Favorite stories/memories of the NBA

[Steelers2012]

A slight detour in another thread brought up mentions of the old NBA days and its characters. I thought it might be interesting to share some favorite tales of our NBA memories. Obviously the timeframes will be different for many, depending on your age.

A few of mine:

I was/am a Philadelphia 76ers fan. I remember a heated 1984 rivalry game between the 76ers and Celtics in which Larry Bird got into a tussle with Julius Irving where they both had their hands around each other's throat. Charles Barkley tried to intervene (or help Dr.J, however you see it. LoL!) and ended up holding Bird while Irving threw multiple punches at him. It was just surreal to see 2 legends of the game (Dr.J being perceived at the time as an elder statesman of the game) throwing punches at each other.

In a 1977 playoff game between the Sixers and the Portland Trailblazers, Darryl Dawkins and Maurice Lucas (famous former Kentucky Colonel) got into an altercation and Dawkins threw a wild punch that accidently hit his teammate Doug Collins in the face and required stitches over his eye.

In the 1980 NBA Finals, Lakers ROOKIE Magic Johnson filled in at center for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (out with a severely sprained ankle) in the Final Game 6 against the 76ers. That S.O.B. ended up with 42 points, 15 rebounds, seven assists, three steals and go a perfect 14-14 from the free throw line, and The Lakers won the series 4-2. I believe at the time (maybe it still stands?), Magic was the only basketball player to ever win a High School State Championship, an NCAA Championship, and an NBA Title in the space of 4 years.

 

[KerryRhodes]

Lakers





















Sixers

 

[Steelers2012]

Lakers

Sixers

I loved watching "Showtime", just not against my Sixers. Remember when they only showed regular season games on Friday nights? The Friday Night NBA on CBS!!! Obviously...WAY before ESPN.

 

[KerryRhodes]

Theres so many between the 80s until now.


Lakers-Celtics rivalry
Detroit laboring to get past Boston. Bulls laboring to get past Detroit.
Lakers 8 western conference titles in the 80s. Rockets had the other two!
in 86' ralph samson hits a damn near backwards shot to knock the Lakers out.

Seattle drafts Scottie Pippen, then trades him to the Bulls for Olden Polynice.
Magic retiring due to 'aids'. Un-retiring.
Slam dunk contest stolen by Jordan. Dominique should have won.


Sooooo many. Thats just .001%

 

[Cue Card]

LA Lakers SHOWTIME! That was the best era of NBA basketball ever. Magic Johnson is still my favorite player of all time and THE best player to ever play in the NBA. Nobody else has ever been able to play all five positions. Magic is the only one ever to do so including playing center in the NBA finals and hitting the series winning hook shot! What a freak of nature he was. He revolutionized the game and changed it forever.

 

[Steelers2012]

Theres so many between the 80s until now.


Lakers-Celtics rivalry
Detroit laboring to get past Boston. Bulls laboring to get past Detroit.
Lakers 8 western conference titles in the 80s. Rockets had the other two!
in 86' ralph samson hits a damn near backwards shot to knock the Lakers out.

Seattle drafts Scottie Pippen, then trades him to the Bulls for Olden Polynice.
Magic retiring due to 'aids'. Un-retiring.
Slam dunk contest stolen by Jordan. Dominique should have won.


Sooooo many. Thats just .001%

Slam dunk contest stolen by Jordan. Dominique should have won.

Absolutely!!! If the contest wasn't held in Chicago, I think 'Nique would have won. Dominique is STILL my favorite dunker of all time, with Shawn Kemp #2. I can still remember where I was/what I was doing when I heard the Magic-Aids news. That was a HUGE announcement at that time that went way beyond just the world of sports.

 

[KerryRhodes]

Len Bias over dosing celebrating being drafted by the Celtics.
Knicks 'win' first lottery, draft Ewing.
Isaiah spraigns ankle, scores NBA record 23 in a quarter on it. Mr miyagi must
have been in their huddle.

Charlotte drafts high schooler Kobe Bryant. Trades him for Vlade Divac.
Jordan hits 6 threes in the finals against Portland.
5'7 Spud webb wins dunk contest in Dallas.
Cue's favorite larry bird, telling everyone, theyre playing for 2nd in the 3 point contest.

Biggest punks; lame-beer, danny ainge, charles barkley, dennis rodman.
Jordan actually coached the bulls in practice.
Before my time, Kareem breaks Kent Benson's jaw.
Jazz lose back to back NBA finals . 97 98
NBA adopts zone to slow down shaq. Didnt really need to. All the big macs did.

 

[KerryRhodes]

"My" top 15 greatest players

C Wilt
C Bill Russell
SF Bird
SG Jordan
PG Magic

2nd team

C Kareem
PF Duncan
SF Erving
2G Kobe
PG Oscar Robertson

3rd team

C Olajuwon
PF Karl malone
SF Scottie Pippen
SG Jerry West
PG Isaiah Thomas

 

[Cue Card]

That's a great top 15 Kerry. Hard to argue with. I would probably flip Kareem and Dr. J to first team and knock Wilt and Bird down to second team but other than that, the top 15 is pretty solid. Honorable mention to Jerry West, Oscar Robinson, and Patrick Ewing.

