San Francisco Warriors and Los Angeles Lakers in five games to advance to the Finals against the injury-riddled Baltimore Bullets. The Bucks completed the sweep of the Bullets on April 30, 1971, in Baltimore behind 30 points from Robertson and 27 points from Abdul-Jabbar, who was named Finals MVP.
“We were the team of destiny,” said McGlocklin, who retired in 1976 and has served as the analyst on Bucks’ broadcasts since. “The way the year went, the way we played, the lack of injuries, everything about the year, you could tell it was our year. And you felt that all year long.”
In the exhibition season, the Bucks were a perfect 10-0, as Robertson was starting to get a feel for his new teammates. It was understood that Robertson wasn’t brought in to merely blend in; he was brought in to take control and provide leadership. With Abdul-Jabbar manning the middle, the Bucks had a young star who could score and rebound. With Robertson now guiding the ship and the rest of his mates falling in line, the bar was raised even higher.
“Here was somebody you dreamed about, and now he was a part of the mix,” said Dandridge, who was drafted in 1969 along with Abdul-Jabbar. “Oscar could really be the floor leader and didn’t have to score all the time. It was a perfect marriage.”
Robertson’s scoring average, often above 30 points during his years in Cincinnati, dipped to 19.4 as he spent his time getting the ball to Abdul-Jabbar, who led the league in scoring (31.7) and was named the league MVP.
The team gave new meaning to the word efficiency and the emphasis on execution made Milwaukee one of the greatest offensive teams in league history. The Bucks led the league in scoring, yet were only 12th in field goals attempted. And they were the first team in league history to average better than 50 percent from the field. Abdul-Jabbar was the go-to guy, but there was more than enough to go around as Dandridge (18.4) and McGlocklin (15.8) also put up respectable numbers.
“It was the most complementary team that I’ve been around,” said Doucette, a 32-year veteran of the basketball airwaves. “Man per man, it wasn’t the most talented group, but when you put them on the floor together, they all had a specific role and played it beautifully. They proved that if you had a team of role players with a couple of stars, you could win.”
While they performed flawlessly together on the court, the players weren’t particularly close off of it. Abdul-Jabbar was very private by nature and kept to himself. Robertson was the old-school veteran who didn’t shy away from being vocal. Some of the younger players, such as Dandridge and Smith, gravitated to Robertson and looked to him for guidance. Allen and Abdul-Jabbar had gone to school together at UCLA. McGlocklin and Robertson were both from Indiana, played together in Cincinnati and were only four years apart in age. In all, it was a blend of players at different points in their careers, but they knew how to get the job done as one unit.
“It wasn’t the kind of team where we all went out together and did that kind of thing,” McGlocklin said. “We all had our own lives, but when we came together on the court, everything was checked at the door and we took care of business and were unified on the court.”
In their playing days, McGlocklin and Dandridge considered themselves to be polar opposites. Today, they enjoy a warm friendship.
“Everybody had their individual personalities,” said Dandridge. “But at no time was there any bickering about who had the ball, or who should score because we basically knew that between Oscar and Kareem that they were the foundation of the offense and defense. But they were unselfish and made good passes and they shared the ball and I think everyone understood the importance of all players involved.”
It also helped that Costello and Robertson were on the same page as to how the team should play.
“Costello had the best center in the game at the time, he has the best guard and he took advantage of it,” Doucette said. “Unlike a lot of coaches who have a tendency to over-coach and try and get too cute, Costello took advantage of the pieces he was given.”
The Bucks had figured their greatest challenge in 1971 would again come from the Knicks, who’d won the championship in 1970. When Baltimore upset New York in a grueling seven-game series in the Eastern Conference Finals, the Bucks’ Finals opponent was the Bullets, who had little left in their tank.
Wes Unseld had sprained his ankle badly at season’s end and was supposed to be out for the season. Somehow, he hobbled back for the playoffs. Forward Gus Johnson had sore knees and missed two games in the Finals. Earl “The Pearl” Monroe was also forced to sit out two games with an assortment of injuries.
In the first game of the series, Robertson was able to set the tone, thanks in part to the actions of an overzealous Baltimore rookie named Fred Carter. The youngster had just completed a fine rookie season with the Bullets and he drew the initial defensive assignment on Robertson. Nicknamed “Mad Dog,” Carter was able to block one of Robertson’s first shot attempts and became a little too proud of his accomplishment.
“When Mad Dog blocked it, he started running off at the mouth and Oscar’s eyes started to get big and the true essence of the Big O surfaced,” Dandridge recalled. “He made the mistake of firing Oscar up.”
Robertson finished the game with 22 points, seven rebounds and seven assists. Carter managed only six points, four assists and no rebounds. By the time the fourth game rolled around, Baltimore was a beaten bunch.
“In Game 4, Earl Monroe and I kind of got into it a little bit, just a pushing, shoving thing,” McGlocklin said. “Leading up to that, his frustration was so obvious. You could tell the whole team was frustrated because they couldn’t get it together after a tough series with New York.”
Baltimore shot better than 40 percent in only one game of the series, and in only two quarters did they score more than 30 points. After Game 4 and the championship securely in hand, Robertson called it “a great team effort. I felt confident the whole game. It was just a great year.”
The Bucks had come further, faster than any expansion team in the history of major pro sports. In fact, they were so good so fast that the city of Milwaukee was caught by surprise.
“It all kind of happened so quickly,” remembered Jim Foley, who was Milwaukee’s publicity director at the time and now is the radio voice for the Houston Rockets. “There was genuine excitement when Kareem came on board, but I don’t think anyone expected us to win so soon.”
The Bucks weren’t an automatic sellout in Milwaukee Arena. The team’s traveling party consisted of eight people during the Finals. To fill out the celebration party after they won Game 4 in Baltimore, the Bucks invited Bullets personnel to join them. The media coverage at the time was scant. Milwaukee had two major papers, the Journal and the Sentinel, and each sent one beat writer. There wasn’t much evidence to prove that the city had embraced the Bucks. But the next day, the team flew back to Milwaukee and was welcomed by an enormous crowd at Mitchell Field. That’s when it started to sink in. It wasn’t that the people didn’t care; the Bucks had caught the city off guard.
“It snuck up on the city,” McGlocklin recalled. “They weren’t ready for it and probably didn’t appreciate it for what it was until years later.”
The city may have been a little slow in its reception, but what the 1971 championship did was to solidify the Bucks’ place in the NBA and Milwaukee as a legitimate sports town.
“It gave the people of Milwaukee a little identity in the sports world,” said Robertson, who retired after the 1973-74 season. “Usually the big city tickets like Chicago, L.A., New York or Philly get all the recognition.”
The Bucks won 63 games the following season, then 60 in 1972-73. Abdul-Jabbar asked for a trade and was swapped to the Lakers in 1975. Still, the Bucks had already laid a solid foundation that resulted in 17 trips to the playoffs in the 20 seasons following the championship.
“That was a pretty darn good team,” said Jerry Sloan, who played with Chicago at the time and now coaches the Utah Jazz. “Everybody knew Kareem and Oscar. But it was also McGlocklin, guys like that. Dandridge was a great player. I don’t know if they got the credit they deserved. Like any team, it was the other guys, too.”
Including one R.D. Trebilcox, who was the first to predict the Bucks’ greatness.

