Wayback Machine, Part XI: The 1985 Complete Handbook of Pro Basketball
The front cover photo of the 1985 Complete Handbook of Pro Basketball featured Larry Bird driving from the left wing against the L.A. Lakers. Bob McAdoo guarded Bird while Magic Johnson guarded Quinn Buckner at the top of the key. Kevin McHale cut to the hoop on the left baseline with his defender obscured from view. It looked as if the obscured defender (perhaps Michael Cooper) had been screened by McHale, and that McAdoo had switched from McHale to Bird. The back cover photo showed Bird battling Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for a rebound while Michael Cooper and a partially obscured Magic Johnson watched. Bird's Boston Celtics defeated Johnson's Lakers 4-3 in the 1984 NBA Finals.
The 1985 CHPB contained 335 pages, matching the previous
edition. It included 23 team profiles, lists of the 1984 NBA
statistical leaders, the complete 1984-85 schedule, a list of all 228
selections in the 1984 NBA Draft, and a "TV/Radio roundup." The
1985 CHPB had four feature stories: Dan Shaughnessy wrote "Bird & McHale: Pride and Power of the Celtics," Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Peter Knobler contributed "Giant Steps" (an excerpt from the forthcoming book of the same name), Joe Gergen described how "Bernard King Captures New York," and Fran Blinebury profiled the player now known as Hakeem Olajuwon in "Akeem Olajuwon: The 7-Foot Nigerian Who Jumped to the Pros."
Fran Blinebury and Filip Bondy co-wrote the "Inside the NBA" article,
predicting that the L.A. Lakers would defeat the Philadelphia 76ers in the NBA Finals. In the 1984-85 season, the Lakers posted the best record in the Western Conference (62-20) and breezed through the first three rounds of the playoffs with an 11-2 record before beating the Boston Celtics 4-1 in the NBA Finals. The Celtics had the best record in the league (63-19) and they stormed through the Eastern Conference playoffs with an 11-4 record, including a 4-1 victory over the 76ers in the Eastern Conference Finals as Julius Erving and Larry Bird faced each other in a playoff series for the fourth and final time. Erving's 76ers defeated Bird's Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals in 1980 and 1982, while Bird's Celtics triumphed in 1981 and 1985.
Here are some interesting notes, quotes and quips from the 1985 CHPB:
1) Shaughnessy asserted that Larry Bird and Kevin McHale are "the pride and power of the Boston Celtics." The omission of any mention of Robert Parish, the third member of Boston's Hall of Fame frontcourt trio, is more than a little odd. During the Celtics' 1983-84 championship season, Parish led the Celtics in regular season rebounding (10.7 rpg) while also ranking second in scoring (19.0 ppg) and blocked shots (1.5 bpg, a fraction behind McHale). Parish led the team with 79 starts, and he earned his fourth straight All-Star selection, a streak that he would extend to seven (he made the All-Star team nine times overall). During the playoffs, Bird was the clear number one scoring option (27.5 ppg, up from 24.2 ppg during the regular season), but Parish ranked third in scoring (14.9 ppg), second in rebounding (10.8 rpg), and first in blocked shots (1.8 bpg). In 1983-84, Parish consistently outperformed McHale in the regular season, the playoffs, and the NBA Finals.
In 1984, McHale made the All-Star team for the first time and he was the NBA's Sixth Man of the Year, but it could not plausibly be said that he was Boston's second best player: Bird was the clear number one, Parish was number two, and at that time it could still be argued whether McHale or Dennis Johnson was number three.
This is not meant to take anything away from McHale; he eventually emerged as perhaps the best low post scorer in the league, the "man with 1000 moves" (as Dominique Wilkins memorably put it) whose footwork was admired and emulated--and he was also an elite defensive player who could guard small forwards, power forwards, and even centers, a versatile skill set that proved quite valuable for the Celtics, who generally hid Bird defensively on the opposing team's worst frontcourt scorer (for example, when the Celtics played the Atlanta Hawks, McHale checked small forward Dominique Wilkins while Bird was assigned Tree Rollins, a great shotblocker who was non-factor offensively).
