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Friday, June 12, 2026
"Moses and the Doctor": A Dual Biography of the ABA Duo Who Led the 76ers to the 1983 NBA Title
Luke Epplin's Moses and the Doctor: Two Men, One Championship, and the Birth of Modern Basketball (Grand Central Publishing, 367 pages, $30) is a dual biography tracing the initially parallel but ultimately intersecting careers of two of the greatest basketball players of all-time: Julius Erving and Moses Malone each started their professional basketball careers in the ABA before joining forces to lead the Philadelphia 76ers to the 1983 NBA title in one of the most dominant championship seasons in NBA history. Epplin did not interview Malone (who passed away in 2015), but he spoke with Erving and with many players who played with and against Erving and Malone.
If you classify Erving and Malone as basketball superheroes, it must be said that their "origin stories" were very different: Erving was a New York city kid with a flashy playing style yet he was lightly recruited as a high schooler, while Malone was a kid from a small Virginia town whose playing style was brutally direct and who was one of the most highly recruited high schoolers of all-time.
Malone was heavily recruited by many colleges after his dominant high school career, and he initially committed to the University of Maryland before signing a huge (for that era) five year deal for approximately $1 million to play for the ABA's Utah Stars. Erving was the biggest star in the ABA--if not all of pro basketball--at that time: he won the 1974 ABA regular season MVP, the 1974 ABA Playoff MVP, and the 1974 ABA scoring title (27.4 ppg), while Malone spent the 1974 season as a high school senior in Petersburg, Virginia.
Erving and Malone first faced each other in the first game of Malone's rookie season as Erving's defending ABA champion New York Nets defeated Malone's Utah Stars, 105-89 on October 18, 1974.
Here is a UPI photo of Erving and Malone from that game:
Erving scored a game-high 27 points, snared 10 rebounds, dished for seven assists, and swiped a game-high five steals, while Malone had 19 points and 11 rebounds. This game was a rematch of the 1974 ABA Finals, which the Nets won 4-1. Asked after the game what he thought of Malone--the first player to jump directly from high school to pro basketball--Erving replied simply, "I believe."
In 1974-75, Erving finished second in the ABA in scoring (27.9 ppg), eighth in rebounding (10.9 rpg), seventh in assists (5.5 apg), fourth in steals (2.2 spg), fourth in blocked shots (1.9 bpg), and sixth in three point field goal percentage (.333). He won the second of his three consecutive ABA regular season MVPs (this time sharing the honor with another future teammate, George McGinnis).
Malone enjoyed a successful rookie season, averaging 18.8 ppg while ranking fourth in the ABA in rebounding (14.6 rpg), first in offensive rebounding (5.5 orpg), third in field goal percentage (.571), and 10th in blocked shots (1.5 bpg). He made the All-Star team, and he finished third in the Rookie of the Year voting behind Marvin Barnes and Bobby Jones, a fellow future Hall of Famer who was the NBA's inaugural Sixth Man of the Year in 1982-83 while teaming with Malone and Erving on Philadelphia's championship team.
In 1975-76, Erving had one of the greatest all-around seasons in pro basketball history, winning his third ABA scoring title (29.3 ppg) while ranking third in the ABA in steals (2.5 spg), fifth in rebounding (11.0 rpg), seventh in
assists (5.0 apg), and seventh in blocked shots (1.9 bpg). Erving won his third ABA regular season MVP, and he was selected to the ABA's All-Defensive Team. Michael Jordan
later received a lot of publicity--and one Defensive Player of the Year
award--after notching back to back seasons with 200-plus steals and
100-plus blocked shots, but in 1975-76 Erving tallied 207 steals and 160
blocked shots to become the first 200-100 player. Erving, Jordan,
Scottie Pippen and Hakeem Olajuwon are the only players to record at
least 200 steals and 100 blocked shots in a season since those numbers
have been officially tracked (1972-73 in the ABA, 1973-74 in the NBA);
Erving and Olajuwon are the only players who have had both a 200-100
season and a 100-200 season (Erving had 190 steals and 204 blocked shots
in 1973-74, narrowly missing becoming the only member of the 200-200
club).
Erving was even more dominant during the 1976 playoffs, leading the ABA in
playoff scoring (34.7 ppg) for the fourth time in
his five year career while also ranking second in rebounding (12.6 rpg),
third in blocked shots (2.0 bpg), third in steals (1.9 spg) and sixth in
assists (4.9 apg). He shot .533 from the field--the best playoff field
goal percentage of his 16 season career--and .804 from the free throw
line.
Erving led the Nets to the ABA's last championship as the Nets beat the powerful Denver Nuggets in six games, and he was the easy choice for ABA Playoff MVP honors after setting ABA Finals
records for points (226) and scoring average (37.7 ppg, the fourth
highest pro basketball Finals average at that time and still sixth on
the all-time list). Michael Jordan holds the all-time Finals scoring
record (41.0 ppg in six games in 1993), followed by Rick Barry (40.8 ppg
in six games in 1967), Elgin Baylor (40.6 ppg in seven games in 1962),
Shaquille O'Neal (38.0 ppg in six games in 2000) and Jerry West (37.9
ppg in seven games in 1969). Erving shot 79-134 from the field (.590)
and 66-84 from the free throw line (.786) in the 1976 ABA Finals.
The cash-strapped Stars sold Malone to the Spirits of St. Louis early in the 1975-76 season. Malone averaged 14.3 ppg and 9.6 rpg for the Spirits of St. Louis, with various injuries limiting him to just 43 games. The team went 35-49, did not make the playoffs, and was not included in the ABA-NBA merger, although the team's owners received a settlement package that proved to be very lucrative. After the 1975-76 season, four ABA teams joined the NBA: Denver Nuggets, Indiana Pacers, New York Nets, and San Antonio Spurs. The cash-strapped Nets traded Erving to the Philadelphia 76ers in a $6 million deal, with roughly half of that money going to the Nets and the other half going to Erving as part of a six year contract.