1969 Boston Celtics at LAL

Though past their prime, the 1969 Boston Celtics taught the Los Angeles Lakers – and their brash owner – a painful Finals lesson in successfully defending their NBA crown
When the Boston Celtics walked into the Forum in Inglewood, Calif., on May 5, 1969, to take on the Los Angles Lakers in Game 7 of the NBA Finals, they gazed upward and stared in disbelief.
Thousands of balloons were suspended in netting just below the ceiling, several hundred feet above the playing floor. It was the idea of the late Jack Kent Cooke, the Lakers’ owner, to have the balloons released as part of the hoopla when the Lakers clinched their first championship since the franchise moved to Los Angeles from Minneapolis a decade earlier.

Tribute to a Legend: Red Auerbach Winning Combo: Auerbach and Russell Bill Russell discusses Auerbach More former Celtics on Auerbach Bob Cousy | John Havlicek Tom Heinsohn | Tom Sanders

Cooke also had arranged for the University of Southern California marching band to be on hand for the anticipated celebration. Needless to say, the Celtics were not amused. Red Auerbach, the major-domo of the Celtics, took one look at the balloons and his blood began to boil.
“Those things are going to stay up there a hell of a long time,” he seethed.
This is the 37th anniversary of a lesson Cooke learned, although the rest of the NBA had discovered it over the previous 13 seasons when Boston was fashioning what is arguably the greatest dynasty in professional sports history: Don’t give Auerbach and the Celtics any extra incentive to beat you. This was a team that won eight championships in a row and 11 in 13 years, a record unmatched in any major pro sport, but one that is sometimes overlooked amidst the global media hype that surrounds today’s champions. John Havlicek, who played on six of those title-winning teams and later earned two more championship rings, tells a story that puts Boston’s accomplishments in perspective.
“I was at a golf tournament and someone came up to Bill Russell and asked him what he thought about the Chicago Bulls three-peating,” said Havlicek. “He said, ‘Not much.’ And it wasn’t any disrespect. But the Celtics won eight in a row, nine out of 10, 11 out of 13. When you try to measure up to those numbers, you look at other accomplishments a little differently.”
Auerbach and Russell were the constants of the Celtics’ dynasty, two larger-than-life figures who were there from start to finish. Auerbach, the mastermind who always seemed a step or two ahead of the opposition, came to Boston in 1950 at the age of 33 and coached the team to its first championship in 1957. After a loss to the St. Louis Hawks in the Finals the next season, he guided Boston in its eight-year reign from 1959-66 before becoming the team’s general manager. Russell, the 6-10 center whose defense and shotblocking revolutionized the game, played on nine title-winning teams before he was named player-coach when Auerbach left he bench. After Philadelphia unseated Boston in 1967, he led the Celtics to championships in 1968 and 1969.
Auerbach and Russell are forever linked. It was, after all, Auerbach’s ability to maneuver the Celtics into position to land Russell in 1956 that laid the foundation for the dynasty. Boston was slated to pick sixth, with no shot at the All-America center from San Francisco, but Auerbach wouldn’t sit idly and watch someone else select the player he figured might be the cornerstone of a championship team.
Auerbach recognized that Minneapolis, scheduled to draft third, needed a center to replace George Mikan and knew he had to move Boston up to the first or second slot. Rochester, picking first, had an outstanding young center in Maurice Stokes and figured to have little interest in Russell. So, Auerbach turned his attention to St. Louis and offered Ed Macauley, a two-time All-America center at St. Louis University who was eager to return to his hometown, and the rights to Kentucky All-American Cliff Hagan, if the Hawks would draft Russell for Boston. The deal was done, and while St. Louis would reach the NBA Finals four times in the next five years and win the title in 1958, Auerbach had the foundation of his dynasty.
With Russell as the hub, grabbing rebounds, blocking shots and intimidating opponents, Auerbach kept replenishing the roster around him. When Bob Cousy retired in 1963, K.C. Jones was well groomed to succeed him. Bill Sharman, Tom Heinsohn, Satch Sanders and Frank Ramsey, key figures in the early part of the dynasty, gave way to Sam Jones, John Havlicek, Don Nelson and Bailey Howell.
By 1969, however, Boston’s age was showing. The Celtics had finished fourth in the NBA’s Eastern Division with a 48-34 record. Russell was 35 and playing on knees that hurt so much he was unable to practice with the team. He could play only in games. Sam Jones was also 35 and had announced it was his last season. The leading scorer was Havlicek at 21.6 points, and while he was just coming into his prime, several of the Boston players seemed to be wearing down late in the season.
When the playoffs started few expected Boston to successfully defend its title. Cooke certainly didn’t. Not even after Boston had advanced to the Finals with a 4-1 series victory over a Philadelphia team that had won 55 games despite trading center Wilt Chamberlain to Los Angeles before the season, and a six-game victory over New York, which had swept division champ Baltimore in the opening round.
That set up a Finals matchup against Cooke’s Lakers (55-27), champions of the Western Division, and a team that featured three of the all-time greats. If the Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass., had an elite wing, a place where only the best of the best were granted entry, Chamberlain, Jerry West and Elgin Baylor would be in there.
And all three had enjoyed big seasons. Chamberlain had led the league in rebounding (21.1) and field-goal percentage (.583) and had averaged 20.5 points to provide an inside scoring threat to complement Baylor’s 24.8 points and West’s 25.9 points. In the final week of the regular season, the Lakers had thrown down the gauntlet by pounding Boston 108-73 in a game that was nationally televised.
“Most of the years we played, they were better than we were,” West reflected many years later. “But in ’69 they were no better. Period. We were better. Period.”
The Lakers showed it at the start of that series. West poured in 53 points and also handed out 10 assists as Los Angeles took the opener 120-118, then came back with 41 points as the Lakers captured Game 2 118-112 with Baylor scoring his team’s final dozen points.
The Lakers were rolling, but the next two games were to be played on the pock-marked parquet of Boston Garden – an arena that held more than its share of demons for all visitors, but especially for the Lakers, who had been victimized by the Celtics in six of the previous 10 championship rounds. Strange things seemed to happen to the Lakers in Boston. Was it a leprechaun who deflected the eight-footer that Frank Selvy missed at the end of regulation in Game 7 back in 1962, a shot that would have given the Lakers the game and the title? It was a shot Selvy, who once scored 100 points in a college game, would normally hit nine times out of 10 – but not that time. Not in Boston Garden.
This time, however, it was the Celtics whose luck seemed to run out when the Lakers’ Keith Erickson accidentally poked Havlicek in the eye during the third quarter of Game 3. Boston had led through the first half, but Los Angeles came back to tie the score in the third quarter and seemed o the verge of taking a 3-0 series lead after Havlicek was helped to the bench by player-coach Russell. But somehow the Celtics regrouped, urged on by the crowed at Boston Garden, and Havlicek came back to lead a fourth-quarter rally that carried Boston to a 111-105 win. Hondo scored 34 points, including several clutch free throws in the final period when his left eye was closed shut because of the injury.
If the Lakers had missed a good opportunity in Game 3, they squandered a golden one in Game 4 two days later. Neither team played well in a game marked by 50 turnovers, but with 15 seconds left to play, the Lakers held an 88-87 lead and had the ball out of bounds, needing only to get it in and run out the clock for a 3-1 series lead. But Boston’s Emmette Bryant stole the inbounds toss after a timeout. He inbounded the ball to Havlicek, who found Jones behind a Howell screen. Jones lofted an off-balance 18-footer with three seconds left that rattled the rim, first hitting the front part of the iron and then the back before nestling through the net. Boston had escaped with an 89-88 win and the series was tied.
Each team held serve in the next two games. West’s 39 points and Chamberlain’s 31 rebounds led Los Angeles to a relatively easy 117-104 win at the Forum in Game 5, then the Celtics bounced back to post a 99-90 decision at the Garden and even the series once again. For the third time in eight years, a Boston-Los Angeles Finals was headed to Game 7, but this time, the Lakers would have the home-court advantage. There would be no leprechauns to help the Celtics, or would there?
Perhaps inspired by the sight of the balloons and seeking to silence the USC band, the Celtics raced from the gate to a 24-12 lead, hitting eight of their first 10 field-goal attempts. The Lakers closed the gap to three points at halftime, but Chamberlain, who never fouled out of a game in his NBA career, drew his fifth personal in the third quarter and the Celtics stretched out to 91-76 lead going into the final period.
Then it was Boston’s turn to run into foul trouble. Jones fouled out and Russell and Havlicek picked up their fifth fouls as the Lakers cut the lead back down to single digits. With 5:45 to play, Chamberlain went up for a rebound, came down complaining of pain in his knee and asked coach Bill van Breda Kolff to take him out. Still the Lakers’ comeback continued as West, who would finish with 42 points, 13 rebounds and 12 assists, hit a basket and four free throws to make it 102-100. And with three minutes to play, Chamberlain’s replacement, former Celtic Mel Counts, nailed a jumper to pull his team within one.
At this point, Chamberlain indicated he was ready to go back in, but van Breda Kolff demurred. The coach said later that he did not want to disrupt the Lakers’ comeback, though many wondered if perhaps he was angry that Chamberlain had taken himself out with an injury. But, in any case, he elected to keep one of the game’s true scoring machines on the bench with the championship on the line.
The Lakers never caught up. The key basket came when Nelson scooped up a loose ball at the foul line and tossed up a shot that hit the back iron, bounced high up in the air and then plummeted straight through the net, as if guided by a leprechaun perched on the backboard. Moments later, the Celtics had a 108-106 victory and their 11th championship.
West, who was named the Finals MVP, the only time the honor has gone to the member of a losing team, was crushed by the defeat. So was Baylor, who called playing the Celtics “the ultimate challenge. They were the best.”
Cooke, meanwhile, was left with a dilemma: What do you do with thousands of inflated balloons? Auerbach was right, they did stay up in the ceiling a long time.

