Wayback Machine, Part V: The 1979 Complete Handbook of Pro Basketball
In 1978, the Bullets finally captured their first NBA title after the franchise fell short in two previous NBA Finals appearances (1971 as the Baltimore Bullets and then 1975 as the heavily favored Washington Bullets), so it is fitting that the front cover photo of the 1979
Complete Handbook of Pro Basketball showcases much-maligned Bullet Elvin Hayes guarding Philadelphia's George McGinnis. The back cover photo shows Philadelphia's Julius Erving seemingly walking on air past New York's ground-bound Lonnie Shelton, who has a "Where did he go?" befuddled look on his face; Erving's legs appear to be making a walking motion but both of his feet are off of the ground so it looks like Erving has been photoshopped into the picture--but of course photoshop did not exist in 1979.
The 1979
CHPB totaled 288 pages; it contained 22 team profiles written by Steve Hershey and Pete Alfano, lists of the 1978 NBA statistical leaders, selected all-time NBA records, a list of all 202 players selected in the 1978 NBA Draft, a complete schedule and a "TV/Radio roundup." Paul Attner--who covered the Bullets for the
Washington Post before becoming a senior writer for the
Sporting News--contributed a feature story titled "The Big E's Biggest Triumph," Tom Meschery described "Lenny Wilkens' SuperSonic Miracle," Dan Lauck recounted "David Thompson's Leap to Fortune" and Darrell Simmons explained "How to Make the NBA at Age 28."
Hershey and Alfano co-wrote
the
"Inside the NBA" article, predicting that the Philadelphia 76ers would beat the L.A. Lakers in the 1979 NBA Finals. Both of those teams lost in the conference semifinals, though they did face each other in three of the next four NBA Finals (1980, 1982, 1983); the Seattle SuperSonics (picked to finish third in the Pacific Division) avenged their 1978 NBA Finals loss to the Bullets (picked to finish second behind Philadelphia in the Atlantic Division) and captured the first--and only--championship in franchise history.
Here are some
interesting notes, quotes and quips from the 1979
CHPB:
1) Attner mentioned that--even though many members of the media portrayed the Big E as a selfish stat-chaser and a loser--no one could question Elvin Hayes' talent: "Perhaps no big
man in the history of the NBA has been blessed with such versatility. He
is not only tall but has coils for legs. His 6-9 frame is dominated by
huge chest and arm muscles that give him formidable strength. He runs
like a gazelle, often filling the lanes on a Bullet fast break. And his
shooting touch can defy the logic of basketball technique." Hayes made the All-Star team in each of his first 12 seasons and he averaged a robust 22.9 ppg and 13.0 rpg during his playoff career.
Hayes averaged 21.8 ppg, a league-best 13.3 rpg and a league-best 41.3 mpg during the Bullets' 1978 playoff run, including 20.7 ppg and 11.9 rpg in Washington's seven game victory over Seattle in the NBA Finals. He felt tremendous joy and relief after winning the championship in his 10th season:
I'm at peace. I'm at peace again with the world and myself. That seventh game, it was the worst pressure I've ever had. People had written that I was a quitter, that the team would never win a title with me and I thought of every bad thing that had ever been said about me. That game was the opportunity to put it all to rest and we did...
Now all they can say is that Elvin Hayes is a winner.
2) Meschery portrayed Lenny Wilkens as a well-respected but somewhat inscrutable figure--a great player who was in the process of making a name for himself as a great coach. Wilkens took over a 5-17 Seattle team and guided the SuperSonics to the 1978 NBA Finals (and then all the way to the championship a year after Meschery wrote his
CHPB profile of Wilkens). Prior to that, Wilkens coached in Portland and Meschery--who served as Wilkens' assistant coach there--asserted that, with all due respect to Wilkens' successor Jack Ramsay, Wilkens deserved credit for laying the groundwork for Portland's 1977 championship by contributing to the development of both Bill Walton and Lionel Hollins.
Meschery considered Wilkens' demeanor and coaching style a welcome change from the drill sergeant mentality that had long dominated the profession and he concluded, "...Durocher was wrong; good guys can finish first."
3) David Thompson is a Basketball Hall of Famer but were it not for drug problems and a knee injury he might have been earned a spot on the NBA's
50 Greatest Players list. Thompson was at the height of his powers in 1977-78, earning his second consecutive All-NBA First Team selection after averaging a career-high 27.2 ppg and
losing the closest race for the scoring title; George Gervin edged Thompson on the final day of the season after Thompson scored 73 points,
the "non-Wilt" single game scoring record until Kobe Bryant scored 81 points in a 2006 game; Gervin had the last word with a 63 point outburst that was good enough to secure a .07 ppg lead. After the season, Thompson signed a five year deal with the Denver Nuggets for $4 million, the richest contract in pro basketball history at that time (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Pistol Pete Maravich reportedly made in the vicinity of $600,000 a season, while Julius Erving and George McGinnis each reportedly made about $500,000 a season). Most of Lauck's piece about Thompson focused on that record-setting contract and the ripples that it sent around the pro sports world.
Though it seemed like the best was yet to come for the 23 year old Thompson, he never made the All-NBA Team again and by 1984 his career was over. In 1978 no one could have predicted such a dramatic fall for the 6-4 guard/forward nicknamed "Skywalker" but Lauck's article contained a little foreshadowing with its references to Thompson's unassuming demeanor and the way that Thompson's play initially slumped after the details of his new contract were publicized. Many observers later theorized that all of that extra cash and the accompanying pressure were more than Thompson could handle. Lauck noted that Thompson was better suited to play in a small market like Denver than a media fishbowl like New York or Los Angeles--but the reality is that the temptations and the burdens that come with being a marquee star are inescapable regardless of where one lives and plays.
4) Several years before Spud Webb won the Slam Dunk Contest and became a folk hero in Atlanta, 5-8 Charlie Criss caught Coach Hubie Brown's eye, earned a roster spot with the Hawks as a 28 year old rookie and averaged 8.5 ppg in an eight season NBA career. Criss helped New Mexico State make it to the 1970 NCAA Final Four but while his teammates Sam Lacey and Jimmy Collins became first round draft picks Criss was not drafted because scouts considered him to be too small to play at the highest level. Simmons' story recounted Criss' journey from winning the Eastern League MVP and playing against the Harlem Globetrotters in Europe to becoming the Hawks' leading scorer off of the bench in 1977-78 (11.4 ppg).