Erving made the All-NBA First Team in 1977 and from 1980-82, and he won
the 1981 NBA regular season MVP--becoming the first non-center to earn
that honor since Oscar Robertson in 1964--but during that era a team had to have a Hall of Fame center to win the NBA title. Erving's 76ers had the NBA's best cumulative regular season record from 1976-77--1981-82, and during that six season span Erving led the team to three NBA Finals and five Eastern Conference Finals, but most of those playoff runs ended in losses to teams led by a Hall of Fame center: Bill Walton's Portland Trail Blazers (1977 NBA Finals), the Elvin Hayes/Wes Unseld Washington Bullets (1978 Eastern Conference Finals), Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's L.A. Lakers (1980 NBA Finals), Robert Parish's Boston Celtics (1981 Eastern Conference Finals), and Abdul-Jabbar's Lakers (1982 NBA Finals). Parish was not the Celtics' best player, but the 7-0 center was an important part of a huge frontcourt featuring fellow Hall of Famers Larry Bird (6-9) and Kevin McHale (6-10) plus Cedric Maxwell (the 6-8 winner of the 1981 NBA Finals MVP) and Rick Robey (6-11).
While Erving was immediately a big star in the NBA, Malone's ascent took a little longer. After the ABA-NBA merger, the Portland Trail Blazers selected Malone in the ABA dispersal draft of players who were not on the rosters of the four ABA teams that joined the NBA. Portland already had Bill Walton, so the Trail Blazers sent Malone to the Buffalo Braves for a first round draft pick that later became Rick Robey. The Braves then traded Malone for two first round picks, one of which became Wesley Cox and the other of which became Michael Ray Richardson.
Malone averaged 13.2 ppg and 13.1 rpg (third in the league) in 1976-77. He did not make the All-Star Team or the All-NBA Team, but he finished sixth in MVP voting behind Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bill Walton, Pete Maravich, Bob Lanier, and Julius Erving. Erving's 76ers defeated Malone's Rockets in the Eastern Conference Finals, 4-2 (yes, Houston was in the Eastern Conference). Erving averaged a series-high 28.3 ppg, 6.3 rpg, and a team-high 6.0 apg while shooting .570 from the field and .800 from the free throw line (the NBA did not use the three point shot until 1979-80). Malone ranked third on the Rockets in scoring (18.0 ppg) with shooting splits of .467/.691, and he led both teams in rebounding (17.2 rpg).
The Rockets missed the playoffs in 1978, lost in the first round in 1979, and were swept by the Boston Celtics in the second round in 1980. Erving's 76ers beat the Celtics 4-1 in the Eastern Conference Finals before losing to the Lakers in the NBA Finals. The Rockets moved to the Western Conference for the 1980-81 season, and they reached the NBA Finals after going just 40-42 during the regular season. After the Celtics came back from a 3-1 deficit to beat the 76ers in the Eastern Conference Finals, the Celtics defeated the Rockets 4-2 in the 1981 NBA Finals. The Rockets lost in the first round in 1982, while the 76ers beat the Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals before losing to the Lakers in the NBA Finals.
By 1982, Erving had a 12-6 playoff series record with the 76ers with three Eastern Conference titles but no NBA titles, and Malone had a 5-5 playoff series record with the Rockets with one Western Conference title but no NBA titles. Malone had won two regular season MVPs (1979, 1982) and led the league in rebounding three times.
The Rockets were disinclined to give Malone a market value contract after the 1981-82 season, so they traded him to the 76ers for Caldwell Jones plus a first round draft pick that later became Rodney McCray. Erving now had the Hall of Fame center that was a prerequisite for winning an NBA title, and Malone now had enough perimeter talent around him to avoid losing in the playoffs or even missing the playoffs altogether.
The Malone-Erving duo teamed with Hall of Fame point guard Maurice Cheeks, Hall of Fame forward Bobby Jones, and guard Andrew Toney (who had Hall of Fame level talent but had his career cut short by foot injuries) to form one of the most dominant single season teams in pro basketball history. The 76ers set a record by starting the season 50-7, and they were threatening to become the first team to win 70 regular season games before late season injuries to Malone and Erving slowed the team to a "mere" 65-17. Neither Malone nor Erving were fully healthy during the playoffs, but the 76ers still set a record by going 12-1 in the postseason, including a 4-0 NBA Finals sweep of the Lakers. The 76ers outrebounded the Lakers 192-171 in the NBA Finals, with Malone grabbing more rebounds (72, 18.0 rpg) than any other two players in the series. Erving ranked second in the series with 34 rebounds (8.5 rpg); in the 1982 NBA Finals, the Lakers outrebounded the 76ers, 284-250, with Erving leading the 76ers with 49 (8.2 rpg), which was not enough to offset the efforts of Magic Johnson (65, 10.8 rpg) and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (46, 7.7 rpg).
It is tantalizing to wonder what might have been if Erving and Malone had teamed up earlier and stayed together longer; they were only teammates for four seasons. The duo posted a 5-2 playoff series record, including wins in the 1983 Eastern Conference Finals and 1983 NBA Finals. Their 1984 title defense ended in a shocking first round loss to the New Jersey Nets, and then in 1985 they stormed through the first two rounds of the playoffs with a 7-1 record to reach the Eastern Conference Finals before losing 4-1 to the defending NBA champion Boston Celtics. In 1986, the 76ers finished third in the Eastern Conference standings, but their championship hopes were dashed after Malone suffered a right orbital blowout fracture that prevented him from participating in the playoffs; the 76ers beat the Bullets 3-2 in the first round before falling to the Milwaukee Bucks 4-3 in the second round. While it does not seem likely that the 76ers would have won the championship even if Malone had played in the 1986 playoffs, they would almost certainly have defeated the Bucks and at least had an opportunity to battle the dominant Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals.
After the 1985-86 season, the 76ers traded Malone, Terry Catledge, and two draft picks to the Bullets for Jeff Ruland and Cliff Robinson, a deal that turned out disastrously for the 76ers when injuries forced Ruland to retire after playing just five games with the 76ers (he made a brief comeback to the NBA for the 1992 and 1993 seasons). Malone made the All-Star team in each of the first three seasons after the trade.
Erving played one season after the Malone trade before retiring. The 76ers had the NBA's best cumulative regular season record during the
first 10 seasons after Erving joined the team before falling to second
place behind the L.A. Lakers after Erving's 11th (and final) NBA
campaign.
Malone played one season for the 76ers as a backup center (1993-94) before retiring after the 1994-95 season. His playoff series record after being traded to the Bullets was 0-4, and his career playoff series record was 10-12. Erving's career playoff series record was 24-13, including 18-10 with the 76ers.
When two superstars play together, egos often get in the way, but that did not happen with Erving and Malone. After Malone joined the 76ers, he publicly declared, "This is Doc's team. I'm just here to help." Malone was the more dominant player by that stage of their careers, and he won the regular season MVP and the NBA Finals MVP in 1983--but the 33 year old Erving was no slouch: he finished fifth in regular season MVP voting, and he joined Malone, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, and Sidney Moncrief on the All-NBA First Team. Erving was the oldest player on the All-NBA First Team by five years, and the only player on the All-NBA Second Team who was older than Erving was Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who was 36.
