May 5, 1969: Game 7 of the NBA Finals is played at The Forum, outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California. Jack Kent Cooke, builder of The Forum, and owner of its teams, the NBA's Los Angeles Lakers and the NHL's Los Angeles Kings, has prepared the building for the Lakers' 1st World Championship since moving to Los Angeles in 1960. (They had previously won titles in Minneapolis in 1949, '50, '52, '53 and '54.) Balloons are suspended from the ceiling, in anticipation of the celebration.
There was good reason for this anticipation. The Lakers had 4 men on their roster who went on to the Basketball Hall of Fame: Guards Jerry West and Gail Goodrich, forward Elgin Baylor, and, acquired the previous off-season, center Wilt Chamberlain. Goodrich was an excellent passer. West was that, and the best shooter the game had ever seen, and a great defensive player. Baylor was the flashiest player in the league, with offensive moves no one had ever seen before.
And Chamberlain was the greatest basketball player who ever lived. The year before, with the Philadelphia 76ers, he had led the league in assists, the only time a center has ever done that. The year before that, he had led the Sixers to the NBA Championship. In each of the 7 seasons before that, he had led the NBA in scoring, including in 1961-62, when he averaged 50.4 points per game. He would be the NBA's all-time leading scorer until 1984. He is still its all-time leading rebounder. Blocked shots were not kept as an official statistic at that time; if they were, he would still be the all-time leader in that, too.
And now, he had been added to the Lakers. Before the 2003-04 Lakers, before the 2007-08 Boston Celtics, before the early 2010s Miami Heat, before the late 2010s Golden State Warriors, and before the 2020 Lakers, this was the NBA's 1st planned superteam, although that term wasn't used at the time.
The Lakers went 55-27, easily winning the regular-season title in the Western Division. In the Playoffs, they beat the San Francisco Warriors in 6 games, and then the Atlanta Hawks in 5.
Standing in their way, as they always seemed to be, were the Boston Celtics. The Celtics had won their 1st NBA Championship in 1957. In 1959 (the Lakers' last Finals appearance in Minneapolis), '62, '63, '65, '66 and '68, they had beaten the Lakers in the Finals. They had also beaten the St. Louis Hawks in the Finals in 1957, '60 and '61, losing to them in '58; and the Warriors in the Finals in '64.
Red Auerbach had coached the Celtics until the 1966 title, then stepped aside, remaining general manager. He handed the head coaching reins to the man who had been his best player since his arrival in 1956: Bill Russell. He was the 2nd-best player the game had ever seen to this point, behind Chamberlain.
But where Chamberlain was the best player, Russell was the best team player, because Auerbach built a great team around him, and Russell made them all better. He led them to another Championship in 1968, and Sports Illustrated named him their Sportsman of the Year. By 1969, that team included fellow future Hall-of-Famers Sam Jones, John Havlicek, Tom "Satch" Sanders, Bailey Howell, and, though it would be as a coach that he would be elected, Don Nelson.
Age, and the pressure of also coaching the Celtics, was catching up with Russell. The Celtics went 48-34, only finishing 4th in the Eastern Division. But it was enough to make the Playoffs, in which the Celtics beat the 76ers in 5 games, and the New York Knicks in 6.
Russell had announced he would retire as a player. Due to the aging of the Celtics -- he was 35, to Baylor's 34, Chamberlain's 32 and West's 30 -- for the 1st time, they went into an NBA Finals as an underdog. And, sure enough, the Lakers took the 1st 2 games in Inglewood, 120-118 and 118-112.
No one was really surprised when the Celtics took the next 2 at the Boston Garden, 111-105 and 89-88. Or when the Lakers won Game 5 at home, 117-104. (Due to the league having expanded to 5 additional teams over the last 3 seasons, this was the 1st NBA game ever played in the month of May.) Or when the Celtics won Game 6 at home, 99-90. There was no way Bill Russell was going to lose his last game at the Boston Garden.
But no home team had ever lost an NBA Finals Game 7. At that point, home teams were 8-0: The Rochester Royals won in 1951; the Lakers did so in 1952 and '54; the Syracuse Nationals in 1955; and the Celtics in 1957, '60, '62 and '66.
And so, for Game 7, with every good reason to believe that it would happen, Cooke ordered the balloons, yellow with "World Champion Lakers" written in purple on them, suspended from the rafters of The Forum. In every seat, and all 17,568 were filled, a flyer was placed, stating, "When, not if, the Lakers win the title, balloons will be released from the rafters, the USC marching band will play 'Happy Days Are Here Again' and broadcaster Chick Hearn will interview Elgin Baylor, Jerry West and Wilt Chamberlain in that order."