5) Julius Erving's scoring average dipped from 21.6 ppg in 1976-77 to 20.6 ppg in 1977-78 but Erving made the All-NBA First Team after being relegated to All-NBA Second Team status in his first NBA season. Erving accepted a reduced offensive role so that fellow All-Stars George McGinnis and Doug Collins could flourish but after the 76ers lost to Portland in the 1977 NBA Finals and fell to Washington in the 1978 Eastern Conference Finals it became apparent that asking the team's best player to sacrifice the most probably is not the best approach. Erving's profile discussed this issue: "There are only glimpses now of what he used to do regularly...He says he can live with this lower profile on a team with too many players who have to have the ball...No question, however, that he is the team leader...Should be the focal point of the offense this season, thus adding several points to his average...Even on a part time basis, he is the most exciting player in the league, the man who made the dunk an art form."
While the 1979
CHPB Erving profile accurately explained Erving's offensive capabilities, it incorrectly asserted that Erving "has defensive weaknesses," though it did add, "Plays the passing lanes well, however, and double teams the ball." Erving made the ABA All-Defensive Team in 1976 and
he played a key defensive role for the New York Nets when they won two ABA championships but early in his NBA career he received a bad rap for supposedly gambling too much on defense, an accusation that his ABA opponent and NBA teammate Bobby Jones--one of the greatest defensive players ever--
emphatically rejected: "In the type of defense that we played, if one person gambled it was kind of like a spider web type of thing--the web stretches. If one guy goes, the other four sort of cheat and leave their men a little bit to help out in case the ball moves and a guy becomes open. You just keep rotating around. I don't think it (going for steals or blocks) is selfish at all. I think that it's good. You have to put pressure on the
offense because shooters are so good. The offense has such an advantage because it can initiate what takes place, so as a defender you have got to try to instigate something to throw them off and make them do something they don’t want to do. The old term, 'pressure will bust the pipe,' is very true. It will make people change what they want to do." Billy Cunningham, who coached Erving and the 76ers from 1977-85, praised Erving's defense: "Julius had the great ability to block shots. His anticipation defensively for steals and creating turnovers was just wonderful and he was definitely underrated in that regard. He took a great deal of pride in his defense. We had to rely on our quickness more than physically overpowering teams. If Julius went for the steal and missed, there was supposed to somebody there giving him support until he recovered and got back into the defensive set."
It is strange that Larry Bird, a good team defender but a poor one on one defender who routinely was assigned to guard the opposing team's worst frontcourt scorer, made the All-Defensive Team three straight years in the 1980s but Erving--who not only was a good team defender but who was not a liability in one on one situations--never made the NBA All-Defensive Team despite
annually ranking among the league leaders in both steals and blocked shots; it is true that defense cannot be completely measured just by looking at those numbers but, as the comments by Jones and Cunningham indicate, Erving completely fulfilled his defensive responsibilities and he was not simply accumulating individual statistics at the team's expense.
6) As indicated above, the
CHPB's analysis was not always on target--but the
CHPB always delivered great one-liners. Former ABA All-Star Caldwell Jones started at center for the 76ers ahead of Darryl Dawkins, who jumped straight from high school to the NBA in 1975. Jones'
CHPB profile drily noted, "Has the job only until Darryl Dawkins matures...May have it another 10 years."
7) The Boston Celtics drafted Larry Bird as a junior eligible, meaning that if he returned to Indiana State for his senior season they only retained his rights until the next NBA Draft. This turned out to be yet another shrewd decision by Red Auerbach; Bird led Indiana State to the 1979 NCAA Championship Game before losing to Magic Johnson's Michigan State Spartans and he then joined the Celtics for the 1979-80 season, winning Rookie of the Year honors over Johnson. The
CHPB called Bird the Celtics' "Top Rookie (1978-79 or 1979-80?)" and Bird's profile included these comments: "Averaged 30 points at Indiana State and is said to be a better passer than shooter...The next great white hope."
8) Phil Jackson, who averaged 2.4 ppg for the New York Knicks in 1977-78, was nearing the end of his playing career. He joined the New Jersey Nets in 1978-79 but played in just 75 games over the next two seasons before retiring. His
CHPB profile demonstrated the perils of trying to predict the future: "Has shaved his beard, trimmed his hair but will always be considered a hippie...Honest to the point where management cringes when he opens his mouth...Has considered coaching but does not view it as a permanent vocation once his career ends." Just 12 years later, Jackson won the first of his record 11 championships as an NBA head coach.
9) The Detroit Pistons fired Herb Brown--Larry's brother--and hired none other than Dick Vitale to replace him. The
CHPB described Vitale as "A rah-rah, win-one-for-the-Gipper coach, who talks about restoring pride, honor and enthusiasm...Has a five year contract, so anyone who can't sing the fight song will be gone." Vitale lasted just 12 games into his second season before the Pistons fired him; he went just 34-60 as an NBA coach but he landed on his feet at ESPN, for whom he still analyzes college basketball more than 30 years later.
10) In 1977-78, Pete Maravich seemed to be cruising to his second straight scoring title before he blew out his knee. He tried to avoid season-ending surgery and gutted it out for a few games before going under the knife. Maravich's New Orleans Jazz went 26-24 with him and just 13-19 without him; much like Kobe Bryant later did with the 2006 and 2007 L.A. Lakers, Maravich single-handedly kept the Jazz in playoff contention. Despite missing 32 games, Maravich--an All-NBA First Teamer in 1977 and the third place finisher in the MVP race behind Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Bill Walton--still made the 1978 All-NBA Second Team and the
CHPB called him "the best all-around guard in creation...One of the all-time great passers and ball-handlers." At that time, Maravich owned the third highest scoring average (25.2 ppg) for a guard in NBA history, trailing only Jerry West (27.0 ppg) and Oscar Robertson (25.7 ppg).
Every year, the
CHPB included a short sidebar after each team profile. In the 1979 edition, the sidebar subject was "club oddity" and the one for the Jazz was eerily prophetic: Pete Maravich experienced such severe chest pains on February 25, 1977 that he "thought I might be having a heart attack" but the team doctor cleared Maravich to play--apparently, Maravich just had some muscular soreness in his chest from lifting weights--and Maravich poured in a career-high 68 points. Barely a decade later, Maravich
died of a heart attack. The autopsy revealed that the 40 year old Maravich had a congenital heart defect
that is usually fatal before the age of 20, so it is incredible that Maravich had a 10 year NBA career.