Epplin notes that Malone's willingness and eagerness to embrace not just Erving but all of his teammates is exemplified by the fact that Malone refused the 76ers' offer to retire his
jersey until the team agreed to put the names of every one of his 76ers'
teammates--not just his teammates from the 1983 championship team--on
the banner honoring him. Erving and Malone were the team's superstars,
but they won as a team, and Erving and Malone were two of the most
team-first superstars ever. It is impossible to imagine either of them demanding
to be given "respect" on a personal level to detract from a
team-first approach the way that Lebron James did after the L.A. Lakers
won the 2020 "bubble" title.
For a variety of reasons that fall outside the scope of this article, it
is difficult to determine which basketball team is the greatest team
ever but Philadelphia's 1983 championship team takes a back seat to no single season squad in pro basketball history; that does not mean that they are definitely the best, but it means you cannot point to a single team that is clearly better.
Malone was the dominant force on that dominant team, along with the
incomparable Erving, and it is fitting that the 76ers honored not only
Malone's greatness but that they did so in keeping with his wish to
recognize all of his teammates as well.
Epplin concludes that the impact that Erving, Malone, and the ABA had on pro basketball history was as great as it was underrated:
The open-floor game and in-air improvisations that had struck basketball fundamentalists as heretical soon became as commonplace as bounce passes. Even so, as of this writing, the NBA has yet to incorporate ABA statistics into its record books. As a result, the ABA remains stuck in a liminal state, remembered more as a colorful curiosity than as a cradle for so much of what has elevated pro basketball into a worldwide phenomenon.
Yet the popular narrative about Johnson and Bird resuscitating a faltering league is incomplete without mention of the ABA and two of its signature players who merged their divergent talents in the NBA to disrupt the decade-long dominance of the Lakers and the Celtics on a team as bold as its boast of sweeping the playoffs. The legacy of the ABA lives on through the 1983 Philadelphia 76ers, a testament to the beauty and the guts of a league that made the game modern.
The 2026 Legends Brunch Honors Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Candace Parker, Baron Davis, and Jamal Crawford While Featuring a Panel Discussion With Olympians Oscar Robertson, Magic Johnson, and Pau Gasol
The Legends Brunch is the highlight of NBA All-Star Weekend, a celebration of the great players who built the NBA from a fledgling league into a global enterprise. I cherished covering the Legends Brunch in person from
2005-2010, and every year that was my favorite All-Star Weekend event, along with attending the ABA Reunions in 2005 and 2006.
NBC is covering the NBA this season for the first time since 2002, so for the first time in more than two decades TNT's Ernie Johnson was not the host for the Legends Brunch telecast. Bob Costas, who served as NBC's main NBA host the last time that the network had an NBA contract, hosted the 2026 Legends Brunch. His communication style is different than Johnson's--Costas did not lead things off with a poem he wrote--but Costas is every bit as informed and talented as Johnson is.
Costas began the telecast by providing a brief recap of NBA All-Star Saturday Night, and then he introduced NBA Commissioner Adam Silver. Silver acknowledged the presence of the family members of Chuck Cooper (the first Black player drafted by an NBA team), Earl Lloyd (the first Black player to play in an NBA game), and Nat "Sweetwater" Clifton (the first Black player to sign an NBA contract). Then, he presented the Lifetime Achievement Award to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Abdul-Jabbar said that he is "deeply humbled, filled with gratitude for a league that gave me far more than a career. It gave me a home, a purpose, and a family." Abdul-Jabbar thanked all of his coaches and teammates collectively, but he singled out one coach by name: Farrell Hopkins, who he credited with impressing upon him the importance of being able to score effectively. Abdul-Jabbar took that advice to heart, eventually breaking Wilt Chamberlain's NBA career scoring record in 1984 and then holding the mark until LeBron James surpassed him in 2023. Abdul-Jabbar expressed gratitude that the NBA provided "a platform to stand for something larger than myself," namely social justice and community service. He emphasized the importance of what an athlete does beyond the basketball court: "Greatness is not measured in points only or in wins, but in the impact we leave behind."
Magic Johnson presented the Pioneer Award to Candace Parker, the only WNBA player to win championships with three different teams and the only WNBA player to win the Rookie of the Year award and the regular season MVP in the same season. Parker stated that she has been inspired by NBA legends, singling out Magic Johnson and Julius Erving in particular. She also noted the strong influence that her college coach, Pat Summit, had on her.
The Legends Brunch included a special tribute to the three pioneers mentioned above: Chuck Cooper, Earl Lloyd, and Nat "Sweetwater" Clifton. This is part of the NBA's season-long recognition of how Cooper, Lloyd, and Clifton played key roles in integrating the league.
Andre Iguodala, the President of the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA), spoke on a host of topics. He mentioned Chris Paul--who recently retired after being released by the L.A. Clippers--and said that Paul has a special ability to "lock in" to competition while also being able to "lock through" as a connector bringing people together. Iguodala recalled that when Paul was a rival player he did not like him very much, but that after serving as an NBPA Vice President while Paul was the NBPA President he saw firsthand how much Paul did on behalf of NBA players. Iguodala praised Abdul-Jabbar for speaking to him 15 years ago about the value of keeping up with the times to learn to speak the language of young people. Abdul-Jabbar advised Iguodala to do things like watching reality TV shows to better understand how young people think and how they communicate.
Antonio Davis, the President of the National Basketball Retired Players Association (NBRPA or Legends of Basketball), spoke about the NBRPA's mandate to help Legends live with dignity and wellness so that they can prosper and can continue to make positive contributions to their communities.
The Bob Lanier Community Impact Award was first presented to Pau Gasol in 2023, and then Jalen Rose earned the honor in 2024. The award was not presented at the 2025 Legends Brunch, but it is important to keep Lanier's name alive, and to recognize players who have a positive community impact. Gasol presented this award to Baron Davis and Jamal Crawford. Davis spoke about his efforts to bridge the gap between the "privileged" and the "underprivileged." He said that he learned the importance of community while he grew up in the L.A. area. Crawford declared, "This honor truly means a lot to me. I feel so blessed because this isn't something you seek recognition for. You do what feels right to uplift as many people as possible, especially those who need it most." He thanked his grandparents, parents, sisters, and community members who inspired him. He lives by the motto, "If you can help someone, do it." Crawford added, "Giving back is not about recognition. It's about responsibility." He thanked Abdul-Jabbar and Erving for providing inspiration to him when he was a child--and even today. Crawford said that the sport's legends are the most important part of the game.