The point is that Shaughnessy ignored and devalued Parish (whose name is just mentioned once, parenthetically, in Shaughnessy's article) while heaping praise on McHale. It is also strange that Shaughnessy mentioned that Bird and McHale are both white. How is that relevant to assessing the "pride and power of the Boston Celtics"?
Reading that article reminded me of the extent to which many media members went out of their way to promote white players during that era. There is no question that Bird is a Pantheon level player, nor is there any question that McHale is worthy of being selected to the NBA's 50 Greatest Players List, but Shaughnessy's hagiography of young, first-time All-Star McHale combined with his complete disregard for Parish--already established as a perennial All-Star--leaves a very strange impression.
2) At a time when the 38 year old LeBron James is on the verge of breaking Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's career regular season scoring record, it is interesting to hearken back to when Abdul-Jabbar was 37 and had just broken Wilt Chamberlain's career regular season scoring record. The introduction to the excerpt from Abdul-Jabbar's autobiography declared that the 1984-85 season "could be his last hurrah." That assessment turned out to be premature, as Abdul-Jabbar capped off that campaign by winning his fourth NBA title and his second NBA Finals MVP. In 1985-86, Abdul-Jabbar earned the last of his 10 All-NBA First Team selections, tying a record held by Bob Cousy, Bob Pettit, Elgin Baylor, and Jerry West (James holds the current record: 13).
Abdul-Jabbar felt that Chamberlain resented him when he was a young player and Chamberlain was one of the league's elder statesmen (though still an elite player). Abdul-Jabbar praised Chamberlain's strength, his tenacity as a rebounder, and his ability to be a prolific scorer, but he also compared Chamberlain unfavorably to Bill Russell in terms of understanding how to help his team win.
Abdul-Jabbar called Oscar Robertson "the best all-around player in the history of basketball." Abdul-Jabbar marveled at how easy Robertson made the game look.
Abdul-Jabbar resented journeymen players--he mentioned Kent Benson and Dennis Awtrey by name--who hit him with cheap shots because they lacked the necessary talent to compete with him. After Benson hit Abdul-Jabbar with a punch to the midsection that knocked the wind out of him, Abdul-Jabbar decked Benson and suffered a broken hand. Abdul-Jabbar felt that the referees protected white players and did not apply the rules fairly to him, which made him believe that he had no choice but to take matters into his own hands.
Abdul-Jabbar reveled in reaching the top of his profession, but acknowledged that eventually his ability to perform at the highest level would wane even if his competitiveness never wavered. He was not sure what he would do after he retired from the NBA, but he mentioned possibly going to law school. He doubted that he could dominate another field the way that he had dominated basketball, but he was determined to try to be that dominant in another endeavor.
3) Joe Gergen described Bernard King's rise from schoolboy sensation in New York City to college star at the University of Tennessee to the toast of New York, carrying the Knicks to the seventh game of the 1984 Eastern Conference semifinals versus the eventual NBA champion Boston Celtics. King averaged 29.1 ppg on .545 field goal shooting in that series, including 43 points in a game four win and 46 points in a game six win.
Gergen noted that prior to the 1984 playoffs, Knicks players had authored just three 40 point playoff performances: one by Cazzie Russell, one by Willis Reed, and one by Bernard King. Gergen left out Bob McAdoo's 41 point playoff game in 1978, but his point was well taken: prior to King, 40 point playoff performances were rare for the Knicks, one of the NBA's original teams dating back to 1946. In the 1984 playoffs, King scored 40 or more points in six of the Knicks' 12 games, spearheading a 3-2 victory over the Detroit Pistons before nearly toppling the Celtics. King shot .600 or better from the field in five of those six 40 point games, and a "mere" .514 in the other one. King led the NBA in playoff scoring (34.8 ppg) in 1984.
Red Holzman, the Hall of Famer who coached the Knicks' championship teams in 1970 and 1973, called King "the greatest scoring machine I've ever seen."
Reading the articles by Shaughnessy and Gergen, it is interesting to note that in 1983-84 media members selected Larry Bird for the first of his three straight official regular season MVP awards, but Bernard King finished first in the player balloting conducted by the Sporting News.