11) Austin Carr--best known to younger fans as the Cleveland color commentator who uses catch phrases such as "Throw the hammer down!"--
was one of the greatest scorers in college basketball history before becoming the Cavaliers' first All-Star. The
CHPB said that Carr "has more moves than a belly dancer but two knee operations robbed him of his quickness...He's the only guard to challenge
Paul Westphal for the Ambidexterity Team."
12) When Bo Ellis played for Marquette, Coach Al McGuire called him "the Secretariat of college forwards" but after Ellis averaged just 4.3 ppg in his rookie season the
CHPB disagreed with that notion: "Played more like a $1500 claimer with the Nuggets."
13) In one of the most bizarre deals in pro sports history, the Boston and Buffalo owners swapped franchises. New Buffalo owner Irv Levin then moved his team to San Diego. At press time for the
CHPB the San Diego squad still did not have a nickname--or a head coach. Gene Shue eventually took the reins for the Clippers, leading them to a 43-39 record, two wins shy of earning a playoff berth.
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 BasketballLabels: Charlie Criss, Complete Handbook of Pro Basketball, David Thompson, Elvin Hayes, Julius Erving, Lenny Wilkens, Pete Maravich, Zander Hollander
posted by David Friedman @ 8:13 AM
Love's Double Double Streak is Impressive but the NBA's Orwellian Memory Hole is Disturbing
In George Orwell's brilliant dystopian novel
1984, a totalitarian regime controls the future by rewriting the past, sending unfavorable historical facts down the "memory hole." Kevin Love's active points/rebounds double-double streak--which currently stands at 52 games--is most impressive, surpassing a 51 game streak that three-time NBA MVP Moses Malone compiled in 1978-79; any time a player does something that had not been done for over 30 years--particularly when the last player to do it was a Hall of Famer--he should receive much praise and I disagree with anyone who tries to diminish Love's feat by pointing to his team's lousy record; that criticism makes about as much sense as knocking
Kobe Bryant's 81 point game because it came against the Toronto Raptors: if it were easy to score 81 points then someone else would have done it--Michael Jordan certainly would have hit that mark if he could have--and if it were easy to put up consecutive double-doubles for more than half of a season then many players would have done it in the past three decades.
However, contrary to the NBA's Orwellian hype machine, Love's accomplishment is not an NBA record--and it is disingenuous to speak of "modern" NBA records, as if everything that happened prior to the 1976-77 ABA-NBA merger took place in the Dark Ages before statistics could be tracked. It has been confirmed by the Associated Press and other sources that Wilt Chamberlain had a double-double streak of at least 220 games during his career; keep in mind that Chamberlain averaged 30.1 ppg and 22.9 rpg during his career--including a mindboggling 1962 season in which he averaged 50.4 ppg and 25.7 rpg and six other seasons in which he averaged at least 33.5 ppg and at least 22.9 rpg--so two words best describe a game in which Chamberlain merely managed a double-double: "off night." Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Elgin Baylor, Walt Bellamy, Elvin Hayes, Jerry Lucas and Bill Russell each had at least one streak of at least 50 games with a double-double.
It is senseless and disrespectful for the NBA to in any way diminish the accomplishments of the legends who built the game. Commissioner David Stern has repeatedly said that the Legends Brunch is his favorite event of All-Star Weekend; I would be more impressed if instead of talking a good game about the Legends Brunch he would act forcefully to make sure that the official record book--and the information that is fed to the NBA's media partners--completely and accurately reflects the true history of the sport. Commissioner Stern rightly takes swift action when coaches, players or other league employees act or talk in ways that place the league in an unfavorable light, so he should act equally forcefully to make sure that the history of the game is preserved and celebrated.
It must be added that this history simply has to include the ABA, just like NFL history includes the records and stories of the AFL. One of my earliest pro basketball articles dealt with the pro basketball subject that I feel most passionately about:
ABA Numbers Should Also Count (and even though I disagreed with some of Brett Ballantini's subsequent editorial decisions at
Basketball Digest, I have to give him credit for providing me the platform to state my case on this very important issue, an issue that Ballantini also feels very strongly about). I don't have complete game log data for the ABA but that information is probably available if one would track down all of the various ABA team media guides. Consider what we do know about two ABA legends who should have been inducted in the Basketball Hall of Fame a long time ago:
1)
Artis Gilmore, the 1972 ABA regular season MVP and 1975 ABA Playoff MVP, averaged at least 18.7 ppg and at least 15.3 rpg in each of his five ABA campaigns; he played all 84 games in each of those years, in four of those five seasons he averaged at least 20.8 ppg and in three of those five seasons he averaged at least 17.6 rpg. Gilmore almost certainly had a double-double streak of at least 50 games and he probably had some impressive 20-20 streaks as well.
2) Two-time ABA regular season MVP Mel Daniels--
whose Hall of Fame worthiness has been praised by the great Julius Erving--averaged at least 18.5 ppg/15.4 rpg in each of his first six professional seasons and in three of those seasons he averaged at least 21 ppg and at least 15.6 rpg. Daniels probably had at least one double-double streak of 50 or more games.
Labels: Artis Gilmore, Bill Russell, Elgin Baylor, Elvin Hayes, Jerry Lucas, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Kevin Love, Mel Daniels, Moses Malone, Walt Bellamy, Wilt Chamberlain
posted by David Friedman @ 5:43 PM
The NBA in the 1970s: The Dynasty That Never Was; the Opera Isn’t Over Until the Fat Lady Sings
I wrote the chapter about the NBA in the 1970s for the 2005 anthology Basketball in America: From the Playgrounds to Jordan's Game and Beyond. This is the 10th of 12 installments reprinting that chapter in its entirety. I have removed the footnotes that accompanied the original text; direct quotations are now acknowledged in the body of the work and I will post a bibliography at the end of the final installment. I hope that you enjoy my take on one of the most fascinating and eventful decades in NBA history.The Dynasty That Never Was; the Opera Isn’t Over Until the Fat Lady SingsThe 1976-1977 season was a breakthrough for Bill Walton and the Blazers. Injuries cost Walton 47 games in his rookie season and 31 games in his second year but he missed "only" 17 games during Portland’s title run. During his outstanding college career at UCLA he had experienced some knee troubles but it later became clear that Walton had congenital structural problems with his feet. Altering his movements to accommodate his foot injuries led to the knee ailments. Dr. James Nicholas, a New York physician whose clients included Jets' quarterback Joe Namath, once examined Walton and told him simply, "You don’t belong in this league, young man."
