The Washington Bullets had made two recent trips to the NBA Finals, in 1971 and 1975 respectively. But they hadn’t yet won a title–in fact, they hadn’t even won a game in the Finals, being swept out both times. The 1978 Washington Bullets weren’t as good as their ’71 and ’75 predecessors during the regular […]
The 1977 Portland Trail Blazers spent the NBA regular season looking like a nice, solid, up-and-coming team, but one that still had work to do in order to get to the top. The spring of 1977 saw Portland perform what is a rare feat in the NBA and its pull consecutive upsets and win ahead of their time.
The Boston Celtics were riding high in the summer of 1986. They had just won a championship, producing one of the greatest NBA teams of all-time in the process. Thanks to farsighted management by Red Auerbach they had the second overall pick in the draft. They used to get it Len Bias, an immensely talented […]
Larry Bird had already led the Celtics to a pair of NBA championships, winning in 1981 and 1984. The 1985 Boston Celtics made a strong bid at a repeat title and looked poised to do it, when everything came undone at the hands of their archrival. Bird was at the peak of his powers in […]
Larry Bird arrived in Boston in 1980 when the Celtics were staggering after two bad years. Bird immediately produced three consecutive trips to the conference finals, including a 1981 NBA title run. The 1983 Boston Celtics spent the season looking like a title contender, but came up drastically short in the playoffs. Bird had another […]
A new era arrived in Boston in 1980 with the arrival of Larry Bird and the championship run of 1981 gave Larry Legend quick validation. The 1982 Boston Celtics were an outstanding team that was poised to repeat—right down to vanquishing a rival in the exact same manner as ’81—before coming up just short. The […]
They were “The Bad Boys”, the rough and tough two-time defending NBA champions. The 1991 Detroit Pistons were as deep as ever, with eight players making significant contributions and future Dream Team coach Chuck Daly masterminding it all. But the combination of a small does of injury problems and a big dose of Michael Jordan […]
The 1990 Chicago Bulls, led by Michael Jordan were a team that was coming. The Bulls advanced in the playoffs in 1988 and reached the conference finals in 1989, before being taken out by the Detroit Pistons each time. 1990 saw them nudge incrementally closer to their goal, before the familiar nemesis did them in […]
The Chicago Bulls were making gradual progress since the drafting of Michael Jordan prior to the 1985 season. The floundering franchise immediately became a playoff team upon Jordan’s arrival and in 1988 they won their first postseason series of the new era. The 1989 Chicago Bulls took a big next step, making it all the […]
For a team that had won NBA championships in 1980, 1982 and 1985, the 1987 Los Angeles Lakers entered the season with a surprising amount to prove. Their repeat bid in 1986 had ended in the conference finals when they were taken apart by the Houston Rockets and it was said that the Lakers were […]
The 1986 Boston Celtics were the third and last of the championship teams led by Larry Bird. They were also by far the best. The Celtics drive to a third NBA title in six years was so overwhelming it seemed almost a foregone conclusion much of the way.
The 1984 Boston Celtics won an NBA championship that filled in an important line on Larry Bird’s resume. Five years earlier, as a college senior at Indiana State, Bird lost the NCAA final to Magic Johnson and Michigan State. Even though Bird won an NBA crown in 1981 it came against a sub-.500 Houston Rockets team. […]