Robertson recalled Team USA's tryout process for the 1960 Olympics, which involved eight teams competing in Denver. The AAU was very powerful at that time, and tried to get as many of their players as possible on the Olympic team. Costas asked Robertson if the 1960 squad was the greatest U.S. team ever other than the fabled 1992 Dream Team. Robertson acknowledged his team's greatness but also felt that the 1956 squad led by Bill Russell should be considered.
Robertson wore a knee brace, but Costas pointed out that Robertson looks much younger than 87. Robertson explained that he is wearing the brace because old men sometimes do "foolish" things; he strained his leg trying to see how much weight he could lift over his head.
Magic Johnson said that a key moment for the 1992 Dream Team happened when Michael Jordan rejected the honor of being the only captain and insisted that Larry Bird and Magic Johnson should be co-captains with him. Johnson said that this forged team unity. He remembered that the Dream Team's scrimmages were often Eastern Conference players competing against Western Conference players, and he said that those now-legendary battles were very intense.
Johnson praised Robertson not only as a great player but also as the first player who became a "businessman outside of basketball," along with Dave Bing.
One of Johnson's most vivid Olympic memories is how Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen made a point of taking turns guarding Toni Kukoc--their future Chicago Bulls teammate--full court when Team USA faced Croatia in the 1992 Olympics.
Johnson singled out Erving for helping him when he was weighing the pros and cons of leaving Michigan State as an underclassman. After Johnson sought Erving's advice, Erving not only counseled him but he flew Johnson to Philadelphia to stay with him for a few days to discuss matters in detail. Johnson said that this was an important time not just in his career but in his life, and he praised Erving for being such a great mentor. That story epitomizes not only how special Erving is, but also the impact that basketball's legends can have (1) when their counsel is sought and (2) when young players have the humility to realize that they don't know everything and that they can benefit from the experiences of the great players who came before them.
Jerry West passed away Wednesday morning at the age of 86. Younger fans may not understand why West's silhouette has been embedded in the NBA's official logo for over 50 years, but even a brief review of West's accomplishments makes it clear that West is not only one of the greatest basketball players ever but one of the most important people in basketball history.
West earned induction in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in three separate roles: as a player (1980), as a member of the Team USA squad that won the gold medal in the 1960 Olympics (2010), and as a contributor (2024, in what will now be a posthumous honor). He was one of 11 players selected to the NBA's 35th Anniversary Team (1980). West was also selected to the NBA's 50 Greatest Players List (1996), and the NBA's 75th Anniversary Team (2021).
West made the All-Star team in each of his 14 seasons, he earned 10 All-NBA First Team selections (tied for fourth all-time behind only LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, and Karl Malone), he won the 1970 scoring title, he won the 1972 assist title, and he made the All-Defensive Team in each of the first five seasons that honor was presented at the end of his career (1969-73). West was the third player to surpass the 25,000 point plateau, and he retired with the third highest regular season scoring average (27.0 ppg), trailing
only Wilt Chamberlain and Elgin Baylor. West finished second in regular season MVP voting four times in an era when only one non-center (Oscar Robertson, 1964) won an MVP between 1957 and 1981.
West finished his playing career with a 1-8 NBA Finals record, but he
earned the nickname "Mr. Clutch" because of his tremendous performances
in the biggest games. West declared, "If it comes down to one shot, I like to shoot the
ball. I don't worry about it. If it doesn't go in, it doesn't go in." West holds the career NBA Finals scoring record
(1679 points), ahead of LeBron James (1562), Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (1317),
and Michael Jordan (1176). West has the third highest career NBA Finals scoring average (30.5 ppg), trailing only Rick Barry (36.3 ppg) and Michael Jordan (33.6 ppg). West won the inaugural NBA Finals MVP award in 1969, and he remains the only player to earn that honor as a member of the losing team.
Robertson and West ranked 1-2 (in whatever order you prefer) all-time among guards until well into the 1980s when Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan made their marks.
Baylor and West were known as "Mr. Inside and Mr. Outside," and they are still one of the greatest duos in NBA history. West was a big-time scorer while playing alongside Baylor, but when Baylor missed all but five minutes of the 1965 playoffs West took his game to a record-setting level, averaging 46.3 ppg on .453 field goal shooting as the Lakers won 4-2 versus the Baltimore Bullets in the Western Division Finals. West then scored 33.8 ppg versus the Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals, but Bill Russell and a lineup filled with other Hall of Famers crew beat the Lakers, 4-1. Russell's Celtics were West's greatest nemesis, defeating West's Lakers six times in the NBA Finals.
Chamberlain joined Baylor and West for the 1968-69 season, but by that stage of their careers those three players were rarely fully healthy at the same time. The otherwise incredibly durable Chamberlain missed 70 games during the 1969-70 season because of a knee injury, and during the trio's four seasons together with the Lakers, Baylor played in 76, 54, two, and nine games before retiring early in that fourth season. Without Baylor, but alongside Chamberlain and Gail Goodrich, West finally won an NBA title in 1972 as a key member of one of the NBA's greatest single season teams; the Lakers won a still-record 33 straight regular season games before storming through the postseason with a 12-3 mark, including a 4-1 rout of a New York Knicks team that won NBA titles in 1970 and 1973.
West is a member of my basketball Pantheon, and is without question one of the top five guards of all-time, along with fellow Pantheon members (listed chronologically) Oscar Robertson, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, and Kobe Bryant.
West, Johnson, and Hakeem Olajuwon are the only players to win an NBA
Finals MVP, an NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player award, and an
Olympic gold medal.
How great was West? Picture Stephen Curry with an excellent vertical
leap and elite defensive skills--or, as West put it, "A wolf who ate
dogs":
I described West's 2011 book West by Westas "a unique contribution to sports literature: it is not an autobiography
or even an 'as told to' story; West writes (p. XII), 'the approach that I
have taken, in collaboration with Jonathan Coleman, is one that is
built on deep reportage...nothing less than a full-scale attempt to
bring forth the truth, to rely not just on my recollection of things,
but to do something more ambitious: investigate myself, speak with
others, and come to grips with what I find.'" I encourage anyone who is not familiar with West's life and career to read my review--and then to read West's book.