4) Hakeem Olajuwon entered the NBA in 1983 without the "H" in his first name, and without the polished offensive game that would propel him and the Houston Rockets to NBA titles in 1994 and 1995. Blinebury noted that Olajuwon's basketball journey started in Lagos, Nigeria in 1979 when the 16 year old Olajuwon had never played basketball and could not even dunk a basketball. Olajuwon was a soccer goalie until Richard Mills--an American who coached the Nigerian national basketball team--spotted Olajuwon on a soccer field and encouraged him to play basketball. The rest is history: Olajuwon played three seasons at the University of Houston (1982-84), increasing his scoring average from 8.3 ppg as a freshman to 16.8 ppg as a junior who earned First Team All-America honors while leading the Cougars to the NCAA Championship Game, where they fell short against Patrick Ewing's Georgetown Hoyas. Olajuwon got his revenge 10 years later, defeating Ewing's Knicks in the 1994 NBA Finals.
The Rockets paired Olajuwon with 1984 NBA Rookie of the Year Ralph Sampson to form a "Twin Towers" frontcourt that was expected to dominate the NBA for the next decade. Olajuwon and Sampson led the Rockets to the 1986 NBA Finals, losing to the Celtics in six games, but then injuries derailed Sampson's career. Olajuwon teamed with power forward Otis Thorpe and a great supporting cast (including Robert Horry, Kenny Smith, Sam Cassell, and Mario Elie) to lead Houston to the 1994 NBA championship, and then he led the Rockets to a second consecutive title after a midseason trade that shipped out Thorpe but reunited Olajuwon with college teammate Clyde Drexler.
5) Larry Bird's profile gushed: "MVP for season, MVP for playoffs, MVP for universe...His skills and sheer will lifted Celtics to title...Nothing he can't do...Incredible vision of the court...Killed the Lakers with his outside shot in Game 5 of finals, but relied on tireless work off the offensive boards during other games."
6) Danny Ainge's profile is less than complimentary: "Finally meeting lowered expectations...Have to wonder about scouts who once projected him as a top three pick...Was actually drafted 31st in 1981, because he was under contract to the Toronto Blue Jays...It appears he was as good an infielder as he is a guard--and he wasn't much of an infielder."
7) The Chicago Bulls' team profile praised incoming rookie Michael Jordan while also urging patience: "Now that they have the next Julius Erving in Michael Jordan, the Bulls need the next Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. This strikingly young and talented team can score from everywhere except the pivot--which will prove the Bulls' undoing again."
8) Here is Jordan's entire profile in his first CHPB appearance: "Odds-on favorite to be Rookie of the Year...Only sure thing among entire rookie crop...Can do it all, brilliantly and gracefully...A great shooter who hit 55.1 percent of his field goal attempts in senior year at North Carolina...With his quickness and instincts, he should have no problems swinging back and forth between guard and forward...Bulls will find spot for him in starting lineup...Born Feb. 17, 1963...Raised in Wilmington, N.C....Will hit the three-point shot." In hindsight, several things stand out:
1. The 1984 draft featured Olajuwon (first overall pick), Jordan (third overall pick), Charles Barkley (fifth overall pick), and John Stockton (16th overall pick), each of whom was later selected as one of the NBA's 50 Greatest Players, so it is interesting that at least one author considered only Jordan to be a "sure thing" prior to the 1984-85 season. In addition to those all-time greats, several players from the 1984 NBA Draft had long, excellent careers, including Sam Perkins, Alvin Robertson, Otis Thorpe, Kevin Willis, Michael Cage, and Jerome Kersey.
2. "Bulls will find spot for him in starting lineup" may be the biggest understatement of all-time!
3. Perhaps the optimism about Jordan's three point shooting stemmed from Jordan shooting .447 from three point range in his sophomore season when the ACC experimented with using the three point shot (the NCAA did not start using the three point shot nationwide until 1986-87). Of course, the ACC's three point shot was closer than the NBA's three point shot (17 feet 9 inches inches compared to 23 feet 9 inches), and the ACC defenders were not as good as NBA defenders. Jordan posted a career three point shooting percentage of .327 in the NBA.
9) Isiah Thomas may be one of the most underrated great players of all-time, but during his career he was appreciated: "None better, maybe ever...Point guard supreme...Played more than 3000 minutes (3007) for second straight year...Pistons looked to him in every clutch situation and he usually delivered."
