1969 NBA Finals
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| Dates | April 23–May 5 | ||||||||||||||
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| MVP |
Jerry West (Los Angeles Lakers) |
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| Television | ABC (U.S.) | ||||||||||||||
| Announcers | Chris Schenkel and Jack Twyman | ||||||||||||||
| Radio network |
WHDH (BOS) KNX (LAL) |
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| Announcers |
Johnny Most and Jim Pansullo (BOS) Chick Hearn and Rod Hundley (LAL) |
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| Referees | |||||||||||||||
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| Hall of Famers |
Lakers: Elgin Baylor (1977) Wilt Chamberlain (1979) Jerry West (1980) Celtics: John Havlicek (1984) Bailey Howell (1997) Sam Jones (1984) Don Nelson (2012, as a coach) Bill Russell (1975, as a player) Satch Sanders (2011) Officials: Mendy Rudolph (2007) Earl Strom (1995) |
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| Eastern Finals | Celtics defeat Knicks, 4–2 | ||||||||||||||
| Western Finals | Lakers defeat Hawks, 4–1 | ||||||||||||||
| Game 1: | Norm Drucker and Earl Strom |
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| Game 2: | Mendy Rudolph and Joe Gushue |
| Game 3: | Norm Drucker and Earl Strom |
| Game 4: | Mendy Rudolph and Joe Gushue |
| Game 5: | Mendy Rudolph and Joe Gushue |
| Game 6: | Norm Drucker and Earl Strom |
| Game 7 | Mendy Rudolph and Earl Strom |
The 1969 NBA World Championship Series to determine the champion of the 1968–69 NBA season was played between the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics, the Lakers being heavily favored due to the presence of three formidable stars: Elgin Baylor, Wilt Chamberlain, and Jerry West. In addition, Boston was an aging team; they made the playoffs as the 4th place team in the Eastern Division, and were not favored to make it to the finals. The Celtics' finals victory – the last championship of the Bill Russell dynasty – is considered one of the great upsets in NBA history.
This series is also notable in that West, with an average of nearly 38 points a game, won the Finals Most Valuable Player award, despite being on the losing team. This was the first year a Finals MVP award was given, and it remains the only time in NBA Finals history that the MVP was awarded to a player on the losing team. It also marks the first time ever in NBA Finals history that a Game 7 was won by the road team.
The Los Angeles Lakers had won 55 games in the regular season (2nd best to the Baltimore Bullets' 57 wins), seven more than their perennial rivals, the Boston Celtics, and therefore held homecourt advantage for the first time ever in an NBA Finals meeting vs. the Russell-led Celtics. Both teams had their share of problems in the regular season. Though the Lakers's acquisition of star center Wilt Chamberlain before the season prompted many observers to predict for them the title that had previously eluded them, their arrival at the Finals had not been easy; the season could have been described as a "soap opera"; Chamberlain and reigning Laker superstars Elgin Baylor and Jerry West had some difficulty in meshing their accustomed styles. And second-year coach Butch van Breda Kolff and Chamberlain clashed terribly throughout the season, frustrating the entire team. In Boston, player-coach Bill Russell was suffering from age and exhaustion, hampering the team both as the starting center and as the coach. In addition, perennial scorer Sam Jones played so poorly that he lost his position as starting shooting guard to Larry Siegfried. The Lakers's appearance in the Finals was expected, but they lost the first two games of the Western Conference semifinals to the San Francisco Warriors on their home court before prevailing, and then outlasted the Atlanta Hawks 4 games to 1 to gain the rematch with the Celtics. Boston's campaign was considered a surprise. They upset the 2nd place 76ers and were fortunate that the 3rd place Knicks upset the 1st place Bullets; Boston then knocked off New York in the Eastern Division finals. The home team won all their games, except for Game 7.
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