1982 Overview
From Hoopedia
1981-82 NBA Season
It was the kind of soap opera that could be scripted only in L.A. How deep were the early season woes and conflict for the Lakers in the fall of 1981?
Within weeks, the coach, a big-time winner, had been ousted and the franchise had turned to a former broadcast analyst to get Showtime back on track. Frustrated by their playoff failure in 1981, the Lakers started the season determined to make a better showing by emphasizing power instead of fast breaks. But a mediocre start and the plodding pace of the new offense led to the dismissal of Coach Paul Westhead just 11 games into the season, despite the team having won at least 50 games in each of Westhead’s two seasons at the Lakers’ helm.
Magic Johnson, cast as the villain because the firing came the day after he had a heated on-court exchange with Westhead, was actually booed in his beloved Forum, which had previously been unthinkable. But out of the chaos emerged Pat Riley, the former Laker who had been part of the 1972 championship team. Two years earlier, Westhead had brought Riley over from the broadcast table to serve as an assistant. Now Riley was thrust into the top job when Jerry West, then a personnel consultant to the team, refused to take the head coaching duties but agreed to sit next to Riley on the bench to ease the transition.
Riley installed a freewheeling offense and aggressive, trapping defense, and the Lakers responded by winning 57 games.
Boston won a league-high 63 games and the Atlantic Division, and Philadelphia and Boston advanced to meet in the Eastern Conference Finals for the third straight year. Philadelphia went up 3-1 for the second straight year, but Boston again won two games to send it to a seventh game in Boston. This time, Philadelphia triumphed 120-106 and moved on to meet the Lakers in the Finals.
Los Angeles had swept Phoenix and San Antonio to reach the championship series and had been enduring two-a-day practice sessions in order not to be rusty for the Finals.
Key to the Lakers’ success had been the addition of Bob McAdoo, who had won three consecutive scoring titles as a member of the Buffalo Braves. His Braves teams had never gotten past the Eastern Conference Semifinals. After several injuries and trades, including a contentious stop in Boston, the former All-Star had fallen into the category of many high scoring players: admired for his point-producing ability but disdained for his team’s lack of playoff success. The night before Christmas 1981, the 30-year-old McAdoo was traded to the Lakers and he became a key player for Los Angeles, averaging 16.7 points per game in the playoffs. With McAdoo providing offense off the bench, the Lakers won Game 1 by seven points, the closest game of the Finals, and captured the series in six games.
“This is the happiest moment of my life,” he said after the Lakers’ victory. “People have said bad things about me during my career, but his makes up for it.”
Johnson, with 13 points, 13 rebounds and 13 assists in Game 6, was named the series MVP, an award that some in the media found controversial.
The Lakers, though, had had about all the controversy they could stand for one season. “There were times earlier in the year when I didn’t think this would be possible,” Lakers forward Jamaal Wilkes said as champagne cascaded over his face. “We had so many unhappy people around here you wouldn’t believe it.”
The Lakers had won yet another title with a rookie coach. Riley and team owner Jerry Buss smiled broadly as the Lakers owner accepted the trophy afterward. “It seems like a millennium since I took over,” Riley said of seven months as a head coach. “Yeah, a millennium. I’ve got brain drain right now, mush brain. I dug down for everything I could find. I need four months to rest up.”
