From 1969 to 1975, the Knicks-Bullets feud was one of the most heated in NBA history
There are several ingredients needed in order to make a great rivalry in professional sports. The rivals need to face each other in meaningful games for a number of years. They need to play with distinct styles. Their fans have to build a passion against the rival city and team. And the coaches and players have to have a mutual respect for one another. Under any definition, the Knicks and Bullets were classic rivals from 1969 to 1975.
The Chicago Zephyrs relocated to Baltimore after the 1963 season and, after a name change, returned a Bullets franchise to the blue-collar city for the first time since the original Baltimore Bullets disbanded in 1955. The city was still learning NBA basketball in the mid-60s, when the Bullets made three consecutive first-round draft choices that would transform the franchise into yearly contenders. In 1966, they selected forward Jack Marin. The next year, Baltimore picked guard Earl Monroe with the second overall selection. In 1968, the Bullets again had the second overall pick. After the Rockets selected Elvin Hayes, the Bullets grabbed center Wes Unseld.
With rookie Monroe, the Bullets improved from 20-61 to 36-46 in 1968. In Unseld's first season, Baltimore jumped to 57-25 in 1969 -- the best record in the NBA.
At the same time, a few hundred miles north, the New York Knicks were building their own championship squad. In the same draft that the Bullets found Monroe, the Knicks selected Walt Frazier only three picks later.
The Knicks had Willis Reed beginning in 1965, but he was a forward until a trade with Detroit in December of 1968 brought forward Dave DeBusschere to the Big Apple in exchange for center Walt Bellamy.
This was the dawn of a new age in the NBA, particularly in the East, where either Boston or Philadelphia had won the Eastern Finals since 1955. Wilt Chamberlain had been traded from Philadelphia to Los Angeles following the 1968 season. Bill Russell was playing his final season in 1969. The Knicks and Bullets jockeyed for supremacy in the East, particularly after Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s Milwaukee Bucks moved to the new Midwest Division in the Western Conference beginning in 1971.
The New York Knicks met the Baltimore Bullets in postseason play six straight years, beginning in the spring of 1969. In the decade of the 1970s, the Knicks and Bullets combined to win three NBA championships, and won the Eastern Finals seven times.
Not only were both teams extremely good, but they played 36 postseason games against each other in a six-year period. Three times, the series came down a seventh and deciding game.
The Styles
The teams had differing styles. The Bullets -- in the days of Monroe, Kevin Loughery and Gus Johnson -- were known as the most explosive and crowd pleasing club in the league. Defense -- not counting the undersized Johnson and Unseld -- was sporadic, at best. The Knicks, on the other hand, featured one of the best defensive teams of all-time. Frazier and DeBusschere made the league’s top defensive five every year, and Reed was an expert shot blocker.
The Matchups
Jack Marin vs. Bill Bradley: Duke grad Jack Marin would not be inducted into the Hall of Fame as Princeton grad Bill Bradley would be, but Marin might have been a better NBA player. He scored more points, pulled in more rebounds and made more All-Star games than Bradley. In his six years with the Bullets, Marin averaged 16.7 points and 6.2 rebounds. Nearly 70 percent of his playoff games (24 of 35) in a Bullets uniform were played against Bradley and the Knicks. Marv Albert -- the Knicks' radio announcer then -- remembers that, “Marin used to get upset as Bradley would tug on his shorts out of the referee’s eyesight. It was all part of the gamesmanship. That match up was very, very intense.”
Kevin Loughery vs. Dick Barnett: At one guard spot, two wily old veterans matched up, as Dick Barnett of the Knicks guarded Kevin Loughery of the Bullets. Loughery, who had played his college ball in New York at St. John’s, had been with Baltimore since 1963. Loughery averaged over 20 points per game in the late 60s, with Barnett dropping in just a few less for New York. “Barnett was an excellent defensive player, as well,” remembers Albert.
