The 1978 NBA season was one of the most consequential in the long history of the league. Portland was the defending champion. Bill Walton was the game’s signature star. And for roughly three-quarters of the season in ’78, there was nothing suggesting anything had changed. Until Walton got hurt on the final day of February. He tried to come back for the playoffs and got hurt again.
In the short-term, everything opened up. The Washington Bullets won the NBA title, and the Seattle SuperSonics (today’s Oklahoma City Thunder) reached the Finals. In the long-term, a young star that was already one of the game’s great talents had his career drastically altered.
1978 was part of the NBA Prelude Era (1977-79), as the league took shape after the merger and before the arrival of Magic Johnson and Larr
THE EAST: Washington’s Road to the Title
Washington went through injury problems of their own and struggled to a pedestrian 44-win season. They finished behind the San Antonio Spurs (an Eastern Conference team until 1981) in the Central Division. But the Bullets, unlike the Blazers, got healthy at the right time.
The Spurs were led by George “The Iceman” Gervin, who finished second in the MVP race and won an electrifying race for the scoring title that took him scoring 63 points on the final day to seal. San Antonio was a bona fide contender and the 2-seed in the East.
Philadelphia reached the Finals in 1977 and had a deep roster, led by Julius “Dr. J” Erving, The 76ers were the top seed in the East, looked destined for a Finals rematch with Portland and then seemed likely to be the prime beneficiary of Walton’s injury.
But Washington, with their veteran frontline of Elvin Hayes and Wes Unseld, threw a monkey wrench in those plans. The Bullets upended the Spurs in the conference semis, upsets the 76ers in the conference finals and then won a road Game 7 at Seattle in the NBA Finals, a feat that would not be repeated until 2016.
THE WEST: The Champ Falls & Challengers Emerge
Portland’s regular season was so dominant that even with Walton’s February 28 injury, he still won the MVP award. Even with the Blazers’ struggling without him for the final month-plus, they still won 58 games and were never challenged for the league’s best overall record.
But they weren’t the same team, and the playoffs are a different animal. And Seattle was coming on. A team that looked hopeless after a 5-17 start made a coaching change, brought in Lenny Wilkens, and took off. By the postseason, the Sonics were a 47-win team, coming on strong and when Walton’s feet failed him again in the playoffs, Seattle ousted Portland in the conference semi-finals.
There was still the matter of the Denver Nuggets. David Thompson was Gervin’s foil in the Great Scoring Race and Thompson finished third in the MVP voting. The Nuggets survived a seven-game challenge from the upstart Milwaukee Bucks and reached the conference finals.
Seattle’s surge wasn’t ready to be stopped. They beat Denver to complete an improbable run to the Finals and were favored to win it. The lack of popularity the league suffered from in the late 1970s was illustrated by the fact that the normal Finals homecourt rotation had to be tweaked to adjust for the fact that the Seattle Kingdome needed to accommodate the baseball Mariners and a trade show before it could the Sonics’ hosting of a Finals game.
But the lack of popularity shouldn’t obscure the competitiveness of the basketball that was played. Washington and Seattle played a good back-and-forth Finals, the first of two straight times these teams would meet for the title. 1978 was Washington’s year. Unfortunately, for both their legacy and the rest of the league, it’s a season also remembered for the injury that changed everything.
You can read more about the six teams who shaped the 1978 NBA season, their key players, regular season arcs and playoff battles, and the links below:
THE DEFINING TEAMS
Washington Bullets: The Unlikely Champion
Seattle SuperSonics: The Improbable Turnaround
Portland Trail Blazers: The Dynasty That Wasn’t
THE MISSED OPPORTUNITIES
Philadelphia 76ers: The Top Seed in the East
Denver Nuggets: The 2-Seed in the West
WORTHY CHALLENGERS
San Antonio Spurs: The Iceman Takes Center Stage