20 Second Timeout

NBA's 75th Anniversary Provides an Opportunity to Celebrate Generations of Greatness

As the NBA celebrates its 75th anniversary season, we have a great opportunity to recognize the accomplishments and contributions of players whose efforts are too often minimized, if not forgotten. The Associated Press has published All-Decade Teams for the 1950s (Paul Arizin, Bob Cousy, George Mikan, Bob Pettit, Dolph Schayes), the 1960s (Elgin Baylor, Wilt Chamberlain, Oscar Robertson, Bill Russell, Jerry West), the 1970s (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Rick Barry, Walt Frazier, John Havlicek, Elvin Hayes), and the 1980s (Larry Bird, Julius Erving, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Moses Malone). The AP has published one All-Decade Team per month since the season began. It will be interesting to see the 1990s team, because Michael Jordan would appear to be a lock to be the first player to be honored in more than one decade.

All of the players listed above helped to build the NBA and lift basketball's prominence. I cringe whenever I read or hear anyone who attempts to diminish the contributions made by great players from previous eras.

The 1970s and 1980s teams are closest to my heart, because that is the era when I first started following basketball as a child. In 2016, I selected my All-Decade Teams for the 1970s and 1980s. Overall, the AP's selections for the first four full decades of NBA history are solid, but the main drawback is that the AP--like the NBA itself--relegates the ABA to George Orwell's "memory hole." The NFL acknowledges AFL history and statistics, because the leagues ultimately merged and thus share not only a common present/future but also a common history. Similarly, you cannot accurately tell the story of pro basketball from the late 1960s through the late 1970s without recognizing the ABA's impact. 

The two best pro basketball players in the 1970s were Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Julius Erving. In the 1970s, Abdul-Jabbar won five regular season MVPs, one Finals MVP, one championship, and two scoring titles, while Erving won three regular season MVPs, two Finals MVPs, two championships, and three scoring titles. In Erving's first NBA season after playing the first five seasons of his career in the ABA, he won the All-Star Game MVP, led the Philadelphia 76ers to the best record in the Eastern Conference, and averaged 30.3 ppg in the NBA Finals as the 76ers fell in six games to a dominant Portland team that started the next season with a 50-10 record before Bill Walton suffered a season-ending (and career-altering) injury. Erving was selected to the All-NBA Second Team in 1977, and he made the All-NBA First Team in 1978, in addition to the honors mentioned above. 

You cannot tell the history of pro basketball in the 1970s without discussing Julius Erving's impact, and there is no doubt that he belongs on the All-Decade Team for the 1970s.

At least the AP included Erving on the 1980s team. Erving won the 1981 regular season MVP and played a major role for Philadelphia's 1983 championship team, but revisionist history pretends that only Bird and Magic mattered during that decade. Erving's 76ers beat Bird's Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals in 1980 and 1982, and they beat Magic's Lakers in the 1983 NBA Finals. Erving was a perennial MVP candidate until he was 35 years old, by which time the decade was half over. 

That 1980s team would match up well with any of the other All-Decade Teams. Bird, Erving, Magic, and Jordan are each members of my pro basketball Pantheon, and Malone did not miss the cut by much; the only AP All-Decade team with five Pantheon members is the 1960s. 

The interesting thing is that even though the 1980s was a talent-rich decade four of the five selections are easy. The only question about the 1980s team was whether to take Malone or Abdul-Jabbar at center. Malone dominated Abdul-Jabbar in the 1983 Finals, and Malone won two regular season MVPs in the 1980s compared to Abdul-Jabbar's one, but Abdul-Jabbar won five championships in the 1980s, picking up a Finals MVP in 1985 at the age of 38. Abdul-Jabbar earned more All-NBA First Team selections (four) in the 1980s than any center even though he was well into his 30s when the decade began. I picked Abdul-Jabbar for my All-1980s Team, but I don't have a big problem with the AP choosing Malone. At his best, Malone could match up with any center in pro basketball history; he missed the cut for my Pantheon not based on peak value, but rather based on Chamberlain, Russell, Abdul-Jabbar, and Shaquille O'Neal sustaining an elite level for a longer period of time.

The AP has also published a host of interesting articles pertaining to the NBA's 75th anniversary. In Dr. J says players from many eras built league, Erving guest-authored a piece discussing the contributions that many players made to elevate the NBA to its current status. Erving mentioned the pivotal role that the Salvation Army played in his development not just as a basketball player but as a person: "Being a Salvation Army kid, that was always in my mind. It helped make me who I am. That's where I played basketball. That's where I learned to travel and be a good representative of the entity that I'm traveling with. And so, we'd get in the station wagon and we'd go all over Long Island, we'd go to New Jersey, we went to Pennsylvania. And to be on the traveling team, that was very important. When you went, you had to behave and you had to represent your family and you had to represent the Corps, and you had to represent where you were from. And so that helped you in terms of communicating with people and trusting people."

Those of us who have followed Erving's life and career know that he has always given credit to the Salvation Army. Erving has never been someone to shout about how great he is; he has always preferred to give praise to others, and to uplift as many people as he can. When Erving was inducted in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, he requested that a Salvation Army flag be draped behind him on the Hall of Fame stage, and his request was granted. 

When I was a kid, I was always excited to see Erving on a magazine cover or featured in a newspaper article, so it was wonderful to go to the AP's NBA 75th Anniversary site and see not only Erving featured on the 1980s team but also given a byline to discuss the NBA's evolution.

Labels: Julius Erving, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Moses Malone

posted by David Friedman @ 2:39 AM

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