West was an important basketball figure from the late 1950s when he was a collegiate star at West Virginia through 2024 when he served as an executive with the L.A. Clippers until his death. After his playing career ended, he posted a 145-101 record in three seasons as the Lakers coach, including the best record in the league (53-29) in the 1976-77 season. West then moved to the Lakers front office and played a major role in building two of the greatest dynasties of the past 40 years: the Showtime Lakers won five NBA titles in the 1980s, and the Shaq/Kobe Lakers of the early 2000s won three straight championships. West felt disrespected by Lakers Coach Phil Jackson, and West moved on to Memphis, where he built the Grizzlies into a 50 win team in 2004 after the franchise had never won more than 28 games in each of its first eight years of existence. He then worked in the Golden State Warriors front office during that team's 2015 and 2017 championship seasons. West only won the Executive of the Year award twice (1995 with the Lakers, 2004 with the Grizzlies), and I agree with former Utah executive Scott Layden, who declared that the award should be named after West; a strong case could be made that West is the greatest executive in NBA history, if not North American team sports history.
It is a cliche to call a person "unique": few people have qualities
that are unusual or rare, and even fewer people fit the literal
definition of "unique" by being truly "one of a kind."
Jerry West's combined record as a player, coach, and executive is unique: no one else has ever played at an elite level in the NBA, then coached a team to the best record in the NBA, and then built multiple NBA championship teams as an executive.
Jerry West will be deeply missed, but never forgotten.
Nikola Jokic Becomes 10th Member of Pro Basketball's Three MVP Club
Nikola Jokic earned his third regular season MVP in the past four seasons, becoming just the 10th member of pro basketball's Three MVP Club, and the first new member of that exclusive group since LeBron James joined in 2012. Bill Russell was the first pro basketball player who won at least three regular season MVP awards, and he was then followed by Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Julius Erving, Moses Malone, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, and LeBron James. Jokic and Malone are the only members of that group who are not in my pro basketball Pantheon. Jokic's career began after I made my selections, while Malone did not miss the cut by much.
This season, Jokic ranked in the top 10 in scoring (10th), rebounding (fourth), and assists (third), and he is the second player in pro basketball history to accumulate at least 2000 points, at least 900 rebounds, and at least 700 assists in the same season, matching a feat first accomplished by Oscar Robertson in 1961-62.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Luka Doncic, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Jalen Brunson rounded out the top five in this season's MVP balloting. They each had MVP-caliber seasons, but no one filled up a boxscore quite like Jokic did, and no one was as essential to his team's success. Jokic is not a defensive stopper, but he uses his size and strength to good effect to clog up the paint, and his defensive rebounding helps the Denver Nuggets to finish off defensive possessions by gaining control of the ball. The Nuggets ranked fourth in defensive field goal percentage and sixth in points allowed, and that would not be possible if the player who leads the team in minutes played were a defensive liability.
My consistent position about MVP voting has been that the award should
go to the league's best all-around player unless there is a dominant big
man like Shaquille O'Neal who impacts the game more than any other
player. Jokic is a hybrid who fits into both categories: he is the
sport's best all-around player but he is also physically dominant in the
paint as a scorer and rebounder.
Jokic is just 29 years old and he has played at least 72 games in eight of his nine NBA seasons, so he is young enough and durable enough to play at an MVP level for at least another five or six years. It would not be surprising if he joins pro basketball's Four MVP Club, which has just six members:
If Joel Embiid continues to be an injury-prone player who cannot lead his team past the second round of the playoffs then history will not look kindly on Embiid's 2023 regular season MVP award that cost Jokic the chance to become the first pro basketball player to win four straight regular season MVPs. Jokic has posted a 9-4 career playoff series record while leading the Nuggets to the 2023 championship, and even if the Minnesota Timberwolves knock out the Nuggets in this year's playoffs that will not invalidate Jokic's prior accomplishments and honors.
Roland Lazenby Details Magic Johnson's Triumphs and Tribulations
Magic Johnson starred at Michigan State, leading the Spartans to the 1979 NCAA title in a famous showdown with Larry Bird's Indiana State Seminoles. Johnson then won five NBA titles (1980, 1982, 1985, 1987-88) with the L.A. Lakers while earning three regular season MVPs (1987, 1989-90) and three NBA Finals MVPs (1980, 1982, 1987). Johnson broke Oscar Robertson's NBA record for career regular season assists, and Johnson currently ranks seventh on the all-time regular season assists list in addition to holding the record for career playoff assists. Johnson led the NBA in regular season assists four times (1983-84, 1986-87) while also leading the league in steals twice (1981-82) and free throw percentage once (1989).
Johnson suddenly retired from the NBA in November 1991 after being diagnosed as HIV positive, but Commissioner David Stern permitted Johnson to play in the 1992 NBA All-Star Game, and Johnson won the 1992 All-Star Game MVP. Johnson coached the Lakers for the final 16 games of the 1994 season, but did not return to the bench after the Lakers went 5-11 with him at the helm. Johnson came back to the NBA as a player for 32 regular season games and four playoff games in 1996 before retiring for the final time. Johnson's lucrative endorsements and savvy business deals enabled him to amass a net worth of more than $1 billion.
Roland Lazenby's Magic: The Life of Earvin "Magic" Johnson (Celadon Books, 813 pages, $40.00) provides a detailed, engaging account of Johnson's ascension from high school phenomenon to NCAA champion to all-time NBA great. Lazenby has written biographies of several all-time great basketball players, including Jerry West, Michael Jordan, and Kobe Bryant.Lazenby's Magic Johnson biography is divided into three parts: Part I is titled "Lansing," Part II is titled "Hollywood," and Part III is titled "Across The Great Divide."
Lansing
Part I is the longest section of the book (338 pages), and some reviewers have criticized Lazenby for focusing so much attention not only on Johnson's early days but also on Johnson's family history dating back to the 1800s. Lazenby has stated that his intention was to not just tell the story of Johnson's basketball life but to place Johnson's entire life in the larger context of American history. Lazenby may not have written the book that some other people think that he should have written, but it is only fair to evaluate Lazenby's book based on what he wrote and what he tried to accomplish--not on what other people think that he should have written or tried to accomplish.
It is interesting to learn about Johnson's family history, and it is also interesting to consider the different ways that family history can be interpreted and understood. Some of Johnson's ancestors were slaves, so should we focus on the persecution they suffered, or should we focus on how in America it is possible for a descendant of slaves to become a world-famous sports legend who earned generational wealth? Acknowledging the opportunities that America provides does not in any way diminish the horrors of slavery and racism. Reading about Johnson's family history reminds us that America is a flawed country with a troubling past but also a great country that, in the immortal words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., is striving to live up to its great, foundational principles: "I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out
the true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are
created equal.'"