During the brief stretch that Walton was relatively healthy he was a dominant player and his Blazers looked like a dynasty in the making. By the 1978 All-Star Break, Portland was 40-8 and had won 44 straight home games. They pushed their record to 50-10 after a 113-92 win over the 76ers on February 28, but Walton badly sprained his left ankle in that game and missed the rest of the regular season. Portland went 8-14 the rest of the way without Walton, but still finished with the best record in the league. Walton's impact was so profound that he won the MVP even though he only appeared in 58 of 82 games. Denver again won the Midwest Division, this time with 48 wins, while Phoenix, Seattle, Los Angeles and Milwaukee completed the playoff field in the Western Conference.
The 1977-1978 season concluded with the closest, most exciting contest for the scoring title in league history. Pete Maravich seemed to be heading for his second straight scoring crown until he was slowed by injuries, culminating in a blown out knee that ended his season before he played enough games or scored enough points to qualify for the title. From then on it was a race between ABA standouts George Gervin and David Thompson. They dueled until the last day of the regular season, April 9, 1978. That afternoon Thompson seemed to clinch the scoring title with a stunning 73 point outburst (tied for third best in NBA history) in a 139-137 loss to the Pistons. He scored a record 32 points in the first quarter, breaking Wilt Chamberlain's mark for points in one period (31), which had been set in his famous 100 point game. Thompson scored 53 points in the first half. Overall, he shot a blistering 28-38 from the field and 17-20 from the free throw line. Gervin's Spurs faced the Jazz in the Superdome that evening. The Iceman broke Thompson's hours-old record by scoring 33 points in the second quarter. He also had 53 points by halftime. Gervin knew that he needed 59 points to pass Thompson and he finished the game with 63. Amazingly, he played only 33 minutes (Thompson logged 43) as the Spurs lost 153-132. Gervin launched 49 shots, making 23, and he matched Thompson by converting 17-20 from the free throw line. Less than two weeks later, Thompson became the highest paid player in NBA history, signing a five year, $750,000 per year contract with the Nuggets. This surpassed the salaries of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar ($650,000 per year) and Maravich ($600,000 per year). Thompson later won the 1979 All-Star MVP (becoming the only player to win All-Star MVPs in the ABA and the NBA), but a drug problem soon diminished his production considerably. His career ended prematurely after he sustained leg injuries falling down a staircase while partying at New York’s Studio 54.
Gervin led the Spurs to the Central Division title with a 52-30 record. Sixers' Coach Gene Shue, already on thin ice after his team's collapse in the 1977 Finals, was fired after Philadelphia stumbled to a 2-4 start. New Coach Billy Cunningham, only recently retired as a player after a severe knee injury, rallied the Sixers, who won their second straight division title with a conference best 55-27 record. The other Eastern Conference playoff teams included the Bullets, Cavaliers, Knicks and Hawks, none of whom won more than 44 games. Julius Erving (20.6 points per game), George McGinnis (20.3 points per game) and Doug Collins (19.7 points per game) seemed to be poised to make a return trip to the Finals. The Sixers easily swept the Knicks in the Eastern Semifinal but had to wait a week while San Antonio and Washington slugged it out in the other Eastern Semifinal. The underdog Bullets eventually prevailed in six games. Bob Dandridge, who won a title playing alongside Abdul-Jabbar and Oscar Robertson with the 1970-1971 Bucks, joined Washington as a free agent before the 1977-1978 season and proved to be a key addition, particularly in the playoffs. The Bullets were devastated during the regular season by injuries, hence their mediocre record, but their strong frontline, anchored by Elvin Hayes, Wes Unseld, Bob Dandridge and Mitch Kupchak, peaked during the postseason. They took the Sixers' homecourt advantage with a 122-117 game one win and closed out the series in six games.
In the West, Walton got an extra week of rest because Portland earned a first round bye. Then the Blazers faced Seattle in the Western Semifinals. The Sonics started the season 5-17 but closed with a strong 42-18 mark after Coach Bob Hopkins was replaced by Lenny Wilkens. Seattle was an excellent defensive team whose offense was built around the talents of guards Gus Williams, Fred Brown, and Dennis Johnson. The Sonics knocked off Abdul-Jabbar and the Lakers in the first round but Portland beat Seattle three out of four times in the regular season. The big question was whether Walton could perform effectively after being out of action for nearly two months. In game one he scored 17 points and grabbed 16 rebounds in 34 minutes, but Seattle won, 104-95. Although Walton's statistics were not bad, he limped noticeably throughout the game and could not walk without pain the next day, spending most of the time in the whirlpool. Two days later he practiced but did not run. His availability for the second game was questionable at best. Early in his career Walton refused to take painkilling injections, but this time he relented. Walton scored 10 points with six rebounds in 15 first half minutes. He did not play in the second half but the Blazers hung on to win, 96-93. When Walton's foot was x-rayed the next day a fracture was found in the tarsal navicular bone below his left ankle. Blazers' team doctor Robert Cook denied that the injections contributed in any way to the fracture, stating that the painkilling drugs were administered in a part of his foot "completely separated from the area of the break." In the other Western Semifinal the Nuggets took a three games to one lead over the Bucks, but Milwaukee won two straight before losing game seven 116-110 in Denver. The Sonics finished off the Walton-less Blazers, took the home court advantage in the Western Finals with a 121-111 win in game two in Denver and eventually captured the series in six games.
It is unlikely that too many preseason prognosticators selected Washington and Seattle for the 1978 Finals. Washington was built around its veteran frontcourt, while Seattle's strength was its young guards. These differences lent some intrigue to the matchup. Due to scheduling problems, Seattle faced the same disadvantage that the Bullets had dealt with in the 1975 Finals: playing game one at home and then going on the road for the next two. Seattle was not fazed by this, winning the first game 106-102 and taking a three games to two lead in the series. The Bullets faced the prospect of their third final round loss without a single championship but Washington Coach Dick Motta picked an appropriate slogan for his scrappy team: "The opera isn't over until the fat lady sings." The Bullets blew Seattle out 117-82 in game six and the series came down to a seventh game in Seattle. Johnson, who played valiantly in the postseason, went 0-14 from the field and his backcourt mate Williams shot 4-12. The Bullets became only the third NBA team to win a game seven in the Finals on the road. Unseld was awarded the Finals MVP for his rebounding, passing, and bone crushing picks.