Lakers 1887

When Pat Riley guaranteed his Lakers would repeat as NBA champs in 1988, he was controversial, calculated and, most of all, prophetic
Before they had finished popping the champagne corks or had time to dry the bubbly residue from their smiling faces, the 1987 NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers were brought down to earth with one declarative sentence by their erudite coach.
“I guarantee you we will repeat as champions next year.”
Pat Riley said it, right there in the Forum dressing room that night of June 14, 1987, as his team was celebrating its six-game conquest of arch-enemy Boston in the Finals. No NBA team had repeated as champions in 18 years. Not the great Celtics teams of John Havlicek or Larry Bird; not the mesmerizing Knick teams of Walt Frazier and Earl Monroe or even the fabulous Sixers teams of Julius Erving and Moses Malone. But, in the euphoria of the moment, Riley made his promise.
Talk about putting a damper on a good party.
“We hated it when he said it the first time,” Magic Johnson recalled. “We felt like we couldn’t really enjoy what we’d just won.”
Months passed, a new season started, and Riley’s bold proclamation remained about as popular with the troops as a three-hour practice on an off day in the Big Apple.
“He’d sent us the letter he always sent over the summer,” Johnson said, “and it was the same thing: The pressure’s on. He talked about how nobody has repeated since the Celtics in ’69 and this was our chance to separate ourselves from everybody, to become known as one of the all-time great teams. It was like, ‘Dang, what’s he doing to us? Why can’t he let us feel good about this before focusing in on next season?'”
Riley, a calculating man who rarely does anything without a purpose, wasn’t whistling in the dark. The guarantee was born of reflection, not emotion.
“I know a lot of people thought I was saying it in jest at the time,” he said. “What happened was, I looked back and read articles about the common denominator in why teams couldn’t win it again. What I found was that coaches, players, management, everyone connected to the organization would not take responsibility. They’d say, ‘We can do it if we’re healthy, if we’re unselfish,’ and so on. They were rationalizing, giving themselves a crutch to fail.
“I didn’t want to do that. So I knew exactly what I was going to say when they put the microphone in front of me in the dressing room that night. It was premeditated.”
Having dropped his bomb in the afterglow of victory, Riley repeated his words at the parade in downtown Los Angeles the following day, just in case anybody missed it.
The players rolled their eyes with expression that said, “Why is that crazy Riley doing this to us?”
The mood hadn’t changed much once the 1987-88 season opened. The Lakers privately hadn’t forgiven their coach for putting the onus on them with the most-publicized guarantee since Joe Namath at Super Bowl III.
In an effort to bring everyone together, the coach called a team meeting. But first, he needed an ally. Riley knew where to run. He sought out the floor general.
“All he needed was one of the guys to get on board with him,” Johnson said. “So Riles pulled me aside and said, ‘This is going to set you aside from (Larry) Bird. He hasn’t won two titles in a row.’ He knew me. He knew all I needed to hear was Larry, and I was gonna jump.”
Riley, the master psychologist, was working the no-respect angle for all it was worth.
“In ’88, nobody was even giving us consideration for being a great, great, great team, possibly the greatest of all time,” he said. “I told the guys, ‘Until you win back-to-back, they’re not going to do that. If the criteria for greatness is we have to win back-to-back, we have to take responsibility for the challenge.’
“I said, ‘We’re not going to back in. We’re not going to give ourselves excuses for failing.’ I wanted to put the pressure on them. A challenge is nothing more than raising the ante. I was challenging them not to shrink from the responsibility of being great, of being given consideration as the greatest team of all time.”
When Magic took up the theme and ran with it, it carried twice the impact.
“He told the guys, ‘We don’t want to be just another team. We want to be greater than great,'” Magic said. “When he explained it like that, I was like, ‘Yeah, that makes sense; we can get with this now.’ We got among ourselves and said, ‘OK, let’s go ahead and make a run at this thing.’ We had done everything else. We’d won four titles. But we hadn’t been part of history.”
And so, the quest began in earnest.
Kicking into gear, the Showtimers put together the league’s best regular-season record (62-20), a full eight games better than Central Division champion Detroit. This would prove critical down the road, guaranteeing – there’s that word again – home-court advantage for L.A. throughout the playoffs.
Did they ever need it.
After sweeping San Antonio 3-0 in the opening round, the Lakers were pushed to seven games by Utah in the Western Conference Semifinals, taking Game 7 at the Forum, 109-98. In the West Finals, Dallas stretched L.A. to the limit, as well, before falling, 117-102, in Game 7 at the Forum.
Chuck Daly and Detroit, meanwhile, were knocking out Washington, 3-2, blasting Chicago, 4-1, and whipping the Lakers’ old rivals from Boston, 4-2, in the East Finals.
Now the stage was set: Showtime vs. Bad Boys. Flash vs. Crash.
“It was our high-scoring offense against a team that set the standard defensively,” Johnson said. “You had to be mentally tough to play against them, and we were. You had to hit them back, and we did. We weren’t that all-finesse team everybody talked about. We had the talent, we loved to run, but we also had a toughness we didn’t get much credit for.”
The toughness took physical and mental forms.
The Pistons rocked the Lakers in Game 1 at the Forum behind 34 points from Adrian Dantley, who hit 14 of 16 from the field. Isiah Thomas (19 points, 12 assists) was outshone statistically by his good buddy Magic (28 points, 10 assists, eight rebounds), but the Magic Man couldn’t bring the Lakers back and they fell hard, 105-93.
“It had been a struggle all through those playoffs,” Riley said. “Nothing came easy. I think our ’87 team might have been our best team. We had come to maturity and we were a great, great, great team. The next year, ’88, we still had that maturity, but we’d aged a year. That team wasn’t quite as great as the ’87 team.”
But it was good enough.
With James Worthy dominating Dantley and setting the tone with 26 points, 10 rebounds and six assists, the Lakers rebounded to take Game 2, 108-96. Magic (23 points, 11 assists, seven rebounds) and Byron Scott (24 points) riddled Detroit’s superb backcourt trio of Thomas, Joe Dumars and Vinnie Johnson.
