Why NBA Champions Don’t Repeat Anymore: Injuries, Trades, Ennui

When John Havlicek, Don Nelson and the rest of the Boston Celtics carried Red Auerbach off the court after Game 7 of the 1968-69 NBA Championship series, it was nothing out of the ordinary.

The defending league titlists had won again. In those days, that scene seemed to be repeated about as often as an episode of “Star Trek.” Of the 20 champions crowned from 1950-69, 11 had won the year before.

But with the retirement of Bill Russell following the Celtics’ 108-106 victory over the Lakers on May 5, 1969--a triumph that gave Boston its 10th NBA championship in 11 seasons--there would be no repeaters in the next 15 years.

Larry Bird and the rest of the current Celtics try to end that string when the NBA playoffs begin Wednesday. But it won’t be easy.

“It’s almost impossible now. When the (early) Celtics played they dominated because they had such superior talent,” said Milwaukee’s Kevin Grevey, who wears the championship ring of the 1977-78 Bullets. “But the players are better now and there’s more of them.

“You’ll never see a dynasty like that again in professional basketball because it’s just too tough now. You won’t see it in my lifetime at least.”

The reasons? Those who have played since the late ‘60s point to an even spreading of talent, injuries, trades or just a plain lack of desire as chief causes for a team’s championship photo missing from consecutive pages of the NBA Guide.

Five defending champions during this era were knocked off by a club that would go on to the league title, and three of those fell in the championship series. Six lost a deciding game in the playoffs, where a basket or free throw may have made a difference.

Perhaps the greatest injury jinx to hit during this span occurred after the Portland Trail Blazers’ 1976-1977 championship campaign. Bill Walton broke his foot, Bob Gross fractured an ankle and Portland found itself tangled in a pain-killing drug scandal when it lost in six games to Seattle in the second round.

Willis Reed, the cornerstone of two New York Knicks’ title teams, went down with a knee injury following the 1972-73 championship season. He played just 19 games that year and the club struggled to adapt to his replacement, Jerry Lucas, a center who played on the perimeter.

To stand pat after a championship season is often a fatal mistake, but many times a trade can upset a team’s fragile chemistry. In 1970-71, the Bucks won it the title led by Lew Alcindor, a gifted center who seemed capable of carrying a club by himself.

But Milwaukee traded Greg Smith and McCoy McLemore--two role players at best--and the club, despite another spectacular season by Alcindor--now Kareem Abdul-Jabbar of the Lakers--fell in six games to Los Angeles in the West final.

“We had become close on and off the court largely because of Greg’s bright personality,” said Abdul-Jabbar. “We’d just become champs. Why break us up?”

The Golden State Warriors, who coasted along as smoothly as a Rick Barry jumpshot during a glorious 1974-75 season, seemed on the verge of another title when they drafted Gus Williams the next year.

“We won 59 games and went into the playoffs very confident,” said George Johnson, then the Warriors’ center. “We probably were too confident and Phoenix beat us (at home in Game 7 of the West final). That’s the year they had that great fifth game with Boston.

“We still had Rick and we added Gus so we probably were a better team than our championship season, but being on top everybody was gunning for us and it caught up to us in the playoffs.”

The Seattle SuperSonics followed their banner 1978-79 season with their best regular-season ever. But they ran into Abdul-Jabbar and rookie Magic Johnson in the West final and lost in five games.

It’s difficult to pinpoint a lack of intensity on the part of a champion; it’s something that cannot be measured with a statistic.

But the 1979-80 Lakers, who fell victim in the first round to a young and hungry Houston team led by Moses Malone, and the 76ers, who lost three home games to New Jersey in the opening round two years ago, are prime examples of champs who figured they’d be able to turn it on at the end--except it wasn’t there.

“It really didn’t hit us until we were walking off the floor after that fifth game,” said 76ers general manager Pat Williams. “Then you realize you’re dethroned, defrocked. You’re just another ballclub. That’s when humiliation sets in.”

Can this year’s Celtics avoid that humiliation? Center Robert Parish says they can.

“We went through all that after we won in ‘81,” he said. “The next year we thought we could coast through the regular season and try to turn it on in the playoffs. It doesn’t work that way. It won’t happen to us again.”

But that’s what they’ve been saying for the past 15 years.