The other three matchups were all worth the price of admission, too. Unseld versus Reed was epic. Gus Johnson versus Dave DeBusschere was as good as it got. Earl Monroe versus Walt Frazier was the pinnacle.
Wes Unseld vs. Willis Reed: They were two of the greatest centers of all-time, and both were a bit undersized. Unseld was the league MVP in 1969. Reed was the league MVP in 1970. Both were Rookies of the Year. Both won NBA championships. Who was better? Rod Thorn said, although it was close, he would give the edge to Reed, who had a more complete game. Certainly, Reed’s team needed more scoring from him than the Bullets required of the unselfish Unseld.
Earl Monroe vs. Walt Frazier: Legendary Knicks coach Red Holzman wrote in his 1980 book with Leonard Lewin, “A View from the Bench,”: “I matched Monroe with Frazier. Ace against ace. Power against power. If Monroe got 34, Frazier might get 34. The idea was not to allow the Bullets to get a big edge at that one position. They saw so much of each other, Clyde could have played Pearl in his sleep.”
One thing they both had was style -- both on and off the court. Frazier was more flamboyant off the court, and Monroe was flashier on it. But that’s not to say Frazier didn’t have moves in his game, or that Earl the Pearl was quiet off-the-court. Monroe, before the sixth game of the 1971 series with New York, described the scene recently as a “doomsday kind of thing.” So, how did Monroe prepare? “I normally liked to dress in all black, but before that game, I was in all black except for a hatband that was all red, to show that I meant business.” No one was cooler than Frazier, however. He was often seen before and after games with mink coats and velour hats. Talk about style.
Gus Johnson vs. Dave DeBusschere: Holzman, again in his book, wrote this about the DeBusschere-Johnson matchup: “The Classic Confrontation. Man against man. Will against will. Body against body … Gus was brittle, sometimes erratic, sometimes showboat but always a player the Knicks had to stop to win. He was only 6-foot-5, but played taller … Gus was to be bothered by bad knees through his entire career, but that only made his performances against DeBusschere all the more magnificent. People came to see the Knicks play the Bullets, and left talking about the mini-war between DeBusschere and Johnson. When Johnson and DeBusschere got together under the boards, it was like rubbing two huge trees together and setting a fire … DeBusschere’s pride was hurt (in the 1970 playoff series) when Johnson erupted for 15 points in the third quarter and 31 for the sixth game.
“They battled (in the seventh game) and DeBusschere hit 12 baskets and scored 28 points. … Gus came to the Garden for the first game of the 1969 opening series but he couldn’t play. He was a cripple with fluid on his left knee, which needed injections, and a damaged right knee that needed surgery … He was 32 and suffering. A few days earlier, he had helped Baltimore qualify to play the Knicks by scoring 19 points, grabbing 17 rebounds, and getting eight assists against the 76ers. … In three playoff series (versus New York), Johnson wound up with a 9-10 won and lost record against DeBusschere, by discounting Game 1 of the 1970 series he missed.”
Albert, too, said the DeBusschere-Johnson battles were “like a heavyweight championship fight.”
DeBusschere made the Hall of Fame in 1983, 20 years before his death at the age of 63. But Johnson never made the Hall. He died in the spring of 1987 at the age of 51. “I felt as though Gus was one of the best defensive players ever to play the game,” Earl Monroe said. “He not only played strong forward -- but he played the centers, the small forwards, and he played the guards, as well. As a teammate, he and Wes used to bet who would get the most rebounds. He was competitive even with his teammates. And strong -- I remember he shattered a backboard in Milwaukee, and we had to wait 90 minutes to get a new backboard to finish the game.”
The Series
1969: New York 4, Baltimore 0: The Bullets had the best regular-season record in the league but were swept by the Knicks in the playoffs. The Knicks won the four games by an average of 9.5 points per game. In the two closest games, Willis Reed had 35 points and 19 rebounds (Game 3), and 43 points and 17 rebounds (Game 4). It has to be noted that Gus Johnson missed the entire series with injuries.