As the scene shifted to Michigan for three games, the Lakers had a renewed sense of purpose. Worthy outscored Dantley, 24-14, and A.C. Green (21 points, eight rebounds) also had a big effort. Thomas (28 points, nine assists) busted out at home, but it wasn’t enough to offset Magic and Scottt, each of whom had 18 points with Magic distributing 14 assists. The Lakers rolled, 99-86.
“Big Game James came into play in a big way,” Riley said. “We’d always gone to Kareem (Abdul-Jabbar) in the post, but it got to the point where James became our primary post player. We went to him over and over, and he delivered.”
Abdul-Jabbar, showing the wear and tear at age 41 and frustrated by the pounding of the Bad Boys, had only 35 points and 10 rebounds through three games.
His big moment, however, was coming.
With Dantley springing back to life and decisively taking his individual battle with Worthy, 27-7, the Pistons slugged their way back in Game 4 with 111-86 knockout. Johnson, with 23 points, was just about the sum total of the Lakers’ attack. The scoring balance belonged to Detroit, which got 16 points off the bench from Vinnie “Microwave” Johnson, 14 from James Edwards and solid defense and rebounding from the young lions, Dennis Rodman and John Salley.
Dantley, the ex-Laker, again asserted himself in Game 5, with 25 points to outscore Worthy by 11 in a 104-94 Pistons triumph. It had become apparent that this was the critical matchup in the series, more so than Abdul-Jabbar vs. Bill Laimbeer or Magic, Scott and Michael Cooper vs. Thomas, Dumars and Johnson in the backcourt.
Johnson and Thomas, close friends for years, became embroiled in a Game 5 altercation after Magic, angered over Detroit’s aggressive style slammed Thomas to the floor on a drive through the lane. Thomas jumped up and pushed Johnson back before order was restored. But the blood clearly was boiling.
To make good on Riley’s guarantee, the Lakers had to come home and win twice. Detroit had a margin for error, but the Pistons were not at full strength. Rick Mahorn, baddest of the Bad Boys, had a back ailment that was severely limiting his ability to wreak havoc inside. That left it up to the kids, Salley and Rodman, to play crucial minutes down the stretch.
“It was classic, as far as I’m concerned,” Dumars said. “You had a proud champion holding on, and a young team coming at them. What I remember about the series was how every play seemed so important. There was just so much going on. I was on Magic all series, and he was just wearing me out with that big body of his. I don’t think people realize how strong he was inside.”
Mahorn also has some painful memories of the series.
“What I remember most, really, is laying on my stomach on the floor by the bench,” he said. My back was out. I gave it my best shot, but I just couldn’t do the things I wanted to do. That’s the way the ball bounces, I guess.”
It bounced the Lakers’ way in Game 6 at the Forum, in spite of one of the most memorable individual performances in Finals history by Thomas.
Dragging a sprained ankle down the court, Isiah rang up 25 points in the third quarter alone on his way to an amazing 43. Thomas’ heroics had the Pistons ahead by one with 14 seconds left when a whistle sounded. It still hasn’t stopped ringing in the ears of the Pistons who were there that night. The Lakers were going to their old warrior, Abdul-Jabbar, and as he made his inside move, a foul was called on Laimbeer. As is often the case when a close call is made, the Pistons argued that the foul was a phantom call.
“Look at the tape,” Mahorn said. “Maybe the air got him. None of us did.”
Abdul-Jabbar went to the foul line, a 74-percent career free-throw marksman at playoff time, and drained the two biggest freebies of his life. When Dumars missed on the move from the lane on a broken play, the Lakers had held on, 103-102, spoiling a night that almost had belonged to Thomas.
Worthy once again was Big Game James with 28, doubling Dantley’s output, and Magic (22 points, 19 assists) was Magic. The Lakers won it at the foul line, going 35-of-43, compared to Detroit’s 22-of-27.
In Game 7, Detroit jumped out quickly and led at the half, 52-47. The Lakers were going to Worthy, and he was responding. In the third quarter, they busted it open, outscoring Detroit by 15 with a 36-point eruption. In one of the all-time Showtime explosions, the Lakers hit their first 10 shots of that fateful third quarter.
“It was going down to the last minute,” Riley said. “The way the whole playoffs had gone, we knew that.”
The Pistons had one last push in them, and they forced the Lakers to perspire all the way to the finish before succumbing, 108-105. The series ended with Magic flinging the ball the length of the court as time expired.
Worthy had enjoyed the game of his life, producing his first career triple-double: 36 points, 16 rebounds, 10 assists. Dantley had been held to 16 points, with Dumars’ leading the Pistons. Big Game James was rewarded with the Finals MVP award, his first.
“James had always been a little deferential to Kareem, deferential to Magic,” Riley said. “I remember how committed he was in that series, especially in Game 7. He was big, alive, doing it all. I think that game definitely took him over the top as a great, great player.”
The Lakers were the last true fast-break team to win the title. The Pistons, who would go on to seize the next two NBA crowns, became the new model with a grinding, defensive style.
“Detroit came in and changed and whole culture of the game,” Riley said. “We were a wide-open, running, athletic, fast-breaking team. They were defense first, rebound, slow it down, keep the clock to your advantage, win in the 80s and 90s. That’s the direction the game went.”
The guarantee, the season and the marathon playoffs were a grind for the Lakers. It had been the longest season ever by an NBA champion – 115 games. In the regular season and playoffs, the Lakers had won 77, which led to another guarantee by Riley in the afterglow of the repeat.
“I guarantee you one thing,” he said as the champagne flowed, “we will enjoy this all summer.”
Before he could make any promises of a three-peat, Abdul-Jabbar, the venerable “Captain,” stuffed a towel in the coach’s mouth.
The Lakers had joined the all-time elite. The Pistons would win back-to-back, and the Bulls would eventually win three straight titles. But the Lakers were the ones to break the long spell without back-to-back champs. They made good on Riley’s guarantee and, thus, became one of the great, great teams of all time.