Labels: Bill Walton, Elvin Hayes, Seattle Supersonics, Washington Bullets, Wes Unseld
posted by David Friedman @ 1:25 AM
Pro Basketball's 1000 Rebound Club: The Meek Need Not Apply for Membership
This article was originally published in the February 2004 issue of Basketball Digest.
Pro basketball's 1000 rebound club is the hard hat-wearing, lunch pail-carrying counterpart to the 2000 point club. Points can be scored from inside the paint, outside the arc and one at a time from the free throw line but in most cases there is only one way to get rebounds: venture into the lane, dodge the elbows of the giants and show total disregard for the bumps, bruises and loosened teeth that are sure to follow.
A few long rebounds fly out to the guards, but no one ever got 1000 rebounds by waiting outside the paint for such fortuitous bounces. In fact, no guard has ever grabbed 1000 rebounds in a season; Oscar Robertson, a point guard in a forward's body, came closest with 985 when he averaged a triple double for the 1961-62 season (30.8 ppg, 12.5 rpg, 11.4 apg).
Dolph Schayes of the Syracuse Nationals founded the 1000 rebound club in 1950-51 with 1080 boards (16.4 rpg), a very impressive total considering the shorter schedule and slow pace of that era. This is confirmed by the wide margin between Schayes and the second ranked rebounder in 1950-51, George Mikan of the Minneapolis Lakers, who had 958 rebounds. No one grabbed 1000 boards in 1951-52.
Mikan became the first two-time member of the club with back to back 1000-plus rebound seasons in 1952-53 and 1953-54, while Harry Gallatin of the New York Knicks set a league record for single season rebounds with 1098 in 1953-54, his lone 1000-plus rebound campaign.
The introduction of the 24-second shot clock in 1954-55 sped up the NBA game, increasing scoring totals and rebounding opportunities. In 1955-56 Maurice Stokes of the Rochester Royals became the first rookie member of the 1000 rebound club. He snared 1000-plus rebounds in each of his first three seasons before a serious brain injury ended his NBA career.
The rivalry between Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell took the 1000 rebound club--and the sport of basketball itself--to a whole new level. Chamberlain dominates the 1000 rebound club honor roll. He had the most 1000-plus rebound seasons (13), the top seven best single-season rebound totals and by far the best rebounding season by a rookie. In his 14 season career Chamberlain only missed qualifying for the 1000 rebound club once, when a devastating knee injury limited him to 12 games in 1969-70; he came back to average 22.2 rpg in that year's playoffs (his gritty return to action has been obscured by Willis Reed's heroics in game seven of that season's NBA Finals). Chamberlain's 11 rebounding titles are an all-time record.
Chamberlain's best rebounding seasons are listed in the accompanying chart, but his greatness is perhaps most clearly illustrated by looking at his worst complete regular season in historical context: in 1970-71, Chamberlain "slumped" to 1493 rebounds (18.2 rpg, first in the league); only Russell, Bob Pettit, Walt Bellamy, Jerry Lucas, Spencer Haywood, Artis Gilmore and Dennis Rodman have had better single season numbers than that. In fact, remove Chamberlain's other seasons from consideration and his worst season would rank among the 20 best ever!
Russell tallied 12 1000-plus rebound seasons, missing only in his rookie year, when he collared 943 rebounds in 48 games (he started the season late after leading the U.S. to the gold medal in the 1956 Olympic Games). His worst full season figure was 1451 (18.6 rpg) in 1967-68. He won four rebounding titles, two of which came before Chamberlain entered the league. During most of the years that their careers overlapped Chamberlain finished first in rebounding and Russell placed second. Chamberlain and Russell rank first and second in career rebounds (23,924 and 21,620 respectively) and career rpg (22.9 and 22.5 respectively) and lead everyone else in pro basketball history by a wide margin in both categories.
Third place on the career rpg list belongs to Pettit (16.2). He is tied for third all-time with nine 1000 rebound club seasons but he only captured one rebounding title, in large part because he spent most of his career competing against Chamberlain and Russell.
Two other players also posted nine 1000 rebound club seasons. Bellamy made a big splash in his rookie year with 2495 points (31.6 ppg) and 1500 rebounds (19.0 rpg) for the 1961-62 Chicago Packers (the franchise currently known as the Washington Wizards). Both of those totals rank third for rookies in pro basketball history, trailing only Chamberlain's 1959-60 heroics (2707 points/1941 rebounds) and 20-year old (!) Spencer Haywood's prodigious efforts in 1969-70 for the Denver Rockets in the ABA (2519 points/1637 rebounds).
Elvin Hayes is the third player who accumulated nine 1000 rebound club seasons. He finished fourth in the NBA in 1968-69 with 1406 rebounds as a San Diego Rockets rookie, the sixth best first year rebounding performance ever. That same year Baltimore Bullets rookie Wes Unseld ranked second with 1491 rebounds and won not only Rookie of the Year but also MVP.
They later became teammates and in 1977-78 Unseld and Hayes led the Bullets to the NBA championship, with Unseld claiming Finals MVP honors. Hayes averaged 21.0 ppg and 12.5 rpg for his career and his 16,279 rebounds rank sixth in pro basketball history.
Although Chamberlain, Bellamy, Unseld, Hayes and Haywood posted their great rookie seasons within a decade of each other, the 1000 rebound club is not frequently joined by rookies--14 NBA and nine ABA first year pros have made the cut, which works out to roughly one rookie for every three years of those leagues' combined existence. Since the 1976-77 NBA/ABA merger the only 1000 rebound club rookies are Buck Williams of the New Jersey Nets in 1981-82 and Shaquille O'Neal of the Orlando Magic in 1992-93.