1970: New York 4, Baltimore 3: This time it was the Knicks that entered the series owners of the best regular-season record. The Bullets again had injury problems: Loughery started the series wearing a heavy brace after running into Abdul-Jabbar a month earlier, cracking four ribs and puncturing his lung. The series was a classic, nevertheless.
The first game – played in New York -- wasn’t decided until the second overtime period. The Bullets had a chance to win at the end of regulation and at the end of the first overtime. Both times, they isolated Monroe on Frazier. At the end of the first overtime, Frazier knocked the ball loose on Monroe and Barnett scooped it up. Barnett nearly had the game-winning layup in the final second of overtime, but Fred Carter came out of nowhere and swatted the shot away. “Fred really surprised everyone, but he got the ball cleanly, and pinned it against the backboard. It gave us a big impetus,” said Monroe.
The Knicks finally put the game away in the second overtime. After New York won the second game in Baltimore, they had defeated the Bullets six straight times in the postseason over two seasons. The Bullets, who had lost their final two playoff games in 1965 -- and were swept in three games in 1966 -- had thus dropped 11 consecutive playoff games entering Game 3 of the Knicks series. Loughery, who had played in all 11 of the losses, was so distraught he removed the brace that restricted his shooting. He was limited to 10 painful minutes in the third game, but his 13 points helped Baltimore break the losing streak with a 127-113 victory. Wes Unseld had more rebounds than the entire Knicks team. The Bullets then evened the series in Baltimore.
Willis Reed needed a shot to ease his arthritis in his knees in order to play the fifth game. He played 45 minutes, scoring 36 points and pulling down a career-high 36 rebounds. The Knicks forced the Bullets to miss 27 of their 30 second-half shots. Gus Johnson had 31 points and forced DeBusschere to miss nine of his 11 shots from the field.
It came down to a seventh and deciding game at Madison Square Garden. Monroe scored 32 points in the seventh game, but Barnett gave the Knicks 28 points to lead them into the Eastern Finals.
1971: Baltimore 4, New York 3: In the 1971 Eastern Finals, the home team won the first six games. The seventh game was played in New York. Monroe doubled-up Frazier, outscoring Clyde 26-13. Marin outscored Bradley 20-13. But it was Fred Carter’s decisive jump shot with just over one minute remaining that gave Baltimore the game and series. “I’d have to say the 1971 Eastern Finals was one of the greatest playoff series of all time, when my Bullets defeated the Knicks 93-91 in the seventh game,” Kevin Loughery said. “You have to understand, Baltimore was always losing to New York -- we couldn’t beat the Knicks, the Colts couldn’t defeat the Jets, the Orioles couldn’t defeat the Mets. When we finally beat the defending champion Knicks, that was our championship.”
Bridesmaids no longer, Baltimore became known as “Titletown USA,” because in the spring of 1971, the Orioles were the defending World Series champions and the Colts were the defending Super Bowl champs. The Bullets advanced to the NBA Finals with their victory over the Knicks, but were swept by the Bucks in four games.
1972: New York 4, Baltimore 2: The Bullets realized that their core players weren’t going to win a championship. They drafted guard Phil Chenier in 1971. They traded Loughery and Carter to Philadelphia for high-scoring guard Archie Clark. Monroe refused to play for Baltimore, finally approving a trade to New York early in the 1971-72 season. In 60 games for the Knicks that year, Monroe deferred to Frazier and played just 21 minutes per game. Monroe was bothered by injuries in his knees that season, as well. He had played in the NBA Finals in 1971 with Baltimore and did the same for New York in each of the next two seasons. Gus Johnson’s knees limited him to less than half the games, and his spot was taken by John Tresvant.
In this 1972 series, it was Archie Clark that put together the huge scoring games. His 38 points led the Bullets to a victory in the first game, and his 35 points led Baltimore in the third game. Reed was limited to just 11 games that season due to tendonitis and had been replaced by Jerry Lucas as the Knicks' center.
