Moses Malone (left) and Julius Erving. Big Mo and Dr. J.
May 31, 1983, 40 years ago: The Philadelphia 76ers, and Julius Erving, finally win an NBA Championship, on the massive shoulders of the man who, for most of the early 1980s, was the best basketball player in the world.
Not Erving. Not Kareem Abdul-Jabbar or Magic Johnson of the Los Angeles Lakers, whom the Sixers beat in these Finals. Not Larry Bird of the Boston Celtics, whom the Sixers beat to get into the Finals.
His name was Moses Malone.
It was a story of 2 men, who couldn't have been more different in style, but who combined to get a precious result for one of basketball's greatest cities.
Both players started out in the American Basketball Association. Erving began with the Virginia Squires in 1971, and went to the New York Nets in 1973. Known as "Doctor J," his stunning moves led the Long Island team to the ABA Championship in 1974 and 1976. But when the Nets were invited into the NBA for the 1976-77 season, the territorial indemnification fee they had to pay to the New York Knicks forced them to dump Erving's salary. They traded him to the 76ers.
The 76ers, previously the Syracuse Nationals until 1963, and NBA Champions in 1967, reached the NBA Finals in 1977, but lost it to the Portland Trail Blazers. For 1978, the team adopted the slogan of "We owe you one," but they lost the Eastern Conference Finals to the Washington Bullets.
By 1980, Erving had cut back some on the superhuman moves (but not entirely: There was a basket in the NBA Finals that got the tag "The Move"), and became a better defensive player in the process. But the 76ers again lost the Finals, this time to the Lakers. They blew a 3-games-to-1 lead in the Conference Finals in 1981, to the Celtics. They beat the Celtics to get into the NBA Finals in 1982, but, again, lost to the Lakers.
Dr. J had 2 "red, white and blue rings," but, still no "real ring." And even fans in New England, Celtic fans who'd hated Philadelphia basketball teams going back to Warriors, who debuted in 1946 and moved to San Francisco in 1962, began to feel bad for him.
Enter Moses Malone. In 1974, he became the 1st player to jump from high school directly to the pros, signing with the ABA's Utah Stars. In 1976, after brief stopovers with the ABA's Spirits of St. Louis and the NBA's Buffalo Braves, he was traded to the Houston Rockets, and was named NBA Most Valuable Player in 1979 and 1982. He got the Rockets to their 1st NBA Finals berth in 1981, where they lost to the Celtics.
After the 1981-82 season, he was a free agent. The Sixers knew that enough was enough: They had to go for it, and opened the vault for Malone. Head coach Billy Cunningham and assistant coach Matt Guokas, both rookie forwards on the 76ers' 1967 title team, now had Malone at center, Erving and Bobby Jones as forwards, and Maurice Cheeks and Andrew Toney as guards. There was good scoring, and truly rugged defense. Toney was so good against the Celtics, he became known as the Boston Strangler.
The Sixers went 65-17, by 7 games over the Lakers the best record in the NBA. Malone, a native of the Norfolk, Virginia area, was asked how he thought the Playoffs would go. He said, "Fo', fo', fo'." In other words, he thought the Sixers would sweep all three series in four straight games. It had never been done.
In the Conference Semifinals, the Sixers did, indeed, sweep the New York Knicks in 4 straight. Malone led the team in scoring in all 4 games: 38 points, 30, 28 and 29. Knicks coach Hubie Brown, making a point about talent, if not one about proper pronunciation, said, "Moses Malone is a real man. They cannot pay him a-nough."
The Sixers won the 1st 3 games of the Eastern Conference Finals against the Milwaukee Bucks, although none of those 3 was easy. They were 7-0 in the Playoffs. The Bucks won Game 4, 100-94, ending the sweep dream. But the Sixers closed it out in Game 5, 115-103.
The Sixers went into the NBA Finals like a steamroller. The Lakers did not: Rookie sensation James Worthy broke his leg late in the regular season, and missed the entire Playoffs. Bob McAdoo -- like Worthy, Abdul-Jabbar and Johnson, on his way to the Basketball Hall of Fame -- was also hurt, though he was playing through it.
Indeed, in a 1996 ESPN discussion as to what was the greatest team in NBA history, the '83 76ers got nominated, and Bob Ryan of The Boston Globe, who chose the '86 Celtics, said of the '83 76ers, "There's a team out there that could have beaten them," citing the injuries to Worthy and McAdoo.
How much difference could those 2 have made? Perhaps enough to deny those Sixers entry into the "greatest team ever" conversation, but not enough to deny them the title. The Sixers won Game 1 at The Spectrum, 113-107, with Malone scoring 27. They won Game 2, 103-93, with Malone scoring 24. With all the focus on Malone, Erving could relax a little, and played some of the best basketball of his career.
The series moved out to Inglewood, California. Basketball pundits like to say that a series is never over until a home team loses at least once. But the Sixers mopped up the Forum floor with the Lakers in Game 3, 111-94. Malone had 28 points and 19 rebounds. A sweep was now a fait accompli, and Malone accomplished it with 24 points and 23 rebounds in Game 4. He had controlled the entire postseason, which ended with a 115-108 76ers victory. The joke was easy: Moses had led them to the Promised Land.
Moses Malone had carved his name into the marble of NBA history, winning the MVP of both the regular season and the Finals. And Julius Erving finally had an NBA Championship. Pretty much anybody who wasn't a hardcore Laker fan was happy.
The 76ers remained a strong team for 3 more years. But on June 15, 1986, team owner Harold Katz traded Malone, and they traded the top pick the Draft. They've never been the same since, making only 1 NBA Finals, in 2001 with Allen Iverson. Otherwise, with Charles Barkley, Iverson, and Joel Embiid, and under 3 different ownership regimes, the Philadelphia 76ers have been one of the most underachieving teams in North American sports.
From the NBA Finals of 1984 to that of 2022, the count of NBA Championships is as follows: Los Angeles Lakers 9, Chicago Bulls 6, San Antonio Spurs 5, Golden State Warriors 4, Detroit Pistons 3, Boston Celtics 3, Miami Heat 3, Houston Rockets 2, Dallas Mavericks 1, Cleveland Cavaliers 1, Toronto Raptors 1, Milwaukee Bucks 1. The other 18 teams, including the Philadelphia 76ers, none. And of those 18 teams, 5 didn't even exist in 1983.
"Trust the process"? The 76ers acquired James Harden in 2022, but Harden is no Moses Malone. And Embiid is no Julius Erving.
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