Cooke was counting his chickens before they hatched. West, trying to get through a hamstring pull in Game 5, went out for a pre-game shoot-around, and saw the balloons, and, thinking them a jinx, yelled at Cooke. Russell saw them, and walked over to West, and said, "Those fucking balloons are staying up there."
Russell told his players to take advantage of West's injury by running the fast break every chance they got. After 1 quarter, it was Celtics 24, Lakers 12. At halftime, the Lakers had cut it to 59-56. The Celtics extended their lead to 91-76 after 3.
For all his achievements, Chamberlain would later say that he was most proud of the fact that he had never fouled out of a game in his career. But early in the 4th quarter, he was assessed his 5th foul. With only 1 more to give, he had to take it easy on defense. With 5 minutes left, and the Celtics leading 103-94, he injured his knee, and walked to the bench.
Laker coach Butch van Breda Kolff, who had coached a Princeton University team featuring later New York Knicks star Bill Bradley to the NCAA Final Four in 1965, sent backup center Mel Counts in -- and with 2 minutes left, it was Boston 103, Los Angeles 102.
Chamberlain told van Breda Kolff he was ready to go back in. VBK said, "We're doing fine without you."
They were not doing fine without him: They were still behind. And so, in the most important two minutes of his coaching career, down by one point, Butch van Breda Kolff left the greatest player of all time on the bench. It remains the greatest coaching blunder in the history of the NBA.
With 1:33 left, it was still 103-102 Boston, when Havlicek, famous for a key steal at the end of Game 7 of the 1965 Eastern Conference Finals, against a 76ers team with Chamberlain, had the ball knocked away from him by Keith Erickson. This looked like a big break for the Lakers. Instead, it went to Nelson, who beat the 24-second shot clock with a shot from 18 feet out, to make it 105-102 Celtics.
The Lakers would follow this with turnovers that might not have happened if Chamberlain had been put back in. The game ended Celtics 108, Lakers 106. Two points made the difference between the Lakers finally winning their 1st NBA Championship in Los Angeles, and letting the balloons come down, and the most humiliating defeat in NBA history.
For the Celtics, Russell used only 7 players, all game long: Havlicek scored 26, Jones 24, Em Bryant 20, Nelson 16, Howell 9, Larry Siegfried 7, and Russell himself 6 plus 21 rebounds.
The Lakers also used only 7 players: West scored 42, with 13 rebounds and 12 assists, making him the 1st player with a triple-double in an NBA Finals Game 7 (through the 2021 Finals, he has been followed only by James Worthy in 1988 and LeBron James in 2016); Baylor 20, with 15 rebounds; Chamberlain 18, with 27 rebounds, despite missing the last 5 minutes; Counts and Johnny Egan each scored 9, Erickson 6, and Tom Hawkins 2.
For the 1st time, a Most Valuable Player award was presented for the Finals. It was given to West. He remains the only player from a losing team ever to receive it. In 2009, the award was renamed the Bill Russell Award, honoring a man who never had it available to him, but had played 13 seasons in the NBA, made 12 Finals, and won 11 Championships.
Jerry West
Cooke correctly identified the scapegoat, and fired van Breda Kolff almost immediately. VBK went on to coach in the NBA with Detroit, Phoenix and New Orleans (the Jazz, not the Hornets/Pelicans franchise); in the ABA with Memphis; and in college with the University of New Orleans, Lafayette and Hofstra. He never got close to winning again. Chamberlain (and West) had carried him, so maybe he should have given Chamberlain the benefit of the doubt.
Russell went on to coach 4 seasons with the Seattle SuperSonics, and 1 for the Sacramento Kings. Like many player-coaches, he found it a lot harder to coach when he couldn't call on himself to play. Without himself (and Auerbach to build teams for him), he coached 5 seasons, losing in the 1st round of the Playoffs twice, missing twice, and being fired before he could complete his season in Sacramento.
The Lakers got back to the Finals in 1970, and lost to the Knicks, and they remain the only team ever to lose 3 straight NBA Finals. Early in the 1971-72 season, Baylor retired. In their next game, the Lakers began a 33-game winning streak, still a record for North American major league sports. They set a new record with 69 regular-season wins, breaking the record of 68 by the 1967 76ers, who also had Chamberlain. They beat the Knicks in the Finals, breaking a 13-year, 0-8 Finals drought. That Finals was won in Game 5, at The Forum. There were no balloons. The Lakers faced the Knicks in the Finals again the next year, and lost. Chamberlain retired after that, and West after 1 more year.
The Celtics rebuilt, and won titles in 1974 and 1976. Both teams rebuilt, and the Celtics, with Russell not involved by Auerbach, who was still team president, won titles in 1981, '84 (beating the Lakers in the Finals) and '86; while the Lakers, with Cooke having sold the team and the arena to Jerry Buss, and West as general manager, won them in 1980, '82, '85 (beating the Celtics in the Finals), '87 (beating the Celtics again) and '88.