1973: New York 4, Baltimore 1: The Bullets traded their second leading scorer (Marin) for Elvin Hayes in order to replace Gus Johnson as a big forward. Ex-Knicks forward Mike Riordon took over a starting position on the baseline for the Bullets. Hayes and Unseld would lead the Bullets to the NBA Finals in 1975, 1978 and 1979; but they were fortunate to make the playoffs in their first year together.
1974: New York 4, Capital Bullets 3: The familiar rivals met in the postseason for the sixth consecutive season. The Knicks would win for the fifth time in a last hurrah for three key veterans (Reed, DeBusschere and Jerry Lucas) who would all retire as New York's season came to an end. Monroe’s 30 points were the difference for the Knicks in Game 7, as they outlasted the Bullets 91-81. As was the case from beginning to end, Earl Monroe was again the focal point of this great -- and often overlooked -- rivalry.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The 1970s saw eight different NBA champions - the most of any decade - and no back-to-back winners
Close your eyes and think of the 1970s. Not the Bee Gees. Not bell bottoms. Not even mirrored disco balls. Just think of NBA basketball (Let your mind wander).
Willis Reed (Here comes Willis … And the crowd is going wild!).
The Los Angeles Lakers (Jerry West … 33 consecutive victories … Gail Goodrich … Wilt Chamberlain).
Bill Walton (Mountain Man … Rebound, outlet pass, layup … Pony Tail Jump hook with either hand … Jerry Garcia).
The Washington Bullets (Wes Unseld … The Big E … Bobby D).
The vintage ’73 Milwaukee Bucks (Kareem … Oscar).
The American Basketball Association folds and four teams and a lot of great players join the NBA (Dr. J … Maurice Lucas … Moses Malone … George Gervin ... David Thompson … Dan Issel).
There is, however, no one memory that juts out more than any other. The ‘70s were the most enigmatic decade in the NBA’s first half-century.
Every other decade has a signature team or teams. The league had only three champions in the ‘40s, but the last was the Minneapolis Lakers, who won in 1949, then captured five more titles in the ‘50s. The ‘60s had the Celtics. The ‘80s had Boston and Los Angeles. The ‘90s, well, they’re Bulls territory.
But the 1970s can’t be pigeonholed by one team. More than any other time, the era could best be noted for its parity.
“It was almost impossible for teams to win 70 games in a season because teams were so evenly matched,” said Miami assistant coach Bob McAdoo, who led the league in scoring three straight seasons in the mid-1970s. “I remember one year in Buffalo, we had the third-best record in the league with only 49 wins. The parity was there.”
When the 1970s began, the league was a two-division, 14-team league coming off a Boston Celtics monopoly of 10 championships in 11 years. For many fans, the NBA wasn’t just dominated by the Celtics, it was the Celtics.
But times changed and by decade’s end, the league had ballooned to 22 teams in four divisions and had engulfed the ABA. During the transition, the ‘70s reversed the preceding decade. They were dominated by no one; challenged, it seemed, by everyone. The championship trophy could count on a new holder each year.
There were eight different champions in the ‘70s, the most in any 10-year period of the NBA. Only six times did the team with the league’s best regular-season record earn a trip to the NBA Finals. And not a single team defended its title.
But ask 10 experts why this was, and you’ll likely get 10 answers.
“We didn’t have quite as many teams, and players didn’t move around as much, so it made it a little easier for everybody to compete,” said Willis Reed, who provided one of the decade’s most memorable moments by inspiring the Knicks to a title in the 1970 NBA Finals when he came out for Game 7, started and scored two baskets despite a severe leg injury.
“We had less teams in the league at that time and the teams were really stacked with superior talent,” said current Los Angeles Lakers coach Phil Jackson, who started his NBA career in 1967 and played till 1980, winning the 1973 championship with New York along the way. “The league was down in numbers and that just meant a lot of play between each team. You know, we played each team three times.”
