LONG ISLAND, NY - May 8, 1976
The Sports Time Traveler has been following Julius “Dr. J” Erving and the New York Nets in the final season of the American Basketball Association (the ABA) in 1976.
Erving is at the height of his career. He has won 3 consecutive ABA MVP awards. He is regarded as the best basketball player on the planet. He does things on the court that no one else has ever seen before. He led his team this year in every major statistical category: points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks. He shot over 50% from the field and even 33% from three.
What he does not have is an all-star cast of teammates. Only one other Nets player made the all-star team, and this was only a 7 team league! And that other all-star player, Brian Taylor, was oft injured, missing 30 games. The center on the Nets, Kim Hughes, is a rookie who averaged LESS than 10 points and 10 rebounds. The power forward on the Nets is Rich Jones, who pulled down just 5.2 rebounds per game.
NOTE From The Sports Time Traveler
Kim Hughes will go on to average 3.8 points per game in an unremarkable 6 year career.
Rich Jones will go on to play just 34 more games in professional basketball.
Julius Erving had to do it all himself for the 1976 Nets.
Now back to 1976.
Despite the lack of talent on the team, the Nets finished 2nd in the ABA with 55 wins. They did it almost entirely on the back of Dr. J, who by the end of the regular season was exhausted.
But now in the ABA Finals, the Doctor is digging down and elevating his game.
The Nets’ opponent is the Denver Nuggets, the most dominant team in the ABA in 1976. The Nuggets won 60 games and are the heavy favorites to win this last ABA title.
NOTE From The Sports Time Traveler
The 1976 Nuggets featured one of the great frontcourts ever assembled in pro basketball history:
At small forward was David Thompson, the most electrifying player in basketball next to Julius Erving. Thompson averaged 26 points and was 2nd to Erving in MVP voting. He will contend for the NBA scoring title in each of the next two seasons.
At power forward was Bobby Jones. Jones is one of the greatest defensive players in pro basketball history. Jones will go on to be 1st team All-Defense for 10 consecutive years across his ABA and NBA career. And in 1976, Jones was tied with Thompson for 2nd place in the MVP voting.
At center was Dan Issel. Issel averaged 23 points and 11 rebounds in 1976. He had been 2nd in MVP voting in the 1972 season, and was on a run of 7 consecutive all-star teams.
All three of the frontcourt players for the 1976 Nuggets are in the Hall of Fame. They are one of the few teams in history to have such a distinction.
Now again, let’s return to 1976.
THE ABA FINALS
In game 1 at Denver, where the Nets had lost 11 consecutive games, going back to the 1973-74 season, Erving scored 18 in the 4th quarter, including a buzzer beater jumper from the corner to win the game 120 - 118.
Dr. J got the ball with 3 seconds left in a tie game when everyone in the arena expected him to. He had Bobby Jones, arguably the best defensive forward in all basketball in his face, and he still made the winning shot.
For the game Erving had a stunning 45 points.
You can watch the buzzer beater by the Doctor at the end of this video:
Teammate Rich Jones was quoted in the New York Times after game 1:
Bobby Jones described Erving’s game 1 winning shot to the Times:
The Nuggets came back to win game 2 in Denver, by a score of 127 - 121, despite Erving shooting 17 for 25, for 48 points, including 25 in the 4th quarter, an ABA playoff record.
And that brings us to game 3, which was played 2 nights ago on the Nets home court, the Nassau Coliseum here on Long Island.
The game was tight. With 1:45 remaining the Nets had a 1 point lead at 109 - 108.
At this point, Paul L. Montgomery describes the magical things that proceeded:
Julius Erving finished with 31 points, and the Nets won the game 117 - 111 to take a 2 games to 1 lead in the ABA best of 7 Finals.
Today in the New York Times, Paul L. Montgomery wrote about an interview he conducted with Denver Nuggets’ head coach Larry Brown after the game, 2 nights ago.
Read what Brown said about his two forwards, both of whom were tied 2nd in the MVP voting, and both of whom were flummoxed by their inability to contain Julius Erving in the biggest game they had played so far this year:
Julius Erving is operating at an other worldly level and he will be in clinic at the Coliseum again tonight for game 4 of the ABA Finals.
The Sports Time Traveler will be there virtually.
Before there was MJ there was Dr. J.