I think this board can use a sports forum all to itself, any thoughts about this thread? Anyways, not a big basketball fan but I read this today and thought it was good enough to post here:
link
Storied franchises lag in today's NBA
Bruce Jenkins
Monday, November 28, 2005
There once was a popular theory suggesting that the NBA would do anything, even bend the rules a little, to keep its major franchises in championship play. Time after time, the pieces fell in place -- Larry Bird to the Celtics, Julius Erving to the 76ers, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to the Lakers, Patrick Ewing to the Knicks.
We know now that the theory can't be true. The NBA's marquee franchises are a collective disgrace, creating an ongoing annoyance for devotees and a turnoff for both casual fans and television networks. Worse yet, there seems to be no relief on the horizon.
Why should it be crucial that the 76ers play the Celtics for big-time stakes, instead of Pacers-Cavs? Why should it matter in Bakersfield or Peoria? It just does, that's all. Just as a Red Sox-Yankees series carries an inherent sense of baseball importance, the NBA was at its best when the greatest players, cities and arenas converged into one magnificent spectacle.
Nothing in today's game even remotely compares with the sight of Wilt Chamberlain walking into hallowed Boston Garden, ready to take on Bill Russell and the Celtics one more time. There is nothing to replace the Bird-Magic Johnson confrontations, Philly fans rising to their feet as Dr. J flew elegantly down the left baseline, or a night at Madison Square Garden with Walt "Clyde" Frazier as your master of ceremonies. The league survives on its endless flow of world-class talent, the playoffs often unveiling in the small-town settings of San Antonio, Sacramento or Salt Lake City, and it's all fine, wonderful and dandy.
But it's not the same.
With apologies to Michael Jordan, we're going to leave Chicago out of this argument. The Bulls didn't really matter to the general public, not even in the Jerry Sloan-Norm Van Lier days, until Jordan came along -- and now they're the same old Bulls, perfectly competent but possessing no glamour whatsoever. No, this is about the four franchises upon which the league's popularity was founded. To find them today, look deep in the basement, down there with the rusty screwdrivers and dryer lint.
The Lakers tried to revive Showtime in the Shaquille O'Neal-Kobe Bryant years, and they pulled it off for a while, but there is no longevity in dissension. It wasn't long before a nation was nauseated by the Lakers' inner workings, all about jealousy, hatred and deceit. Now we find them with Bryant (better than ever) and a cast of characters so comically awful, even coach Phil Jackson has called the team "pathetic." The Lakers keep talking about clearing cap room in 2007, but who says any of the big names will be available then -- or whether they'd want to go anywhere near Bryant?
The Knicks actually reached the NBA Finals in 1994 and '99, but they weren't fooling anyone. Both were post-Jordan retirement years, and for all of Ewing's pride and dignity, those teams were so far removed from the early-'70s Knicks in terms of talent, cohesiveness and crowd appeal, they were hardly worth mentioning.
Now we have Larry Brown facing Jackson at the Staples Center (two weeks ago), and it's sickeningly bad theater -- a veritable tilt for third place in the East Texas Holiday Classic. Knicks general manager Isiah Thomas has spent two years rebuilding his team, and he hasn't made one hint of progress.
The Celtics are so completely unaware of their history, and what made the franchise great, they recently thought that Antoine Walker and Paul Pierce formed a dangerous combination. The team is a joke now, completely irrelevant, and has been for years. Management has no clue; it's hopeless. Write off the Celtics until they realize what an unselfish player looks like. Three or four of them, preferably.
The 76ers are actually the best of the group, thanks to the amazing Allen Iverson, but at their best -- in the Finals against the Lakers five years ago -- they were brutally exposed. Now they have Chris Webber shuffling around on bad knees while Iverson tries to do it all himself. They're a playoff contender, certainly, but hardly inspiring to connoisseurs of the game.