10) Before Mike Dunleavy became a long-time NBA head coach who led the Lakers to the 1991 NBA Finals and who won the Coach of the Year award in 1999, he was a 6-3 sharpshooter who carved out a solid journeyman career while playing for two teams that reached the NBA Finals (1977 76ers, 1981 Rockets). His career seemed to be over by 1983, but the CHPB summarized his improbable 1983-84 season with Milwaukee: "What a year...An unwanted free agent in October...A Wall Street broker in January...A Milwaukee Buck in March...A starter by April...Had given up hope of resuming basketball career when he got call March 8...Don Nelson started him ahead of Paul Pressey because he was more dependable and offered the perimeter threat...Maybe the best three-point shooter in the league...Hit 19-of-45 bombs (42.2 percent) last season."
Dunleavy led the NBA in three point field goal percentage in 1982-83 (67-194, .345). In 1983-84, only six NBA players made at least 25 three point field goals, the minimum number required to qualify for the three point field goal percentage title. Darrell Griffith took top honors (91-252, .361), but if Dunleavy had canned just six more while maintaining his percentage he would have taken the crown. Dunleavy played 19 games in 1984-85, retired for three seasons, and then made cameo appearances in 1988-89 and 1989-90 before quitting for good.
11) The 76ers' scouting report declared, "Barring last-minute trades or injuries, the 76ers bring the most potent team in the history of pro basketball into the 1984-85 season. There is nothing this team can't do with the ball and do better than any other contender. The Sixers can run and the addition of Barkley will greatly improve their attack in the halfcourt set."
While the 76ers looked potent on paper and ended up having a strong season (58-24 regular season record before losing 4-1 to Boston in the Eastern Conference Finals), it is difficult to understand how anyone could have considered this squad to potentially be the greatest offensive team ever. Charles Barkley was destined to become an all-time great, but in 1984-85 he was a raw and out of shape rookie who averaged 14.0 ppg. Julius Erving was a Pantheon level player who should be in the greatest player of all-time conversation but in 1984-85 he was a 35 year old who was still very good but no longer consistently great in an era when few players even played past the age of 33. That being said, in 1983-84 Erving ranked 12th in scoring (22.4 ppg), 10th in steals (1.8 spg), and eighth in blocked shots (1.8 bpg)--an impressive trifecta for any player, let alone a 34 year old veteran of 13 pro seasons.
Future Hall of Famer Bobby Jones was also past his prime at 33.
Perhaps Andrew Toney could have picked up some of that slack, but in the spring of 1985 he began suffering the foot injuries that ultimately ended what could have been a Hall of Fame career. Toney made the All-Star team in 1983 and 1984, but he played just 157 regular season games after the 1983-84 season.
The 76ers had some great moments during the 1984-85 season, but the combination of two stars aging, one star being hurt, and a future star being not quite ready for prime time left the 76ers short of being able to match the younger Celtics and Lakers.
12) Erving was an excellent passer, a facet of his game that is not mentioned often enough now but was acknowledged during his career: "In the forecourt, Erving remains an excellent playmaker. He averaged 4.0 assists per game last season and his intuitions are seldom wrong."
13) While the 76ers had a potent offense, their defense was often underrated. The CHPB profile noted that the 76ers led the NBA in blocked shots while ranking fifth in points allowed. Erving, termed a "tremendous" shot blocker, led the team with 1.8 bpg. How great was Erving as a shot blocker? LeBron James, often praised for his defense and his chase down blocks--something that Erving did more often than James--has never averaged more than 1.1 bpg during a season, which would be a career-low for Erving, who played until he was 37.
14) Erving's profile began with a question--"Can he do it one more time?"--and noted "Had another outstanding season, but didn't pick up his game in the playoffs...Nagging injuries may sap his resolve for second NBA ring...Still can soar when healthy, but is mortal when he is hurt or has played too many minutes." It is important to emphasize that during that era few players played past age 33 and no one--other than Abdul-Jabbar and Erving--was playing at an All-Star level past that age in the early to mid 1980s. Players who are accomplishing that now are the beneficiaries of improvements in medical technology and training techniques.
