1977 NBA Finals
|
|||||||||||||
| Dates | May 22–June 5 | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MVP |
Bill Walton (Portland Trail Blazers) |
||||||||||||
| Television | CBS (U.S.) | ||||||||||||
| Announcers | Brent Musburger, Rick Barry, and Steve "Snapper" Jones | ||||||||||||
| Referees | |||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||
| Hall of Famers |
76ers: Julius Erving (1993) Trail Blazers: Bill Walton (1993) Coaches: Jack Ramsay (1992) Officials: Darell Garretson (2016) Earl Strom (1995) |
||||||||||||
| Eastern Finals | 76ers defeat Rockets, 4–2 | ||||||||||||
| Western Finals | Trail Blazers defeat Lakers, 4–0 | ||||||||||||
| Game 1: | John Vanak and Earl Strom |
|---|---|
| Game 2: | Richie Powers and Joe Gushue |
| Game 3: | Darell Garretson and Jake O'Donnell |
| Game 4: | Don Murphy and Manny Sokol |
| Game 5: | Darell Garretson and Earl Strom |
| Game 6: | Jake O'Donnell and Richie Powers |
The 1977 NBA World Championship Series was the championship round of the 1976–77 National Basketball Association (NBA) season. The Western Conference champion Portland Trail Blazers played against the Eastern Conference champion Philadelphia 76ers, with the 76ers holding home-court advantage. Their four regular season meetings had been split evenly, 2–2, with neither side winning away from home. The series was played under a best-of-seven format, so the first team to win four games would win the series and become the league champions.
The 1976–77 NBA season started with the ABA–NBA merger. Portland had benefited from the resulting ABA dispersal draft as they acquired Spirits of St. Louis power forward Maurice Lucas to partner with Bill Walton, and Philadelphia had signed ABA All-Star and 3-time ABA MVP Julius "Dr. J" Erving, who had taken the New York Nets to the ABA title the previous year. In the 1977 NBA Finals, five of the ten starting players were former ABA players. (Those five starters from the ABA were Julius Erving, Caldwell Jones, George McGinnis, Dave Twardzik, and Maurice Lucas.)
While it was no surprise that Philadelphia had made it to the championship series, having posted the best record in the east (50-32, #1), Portland's appearance in the finals was a mild surprise. Portland, a team that was founded only seven years earlier, was not only making its playoff debut with its first winning season (49-33, #3), but it was also making its finals debut as well after sweeping the Los Angeles Lakers in four close games in the Western Conference Finals.
...
Wikipedia