Julius Erving's superb 1971-72 rookie season (2290 points/1319 rebounds) ranks eighth on both the all-time rookie scoring and rebounding lists; he joined Chamberlain, Haywood, Bellamy and Hayes as the only players to rank among the top ten all-time rookies in both categories. Erving retired as the third leading scorer in pro basketball history (he currently ranks fifth), but his presence on the rebounding list may surprise some fans. Erving's 1971-72 rookie campaign is his only 1000 rebound club season, but his total that year was not a fluke. He entered the ABA known more as a rebounder than as a scorer; the young Erving was like a Dennis Rodman without tattoos--undersized for an inside player (both are generally listed at about 6-7, 210) but able to compensate for this with quickness, tenacity and jumping ability.
Erving is one of only five players to average 20 ppg and 20 rpg in a Division I college career (Russell, Paul Silas, Artis Gilmore and Kermit Washington are the others). In the 1972 playoffs he increased his average to an ABA best 20.4 rpg, second in pro basketball that year to Wilt Chamberlain's 21.0 rpg for the NBA champion Lakers. Erving ranked in the top ten in rebounding in each of his five ABA seasons, averaging 12.1 rpg.
There is a temptation to deride Haywood and Erving's rookie numbers as inflated, particularly since neither player surpassed his ABA rebounding numbers during his NBA career. However, Bellamy, who played his entire Hall of Fame career in the NBA, also never equaled his spectacular rookie scoring and rebounding accomplishments. Rebounding is generally the province of the young and many of the great rebounders posted their best rebounding season within their first five campaigns: Chamberlain's came in year two, Moses Malone's in year five, Jerry Lucas' in year three, Shaquille O'Neal's in his rookie season. Russell is a bit of an exception, although his year nine career best rpg average was only marginally better than his year four rpg.
As a Sixer Erving split the rebounding chores at various times with George McGinnis, Caldwell Jones, Moses Malone and Charles Barkley, each of whom tallied 1000 rebound seasons during their careers. As a 33 year old small forward Erving was the second leading rebounder (behind Malone) on the 1982-83 76ers championship team that is still widely considered one of the greatest squads ever.
Rodman possessed none of Erving's flair as a scorer, but he sustained a high level of rebounding prowess throughout his career. He won seven rebounding titles, second only to Chamberlain, but injuries and suspensions limited Rodman to five 1000-plus rebound seasons. Rodman's 1530 rebounds in 1991-92 were the most since Gilmore totaled 1538 in 1973-74 for the ABA Kentucky Colonels and the best NBA total since Chamberlain's 1572 in 1971-72.
The 1000 rebound club reached an NBA single season high in 1970-71 and 1971-72 with 13 members in each of those campaigns (the ABA's single season record was 11 members in 1969-70). In recent years the pace of the NBA game has decreased so much that even though field goal percentages have also been slipping there are still fewer rebounds available. In 1995-96 the San Antonio Spurs' David Robinson was the only 1000 rebound club member and the 1996-97 season marked the first time since 1951-52 that not even one pro basketball player got 1000 rebounds.
In 2002-03 three players made the cut: Detroit's Ben Wallace (1126), Minnesota's Kevin Garnett (1102) and San Antonio's Tim Duncan (1043). Active players with multiple 1000-plus rebound seasons include Dikembe Mutombo (4), Ben Wallace (3), Shaquille O'Neal (3) and Duncan (2). While the records of sports immortals such as Babe Ruth and Jim Brown eventually fell, Chamberlain's rebounding standards appear to be out of reach--literally and figuratively--of today's superstars.
Note: the following lists accompanied the original article and thus were compiled prior to the completion of the 2003-04 NBA season. | Most 1000 Rebound Seasons |
|
|
| Player | Seasons |
|
|
| Wilt Chamberlain | 13 |
| Bill Russell | 12 |
| Bob Pettit | 9 |
| Walt Bellamy | 9 |
| Elvin Hayes | 9 |
| Jerry Lucas | 8 |
| Nate Thurmond | 8 |
| Kareem Abdul-Jabbar | 8 |
| Artis Gilmore* | 8 |
| Wes Unseld | 8 |
| Moses Malone** | 8 |
*--5 ABA/3 NBA
**--1 ABA/7 NBA
| Most Single Season Rookie Rebounds |
|
|
|
| Player | Rebounds | Season |
|
|
|
| Wilt Chamberlain | 1941 | 1959-60 |
| Spencer Haywood^ | 1637 | 1969-70 |
| Walt Bellamy | 1500 | 1961-62 |
| Wes Unseld | 1491 | 1968-69 |
| Artis Gilmore^ | 1491 | 1971-72 |
| Elvin Hayes | 1406 | 1968-69 |
| Jerry Lucas | 1375 | 1963-64 |
| Julius Erving^ | 1319 | 1971-72 |
| Dave Cowens | 1216 | 1970-71 |
| Mel Daniels^ | 1213 | 1967-68 |
| Moses Malone^ | 1209 | 1974-75 |
| Marvin Barnes^ | 1202 | 1974-75 |
^--ABA
| Most Single Season Rebounds |
|
|
|
| Player | Rebounds | Season |
|
|
|
| Wilt Chamberlain | 2149 | 1960-61 |
| Wilt Chamberlain | 2052 | 1961-62 |
| Wilt Chamberlain | 1957 | 1966-67 |
| Wilt Chamberlain | 1952 | 1967-68 |
| Wilt Chamberlain | 1946 | 1962-63 |
| Wilt Chamberlain | 1943 | 1965-66 |
| Wilt Chamberlain | 1941 | 1959-60 |
| Bill Russell | 1930 | 1963-64 |
| Bill Russell | 1878 | 1964-65 |
| Bill Russell | 1868 | 1960-61 |
| Bill Russell | 1843 | 1962-63 |
Labels: Bill Russell, Bob Pettit, Dennis Rodman, Elvin Hayes, Julius Erving, Walt Bellamy, Wilt Chamberlain
posted by David Friedman @ 1:44 AM
Phil Chenier: A Straight Shooter
Phil Chenier was one of the best guards in the NBA in the mid-1970s before beginning a 20-plus year career as a color commentator for the Washington Wizards. He made the All-Star team three times in a four year period before suffering a back injury that essentially ended his career. Here is the link to my HoopsHype.com article about Chenier (10/7/15 edit: the links to HoopsHype.com no longer work, so I have posted the original article below):
Winning a championship is the ultimate goal for most NBA players, but for Phil Chenier the Washington Bullets' 1978 title was bittersweet. "It was certainly great for the organization, but I have mixed feelings about that because I was hurt during that time," Chenier recalls. "I had back problems and was unable to play for the rest of the year. So I missed out on that experience."
