NBA sans BIRD & MAGIC
Tom Gross
Before I make any further comment in net.sport.hoops,
I would like to simply point out that I am a FORMER
employee of GENRAD, a fact which entitles me to post
articles to this newsgroup, as you all know. (Indeed,
if any of you should run into R. Wade Williams No. 2,
Software Engineer at General Radio Company you might let
him know that I still have and use his copy of K&R,
and no, he can't have it back.)
Anyway (sorry), I have some followup thoughts to my
previous posting about "green smugness" and how BORING
the NBA is these days. It occurred to me since then
that if you took away Larry Bird and Magic Johnson the
league might actually have that "exciting parity" of only
about 6 years ago. I wonder how many people out there
agree with this thought, that take away Bird and the only
good team is LA, now take away Magic and all of a sudden
you've got fascinating matchups. This also raises the
standard question, how would today's Celtics matchup
against yesteryear's Celtics, and so on. I'll let some
current Genrad employee start up that discussion.
Trivia question: when I myself was a current GENRAD
employee, the burning question of the day was "were the
Celts right to trade their No. 1 pick (and another first
round pick) for Parish and a chance to pick Mchale at No. 3?".
I remember at the time Scott Stewart thought it was a shame
to pass up Darrell Griffith but I was excited because for the
first time in their history the Celts were going to have
a TALL team. Nobody expected Parish and Mchale to be superstars,
just BIG (Luke Jackson types perhaps) and create matchup
problems for the opposition. My question is: at that time,
Bill Fitch said that if they hadn't made the trade they
probably would have drafted Griffith Number 1 and then
another player No. 11 or 13 (I forget). Who was that
other player? I forget. Was it Rick Mahorn? It was
some player LIKE Rick Mahorn but I can't recall who and
whether he ever made it. I don't remember how the
Warriors used that pick either...
Tom Gross
Apollo Computer, INC.
Chelmsford, MA
Walter Nielsen
> ..............Nobody expected Parish and Mchale to be superstars,
>
> Tom Gross
> Apollo Computer, INC.
> Chelmsford, MA
Does anybody really think that Parish is a superstar ? I for one am
never impressed by him. Especially this year, every time I've watched
the Celtics, they seem to make their big run with Walton subbing.
Walter Nielsen
ARPAnet: nielsen%hpl...@csnet-relay.ARPA
USEnet: {ihnp4,sdcrdcf,ucbvax}!hplabs!hplabsc!nielsen
Michael Lewis
> that if you took away Larry Bird and Magic Johnson the
> league might actually have that "exciting parity" of only
One need only look at the NBA championships since Larry and Magic came
around to confirm your theory...
Year
1980 LA over Philly.........4-2
1981 Boston over Houston....4-2(?)
1982 LA over Philly.........4-0(?)
1983 Philly over LA.........4-0
1984 Boston over LA.........4-3
1985 LA over Boston.........4-2
The only correction I would make is to take into account Moses Malone's
initial impact at Philadelphia, when, with everyone healthy and Julius in his
last great year, they totally dominated the league, especially the Championship.
Michael Lewis @ Purdue University
Pete Williamson
>never impressed by him. Especially this year, every time I've watched
>the Celtics, they seem to make their big run with Walton subbing.
The Chief is an enigma at best !! In years past, I've noticed that how
Robert goes, so goes the Celtics. When Bird was injured and missing from
four or five games in a row, the Celtics seem to do surprisingly well.
Same with Max or with McHale. But whenever Robert was missing or had an
unusually bad game, the Celts would tend to lose.
In the 1984 seventh game for the World Championship, it was Robert's
fourth quarter dominance over Kareem that brought home the fifteenth flag.
When Robert gets pissed, he can be awesome. He runs the court with the
best of the seven-footers.
In last year's playoffs, he appeared to be very tired. He's getting older
and a bit slower these days as well.
This year, Walton has picked up a lot of slack. Robert should be in fine
shape for the playoffs.
On the other hand, Robert can be most unimpressive. He gets called for
traveling more than any other player I've ever seen and he coughs up the
ball a lot more than he should. He is not a great passer like Wild Bill.
Yet I still think Robert is better than Bill, on defense, and especially
on offense. Bill is far more charismatic and emotional which certainly
helps the team. Bill matches up very well with Moses, something Robert
has never been able to do well.
I don't know. Superstar ?? Probably not. But he's certainly in the top
five of NBA centers and I'm glad he's GREEN.
--
Pete Williamson
"By hook or by crook, we will !!" ... #2
Darryl McCarthy
>> ..............Nobody expected Parish and Mchale to be superstars,
>Does anybody really think that Parish is a superstar ? I for one am
>never impressed by him. Especially this year, every time I've watched
>the Celtics, they seem to make their big run with Walton subbing.
>Walter Nielsen
Finally somebody else who thinks the way I do, I have never been
impressed with Parish. Now that we're on this line of thought,
is anybody impressed with Moses Malone? Almost every game I see
him in he consistantly throws up bricks. I know he's a great
rebounder but when he goes inside and misses everything I wonder
why the sixers give him the ball at all.
Guess that's it...
Darryl McCarthy
University of Waterloo
Waterloo, Canada.