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was this the game where Wes Unseld (spelling) reached behind him and grabbed Artis Gilmore causing Gilmore to fall into Unsled, the ref called a foul Washington get's the ball and win the game and series?
The heartbreaking WCFs loss to Washington Bullets in Gm 7 107-105.
Round 2 they beat Philly in 7 games.
Who was on that Philly team, and why did that Philly team only win 47 games that year? (Was in a 6 year stretch that Philly averaged about 60 wins per year)
Was Dr J. injured during the regular season?
Mods if this should go on the other side....
was this the game where Wes Unseld (spelling) reached behind him and grabbed Artis Gilmore causing Gilmore to fall into Unsled, the ref called a foul Washington get's the ball and win the game and series?
Here's the Sixers' roster from that season:
I think, if you go back and look at standings from that era, you'll find that there weren't a lot of teams rolling up win totals in the high 50's or low 60's. The teams that reached those win totals were truly exceptional. In part, I think that was because there were fewer teams and the talent was abit more evenly distributed -- in 1977 for example, the Lakers had the best record in basketball, but won only 53 games; in the same 1979 season that you asked about, the Bullets had the best record in basketball, but won only 54 games.Code:Name G GS MP FG FGA 3P 3PA FT FTA ORB DRB TRB AST STL BLK TO PF PTS +--------------------+---+--+----+----+----+---+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+---+---+---+---+----+ Julius Erving 78 2802 715 1455 373 501 198 366 564 357 133 100 315 207 1803 Darryl Dawkins 78 2035 430 831 158 235 123 508 631 128 32 143 197 295 1018 Henry Bibby 82 2538 368 869 266 335 72 172 244 371 72 7 197 199 1002 Bobby Jones 80 2304 378 704 209 277 199 332 531 201 107 96 165 245 965 Doug Collins 47 1595 358 717 201 247 36 87 123 191 52 20 131 139 917 Caldwell Jones 78 2171 302 637 121 162 177 570 747 151 39 157 156 303 725 Steve Mix 74 1269 265 493 161 201 109 184 293 121 57 16 100 112 691 Maurice Cheeks 82 2409 292 572 101 140 63 191 254 431 174 12 193 198 685 Joe Bryant 70 1064 205 478 123 170 96 163 259 103 49 9 114 171 533 Eric Money 23 545 119 217 34 54 15 22 37 82 13 2 69 70 272 Ralph Simpson 37 452 87 196 28 40 16 19 35 58 25 1 47 27 202 Al Skinner 22 309 36 89 27 32 15 29 44 40 18 1 34 61 99 Harvey Catchings 25 289 28 68 13 17 30 68 98 18 8 35 37 42 69 Marlon Redmond 4 23 1 12 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 1 3 2 +--------------------+---+--+----+----+----+---+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+---+---+---+---+----+
That trend is particularly in the late 70's, I think, when you had a series of champions who didn't really come close to winning another le during that era:
1975: Golden State beat Washington and lost the next year in the WCF; Washington lost in the ECSF.
1976: Boston beat Phoenix and lost the next year in the ECSF; Phoenix didn't qualify for the 1977 playoffs
1977: Portland beat Philadelphia and lost the next year in the WCSF; Philly lost in the ECF
1978: Washington beat Seattle and the teams each made the 1979 Finals, with the result reversing. In 1980, Seattle lost in the WCF, but Washington lost in the First Round.
I suppose that's an indication of parity, and parity tends to make records look mediocre, particularly in this day and age when every season seems to bring a 60-win team or two.
Last edited by FromWayDowntown; 02-28-2007 at 04:31 PM.
I believe that was the Eastern Conference Finals...
It was moreso the fact that:
1) it was the first year after the George McGinnis for Bobby Jones trade
2) Doug Collins missed 35 games.
That 76ers team was on its way up - they really started dominating the next season on through to their 1983 championship.
The Spurs were only 48-34 in 1979 but were first in the East Central. Favored over the 76ers, but an underdog that *almost* took down the Bullets. Damn.
He also missed the 1979 NBA Playoffs and wasn't ever really the same after that injury.
We had Philly down 3-1 and let Philly tie the series before we won in game 7.
I still remember the Express News sports page 1 with a picture of a certain Spurs player drinking out of a Champaigne bottle after we finally beat Philly in Game 7.
Do any of you know what Spur was drinking the champagne?
Mike Green
Lame to drink champagne after winning the conference semifinals.
But it was the first playoff series victory in Spurs history, NBA or ABA.
I was at that game 7. It was my first Spurs game and I was a young soldier at Fort Sam.
I remember at the end of game 7 everyone stormed the court.
Artis wasn't around until much later. Imagine if we would've had Artis instead of The Whopper, wow!
This game featured the infamous moving pick called on Whopper, correct? My youthful introduction to Spurs heartache-I cried like a baby.
Didn't the Spurs blow a 3-1 lead in the Washington series as well?