Dallas 2006 2007

The Mavericks have been dealing all year -- despite a dangerously low number of assists The Dallas Mavericks won 60 games this season, swept their first round playoff opponent and are giving the defending champion Spurs all they can handle in the second round. That’s why it’s so startling to see their low assist totals.
The Mavericks finished ninth in the NBA in scoring, and yet 29th in assists. Last year, Dallas finished third in the league in scoring, but 26th in assists. Soon, an assist by a Maverick will be as rare as an empty seat in the American Airlines Center.

Dallas assists per game:

2004 season: 23.9

2005 season: 19.6

2006 season: 18.0

First nine playoff games: 15.0

Conf. Semi vs. Spurs: 12.4 In the first game of the Western Conference Semifinals against San Antonio, the Mavs had only eight assists on their 32 field goals. Only three times in playoff history has a team recorded fewer than seven assists in a game. The Celtics had five assists in a playoff game in 1960. The Pistons had five in a 1974 game. The Bulls had six in a 1968 game. Those games were played in an era where fewer assists were awarded.
NBA averages:

1965: Assist awarded on 49 percent of all field goals

1975: Assist awarded on 57 percent of all field goals

1985: Assist awarded on 60 percent of all field goals

1995: Assist awarded on 62 percent of all field goals

2006: Assist awarded on 58 percent of all field goals In the fourth game against the Spurs, which the Mavericks took in overtime to go up 3-1, Dallas had assists on only two of their 13 field goals after the third quarter. After five games, the Mavericks were averaging only 12.4 assists per game (recording an assist on 62 of their 184 field goals, only a third of the time). In their two losses, they have averaged just 10 assists per game! How low is this five-game total?
If the series had ended in five games (and the Mavericks came within two points of ending the series on Wednesday), Dallas would have set a new postseason record for fewest assists in a five-game series. The 1999 Knicks had only 64 assists against the Heat. Of course, the Knicks averaged only 83 points in that series. The Mavericks are averaging over 104 points per game against the Spurs.
The Mavericks attempt to explain their lack of assists by pointing out that they usually have five shooters on the court. Not everyone buys this explanation, though. In the second half of Game 5 against San Antonio, only two Mavericks assisted on field goals. Dirk Nowitzki had second-half passes that led directly to a Josh Howard layup, a Devin Harris layup, and a Harris jumper. Jason Terry -- who is suspended for Game 6 -- had passes that led to a pair of Nowitzki field goals and a Harris jumper. That was it. Have any of the great teams in NBA history had fewer assists than Avery Johnson’s crew?
I looked at the top 18 teams in NBA history. The only other team that assisted on less than half of their field goals was the 1965 Boston Celtics. That team -- considered by Bill Russell to be the best of his 11 title teams -- had 1,772 assists for their 3,567 field goals.
Look at all the great teams in the last 40 years. All but three of them had at least 2,000 assists (24.3 per game). And those teams were the 2000 Lakers (1,921 assists, which accounted for 61 percent of their field goals), the 2001 Lakers (1,888 assists, which accounted for 61 percent of their field goals) and the 1999 Spurs (1,101 assists in a 50-game season, which accounted for 63 percent of their field goals).
Now let’s take a look at how the 2006 Mavericks stack up with a few other championship teams. First, the 1986 Boston Celtics. That Celtics squad ranked eighth in the NBA in points and second in assists; this year's Mavs -- as previously pointed out -- rank ninth and 29th, respectively, in points and assists.
Now, here’s what I find so interesting. It’s not like the 1986 Celtics had a great point guard. They didn’t even have a single player in the top 10 in the league in assists. Their point guard didn’t even lead them in dimes. Larry Bird, at forward, led the team with 557 assists (6.8 per game). Their frontcourt players (Bird, Kevin McHale, Robert Parish and Bill Walton) totaled over 1,000 assists that season (12.7 per game). Walton averaged over two per game in less than 20 minutes per night.
Now look at the Dallas forwards. Nowitzki piled up a less-than-impressive 226 assists (2.8 per game). In the first five games of the San Antonio series, the MVP candidate had exactly 11 assists. The other forward, Josh Howard, had four assists in five games.
In 1986, the other members of the Celtics jokingly called McHale “The Black Hole,” because once the ball was thrown into him, it never came back. But McHale was Steve Nash-like next to these Mavericks forwards.
Moving along, the 1996 Bulls won a record 72 games. The 1997, they won 69 games. In those two seasons combined, forward Dennis Rodman averaged 2.77 assists per game on teams that averaged 104 points per game. Just a decade later, Dirk Nowitzki averaged roughly the same number of assists as Rodman, who touched the ball a fraction of what Rodman used to.
Even two of the teams without great assist totals, the 2000 Lakers (67-15) and the 2001 Lakers (56-26, 15-1 in postseason), had high assist totals from their big man. Shaquille O’Neal averaged 3.74 and 3.78 assists per game in those two championship seasons.
Jason Terry led the Mavericks in 2005-06 with 306 assists in his 80 games. That’s only 3.8 per game -- or a fraction more than Shaq had a few years ago. Terry, in his second season with the Mavericks, had 123 fewer assists than he did a year ago, dropping from 5.4 to 3.8 assists per game.
The Mavericks never won a championship with point guards like Derek Harper, Jason Kidd and Steve Nash roaming the backcourt. Maybe this will be the first team that can win a championship without needing an assist.