Chenier had established himself as one of the top guards in the NBA, making the All-Star team in three of the previous four seasons (1974-75, 1977), so not being able to actively participate in the championship run was extremely frustrating.
Chenier has been with the Bullets/Wizards organization for more than three decades--first as a player and currently as a broadcaster--but he was born, raised and attended college in California. Growing up he admired Jerry West. "When I watched him on TV he looked lean like me," Chenier says. "I wasn't as thick as Oscar Robertson and some of the other guards that played in the league. Plus, West was in L.A. and I got to see him a little bit more being on the West Coast."
Chenier averaged 16.8 ppg in his junior season at California in 1971, earning First Team All-Pac 8 honors. After that season, he became one of the first early entry players, which at the time was known as going hardship;
Spencer Haywood's Supreme Court case had just paved the way for players to enter the NBA draft before their college classes graduated.
Chenier was selected by the Baltimore Bullets and averaged 12.3 ppg to earn a spot on the All-Rookie Team. The New York Knicks bounced the Bullets out of the playoffs in six games.
Before the 1972-73 season, Baltimore acquired Elvin Hayes from the Houston Rockets in exchange for Jack Marin and future considerations. "It was just absolutely amazing sometimes to watch him hit that turnaround jump shot and dominate games with his shot blocking and rebounding and scoring," Chenier says of Hayes. "I don't think that there is any denying or disagreeing with the fact that he is one of the greatest--if not the greatest--power forwards of all time."
Hayes teamed with center Wes Unseld to form a powerful frontcourt duo and the Bullets won their third straight Central Division title.
"Wes was there for my whole career with the Bullets--a very stable player, very team oriented and he set a lot of picks to get me open," Chenier says. "He was a player who instilled confidence in his teammates in a very quiet way. You always knew that he supported you. He never fussed at his players. He was always encouraging and that's what I liked most about Wes."
Chenier averaged 19.7 ppg, second on the team. He scored a career-high 53 points versus Portland on December 6, 1972, the best single-game scoring effort in the NBA that season. He still holds the franchise record for most points in a non-overtime game. The Bullets again lost to the Knicks in the playoffs, this time by a 4-1 tally. New York went on to win the championship.
The Bullets moved to Washington DC for the 1973-74 season and were renamed the Capital Bullets. Chenier earned his first All-Star selection by leading the Bullets in scoring (21.9 ppg, 13th in the NBA) and steals (2.04 spg, sixth in the NBA in the first year that this was an official statistic). The Bullets again won the Central Division title and again lost to the Knicks in the playoffs, this time falling 91-81 in the seventh game in Madison Square Garden.
Chenier's versatility--in 1973-74 he averaged 5.1 rpg, 3.1 apg and blocked 67 shots, second on the team to Hayes and more than any other guard in the league--led some to compare Chenier to Walt Frazier, the best all-around guard in the NBA at the time. "He was thicker and stronger than I was and I think that I was quicker than he was," Chenier notes (Frazier was listed at 6-4, 205, while Chenier was listed at 6-3, 180). "He was very methodical in everything that he did. He would just wear you down, boom, boom. When you made a mistake he was right in position and always on balance to capitalize on it. He wasn't a David Thompson kind of jumper. He very rarely used his left hand, but he could. He was just very basic and fundamentally sound."
Chenier modestly suggests that, while they shared superficial similarities in physical appearance--height, skin color and eyes--their games were different. "I just think that we looked a lot alike," he concludes with a laugh. "He certainly had a much livelier career than I did."
The Bullets tied with the Boston Celtics for the best record in the NBA in 1974-75 (60-22). Chenier ranked 11th in scoring (21.8 ppg) and sixth in steals (2.29 spg). In addition to making the All-Star team for the second consecutive year, Chenier earned All-NBA Second Team honors and finished eighth in MVP voting; Hayes placed third and Unseld was ninth.
When the Bullets downed the Celtics 4-2 in the Eastern Conference Finals, it seemed like the NBA Finals versus Golden State would just be a formality. Rick Barry led the Warriors to the best record in the Western Conference (48-34) but on paper they seemed to be no match for the Bullets.
Washington had home-court advantage for the Finals, but it would not be possible to use the normal 2-2-1-1-1 format due to scheduling conflicts with the Warriors' arena, so the NBA presented two options to Bullets' coach KC Jones: play Game One on the road and the next three at home or play game one at home and then the next two on the road. Jones did not want his team to fall behind early, so he chose to have Game One at home. This backfired when the Warriors beat the Bullets in Washington, 101-95.
Barry scored 36 points to lead Golden State to a 92-91 victory in Game Two at the Cow Palace.
Barry had 38 points in the next contest as the Warriors took a 3-0 lead. Undersized rookie forward Jamaal Wilkes (6-6, 190) held Hayes to 29 points in the first three games. Golden State completed the sweep with a 96-95 win, producing one of the most improbable upsets in sports history. Chenier played marvelously throughout the postseason, averaging 24.2 ppg and ranking first in the playoffs in free throws made.
He says that, despite losing, playing in the 1975 NBA Finals is the most memorable moment from his NBA career: "That is where I am from, the Bay Area, so my family and friends got to see me play in the Finals, even though it wasn't a happy result."
Washington slipped to 48-34 in 1975-76 and failed to win the division title for the first time in Chenier's career. He ranked 16th in the NBA scoring (19.9 ppg, .1 ppg better than Hayes) and seventh in steals (1.98 spg). The Cleveland Cavaliers edged out the Bullets by one game for the Central Division title and they beat Washington by one basket in game seven of the Eastern Conference semifinals, a contest forever known in Northeastern Ohio as the "Miracle of Richfield." Chenier's jumper tied the game with 24 seconds left, but Dick Snyder's runner put the Cavaliers up 87-85 and Chenier's final shot missed at the buzzer.
In many ways, the Bullets' 1976-77 season was a rerun of the previous campaign: they went 48-34, lost the division title by one game (this time to the Houston Rockets) and were eliminated in the Eastern Conference semifinals by the Central Division champion. Chenier fell out of the top 20 in scoring for the first time since 1972-73 despite increasing his average slightly to 20.2 ppg.