“The competition level was so high that once one team got (to the championship), everybody was trying to knock them off the mountain,” said Rudy Tomjanovich, who knows a little about repeating, having coached the Houston Rockets to consecutive championships in 1994 and ’95 after an 11-year playing career with the Rockets from 1970-81. “We were conditioned to believe that it was too hard to repeat.”
Added former Celtics and Clippers assistant Dennis Johnson, who led the Sonics to a seventh game in the 1978 NBA Finals, where they lost to the Bullets, and then the championship in 1979: “Seattle had the best chance to repeat if we would have won the first one. But I don’t know why nobody did.”
“The real great teams of that particular time had gotten older and had retired,” said current Miami coach Pat Riley, who played on the 1972 NBA champion Lakers and later won four titles as coach. “There was a changing of the guard.”
West believes that because the expansion of the league in the 1970s included “teams that were smaller in number … it should have been expected for teams to be closer matched.”
Ironically, the decade produced the most uneven matchups, with two series sweeps and three more getting settled in only five games.
“There’s no way to explain it,” McAdoo said. “I remember one year the Golden State Warriors, who had the fourth-best record in the league, swept the powerful Washington Bullets. You just can’t explain it.”
One undeniable truth is that times have changed. The interest, the media, the money, the technology, the players and the game – on and off the court – have all evolved.
“In the 1970s teams were not constrained by salary caps when they were considering trades for that final piece of the puzzle,” said current NBA broadcaster Doug Collins, a four-time All-Star who played some of his best basketball in the 1976-77 playoffs when his Philadelphia 76ers lost to the Blazers in the NBA Finals. “They could make the trade to get that one player to push them over the top. The league, as a whole, was much stronger and more competitive and I don’t know if we will ever have that type of parity again.”
It was also a period that preceded the time when the spectacular play became a regular part of NBA games. The league had its share of players who played in rare air – notably Elgin Baylor. But there was not the great number of leapers and fliers that entered the league later. Erving arrived in ’76, but he was one of a kind. “You had a lot of great players from that era who weren’t really flamboyant,” McAdoo said. “They just got the job done with great numbers in scoring and rebounding. The Boston Celtics teams were always seven or eight players deep. You don’t see that now but you saw that in the ‘70s.”
It’s the different style that Johnson thinks contributed to the lack of player notoriety.
“We had a lot more motion-oriented offenses then,” noted Johnson. “The guys who are playing now play the game at a higher pace, a higher style, more athletically. But all that has become because of television. I think in the ‘70s, if the television was as hot as it is now, everybody then would have played that way.”
Perhaps because of the lack of a singular marquee team, the decade has not commanded the same respect as the 1960s and the 1980s.
Yet the case could be made that some of the ‘70s teams deserve to be ranked among the greatest in NBA history – the Lakers of 1972, Knicks of ’73 and Blazers of ’77.
Portland’s 1977-78 squad might have had the decade’s best chance of establishing a mini-dynasty with a repeat title, but a rash of injuries subverted a 50-10 start.
“Eventually that team just broke apart when Walton got hurt and wasn’t able to play as effectively ever again,” said Jack Ramsay, who coached four NBA teams in 21 years and guided Portland to the 1977 title. “I think that was a big factor there. We would have had back-to-backs.”
“I know the team that I was on in Seattle could match up with any team that won games in my 1980s or Michael Jordan’s ‘80s or anybody’s ‘90s,” said Johnson. “I think with me and Gus Johnson in the backcourt, we could have matched up with anybody. We had a ton of people but our style was all team play.”
The multitude of great teams has made it hard to categorize the time as either this or that. Instead, it has become a melting pot of images and personalities.
“I think we helped determine the growth of the league,” West said, “and I think we left a lot of memories that are now just being discovered.”
Hall of Famer Billy Cunningham, who won NBA titles as a player in 1967 and as coach in 1983, might have given the best endorsement for the 1970s. “Looking back on the era I played in, and I’ve been involved in the league 30 years, I wouldn’t give up that era for anything.”