Is Stephen Curry the Greatest Point Guard of All-Time?
Stephen Curry's recent declaration that he is the greatest point guard of all-time provides an excellent opportunity to combine a history lesson with a discussion about how to evaluate and rank basketball players. When ranking athletes and teams, there has always been a lamentable tendency to live in the moment and forget about the past, and this tendency seems to have become more pronounced with the proliferation of social media; social media users often drive many public conversations/debates, and social media users tend to be young people who may not know or care about things that happened before they were born. Also, social media platforms encourage brevity at the cost of depth and complexity, which leads to overly simplistic, binary debates such as "Is Michael Jordan or LeBron James the GOAT?" That question ignores even the possibility that the greatest player of all-time might be neither of those players.
Before determining whether or not Curry is the greatest point guard of all-time, it is worth examining if he even is a point guard! Historically, a point guard is a team's primary ballhandler and playmaker. There have been pass-first point guards and there have been scoring point guards, but it is rare that a point guard is neither the primary ballhandler nor the primary playmaker; an obvious exception would be the nominal point guards for the Chicago Bulls when the team won six championships during an eight year span in the 1990s: B.J. Armstrong, John Paxson, Steve Kerr, and Ron Harper may have been listed in the boxscore as the point guards playing alongside shooting guard Michael Jordan at various times, but Scottie Pippen--a point forward--ran the offense while Jordan served as the secondary playmaker. Armstrong, Paxson, and Kerr were spot up shooters, while Harper was a slasher and (at that stage of his career) a defensive specialist.
Curry has not led the Warriors in assists since the 2015 season; Draymond Green has been the Warriors' primary playmaker since that time, while Curry has been most lethal off of the ball. Curry is the team's secondary playmaker, and many of his assists happen after he catches the ball, is trapped, and then passes to an open teammate. In contrast, point guards typically bring the ball up the court, run the offense, and create assist opportunities from their initial action, not after the initial action has already been run.
Curry plays like a shooting guard who has excellent passing skills, and in that regard he is more similar to Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant than he is to Magic Johnson. However, comparing Curry to Jordan or Bryant is not a conversation that would generate much traction on social media, because almost all fans would reflexively take Jordan over Curry, and I suspect that most fans--the sensible ones who understand the importance of size and the value of playing at a high level at both ends of the court--would take Bryant over Curry.
However, Curry is the size of a typical point guard (6-3), he scores more than most of the greatest point guards of all-time, and he has won more championships than most of the greatest point guards of all-time, so framing the conversation as a Curry versus Magic Johnson question--which is what Curry did, and how the conversation has then continued on social media--deftly avoids pitting Curry versus Jordan or Bryant.
For the sake of this discussion, we will accept the premise that Curry is a point guard instead of focusing on the reality that Green is the Warriors' point forward. How should a relatively small sharpshooter who spends a lot of time playing off of the ball be compared with a 6-9 player who was always his team's primary ballhandler and playmaker?
In Part I of my Pantheon series, I mentioned the importance of both high peak value and durability. The greatest players perform at a very high level for a sustained period of time. When evaluating players, their skill set strengths and weaknesses should be assessed as well. A comprehensive, objective evaluation encompasses much more than "ring counting" or sound bites or subjective impressions.
Magic Johnson led the NBA in assists four times (1983-84, 1986-87), he retired as the all-time regular season assists leader (he now ranks seventh with 10,141), and he is still the all-time regular season leader in assists per game (11.2 apg). He tops playoff career leaders in both total assists (2346) and assists per game (12.3 apg). Johnson led the NBA in free throw percentage in 1989 (.911), and he shot at least .843 from the free throw line in each of his final seven full seasons. Johnson is not known for his defense, but he led the league in steals in 1981 and 1982 and he was an excellent defensive rebounder, a skill that fueled the L.A. Lakers' fast break attack because he could just get the ball off of the boards and barrel down court.
Despite playing with several potent scorers--including Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who held the regular season career scoring record from 1984-2023--Johnson averaged 19.5 ppg during his career while shooting .520 from the field. Johnson won three regular season MVPs (1987, 1989-90), and three Finals MVPs (1980, 1982, 1987) while playing on five championship teams (1980, 1982, 1985, 1987-88). Johnson's Lakers were the first NBA team to win back to back titles since the 1969 Boston Celtics. Johnson finished in the top three in regular season MVP voting for nine straight seasons (1983-91), and he made the All-NBA First Team in each of those nine seasons as well.
His numbers and accomplishments speak volumes, but it is important to dig into specifics to understand the context. During the 1980s and early 1990s, Johnson competed for MVPs with his teammate/six-time MVP Abdul-Jabbar, three-time MVP Moses Malone, three-time MVP Larry Bird, four-time MVP Julius Erving, and five-time MVP Michael Jordan; to win championships, Johnson's Lakers beat Erving's 76ers, Bird's Celtics, and Isiah Thomas' great Detroit teams that later won back to back titles.
Johnson was great from day one, and--as indicated above regarding MVP voting and All-NBA First Team selections--he remained dominant for a decade. Abdul-Jabbar only won one of his six NBA titles prior to playing with Johnson. In the 1980 NBA Finals, Abdul-Jabbar averaged 33.4 ppg, 13.6 rpg, and 4.6 bpg as the Lakers took a 3-2 series lead over Erving's 76ers, but Abdul-Jabbar severely sprained his ankle near the end of game five and was unable to play in game six. With Abdul-Jabbar out of the lineup, rookie Johnson produced 42 points, 15 rebounds, seven assists, three steals, and a blocked shot while shooting 14-23 from the field and 14-14 from the free throw line in a 123-107 Lakers win. After that monumental performance, Johnson explained what position he played: "C-F-G Rover." As John Papanek put it in Sports Illustrated, a "rookie three years out of high school played one of the greatest games
in NBA playoff history at all five positions—center, point guard,
shooting guard, small forward and power forward."
Few players in pro basketball history could legitimately play all five positions. During his 16 year pro career, Julius Erving made the All-Star team at both forward and guard, and when he was a young player he utilized his jumping ability and superior rebounding skills to play spot minutes at center, but Erving did not have the necessary height or weight to play extended minutes at center. LeBron James can play all five positions. Johnson is the only player who not only played extended minutes at all five positions when the stakes were highest, but he did so in the same NBA Finals game!