What are we missing? What was it like back then? Let's revisit three of the best rivalries ever witnessed in any sport:
Lakers-Celtics: The NBA was officially born, on a national level, in the 1961-62 season. That's when the Lakers moved from Minneapolis to Los Angeles, Chamberlain had a 100-point game and Oscar Robertson averaged a triple-double (30.8 points, 12.5 rebounds, 11.4 assists). In Game 7 of the Finals that year, Frank Selvy had an 8 -foot jumper from the left baseline that would have given L.A. the title. Selvy, in the league strictly because of his shooting touch, missed the shot. The game went into overtime, the Celtics won, and the rivalry was on.
For fans of the Jerry West-Elgin Baylor Lakers, the Finals inevitably meant a killer bank shot by Sam Jones, a lean-in frozen rope by John Havlicek or a blocked shot by Russell. Still, it was sensational theater, absorbing the interest of countless fans. The Lakers had a drop-off during the Havlicek-Dave Cowens championship years (1974 and '76), but once Magic and Bird showed up, everything changed.
See, this is the heart of the discussion. Hardcore fans weren't terribly upset, but when Seattle and Washington met for the championship in consecutive years (1978 and '79), the league was considered dead. Too dull, too cult-like; some even called the NBA too black. Magic vs. Bird represented the essential conflict in every way, but it worked only because of the cities. There's no "saving" the NBA if Magic goes to San Diego and Bird winds up in Cleveland.
How many specific memories do you have from the Finals of 1990 (Portland-Detroit), 1995 (Houston-Orlando) or 2003 (San Antonio-New Jersey)? Any at all? If you didn't live in the Bay Area, would you really remember the Warriors' epic conquest of the Washington Bullets in '75? Shift to Lakers-Celtics, and it's as familiar as home video: Baylor's 61 points in the Garden, Don Nelson's rim-banger, Magic's sky-hook, Gerald Henderson's steal, James Worthy's diving save, Bird's utter mastery during the "Boston Massacre" -- and that's just for starters.
Knicks-Lakers: This was mostly a four-year deal, spanning the Knicks' titles in 1970 and '73 and the Lakers' breakthrough in '72. It proved to be a crucial bridge, however, from the end of the Russell dynasty. The league didn't miss even a beat. If anything, the Frazier-Bill Bradley-Dave DeBusschere Knicks moved the ball even better than the Celtics did.
This rivalry meant Willis Reed, hobbling on a sore leg, making a dramatic Game 7 appearance and hitting the Knicks' first two shots at the Garden. It meant West canning a 63-footer, on the run, with a casual flick of the wrist. Were the Knicks better in '70, with Cazzie Russell and Dick (Fall Back, Baby) Barnett, or in '73, when they had Jerry Lucas and Earl Monroe? In either case, they could bring a purist to tears. The only bummer in '72, the year the Lakers won 33 straight regular-season games on their way to the title, was that Baylor had retired.
Celtics-76ers: Wilt gets mad, and Sam Jones grabs a chair to do battle. Havlicek steals the ball. A rookie named Billy Cunningham joins the front line of Wilt, Chet Walker and Luke Jackson. Wali Jones has an outside-shot release that no one can even duplicate, let alone embrace. He irritates the hell out of Larry Siegfried. And always, it came back to Russell and Chamberlain, the battle of larger-than-life goliaths. We miss that element today, with great centers so noticeably absent, but it was the essence of life back then (when Dave Bing led the league in scoring in 1968, he was the first guard to do so in 20 years).
Once Erving left the ABA for the 76ers, the stage was set for renewal. Now it would be Doc, Bobby Jones, Moses Malone, Andrew Toney and Maurice Cheeks against Bird, Robert Parish, Kevin McHale, Danny Ainge and Nate Archibald. One year in the late '80s, there was a Super Bowl Sunday when the 76ers played Boston as an afternoon appetizer. Bird was on a sensational 3-point roll when he arrogantly buried one from about 35 feet, then hit from near half court as the quarter buzzer sounded. It was insane, flat-out unbelievable; I still get chills thinking about the sound and the look of those Boston fans. It was only a regular-season game, but there was a magical quality to both the people and the setting.
We don't get that anymore. It's a sad state of affairs when the NBA's most influential, historic cities represent the dregs of the league.
©2005 San Francisco Chronicle