Home-court advantage took on a whole new meaning when the Minneapolis Lakers and New York Knicks clashed in ‘52
It’s a story that has been told numerous times through the years, and it remained one of George Mikan’s favorites. If you had asked the legendary Laker about his illustrious career, he surely would have mentioned December 14, 1949, when his Minneapolis squad rolled up to Madison Square Garden for a game against the Knickerbockers.
“On the marquee they had ‘George Mikan vs. the Knicks,” recalled the NBA legend, whose teammates ribbed him by refusing to dress for the game. “They were all just sitting around. They said, ‘Alright big guy, if you’re going to play them, go play them.'”
A source of laughs in the Laker locker room, the phrase was a serious one for the Knicks, whose primary focus whenever playing Minneapolis was the 6-10, 245-pound center. Mikan – whom New York coach Joe Laphcick once blamed for his gray hair – was downright dominant in the middle thanks to an unprecedented combination of power, size and speed, and a hook shot that was gold.
But by the time the Lakers and Knicks were the NBA’s marquee matchup in the 1952 NBA Finals, Mikan was not quite as frustrating as he had been in the early years of the League. And his dip in scoring from an NBA-best 28.4 points a night in ’50-51 to 23.8 in ’51-52 was due in large part to Lapchick.
“He would go out of his mind every time he saw me play,” said Mikan, who passed away in June 2005. “He wanted to try to do something to stop me.”
Lapchick did more than try. The Knicks coach led the movement to rewrite the NBA’s rulebook by widening the lane from six to 12 feet, thereby limiting Mikan’s low-and lower-post moves. The change was even referred to as “The Mikan Rule," and it added to the intensity of the first championship series between the teams.
Despite the new rule, the Lakers entered the Finals with the second-best record in the League at 40-26. Still an offensive force and a defensive stopper, big George had spent that season getting his teammates more involved on the offensive side of things, and the move had paid dividends.
Having knocked off the team with the best record, the Rochester Royals, in the Western Division playoffs, Minneapolis boasted homecourt advantage over New York, which had defeated the Boston Celtics in the East. And while the Knicks had to travel west, the first two games of the series were actually played in St. Paul, Minn., as the Lakers’ usual home, the Minneapolis Auditorium, was already booked.
Mikan claimed that the change of venue made no difference, but the Knicks surprised the Lakers by splitting the games in St. Paul. In fact, as veteran Knicks fans still contend, Lapchick’s bunch nearly stole both games on the road, had it not been for a controversial call in Game 1.
In the first quarter, Knicks guard Al McGuire drove inside for a bucket and was fouled. But the goal wasn’t awarded, and McGuire was sent to the free-throw line instead.
“Neither referee saw it and they gave him two shots instead of the basket and one,” explains Al’s brother and teammate, Dick McGuire. “I saw the ball going in the basket, and we couldn’t believe they gave him two shots.”
“I remember that very well,” says Knicks All-Star forward Harry Gallatin. “If they had counted that shot, it would’ve made a big difference in the series.”
Maybe, maybe not, but the call stood in spite of the pleading Lapchick made to then-NBA Commissioner Maurice Podoloff, who was seated at courtside. The contest continued; without the additional Knicks’ point on the scoreboard, the Lakers pushed the game into overtime where they won, 83-79.
If there was a moral victory for New York, it was the defensive effort asserted on Mikan, who scored just 15 points before fouling out in the extra period. But the Knicks had no answer for Lakers forward Jim Pollard, the Stanford standout who notched a career-high 34 points in guiding the way for Minneapolis.
“I think he was one of the best that ever came along,” said Mikan of the late Pollard, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame in ’78. “He had the talent to be able to play today.”
Neither Mikan nor Pollard had a particularly good offensive outing in Game 2, when their opponents’ aggressive defense slowed the Lakers’ top scorers. Big George did collect 21 rebounds that night, but Knicks guards Ernie Vandeweghe and Ray Lumpp sparked a second-quarter run that put New York out front for good; they prevailed, 80-72.