Doug Moe protested the deciding game I believe, and made some comments to the media about the refs that resulted in a fine. I seem to recall that Spurs fans took up a collection and paid the fine for him! That's the way it was back then.
Being so naiive, I thought that because Moe protested the game, there was a good chance that the league would actually overturn the call and we'd get the win. I simply couldn't believe or accept that we'd go out like that...
You've got to take the bitter with the sweet, and we've had a taste of the bitter along with the sweet, I reckon!
-the original FOUL (moving pick)
-THE PASS (thanks, Rod)
-.04
-THE FOUL part II
The pass game vs Portland. Spurs were 50 to 1 to win it all that year.
The offensive was called by Jack Madden against Mark Olberding (although I have seen elsewhere that it was against Billy Paultz, I seem to remember from listening to the game that it was Olberding) with the Spurs still up and about two minutes left in game 7 of the 1979 ECF. What happened is that Olberding (or Paultz) handed the ball off and as he did, he stepped in front of the defender who was chasing the guy who got the ball. It was a lame call for those days in the NBA. Later, somebody pointed out correctly that if that was an offensive foul, then Wes Unseld would have fouled out of every game he ever played in.
None of these games were televised, so I can only go by what I remember from the radio call and newspaper accounts.
Moe made some remarks and got fined a bunch ($10K ?). One of the local radio stations took up a collection in pennies which they planned to mail in to the league office (the money was later given to charity).
Are you sure it wasn't the San Antonio Light, and not the Express news
Thanks Shoog, that's a gap in my Spurs memories that's now filled. I was playing in disco clubs and teaching at the same time in '79 so I don't remember much of what my beloved team did that year.
Alan Bristow hit the biggest shot in Spurs history (until AJ's shot in Madison Square Garden) to win that series. That was the first Spurs playoff series win (ABA or NBA) of all time.
I think the call was made closer to the end of the game but it's not important. It clearly turned the game around. I remember that Silas got the ball as usual at the end of the game because he was the inimitable 'Captain Late" and rubbed off his defender with the pick around the top right of the key. Moving pick my ass!
It would have been a easy shot, but the whistle blew. The common thought amongst all fans from old ABA territories was that the NBA refs were under some pressure to make sure the upstarts from the ABA wouldn't make it to the finals so soon.
After the loss, thousands of fans (I think the estimate was 5,000) went to the airport to meet the Spurs plane and welcome them home--trophy or not. We swarmed out onto the field and Moe made a little impromtu speech. The pennies for his fine were collected in short order 'cause we all agreed we got jobbed. That was as close as Gervin or the old ABA bunch ever got to a championship.
I think it was John Vanak and not Jack Madden. It couldn't have been Jack Madden, because that game was called by Vanak, Jake O'Donnell, and Paul Mihalak. The description of the play is correct, I think.
A few years ago, I went to a university library, poured through old newspapers and made copies of the boxscore of every Spurs playoff game from 1977 through 1996. For that game, my copy captured just a bit of the game story -- though I should go back and get the rest for the sake of building my own momentos. The bit of the Express-News story mentions a question about whether a player was set and seems to refer to Moe being irate about something that Vanak did. My recollection has always been that Vanak was the villian, but I'm willing to concede that my memory is based mostly on the bit of a newspaper story that I still have and some other things I recall reading and hearing.
I don't think it was Bristow, if you mean the Philly series in '79. Bristow played a total of 8 minutes in the last two games of that series, going 0-3 from the floor and 2-2 from the line (with the 2 makes coming in Game 6, which the Spurs lost in Philadelphia). Bristow started the first 5 games of that series and then fell almost completely out of Moe's rotation in favor of Mark Olberding, who started Games 6 & 7 against Philly and all 7 games against Washington.Alan Bristow hit the biggest shot in Spurs history (until AJ's shot in Madison Square Garden) to win that series. That was the first Spurs playoff series win (ABA or NBA) of all time.
I think Mike Green actually made the last field goal of the Philly series in '79. According to the E-N account of that game:
"Erving hit two free throws with a minute left, but [Mike] Green struck that long jumper from the left with 43 seconds remaining to up the margin to three. Dampier, the short man on the court, rebounded Bobby Jones' jumper from the lane and Gervin was fouled with 11 seconds left."
San Antonio Express-News, Thursday, May 3, 1979.
Odd. I'm willing to concede it may not have been Madden, but I have no recollection of Vanak doing that game at all.
Do you remember (or have the proof) if the foul was on Paultz or Olberding?
Like I say, the boxscore says that the officials for Game 7 of the Washington series were O'Donnell, Vanak, and Mihalak -- if my memory serves, O'Donnell and Vanak were the officials on the floor and Mihalak was the alternate (since the NBA only used 2 game officials at that point)
Madden called Game 6 of that series with Joe Gushue.
I don't recall who the foul was on; I thought I had recorded one of the classic games rebroadcasts of that game -- if I did, I can't put my hands on the tape right now, unfortunately.
damn, you guys are old.
I know there's a great comeback here along the lines of "and you are . . ." but it's just not coming to me.
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