1975 Overview
From Hoopedia
1974-75 NBA Season
In their first eight years in the league, the Chicago Bulls believed they had to have a dominant center. Heading into the 1974-75 season, they got one. Along with him came a huge lesson in irony.
The Bulls traded pivot workhorse Clifford Ray and a first-round pick to Golden State for the brilliant but aging future Hall of Famer Nate Thurmond. The two teams met that next spring in the Western Conference finals, and Ray played a key role in overcoming his old team. The Warriors went on to sweep the favored Washington Bullets for the NBA championship.
“Our key change was getting Clifford Ray for Nate Thurmond,” the Warriors Rick Barry would later say. “Ray was one of the best defensive centers in the game.”
It was a season of individual brilliance, with three players -- Bob McAdoo, Barry and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar -- averaging 30 or more points per game, and another five players -- Wes Unseld, Dave Cowens, Sam Lacey, McAdoo and Abdul-Jabbar averaging better than 14 boards a game.
The retirements of Jerry West and Oscar Robertson left their teams weakened, and the Lakers and Milwaukee each fell to the bottom of their divisions. This spelled opportunity for hungry young teams in the Western Conference, and nobody was hungrier than the Warriors.
Al Attles, a fixture with the Warriors since 1960 as a player and a coach, had developed an 11-deep roster of role players. They complemented Barry, the high-scoring forward still in his prime (he turned 31 during the season) and nearly able to average his age at 30.6 points per game, second best in the league. In addition to acquiring Ray for the aging Thurmond, Attles also brought in scrappy guard Butch Beard and drafted forward Jamaal Wilkes from UCLA, who would emerge as rookie of the year.
This unlikely group won 48 games to top the Western Conference, defeated Coach Bill Russell’s Seattle team in six games and used its endless hustle and desire to beat a talented Chicago Bulls team in seven games to reach the Finals. The Bulls, coached by Dick Motta and led by Jerry Sloan and Chet Walker, led 3-2 in the Western finals, but the Warriors somehow persevered.
With former Celtic K.C. Jones coaching, the Washington Bullets won 60 Games, matching defending champion Boston for the best record in the East. Point guard Kevin Porter posted the best assist numbers in the league at 8.0 while the muscular Unseld claimed the rebounding title at 14.8. But it took the Bullets seven games to dispatch the Buffalo Braves, led by NBA scoring champ Bob McAdoo (34.5), in the Eastern Conference Semifinals. Washington then used the inside-outside scoring combination of Elvin Hayes and Phil Chenier to turn back the Celtics in six games.
The Bullets were heavily favored to beat the Warriors in the Finals.
Washington had an experienced team with Hayes, Unseld and feisty Mike Riordan up front and Porter and Chenier in the backcourt.
On paper, the Bullets were far superior to the Warriors. But the pressure mounted on Jones’ players with each succeeding close loss. Golden State stunned the Bullets and basketball world by winning four straight close games to post only the third sweep in the 29-year history of the NBA Finals.
“It has to be the greatest upset in the history of the NBA Finals,” Barry said. “It was like a fairy-tale season. Everything just fell into place. It’s something I’ll treasure for the rest of my life.”