I think that Johnson, more than any player in pro basketball history,
could be teamed up with any four decent players and turn that quintet
into a very competitive team. That does not necessarily mean that
Johnson was the greatest player ever--he was not as good defensively as
Jordan or Russell or several other Pantheon members--but it puts him in a
special, hard to define category. Young fans may believe that LeBron
James has that quality but what I see from James is a mixed bag: he has
won three championships but he has also left several championships on
the table because of inexplicably passive play. Johnson never left any
championships on the table; he lost to all-time great players/teams in
their primes (the Malone/Erving Sixers, Bird's Celtics, the Bad Boys
Pistons, the Jordan/Pippen Bulls). There is no footage of the 1980s
equivalent of Jason Terry outdueling Johnson in the fourth quarter of
key NBA Finals games.
Back to the point about Johnson's incredible versatility as a teammate.
Russell needed a point guard and someone to be a scoring threat. Jordan
needed Pippen (and never advanced past the first round of the playoffs
without him). You can go down the line and most of the great players
needed a certain kind of accompanying star and/or supporting cast to
maximize their greatness--but Johnson legitimately could play all five
positions and he exuded a team-first ethos that smoothed over any
potential ego conflicts (Abdul-Jabbar was hardly a barrel of laughs to
play with for most of his career and it was amazing to see the joy that
radiated from him after he had played with Johnson for a little while).
Johnson won a championship while paired with point guard Norm Nixon in
the backcourt and then he won championships paired with shooting guard
Byron Scott. Johnson won championships with Abdul-Jabbar as the main
post up scoring threat and then he won championships as a post up
scoring threat when Abdul-Jabbar had to accept a lesser role due to his
age/declining skills. Johnson made it to the Finals with an aging James
Worthy, a young Vlade Divac, journeyman Sam Perkins and not much else in
1991--and it took the combined efforts of Jordan/Pippen in their primes
to prevent Johnson from winning a sixth title.
I think that the sudden, shocking end to Johnson's career combined with
Jordan's immediate meteoric rise has actually resulted in Johnson being
somewhat underrated by today's commentators.
Johnson was never a defensive stopper, but for some reason his defense has gotten worse as time passes--at least in the popular imagination. It is important to remember that Johnson was not only an excellent defensive rebounder, but--particularly as a young player--he played the passing lanes very well. His rebounds and steals often became fast break points for the Lakers. Also, he did not shy away from tough defensive assignments, and Coach Pat Riley did not hesitate to give Johnson such assignments. To cite just one example, Riley had Johnson guard Erving at times during the 1982 Finals. Riley explained, "Magic on Doc seemed like an ideal matchup to me. Dr. J is a great offensive rebounder. He'd hurt us real bad. Defensive rebounding is Magic's strength. So we put him in the position we wanted him to be in."
Curry is a 6-3 player who opposing teams "hunt" on defense; Johnson was a 6-9 all-around talent who could effectively guard even Pantheon level players, at least for stretches. That contrast brings us to the crux of why Johnson is a greater point guard (and greater player) than Curry: Johnson's size enabled him to do things--including rebound, defend, and be a post up scoring threat--that Curry just cannot do, and Johnson was better than Curry in every skill set area except for shooting. Johnson passed better, rebounded better, defended better, and handled the ball better.
Curry's accolades include two regular season MVPs (2015-16), one Finals MVP (2022), two scoring titles (2016, 2021), and four free throw percentage titles (2011, 2014-15, 2018). Curry is the career leader in regular season free throw percentage (.909). He has led the league in three point field goals made seven times (2013-17, 2021-22) and his career regular season three point field goal percentage (.428) ranks 12th all-time, but he has never led the league in three point field goal percentage. Curry led the NBA in steals in 2016.
Because Curry won back to back regular season MVPs, it is easy to forget that he has not consistently played at an MVP level throughout his career: he finished in the top five in MVP voting just two other times, and he won one Finals MVP during the Warriors' four championship seasons. Curry has earned just three All-NBA First Team selections. Abdul-Jabbar, Bird, Erving, Jordan, and Moses Malone all performed at a high level in the 1980s, but Johnson was the best player of that decade; Curry has not even been demonstrably the best player in a given five year stretch, let alone the best player for a decade.
A strong case can be made that Magic Johnson is the greatest point guard of all-time, but the evidence just does not support ranking Curry as the greatest point guard of all-time. I respect Curry's greatness, and after his 50 point game seven performance versus Sacramento in last year's playoffs I acknowledged that in the past I may have underrated him, but I do not consider him to be a point guard, and even if I considered him to be a point guard I would not rank him ahead of Magic Johnson, Oscar Robertson, or Jerry West. Robertson and West were big-time scorers like Curry, but they also served as the primary ballhandler and playmaker on their respective teams, and they were better than Curry as rebounders and defenders.
Definining Athleticism, and Correlating Athleticism With Basketball Greatness
In 2007, I wrote Is Steve Nash the Best Athlete in the NBA?, an article that was not just about Nash specifically but rather an examination of how athleticism is thought about and discussed:
Athleticism is often defined very narrowly. In the context of
basketball, athleticism is usually understood to refer primarily to
explosiveness laterally (quickness) and vertically (jumping ability); in
football, athleticism usually is defined by one's performance in the 40
yard dash and in the bench press. However, this kind of thinking leads
to a lot of stereotyping and superficial analysis, usually along racial
lines--i.e., Larry Bird being praised for his cerebral skills while
Michael Jordan is commended for his athletic ability. The reality is
that Bird was a phenomenal athlete, possessing superb hand-eye
coordination, quickness for a step (a concept that will be explained
below) and better jumping ability than most people seem to think;
compare his blocked shot totals to those of legendary leaper Dominique
Wilkins (Bird has the edge, with 755 blocks in 897 games compared to
Wilkins' 642 blocks in 1074 games)--and while Bird did not have the
broad jumping ability of a Julius Erving, he was more than capable of
playing above the rim to get rebounds and even throw down some dunks
(albeit ones that fans would term "generic"), particularly early in his
career.