The Knicks returned home feeling good about themselves. After all, they’d won 23 straight in New York. But if they were going to extend the streak to 24 and beyond, they would have to do so at the 69th Regiment Armory. A company by the name of Barnum & Bailey had reserved the Garden, and so the series, as it had in Minnesota, would continue elsewhere.
“It would never happen today,” laughs Dick McGuire of the clowns and elephants upstaging the Knicks. “I think in those days the circus might have been bigger. They probably did more business with the circus.”
Mikan recalled the “drill shed,” the Knicks’ home-away-from-home, as a poorly lit building.
“It seemed like it was always a little hazy in there,” said Mr. Basketball. “But we broke the fog.”
Minneapolis forced a slower pace in Game 3, disrupting New York’s patented fast-break offense. But it was Mikan who was largely responsible for the visitors’ 82-77 win, recording 26 points and 17 boards in one of his better performances of the series.
“If you ever tried to play in front of him, they’d lob the ball over your head,” says Gallatin, who had to move over and defend Mikan whenever Knicks center Nat “Sweetwater” Clifton got into foul trouble. “But that’s about the only way I could try to guard George, because he was so strong. Once he made his turn towards the basket, if you were behind him, it was almost impossible to stop him.”
The Knicks just about did the impossible in Game 4, limiting the five-time All-NBA First Team selection to just 11 points. But it wasn’t the work of Clifton or Gallatin, at least neither man alone.
“They were using two or three men guarding me,” explained Mikan. “They’d have one guy behind me, one guy in front of me and one on the side.”
Whatever they did, it worked, and the Knicks knotted the series, 2-2, rallying from a fourth-quarter deficit to grab a one-point 90-89 win in overtime. The toughest loss for the Lakers that night, however, was the loss of Pollard, who injured his back and would be sidelined for Games 5 and 6.
Short-handed, the Lakers still managed to pull out a 102-89 win in Game 5 back in St. Paul. Mikan and Vern Mikkelson, the game’s first “power” forward, netted 32 points each, and the momentum had shifted once again.
Fearing the worst, many New York fans passed on Game 6 and would have to read about guard Max Zaslofsky’s heroic 23 points in The New York Times the following morning. A crowd of just 3,000 was on hand as, in the words of the Times headline, "NEW YORK QUINTET TRIUMPHS BY 76-68."
For two weeks the series went back and forth. Like the Sugar Ray Robinson-Rocky Graziano fight staged that same April a half-century ago, the Lakers and Knicks traded blows round after round.
“It was just a really competitive series,” says Galatin, whose nickname “The Horse” befitted a heavyweight match. “Could’ve gone either way, based upon who happened to be shooting well that night.”
On the night of April 25, 1952, the Lakers were shooting well. And rebounding well. And defending well. In other words, it was not the Knicks’ night. Mikan was his usual overwhelming self, collecting 22 points and 19 rebounds, and Pollard returned to chip in 10 points in the fourth quarter, cementing the 82-65 championship-clinching victory. The Lakers, who earned $7,500 to split amongst themselves for the victory, lifted coach John Kundla up on their shoulders as an electric crowd of more than 8,600 stormed the court at the Minneapolis Auditorium.
Yes, the seventh and final game of the memorable series was played at the Auditorium; it was the only game in either team’s home gym. A gym where the Knicks had lost their previous 11 games, on a court famous for being narrower than the rest of the League’s by several feet – a big benefit, of course, to the bigger Minnesotans. Not that anyone’s putting an asterisk by the ’52 champions in the record books. “I don’t think it mattered at all,” says Dick McGuire, who is just proud to have played in the series. “We had no excuse. They were a very good ballclub.”
The Lakers became the NBA’s first dynasty and claimed four titles in five campaigns, including the rematch with the Knickerbockers in ’53. They were a very good ballclub indeed. Even if only one of them saw his name up in lights.
