Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty

That Musburger voiceover sure sounded a lot like Brent, I thought.

Turns out it was Brent.

 

Don't forget the sweet vintage HBO graphic they kicked off the episode with.

Although I wish they would have played the full version. Still gives me chills.

 

The Sixers title in 83 was the culmination of their own quest in the wilderness which began seven years before in 1977 with the shocking loss to the Walton Blazernania team, then continued in the early 80s as the Celtics behind Bird returned from oblivion to establish a new dynasty, then the addition of Moses Malone wss the final ingredient needed to finally deliver the title, and finally validate (at least in the minds of NBA stans) the status of Dr. J as one of the true all time greats and not just a lost legend of the ABA.

 

Soundtrack pet peeve....during the 1982 Finals montage, "Let's Dance" is playing, which came out in 1983.

 

"Shadows of the Night" --- a song I've always loved --- will forever feel like a gut punch now.

And an odd song to close that episode with anyway, since it was released two years earlier.

 

Good ear.

 

… and then Scottie Pippen arrived.

 

Just bananas that the Blazers traded away Moses for nothing. They could have had Moses, Walton and Lucas.

 

Moses and Lucas would probably clog things up big time near the basket. Walton usually preferred to play high post so that wouldn't have been thst much of a problem.

Now Moses in fall '76 wasn't quite the HOF Moses we saw in later years, but even in his first ABA days with Utah and the legendary Soirits of St. Louis it was clear he was going to be a force on the boards.

Even crazier, I think the Buffalo Braves owned Moses for about 15 minutes (in fact it was two games in which he played a total of 3 minutes) and sent him on to Houston "because they could not meet his demands for playing time," which seems a little curious since the Braves finished 30-52 that year.

It certainly would have been a wild and crazy lineup featuring Bob McAdoo, Adrian Dantley and Randy Smith firing away, but McAdoo specialized in 20 foot jumpers, so you'd think you could have him fire away from one side and send Moses storming to the boards on the other side.

Oh well. A lot of crazy ass decisions were made in the aftermath of the assimilation/dispersal of the ABA.

 

The NBA jobbed the fuck out of those ABA teams in the merger, including the never-merged Kentucky Colonels (John Y. Brown, dickhead), but since the ABA was 10 ways to fucked, those franchises had no choice.

 

The Silna brothers did just OK.