Nikola Jokic's emergence as not only a two-time regular season MVP but also an NBA champion and NBA Finals MVP provides a great opportunity to further explore athleticism in general, and basketball athleticism in particular. In the popular imagination, it seems that basketball athleticism is defined very narrowly, as noted above. The ability to broad jump--in other words, the ability to take off from one spot, soar through the air, and then dunk the basketball before returning to the ground--attracts a lot of attention and praise, and when a basketball player is described as "athletic," that is shorthand for "He can jump high above the rim" or "He can take off from the foul line and dunk." Most NBA players can execute a generic one handed dunk, so even though dunking may be considered an "athletic" move for a non-NBA player it is not a sign of elite NBA level athleticism--but flying through the air and dunking, particularly if the dunk is accomplished over a defender, is considered to be a sign of elite NBA level athleticism. To some degree, straight-line speed--particularly when dribbling a basketball--is also considered to be a sign of elite NBA level athleticism; a player may be described as "the fastest player in the league from baseline to baseline," and this is meant to indicate that said player has elite NBA level athleticism.
Such narrow definitions and descriptions of athleticism not only fail to capture the full breadth of what athleticism is, but they also fail to correlate athleticism with basketball greatness. Jumping high above the rim, broad jumping or sprinting very fast from baseline to baseline do not have much correlation with basketball greatness unless the player who has such abilities can apply them effectively on offense or defense.
Broad jumping ability is most useful in creating high percentage scoring
opportunities, but it is important that the ability is deployed with an
understanding of time/score/game situation. Julius Erving, Michael
Jordan, and Kobe Bryant are three players who not only had tremendous
broad jumping ability but they each also had a great understanding of
basketball fundamentals; for example, Erving's greatness is not defined by his mid-air feats, but by his ability to combine his physical skills with his broad understanding of the
game--including knowing when to dunk, and when to execute a different shot or play. Similarly, Jordan and Bryant both knew how to use broad jumping ability in concert with basketball fundamentals to create high percentage scoring opportunities.
Athleticism should be defined in a broader way than just jumping high and running fast. Court vision, strength, hand-eye coordination, mental toughness, agility, and quickness are valuable athletic abilities.
Court vision refers not only to the ability to see what is happening on the court right now, but also to visualize what could or will happen depending on the movements of the other nine players. It has been said that Larry Brown could see where all of the other players were on the court at the same time, and that as a coach he would stop practice if a player were the slightest bit out of position. Brown was a three-time ABA All-Star guard who led the league in assists in each of the ABA's first three seasons before becoming the only coach to lead a team to an NCAA title (Kansas, 1988) and an NBA title (Detroit, 2004).
Boston Coach Bill Fitch called Larry Bird "Kodak" because it seemed like Bird could take a picture of the court with his mind and know where every player was. Oscar Robertson, Magic Johnson, and LeBron James are three other all-time greats blessed with elite court vision. Jokic is similar to Bird, Robertson, Johnson, and James because he can see plays before they develop; such players can make a pass that creates an opening, as opposed to merely passing to a player who is already wide open.
Strength is an important athletic ability, but not in terms of specific movements such as the bench press or the squat; strength is important in basketball only to the extent that a player can leverage it to gain an advantage, such as better rebounding position or better post position (both offensively and defensively). Moses Malone was a master of the subtle (and not so subtle) application of strength to improve his positioning in the paint to grab rebounds and convert high percentage shots. Players like Malone and Jokic prove that it is not necessary to fly above the crowd to have an athletic advantage over the competition; strength, when properly utilized, is very difficult to counter.
Hand-eye coordination is an underrated athletic ability that enables a player to handle the ball with dexterity even against pressure defense, and to use the dribble or the pass as appropriate to gain an advantage for his team. Dribbling in one place to show off just wastes precious time on the shot clock without gaining an advantage; much of the ball handling that generates praise and social media views is worse than useless in terms of winning basketball. A player's overall body movements may seem awkward, but if that player has finely tuned hand-eye coordination then he can control the ball in a way that defeats even high level defense. When Jokic advances the ball up the court after snaring a defensive rebound, his body movements may not match traditional expectations for grace and athleticism, but his superior hand-eye coordination enables him to control the ball and to make plays for himself and his teammates.
It may be easier to notice differences in jumping ability between various players than to notice differences in some of the other athletic abilities, but differences in hand-eye coordination and mental toughness may be more important than differences in jumping ability. As Charles Barkley has said, a deer can run and jump, but that does not mean that a deer can play basketball.
Quickness is not the same as sprinting speed. Quickness encompasses both mental quickness and physical quickness; it is a tremendous advantage to process events quickly mentally, and then be able to move quickly physically based on openings to pass, shoot, or drive that may only be available for a split second. A player who has a combination of elite court vision plus physical quickness can be very effective even if he does not jump particularly high or run particularly fast.
Agility is the ability to maintain body balance even in seemingly awkward or unfavorable situations. While jumping ability can be measured, agility is more difficult to quantify, and that is probably why an agile player like Jokic is sometimes described as awkward or unathletic; the way that Jokic moves does not fit the stereotype of what an athletic player looks like, but if you observe Jokic you will notice that he rarely falls down, he is rarely out of position, and he repeatedly makes passes and shots that an uninformed viewer may consider to be lucky. If some guy in the park makes one awkward shot every five games, then that is probably luck--but when Jokic makes such shots and passes on a regular basis, it is incorrect to dismiss such plays as luck or to suggest that he is not athletic.
Describing Jokic as unathletic is lazy and imprecise. Jokic has not demonstrated elite abilities in high jumping, broad jumping, or straight line speed, but he has demonstrated elite abilities in terms of court vision, strength, hand-eye coordination, mental toughness, agility, and quickness. I would argue that if one takes a comprehensive view of athleticism then Jokic is one of the best athletes in the NBA; players whose athleticism is limited to jumping high and running fast are not athletic enough overall to match up with Jokic, and that is one reason why Jokic has enjoyed so much recent success both individually and in terms of leading the Denver Nuggets to the franchise's first championship.
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), CharlesBarkley (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)."
"A work of art contains its verification in itself: artificial, strained concepts do not withstand the test of being turned into images; they fall to pieces, turn out to be sickly and pale, convince no one. Works which draw on truth and present it to us in live and concentrated form grip us, compellingly involve us, and no one ever, not even ages hence, will come forth to refute them."--Alexander Solzhenitsyn (Nobel Lecture)
"The most 'popular,' the most 'successful' writers among us (for a brief period, at least) are, 99 times out of a hundred, persons of mere effrontery--in a word, busy-bodies, toadies, quacks."--Edgar Allan Poe
"In chess what counts is what you know, not whom you know. It's the way life is supposed to be, democratic and just."--Grandmaster Larry Evans
"It's not nuclear physics. You always remember that. But if you write about sports long enough, you're constantly coming back to the point that something buoys people; something makes you feel better for having been there. Something of value is at work there...Something is hallowed here. I think that something is excellence."--Tom Callahan