Some people blamed Hayes for the Bullets' inability to win a title and thought that he should be traded. But instead of subtracting Hayes, general manager Bob Ferry added free agent forward Bob Dandridge, who played an important role on the Milwaukee Bucks' 1971 championship team. Dandridge proved to be the perfect frontcourt complement to Hayes and Unseld.
"Bobby was the glue that put it all together in the end," Chenier recalls. "When he came to Washington, he had to guard Julius (Erving) in one series and he had to guard George Gervin in another one."
Chenier missed the preseason because of a back injury. His back flared up again during the season and instead of traveling with the team for a West Coast road trip he was hospitalized on January 19. He had a ruptured L5-S1 disk that required surgery. "Actually, I also had a problem on the other side of the vertebrae at L4-L5 but what they said was if they went in and saw a lot of damage (at L5-S1) then they'd take that as being the cause of my problem," Chenier explains. "The next year the other side went out and I had to have a second surgery. So that was pretty tough to take."
Chenier was replaced by Charles Johnson, who had been cut by the Warriors earlier in the month. The Bullets suffered so many injuries that at one point they only had seven healthy players but, through all of the adversity, coach Dick Motta kept repeating a simple mantra: "The opera ain't over 'til the fat lady sings."
The Bullets limped to their worst record since Chenier's rookie season (44-38) but defeated Atlanta and San Antonio to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals. They faced the Philadelphia 76ers, the number one seed and defending Eastern Conference champions. Unseld's late putback layup in game six sent the Bullets back to the NBA Finals.
In an odd repeat of what happened in 1975, the Bullets once again had to deal with an unusual playoff format. A previously scheduled mobile-home show forced the NBA to use a 1-2-2-1-1 schedule. Just like in 1975, the Bullets squandered home-court advantage. This time they blew a 19 point lead in Game One and lost 106-102. Seattle's "Downtown" Freddie Brown exploded for 16 points in the last nine minutes of the fourth quarter. The teams traded wins after that. Game Seven was a nightmare for Seattle's star guard Dennis Johnson, who shot 0-14 from the field as the Bullets won 105-99 to claim the franchise's first and only title.
Washington and Seattle faced each other again in the 1979 NBA Finals, but the second back surgery limited Chenier's role severely; he averaged 5.8 ppg in 27 regular season games and 2.8 ppg while appearing in just nine of the Bullets' 19 playoff games. Dennis Johnson ultimately avenged his seventh game disaster from 1978 by leading Seattle to the championship in five games and winning the 1979 Finals MVP.
Chenier was never the same player after his back surgeries.
He played three more seasons, but never appeared in more than 43 games or averaged more than 7.6 ppg. "This is what I tell people: when you have guys who are out for six, seven months or for a whole season, it's not so much physically that you can't get back but mentally," Chenier explains. "You don't have that same mental edge that you had when you were playing with all the guys and going through practice and the routine of working out. I think that mentally as well as physically I just wasn’t the same person."
He retired in 1981 with 9,931 points and a career scoring average of 17.2 ppg. Chenier has been a color commentator for the Wizards organization since 1986.
*******************************************************
Here are some "DVD Extras" about Chenier:
***Chenier's most vivid memories of his first taste of NBA playoff action as a rookie in 1972 focus on the tremendous battles in the paint between Knicks' power forward Dave DeBusschere and his counterpart on the Bullets, Gus Johnson. They had faced each other for the previous several years and, although Johnson was nearing the end of the line, he still asked no quarter and gave none either. "Gus would just manhandle DeBusschere and DeBusschere would come back on the very next play and just manhandle Gus," Chenier says. "They would go at it but never complain. That is the one thing that I will always remember about them. And I remember DeBusschere talking about Gus after the funeral or after he passed and you could tell that they had mutual admiration and mutual respect."
By 1972-73, Johnson had moved on to the ABA's Indiana Pacers, helping them win a title before he retired, but that did not mean that there was peace and tranquility in the paint when the Knicks and Bullets played--not with Knicks' center Willis Reed and the Bullets' Wes Unseld fighting for position. "Willis was in and out of the lineup because of his injuries," Chenier remembers. "When he was in there, because of his knee, Willis had to be even more physical. So he and Wes were banging and I said to myself, 'Man, I don't want to have anything to do with that! I'll stay out here and shoot jump shots.'"
***Chenier mentions an often overlooked factor that hurt the Bullets in their stunning 4-0 loss to the underdog Golden State Warriors in the 1975 NBA Finals. "Jimmy Jones didn't start but he was a player who could fill in anywhere and he was our first man off the bench. He was averaging about 20 minutes and he could play with me or he could play with Kevin Porter or he could play with both of us by being the '3.' So he was a top notch player who gave us a lot of flexibility. He got hurt during the Boston series. So, that hurt us. But give a lot of credit to Golden State and the timing of their players kind of coming together."
***Chenier lists Pete Maravich, Earl Monroe, Walt Frazier, Nate Archibald and Jo Jo White as some of the toughest players that he faced. Chenier comments, "Pete could embarrass you. He could go for 50 on you and make it look as easy as possible. Earl could do the same thing. Earl didn't jump that high. You thought that you had him stopped, you thought that you had his shot blocked and he'd still fade back a little bit and loft that soft shot over you. That New York team had Earl and Frazier in the backcourt and then they had DeBusschere, Bradley and Lucas--that team was phenomenal. We played them three consecutive years in the playoffs and they beat us each time."
***It is well known that entertainers want to be athletes and vice versa. This is not just a recent phenomenon. Chenier recalls playing in a celebrity three on three tournament in Las Vegas in which the teams consisted of an active NBA player, a retired NBA player and an entertainer. Chenier was paired with the retired Zelmo Beaty and legendary singer Marvin Gaye and they played against David Thompson, Jerry Lucas and Pat Boone, the famous singer who less famously was once a part owner of the ABA's Oakland Oaks. Chenier didn't say who won, but noted that Gaye was a big sports fan. Of course, Gaye later did a soulful rendition of the National Anthem at the 1983 NBA All-Star Game less than a year before he was shot and killed by his father.
Labels: Bob Dandridge, Dave DeBusschere, Earl Monroe, Elvin Hayes, Golden State Warriors, Gus Johnson, New York Knicks, Pete Maravich, Phil Chenier, Rick Barry, Walt Frazier, Washington Bullets, Wes Unseld
posted by David Friedman @ 4:32 AM
