1969 Overview
From Hoopedia
1968-69 NBA Season
It was supposed to be the Lakers’ year, but 1969 would instead become their nightmare, with a finish that would haunt Jerry West and his teammates like no other loss.
The Lakers had acquired center Wilt Chamberlain from Philadelphia for three players prior to the start of the season. Lakers owner Jack Kent Cooke figured the addition of Chamberlain to the tandem of West and Elgin Baylor would surely bring him a championship in the 14-team league, which had welcomed Milwaukee and Phoenix as expansion franchises.
But Celtics player-coach Bill Russell, his legs wracked by painful phlebitis, had one last hurrah in him. The Boston dynasty, riding again on the 6-10 Russell’s uncanny instincts for rebounding, shotblocking and team play, rose up to overcome the opposition one final time.
It was also a year in which two rookies had a huge immediate impact on the league. Elvin Hayes, a powerfully built forward for the San Diego Rockets, won the league scoring title with 28.4 points per game and also averaged 17.1 rebounds. Wes Unseld, the second pick (after Hayes) in the 1968 NBA Draft by Baltimore, joined Chamberlain as the only players to win both the Most Valuable Player and Rookie of the Year Awards in the same season, averaging 13.8 points per game and placing second behind Chamberlain with 18.2 rebounds per game.
The Celtics, widely written off because of advancing age, won just 48 games in the regular season, finishing fourth in the East. But they dumped Philadelphia and took the playoff-neophyte Knicks in six games and stepped up to challenge the Lakers for the championship.
Los Angeles had home-court advantage, and when the series went to a seventh game, Cooke had hundreds of balloons placed in netting in the Forum ceiling to be released in a victory celebration. The sight of those balloons spurred Russell and his teammates to make the Lakers pay. With more than five minutes left, Chamberlain injured his knee and asked to be taken out, with Boston holding a big lead but the Lakers charging back.
West hit two free throws and the lead was down to seven. Russell and his teammates were out of gas, hoping to coast. Another West jumper and two more free throws, and suddenly the lead was three, 103-100.
With a little more than a minute left and Boston up just 103-102, West knocked the ball loose on defense. Boston’s Don Nelson picked it up at the free throw line and threw it up. It hit the back rim, rose up several feet in the air and dropped back through the net. The balloons were all but burst. The Celtics hung on to win 108-106.
West finished with 42 points, 13 rebounds and 12 assists, earning NBA Finals MVP honors, the first and only time the award has gone to a member of the losing team. “He is the master,” said Boston’s Larry Siegfried. “They can talk about the others, build them up, but he is the one. He is the only guard.”
Three months after the season, Russell announced his retirement. The Boston dynasty was over. They had won 11 titles in 13 years, a string unmatched by any team in any major sport. “It was a challenge to play against Russell and the Celtics,” Baylor said. “It was fun. It was disappointing to lose, but it was the ultimate challenge. They were a proud team, and they had reason to be. Some people thought they were proud and arrogant. But I enjoyed playing against them. They were the best.”