 

[Steelers2012]

That's a great top 15 Kerry. Hard to argue with. I would probably flip Kareem and Dr. J to first team and knock Wilt and Bird down to second team but other than that, the top 15 is pretty solid. Honorable mention to Jerry West, Oscar Robinson, and Patrick Ewing.

I've always struggled with the debate over Wilt vs Russell. You have Bill Russell, who was the winningest NBA player of all-time with 11 NBA titles to his resume, vs Wilt Chamberlain, who was THE single most dominant offensive force in the NBA. He led the NBA in scoring seven times, field goal percentage nine times, minutes played eight times, rebounding eleven times, and assists once. But, I think, in the end, you have to go with the greatest team winner of all-time in Russell.

 

[CardHack]

I was always a Celtics guy in the 80's when everybody in the world seemed like they loved the Lakers. The parquet floor at the Garden, the crowd seemed like it wasn't over the court or up against the court...they were ON the court. Bird was my man and I really hated the Sixers too, though I really admired Dr. J. My favorite Dr. J memory was every time the starting lineups were announced at the Spectrum and how the P.A. guy would say "The Doctor...Juuuulius...Erviiiing". Moses was a bad ass.

 

[Birdman of Alcatraz]

Chris Schenkel calling ABC games on Sunday afternoons back in the sixties -- almost always featuring either the 76ers (Wilt) or Celtics (Russell, Havlicek) or -- often -- both against each other.

 

[Senore2006]

I would place Cousey over Isiah, lol. If you ever saw him play, you would know why. Otherwise, Kerry's list is close to perfect.

 

[CardHack]

I would only say in Kerry's Top 15 I would put Lebron at the 2nd team and slide Julius down to Pippen's. Pippen wasn't a team carrier like the other guys were.

 

[earsky]

Lakers-Celtics rivalry.

 

[earsky]

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I would place Cousey over Isiah, lol. If you ever saw him play, you would know why. Otherwise, Kerry's list is close to perfect.

Cousey was ahead of his time.About a decade.

 

[BooneCo_Card]

Chris Schenkel calling ABC games on Sunday afternoons back in the sixties -- almost always featuring either the 76ers (Wilt) or Celtics (Russell, Havlicek) or -- often -- both against each other.

You beat me to it. It was at least every other weekend during the season and always during the playoffs. There was always something on the line. Russ/Wilt was like Ali/Frazier. Wilt never had the surrounding cast as Russell, but was amazing. He did things with such ease that he appeared not to give a d--n. Any all-time team w/o him as the starting C is bogus IMHO.

 

[BooneCo_Card]

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I would place Cousey over Isiah, lol. If you ever saw him play, you would know why. Otherwise, Kerry's list is close to perfect.

Cousey was amazing, but I'll take Isiah based on his scoring having followed both. The generation ahead of me would tell you Ralph Beard ate Cousey up every time they played. I don't know. Beard was the one player I would have loved to have seen play.

One name I haven't seen mention here is Bob Pettit at PF. Never played in a big market (St. Louis)or at a big time college program (LSU), but he was the real deal. I hadn't thought of him in years until last Christmas watching my grandson play a BB video game. He said he always uses Pettit at the PF.

 

[Senore2006]

Beard might have even been Cousey - he was that good. But he covered him in college when Bob was Holy Cross's main man. As a distributor with Sam and KC Jones, Heinson, Frank Ramsay and Russell, I'm not sure if Beard would even bother him.

 

[BooneCo_Card]

Beard might have even been Cousey - he was that good. But he covered him in college when Bob was Holy Cross's main man. As a distributor with Sam and KC Jones, Heinson, Frank Ramsay and Russell, I'm not sure if Beard would even bother him.

Nor am I. Cousey's passing was on a level all its own in his era.

 

[Louisville JD]

Saw Dr J and Doug Collins vs Portland and Maurice Lucas in the 70's playoffs! Loved Dr J's all around game.

 

[Senore2006]

LOL, I lived in Portland in 1996-2000. I was working for someone else then, a humongous landscaping company who put in golf courses, Microsoft's campus in Seattle, all of NIKE's work, plus Phil Knight's home, the Chinese Garden etc.......and big old Kevin Duckworth;s house, lol. I once shot free throws with him on his cool sports court to decide if we would do something (nothing major) that was outside the contract. I lost, ha ha - and we did it to a beaming big smile. 7'1" tall, he was verging on 5-600 pounds later on before he passed away. Just a really cool, warm guy who warmed up to me personally when I mentioned my Mom and Dad graduated from Eastern Illinois.

 

[eastwood45789]

I loved the veteran Celtics teams in the 60's. Bailey Howell, Bill Russell, John Havlicek. It was great when the playoffs were on and they led in with the Paul Revere and the Raiders song "Kicks." It was a great tune with an anti drug use message which was highly appropriate at the time.