The Greatest Game Ever Played

When the Suns and Celtics hooked up in Game 5 of the ’76 Finals, everyone was expecting a quick resolution. Little did they know …
More than one newspaper declared it The Greatest Game Ever Played, a label that lives on today. The legend grows with every replay on ESPN Classic.
The strange truth, however, is that if not for a missed John Havlicek free throw in the closing seconds of regulation, Game 5 of the 1976 NBA Finals would be considered just another Boston Celtics win. For most of the first 48 minutes, in fact, it was a poorly played contest.
“Not what you would consider a classic,” admits Dick Van Arsdale, whose Phoenix Suns fell into a 22-point hole early on, giving credence to the belief that they were not in the same league as the Boston Celtics.
Sure, the Suns had stunned the defending-champion Golden State Warriors in the Western Conference Finals. And yes, they had recovered from an 0-2 deficit to even up the championship series with a couple of wins in the desert, despite having dropped all four regular season meetings with the Celtics.
But the 8-year-old franchise was obviously living on luck. After all, with a 42-40 regular-season record, the Suns were fortunate even to be in the playoffs, let alone in the tradition-rich Boston Garden competing for a title against the 54-28 Celtics.
“Cosmic forces at work,” jokes then-Celtics coach and current Boston broadcaster Tommy Heinsohn of the Suns’ second-half surge that set the stage for history. “Paul Westphal was just absolutely fantastic in their comeback. He made like two or three 360 (-degree) moves full speed.”
Led by the inspired play of their star guard (who had been acquired from Boston in an offseason trade) and the steady hand of their seldom-used reserve, Phil Lumpkin, the Suns slowly crept back into the game. Just as the visitors had struggled in the first half, the home team was out of sync in the second and eventually relinquished the lead in the final minute of the fourth quarter.
Suns center Alvan Adams fouled out with 19 seconds to go, sending Havlicek to the line with a chance to retake the advantage in the game and, likely, in the series. But Hondo was off target on his second attempt, sending the game into overtime, tied at 95.
Suns forward Keith Erickson, a double-digit scorer who had rolled his ankle in the first half, could hear the fans stomping their feet from inside the locker room as the Celtics took control in the extra period. But back-to-back buckets from his teammates Curtis Perry and Gar Heard knotted the score again. Another Havlicek miss, this time from the corner, and it was on to overtime No. 2.
“It’s a good thing it’s Friday night,” CBS Sports broadcaster Brent Musberger told the audience on national television. “You kids don’t have to go to school tomorrow. Ask your dad to get you another Coca-Cola.”
No caffeine was needed for the Celtics, whose pressure defense and crisp passing allowed them to grab hold of the game yet again. With a pump-fake and a drive inside, Jo Jo White laid in two of his 33 points on the night, giving Boston a 109-106 lead with 19 seconds left. But a Van Arsdale field goal, a Westphal theft and a Perry jumper later, the Suns were suddenly on top, 110-109. It was only Phoenix’s second lead of the entire night.
The Celtics’ all-time leading scorer and the Finals MVP in ’74, Havlicek wasn’t about to miss again. He didn’t. With five seconds to go, the 14-year veteran caught the inbounds pass, dribbled up court and let go a running, leaning 15-footer that banked in as the clock expired and the Garden erupted.
“We all ran off the court and thought the game was over, because we were ahead by one,” recalls Celtics forward Paul Silas.
The 15,320 Boston fans thought so, too, and began a victory celebration that quickly spilled out onto the parquet floor.
“The security was not very good. I think (Celtics president) Red Auerbach planned it that way,” laughs Van Arsdale, now the Suns’ senior executive vice president. “There were probably 300, 400 fans on the court.”
Adams, who had watched the final play from the bench, was confused.
“It was like, ‘The people are rushing the floor! Is the game over?'” remembers Adams. 'I don’t think so. Nah, there’s still some time left.'"
Sure enough, referee Richie Powers signaled that there was still time on the clock. One second, to be exact. And while Suns broadcaster Al McCoy tried to get out from underneath a drunken fan who had passed out in his lap, Powers tried to escape the wrath of one angry fan, who had attacked him.
“The fans were irate,” says former Clippers, Hornets and Cavs head man Silas, one of seven players in the game who went on to become NBA coaches. “It was unbelievable.”
“Pandemonium,” is the way Celtics center Dave Cowens describes the unusual scene.
While the Suns regrouped and the fans were separated from the court, the Celtics were notified that the game was not yet over. The already balmy building was about to get a whole lot hotter.
“They called us back onto the floor, and I wasn’t a happy puppy,” says Heinsohn. “This game now was somewhere around midnight, for crying out loud.”
“Would you believe that I had gone in and cut my tape off?” adds White, who earned MVP honors for the series. “I thought the game was over and then, ‘Oh, there’s one second on the clock. Really, what can happen in one second?'”
Not much, one would think, but Westphal had an idea. By calling a timeout they didn’t have, the Suns were given a technical, which gave the Celtics a free throw and the two-point lead, 112-110. But the strategic move allowed the Suns to inbound the ball at midcourt instead of underneath the opposite baseline, a rule that was changed the following season.
“That was a great call on Paul’s part,” says Suns head coach John MacLeod, who quickly drew up a play for Westy while fans continued to run into, and get shoved out of, the Phoenix huddle. Jerry Colangelo, then the Suns GM and now their chairman and CEO, threatened not to bring his team back to Boston for Game 7 if security didn’t regain control.
The Suns took their positions on the court, which was surrounded by a human wall of police and anxious fans, and Perry was handed the ball.
“We had the play set up for Paul to shoot a jump shot in the corner,” MacLeod says, “but they covered him.”
With their first option denied, Perry inbounded the ball to Heard, who had set the pick for Westphal and was open at the top of the key. The 6-6 forward, who had blocked a potential series-winning shot by Warrior Jamaal Wilkes in Game 6 of the Western Conference Finals two weeks earlier, turned and fired a high-arching jumper over the outstretched arm of Celtics forward Don Nelson.
“He took a deep shot with a man right in his face,” sighs Heinsohn, “and he made it.”
The fans, who only minutes earlier were screaming, laughing and crying, were struck silent, as if the wind had been knocked out of them all at once. Awtrey, meanwhile, waved at the crowd to take a seat; the “Sunderella Suns,” as they’d been nicknamed in the Phoenix media, had a new lease on life.
“I think people remember me more for three seconds than they do for the rest of my career,” joked Heard in June of 2001 during an NBA.com chat on the 25th anniversary of “the shot Heard round the world.”
Silas, who had argued with Heinsohn that the Celtics should use their last foul instead of giving Phoenix a shot, couldn’t believe they were going to a third OT.
“I didn’t think anyone would win,” says the rugged forward, who scored 17 points before becoming the third Celtic to foul out.
Eventually, someone did win, although not without one last five-minute fight. Back and forth the Celtics and Suns traded jumpers, as if putting on a shooting clinic. Nelson, Sobers, Perry, White, Heard and White again knocked down shots. But it was a rookie by the name of Glenn McDonald who made the difference, bringing fresh legs off the bench for Boston and scoring six quick points for the 128-120 lead.
Still, the game was not over. The Suns attempted another rally, reeling off six straight points of their own, including a length-of-the-court pass from Perry to a streaking Westphal, who scored to bring the Suns within two with 11 seconds to go. Turning and racing back down the floor, Westy’s reaching hand tipped a pass to Silas, but the Celtics maintained control and outlasted the Suns, 128-126.
After the game, Heinsohn collapsed in the locker room and was taken to a nearby hospital, where he spent the rest of the night.
“I got dehydrated and just conked out,” he explains. “You know, it was a pressure-packed ball game.”
It was also the key ballgame of the series. The Celtics traveled to Phoenix with the win and the momentum; they knocked out the worn-out Suns in Phoenix two days later.
“That certainly was the pivotal game,” says Van Arsdale of the 63-minute thriller. Havlicek will never admit it, but I say if we’d won Game 5, we would’ve won the championship.”
Win or lose, the Suns earned a wealth of respect, both from Boston fans and the rest of the sports world.
“I think it put Phoenix on the map as far as the NBA is concerned,” says MacLeod. “Still today, many people remember exactly where they were on that Friday night in June when that game took place.”
For Cowens, who was pictured battling Adams on the cover of Sports Illustrated, the memory he will never forget is of one particular fan at the Garden that night.
“There was a lady sitting in the front row,” he says. “She told me that it was the first professional basketball game she had seen in her life. I just found that funny, because all I could think was that she probably thought every game was going to be like that.”
Needless to say, they aren’t.