Both teams rebuilt again, but the Celtics couldn't get it done, while watching the Lakers, under West's building and Phil Jackson's coaching, win again in 2000, '01 and '02. Another rebuilding job led the Celtics to win the Finals over the Lakers in 2008, but the Lakers won in 2009, and beat the Celtics in 2010. The Lakers have since won again, in 2020, while the Celtics are still looking for their 1st title since 2008.
The 2 franchises share the record: Each team has won 17 NBA Championships. But if you only count what they've won in their respective current cities (and you should), it's Boston 17, Los Angeles 12.
Going into the 2021-22 Playoffs, home teams are now 15-4 in NBA Finals Game 7s. Since the 1969 Lakers, the only losers have been the 1974 Milwaukee Bucks to the Celtics, the 1978 Seattle SuperSonics to the Washington Bullets, and the 2016 Golden State Warriors to the Cleveland Cavaliers.
(UPDATE: The Celtics won again in 2024, making the count Celtics 18, Lakers 17.)
*
May 5, 1969 was a Monday. That same night, Game 4 of the American Basketball Association Finals was played, and the Oakland Oaks beat the Indiana Pacers, 144-117 at the Indiana State Fair Coliseum (now the Corteva Coliseum) in Indianapolis. The Oaks wrapped up the title 2 nights later at the Oakland Coliseum Arena, winning 135-131.
The NHL season had ended the night before, as the Montreal Canadiens completed a 4-game sweep of the St. Louis Blues, 2-1 at the St. Louis Arena, to win their 2nd straight Stanley Cup, their 4th Cup in the last 5 years, and their 8th in the last 14.
Football was out of season. These Major League Baseball games were played:
* The New York Yankees lost to the Oakland Athletics, 3-2 at the Oakland Coliseum. Chuck Dobson outpitched Mel Stottlemyre, future Yankee Danny Cater hit a home run, and Reggie Jackson, not quite 23 years old and in his 2nd full MLB season, went 2-for-3 with a walk.
* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Montreal Expos, 8-5 at Jarry Park in Montreal, in a game shortened to 7 innings due to rain. Lee May and Bobby Tolan hit home runs for the Reds, Pete Rose went 2-for-3 with a walk and scored 3 runs, while Johnny Bench went 0-for-2 with 2 walks.
* The Kansas City Royals beat the Baltimore Orioles, 4-2 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Frank Robinson went 2-for-3, but Brooks Robinson went 0-for-3, and Dick Hall blew a save in the 9th inning.
* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 13-3 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Andy Kosco hit 2 home runs for the Dodgers, while Willie Stargell went 1-for-3 for the Pirates, and Roberto Clemente did not play.
* The Minnesota Twins beat the Detroit Tigers, 6-2 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. For the Twins, Harmon Killebrew hit a home run, and Rod Carew had an RBI single. For the Tigers, Jim Northrup hit a home run, and Al Kaline went 1-for-3.
* The San Francisco Giants beat the Chicago Cubs, 11-1 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. They did this without Willie Mays entering the game. Ernie Banks only appeared as an unsuccessful pinch-hitter.
* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the San Diego Padres, 7-6 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis.
* The Boston Red Sox beat the California Angels, 7-2 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim.)
* And the Seattle Pilots beat the Washington Senators, 2-0 at Sick's Stadium in Seattle. Rich Rollins singled home a run in the 1st inning, and Steve Whitaker did the same in the 4th.
In Ball Four, his memoir of that season, Pilots pitcher Jim Bouton wrote:
The meeting before the game was marvelous. When we went over the hitters, Gary Bell had the same comment on each one: "Smoke him inside" (fastball inside). Frank Howard, (Ken) McMullen, (Ed) Brinkman, (Mike) Epstein -- every hitter. "Smoke him inside," said Bell. It got to be funny as hell after a while, because not only did he get no opposition, but he was taken seriously. According to the gospel of Gary Bell you pitch to the entire Washington team by smoking them inside.
Marshall, an intellectual, and thus one of Bouton's favorite teammates, pitched a 2-hit shutout against that dangerous lineup managed by former Red Sox legend Ted Williams, the man who, literally, wrote the book on hitting: The Science of Hitting, like Ball Four, was published the following year. Bouton wrote, "I guess Mike Marshall smoked them on the inside."
* And the New York Mets and the Atlanta Braves, and the Chicago White Sox and the Cleveland Indians, were not scheduled to play.
And Hideki Irabu, the Japanese pitcher who briefly shone for the Yankees, was born.
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