15) The CHPB included Erving's ABA statistics and thus listed
Erving with 26,120 career points (25.3 ppg average), 9477 rebounds, 4504
assists, a .509 career field goal percentage and a .776 career free
throw percentage.
16) Here is Barkley's entire profile in his first CHPB appearance: "Rich get richer...Can shoot, rebound, and has great quickness for his size...'Boy Gorge' must keep weight down to reasonable level...Long NBA season has a way of doing that...Sixers hope he'll be the answer at power forward, despite fact he'll give up several inches to opponents...That was never a problem at Auburn, but it might be different in pros...Came out early after junior year...Didn't get big money because he was drafted by Sixers, who couldn't offer much because of salary-cap problems...Born Feb. 20, 1963...Grew up in Leeds, Ala."
17) Alex English thrived in the 1980s, and he would be even greater in today's game with the emphasis on freedom of movement. His profile summarized his scoring prowess: "Poetry in motion...It's a thing of beauty to watch him shoot his unorthodox jumper from the baseline...Hardly looks like he is breaking a sweat...Just seems to pop open at different spots on the floor...Makes his defender pay by scoring right in his face."
18) Johnny Bach was a hoops lifer who may be best known to most fans as an assistant coach for the Chicago Bulls' first three championship teams, but in 1983-84 he was the oldest rookie head coach in NBA history, guiding a patchwork Golden State team to a 37-45 record after the team went 30-52 the previous year. The Warriors were not a stable or well-run organization at that time--they missed the playoffs each year from 1978-86--so their lack of success was something beyond Bach's control to correct.
19) Here is Olajuwon's entire profile in his first CHPB appearance: "'Akeem the Dream'...Has been playing the game for only five years, but was the No. 1 overall pick in draft...Already being compared to Bill Russell as a defensive force...Runs the floor as well as anyone in the game today...Will team with Ralph Sampson...Born Jan. 23, 1963, in Lagos, Nigeria...An All-American as a junior, he went to the NCAA Final Four three times with University of Houston...Awesome shot-blocker and strong inside force...Averaged 16.9 ppg and 13.7 rpg, then decided to leave school early."
Olajuwon scored 620 points in 37 games (16.76 ppg) in his final college season, so he did not average 16.9 ppg but 16.8 ppg after rounding.
20) Abdul-Jabbar's profile declared: "The most potent offensive force in the game today, even at his age." In 1983-84, Abdul-Jabbar averaged 21.5 ppg while shooting .578 from the field. He was the leading scorer for the fourth highest scoring team in the league, a squad that had six double figure scorers plus two other players who each averaged at least 9 ppg. Had it been desirable or necessary, Abdul-Jabbar could have scored more, so even though he did not rank among the top 10 scorers that season it was not farfetched to term him "the most potent offensive force."
21) Magic Johnson's profile noted his value while also mentioning his disappointing performance (by his high standards) in the 1984 NBA Finals: "Changed the entire concept of the point guard position and is unquestionably the finest passer in the game today...Unfortunately, he made several critical blunders against Boston in the finals that probably cost the Lakers their third NBA championship in five years...Had another fine regular season...Can beat you by passing (13.0 assists per game), scoring (17.6 ppg) or rebounding (7.3 rpg)."
Wayback Machine, Part I looked at the 1975 Complete Handbook of Pro Basketball
Wayback Machine, Part II looked at the 1976 Complete Handbook of Pro Basketball
Wayback Machine, Part III looked at the 1977 Complete Handbook of Pro Basketball
Wayback Machine, Part IV looked at the 1978 Complete Handbook of Pro Basketball
Wayback Machine, Part V looked at the 1979 Complete Handbook of Pro Basketball
Wayback Machine, Part VI looked at the 1980 Complete Handbook of Pro Basketball
Wayback Machine, Part VII looked at the 1981 Complete Handbook of Pro Basketball
Wayback Machine, Part VIII looked at the 1982 Complete Handbook of Pro Basketball
Wayback Machine, Part IX looked at the 1983 Complete Handbook of Pro Basketball
Wayback Machine, Part X looked at the 1984 Complete Handbook of Pro Basketball
Labels: Complete Handbook of Pro Basketball, Julius Erving, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Zander Hollander
posted by David Friedman @ 10:28 PM