1976 ABA Finals

Even now, 30 years later, the 1976 ABA Finals proved that the all-fun league saved its best for last
It was a fun league, the American Basketball Association. It was a league that featured the Amigos, the Conquistadors and the Muskies. There were Squires, Colonels and Condors, too. There were also colorful players and an even more colorful red, white and blue basketball.
But the league may have saved its best for last with the 1976 ABA Finals between Larry Brown’s Denver Nuggets and Kevin Loughery’s New York Nets. Denver featured David Thompson, the ABA’s last Rookie of the Year. New York had Julius Erving, the ABA’s Most Valuable Player in its final three seasons (although “Dr. J” was co-MVP with George McGinnis in 1975).
During the 1976 regular season, the Nuggets were 60-24, averaging a league-best 122 points per game and shooting a league leading 51 percent. Larry Brown’s team allowed 116 points per contest. The Nets finished 55-29, led by Erving, Brian Taylor and John Williamson. Both teams would have contended for the NBA title that season, which the Boston Celtics won by defeating the Phoenix Suns in seven games. The Nuggets' frontline of Thompson, Bobby Jones and Dan Issel would have matched up quite nicely with the Celtics’ frontcourt of super swingman John Havlicek, Paul Silas, Don Nelson and Dave Cowens.
The first game of the '76 ABA Finals was a classic. A full house of more than 19,000 fans in Denver’s McNichols Arena saw Jones -- the best defensive stopper the ABA had -- try everything to slow down the Doctor. The score was tied at 118-118 when Dr. J hit a turnaround 21-foot jumper over Jones. That hoop gave the Nets the win and Erving 45 points. He hit 17-of-25 field goal attempts, in addition to grabbing 12 rebounds.
In the second game of the series, Erving scored 48 points in a Nets loss.
In the crucial third game, Nets guard Super John Williamson scored 28 points, but the outcome again came down to the final moments of play. With New York leading 113-111 in the final half-minute, Denver’s Thompson was called for traveling with 23 seconds remaining, effectively ending any hopes the Nuggets had for victory. Thompson couldn’t believe it and was seen crying as he entered the locker room following the game.
Meanwhile, while the Nets and Nuggets were sizzling on the court, the league was burning up off it. At halftime of Game 3, ABA commissioner Dave DeBusschere called a press conference to announce that league member Virginia would be unable to continue in the ABA due to financial difficulties. The Squires couldn’t pay the bills anymore, and just like that the league was down to six teams.
The ABA's future uncertainty didn’t affect the play on the court, however. In the fourth game, the Nets received a jolt from backup center Jumbo Jim Eakins. Eakins had played in the ABA for eight (of nine possible) seasons. Despite scoring only 14 points in the first three games of the series, Eakins scored 17 points (13 in the second half) to spark the Nets to a 3-1 series lead. Eakins even had a slam dunk in the game, something he managed maybe once a year.
The series looked one-sided, especially after the Nets took a 16-point lead early in Game 5. Brian Taylor ignited the Nets, who were looking to end the series early. But Denver scored 42 points in the third quarter, led by Thompson, and the Nuggets stayed alive, 118-110. But after five games, the Nets were still up 3-2.
Thompson put up 42-points in the sixth game, played in New York. The Nuggets jumped out to a 22-point lead (80-58) in the third quarter, but the Nets stormed back behind Erving, and closed out the series with a remarkable 112-106 victory. The Nets hoisted the ABA's championship trophy in front of their home fans, who relished this spectacular and, as time would soon prove, final moment in the ABA's history.
Dr. J deserved primetime attention that his league couldn't give him. In the six-game Finals, he averaged 37.7 points and 14.2 rebounds. “If this was the ABA’s last game,” Erving said afterward, “at least we went out in high style.” At the time that Game 6 was played -- May 13, 1976 -- it was unclear whether a merger was possible. The total collapse of the league was becoming more and more likely.
That series, though, was one to remember. It was the last professional basketball championship for a New York franchise. The Knicks lost in the NBA Finals in 1994 and 1999. The Nets (who merged into the NBA and moved across the Hudson River) lost the NBA Finals in 2002 and 2003. Even the women on the New York Liberty lost the WNBA Finals in 1997, 1999, 2000 and 2002.
The series also marked the last time any ABA franchise that merged would win a championship until the San Antonio Spurs took home the NBA title in 1999. Heck, there was almost a curse on the four ABA franchises when they moved into the NBA. It took 23 years for one of the four ABA teams (the Nets, Spurs, Pacers and Nuggets) to even make the NBA Finals.
Of course, the main reason for the struggles of the former ABA squads was the heavy price they had to pay to gain entrance into the NBA. Six weeks after the ABA Finals, the NBA agreed to accept four teams from the ABA. Kentucky and Utah folded, with 20 of their players going into a draft. The Chicago Bulls finished with the worst record in the NBA and got first choice of the disenfranchised ABA players. They picked Artis Gilmore.
The ABA players infused the NBA with athleticism and skill that jump-started the league’s popularity. The Nets' Erving and the Nuggets' Thompson, along with Moses Malone (who had played with the Utah franchise in the ABA), Maurice Lucas (who had played with the Kentucky franchise) and a host of others, all made the NBA stronger.
In next season, the Portland Trailblazers (who had selected Maurice Lucas in the first round of the ABA Dispersal Draft) won the NBA Championship. Lucas was their leading scorer.
The Philadelphia 76ers won the 1983 NBA Finals with an all-ABA frontcourt (Erving, Bobby Jones and Moses Malone). Malone played in the NBA until 1995. He was the last former ABA star to call it quits. Of course, Larry Brown is still an active coach in the NBA, as is former ABA player George Karl.
The ABA was the trendsetters, the first pro basketball league to accept teenagers, and the first to adopt the 3-point shot. In the mid-70s, the league featured the most exciting brand of basketball in the world. It came to a head, and an end, in May of 1976.

11 championships in 13 seasons

In 1957, the Celtics won their first-ever title and laid the groundwork for the greatest championship run in sports history
It is the greatest dynasty in NBA history. It began 49 years ago. It is still hard to believe.
It started in 1957, when the Boston Celtics defeated the St. Louis Hawks in a tough seven-game series. That was the first of an incredible 11 championships in 13 seasons. Viewed in today’s sports world, it is nothings short of astonishing. And it was the same way at the time.
The foundation arrived in the form of Bill Russell in 1956. With Russell manning the middle, the Celtics owned the rest of the league – at least when it counted. No other team in league history has ever been so good at winning championships for so long.
On the 49th anniversary of Boston’s first championship, it is worth a look back. The year was 1957. The names included Red Auerbach, Bob Cousy, Tom Heinsohn, Bill Sharman, and Russell. The team was the Celtics. And their place in history will last forever.
“The Celtic dynasty provided an anchor for the league, said Cousy, the Hall of Fame point guard. “Just like Magic Johnson and Larry Bird later, the Celtics gave the league people to focus on. Fans in Boston loved us, other people loved us, and some people in other cities hated us. But even the people who didn’t like us would follow what we did, hoping that we’d get beat. It was a different time, and we were a team with a lot of pride, and we never lost our hunger. I don’t think you’ll ever see a run like that again.”
The dynasty started when Auerbach, Boston’s legendary coach, engineered one of his many brilliant trades to acquire Russell. Before the 1956 draft, Auerbach traded the rights to Cliff Hagan and Ed Macauley to St. Louis in exchange for Russell, who had been the Hawks’ first round pick. The Celtics were changed forever.
“We liked to play, we liked to win, and we liked to have fun,” said Auerbach. “That’s what made it work for so long. You always hear all the crap about chemistry, but we really had it. We’d take summer vacations together. We’d visit each other’s houses. It was really a family.
“Plus, I believed in paying guys according to how much they contributed to winning. I stuck to that, so guys never worried about stats. You could have 20 points one game, two points the next, but you didn’t have to worry about that, as long as you helped us win.”
The Celtics were already a good team before Russell arrived. They had Cousy, one of the greatest point guards of all time, who led the league in assists. They had Sharman, a deadly shooter, who led the league in free throw percentage. They had Heinsohn, a 6-7 rookie from Holy Cross who played like a veteran. They had Jim Loscutoff, a muscular forward who was an enforcer. They had Frank Ramsey, who created Boston’s tradition of a sixth man, plus veteran reserves like Andy Phillip, Arnie Risen and Jack Nichols.
But the arrival of Russell turned the Celtics into a great team. He joined the Celtics late during his rookie season, because he played in the 1956 Olympics in Australia, which didn’t end until early December. By the time Russell showed up, the Celtics were already 13-3. But Russell provided the final piece to Boston’s championship puzzle. He was the most dominant defensive presence that the league has ever seen, blocking shots, snagging rebounds and igniting Boston’s potent fast break.
The 1956-57 Celtics finished with the league’s best record (44-28). There were only eight teams in the NBA, and the power was in the East. All four teams in the Western Division had losing records that year, with St. Louis, Minneapolis, and Fort Wayne posting identical records of 34-38.
Boston entered the playoffs as the overwhelming favorite, and the Celtics cruised through the Eastern Division finals, sweeping Syracuse in three games. Meanwhile, St. Louis won the Western Division for the right to meet Boston in the Finals.
Neither the Celtics nor the Hawks had ever won the championship, so the 1957 championship series was guaranteed to make history. It turned out to be one of the greatest Finals of all time. It went seven games. Two of the games went into overtime. And the underdog Hawks, led by Hall of Fame forward Bob Pettit, still believe they should’ve won.
“When you’re a professional athlete, you always feel you’re going to win. At least I did,” said Pettit, who led the Hawks to their only championship In 1958. “Nobody could have imagined in 1957 that the Celtics were about to start a dynasty. You look back on what they accomplished, and you’d have to say they were probably the greatest team ever assembled. But when we played them for the championship, we felt great about our chances.”
Not only did the Hawks have Pettit, but they had a great backcourt featuring Slater Martin and Jack McMahon. And they were player-coached by Alex Hannum, who, 10 years later, became famous for coaching the 1966-67 Philadelphia 76ers to a 68-13 record and the championship.
The Hawks were not in awe of Boston or Russell, and it showed in Game 1. What was supposed to be a one-sided series became a war. How physical was the action? McMahon fouled out of every game in the series. The Hawks and Celtics played each other nine times during the regular season, and this was a case when familiarity bred contempt. Neither team was fond of the other, and emotions ran high, both on and off the court.
Stunning the Celtics and the Boston Garden crowd, the Hawks won 125-123 in overtime. Boston bounced back to win Game 2, 119-99, but then the series shifted to St. Louis for the next two games.
Game 3 was bizarre from the outset. Before the game, Auerbach punched Hawks owner Ben Kerner in the mouth, earning Auerbach a $300 fine. Auerbach laughed when he recalled the incident.
“Before the game, a couple of our players told me that the basket was too low, so I had the referees check it,” said Auerbach. “The basket was actually at an angle. All of a sudden, Kerner comes running out of the stands screaming, saying I’m up to one of my old tricks. He started calling me every name in the book. I hit him with a left hook – boom. They fined me, but I told them from the beginning that I wouldn’t pay it. I was right.”
Auerbach won his fight that day, but his team didn’t. The Hawks celebrated their return home with a 100-98 victory in Game 3 to take a 2-1 edge in the series, but the Celtics didn’t fold.
Boston came back to even the series by taking Game 4, 123-118. Both teams protected their home court in the next two games, with the Celtics winning Game 5, and the Hawks winning Game 6. Cousy was spectacular in Game 5, passing for 19 assists, which is still a Celtics playoff record.
Game 7 was one of the most memorable in NBA history. It was played on a Saturday afternoon in Boston Garden, in front of a sellout crowd and a national television audience, and it was great exposure for the league.
The game featured 38 lead changes and 28 ties, and it looked as if it might last until Sunday morning. Two free throws by Pettit in the closing seconds of regulation sent the game into overtime. The Celtics thought they had the game won in the first overtime, but a basket by Jack Coleman of St. Louis forced the second overtime.
Finally, with two seconds left in the second overtime, Luscutoff made two foul shots to give Boston a 125-123 lead. Hannum called timeout and set up a play designed for Pettit. Hannum threw a long pass that intentionally ricocheted off the backboard. Pettit soared high for the rebound and shot the ball in one motion, but it bounced off the rim at the buzzer.
Celtics fans poured onto the court in celebration of the team’s first title, and Auerbach lit a victory cigar. Pettit had 39 points in a losing effort, while Russell had 32 rebounds. But the star of the game was Heinsohn, a rookie who enjoyed one of the great games of his career, with 37 points and 23 rebounds. Heinsohn still has vivid memories of that game.
“People talk about the triple-overtime game we had against Phoenix in 1976 when I was coaching the Celtics,” said Heinsohn. “That was also a great game, but it was Game 5. This was Game 7. I mean, there hasn’t been a double-overtime game in Game 7 of the Finals since. You don’t see much footage of that game, and that’s a shame. It was definitely one of the greatest ever played.”
And for the Celtics, it was the beginning of an era. With the addition of players like K.C. Jones, Sam Jones and John Havlicek in the coming years, the Celtics became a machine. St. Louis got revenge in 1958, winning the championship by beating the Celtics in the Finals. But the next eight titles belonged to Boston.
During those glory years, it seemed that somehow, some way, the Celtics always found a way to win. It was a memorable dynasty that created Celtic Pride and Celtic Tradition. Ultimately, the Celtics won 16 championships. All were tremendously satisfying, but that first one – 49 Finals ago – will always be special.