Usually when a team wins an NBA championship you can easily point to one, two, or maybe
even three superstars who carried the team to the NBA title.
But there are rare cases when a team has no superstars, but still manages to win and win
big.
Right now you’re probably thinking of the 2004 Detroit Pistons, and yes, the Pistons
are one of the teams without superstars to accomplish such a feat.
But today I want to talk about pretty much the first team that did it.
Hello everyone.
I’m PRPLPRNCH and I want to talk about the 1979 Seattle Supersonics.
Back in the 1978 NBA finals the Seattle Supersonics suffered an emotional defeat in game 7 of
the NBA finals on their home court against the Washington Bullets.
In this age, after a defeat, especially in the NBA finals the losing team would sign
a great player or trade for one to get over the hump
Similar to what Golden State did after they lost the 2016 NBA finals to Cleveland by signing
Kevin Durant and then winning the next 2 NBA championships.
Back in the late 70s though, that wasn’t the blueprint.
Supersonics lost their starting center Marvin Webster and another double digit point scorer
in Mike Green, but they added Lonnie Shelton and Tom Lagarde.
And that’s pretty much it.
All of their core from the 1978 NBA finals were still intact for the 1978-79 season.
The continuity paid it’s dues and the Seattle Supersonics had a great regular season.
52 wins in 82 games.
The 2nd best record in the league, trailing only 54 wins by the defending champions - the
Washington Bullets.
In the regular season - starting center Jack Sikma averaged 15.6 points, 12.4 rebounds
and 3.2 assists.
Jack Sikma was also the only player from the Seattle squad who would make the All-Star
game that year and even then, barely.
The best scorer on the team was Gus Williams who was scoring 19.2 points per game
and their best passer was the 31-year old Small Forward John Johnson who scored 11 points
and averaged 4.4 assists.
Imagine nowadays NBA with the best passer on the team averaging only 4.4 assists.
Yikes.
And in total, 7 players on the Seattle Supersonics 1979 team were averaging 11 points or more
per game while none of the players averaged even 20 points per game.
Talk about a great team effort.
The NBA only had 22 teams and the format back then was two conferences and each conference
was split in 2 divisions.
6 teams from each conference made the playoffs.
The division winners got first round byes and the other 4 teams in the conference played
a best of 3 series.
Seattle Supersonics won the Pacific division that year having only a 2 game cushion over
the surging Phoenix Suns who had 50 wins.
The Seattle Supersonics had a first round bye so they had some extra time to rest up
and prepare for their opponent.
In the conference semifinals the Seattle Supersonics had to face the Los Angeles Lakers.
No, the Lakers didn’t have Magic Johnson yet, but still the Lakers had Kareem Abdul
Jabbar, Norm Nixon, Jamaal Wilkes and Adrian Dantley all of whom were averaging more than
17 points per game.
The Lakers had the stars, but the Supersonics had the better team.
Seattle’s backcourt of Dennis Johnson and Gus Williams was superior and that was pretty
much the main element that decided the series.
In the first game, Seattle’s backcourt combined for 53 points and a 112 to 101 win over the
Lakers.
Then, in Game 2, Dennis Johnson had a quiet 17 points, but Gus Williams went off with
38 points in a 108-103 overtime win.
Game 3 was another nailbiter.
Overtime.
But Sikma, Silas and Shelton would all foul out and Lakers managed to squeeze by with
a 118 to 112 victory.
2-1 in the series.
A close game 4 with Seattle winning 117 to 115 thanks to Norm Nixon who missed the buzzer-beater.
Seattle’s backcourt once again great.
Gus Williams with 30 and Dennis Johnson with 23 points put the lakers on the brink of elimination.
Another close affair in game 5, but the backcourt once again prevailed.
30 points by Gus Williams, 21 points by Dennis Johnson.
22 points by Lonnie Shelton and a 4-1 series victory for the Seattle Supersonics.
Now, The conference finals was a battle.
Supersonics were facing the Phoenix Suns.
Like always, Phoenix Suns had the brighter stars.
Paul Westphal and Walter Davis were both 24 PPG scorers and Alvan Adams + Truck Robinson
made up for a very dangerous frontcourt.
Supersonics won the first 2 games on their homecourt with a great team effort as every
player from the starting lineup was averaging double digit points and 2 of them - Jack Sikma
and Lonnie Shelton were averaging double-digit rebounds.
The next 3 games however were won by Phoenix Suns.
In game 3 Gus Williams once again went off for 35 points, but that wasn’t enough.
In game 4 Jack Sikma was awful and scored just 5 points on 2 made field goals - the
series got tied 2-2, and in game 5 Paul Westphal scored 27 points on Seattle’s homecourt
to give the Suns a 3-2 series lead over the Sonics.
The game 6 was in Phoenix.
All the pressure.
Seattle managed to squeeze out a 106 to 105 victory.
Once again, the team effort prevailed.
6 of 7 players who played notable minutes scored double digit points, and John Johnson
scored 9.
Game 7, homecourt, this time, the back court did their thing scoring a combined 55 points,
but it was Jack Sikma who went off with 33 points and 11 rebounds.
A victory in game 7 and the Seattle Supersonics once again meet their rivals in the NBA finals.
Just a year ago the Washington Bullets beat the Supersonics in the NBA Finals and now
in 1979 they were once again battling it out for the NBA championship.
And they still had very good players - Elvin Hayes, Bob Dandridge, Wes Unseld and Kevin
Grevey.
In Game 1 Washington narrowly beat the Supersonics thanks to an unexpected contribution from
their reserve point guard Larry Wright.
Wright only averaged 9 points in the regular season, but exploded for 26 in the first game
of the finals.
And not only that, he made the final 2 free throws that sealed the game with 1 second
remaining.
Unfortunately for the Bullets, that was the only game they won in the Finals.
In Game 2 the starting 5 of Seattle Supersonics scored 82 points and catapulted Sonics to
a 92-82 victory over the Bullets.
In game 3 the depth of the Seattle Supersonics team showed itself.
5 players scored double digit points, Lonnie Shelton added 9 and the starters combined
scored 88 points to lead the team to another 10 point victory - 105 to 95.
Game 4 was closer as it went to overtime and this time it was the Bullets who had a great
team effort as 6 players scored in double figures.
But as usual it was the backcourt of the Supersonics who combined for 68 points.
Dennis Johnson scored 32 of them and had the most important play of the game by blocking
Kevin Grevey’s shot attempt with 4 seconds left in the game.
Game 5 was another close one, but 6 players on the Supersonics scored double digit points,
Jack Sikma grabbed 17 rebounds and that was it - Seattle Supersonics were your 1979 NBA
champions and Dennis Johnson won the finals MVP.
Through the whole playoffs - 5 players were averaging 12 or more points per game with
Gus Williams leading the way with his 26.7 points average in 17 games played.
Jack Sikma averaged a double double with 14.8 points and 11.7 rebounds.
Lonnie Shelton averaged 12.9 points and 8.4 rebounds.
John Johnson averaged 12, 7 and 5, and ofcourse, the MVP, Dennis Johnson averaged 20.9 points,
6.1 rebounds and 4.1 assists.
In total, 7 players played more than 15 minutes per game and 2 more averaged almost 10.
A great team effort and possibly the greatest team victory ever in the NBA Finals.
In my opinion, the 1979 Seattle team was special.
It was a team that had no superstars, but managed to combine all elements of basketball
to capture the basketball’s greatest prize - an NBA championship.
Thank you very much for watching guys.
Don’t forget to like this video, share it to your friends and consider subscribing to
my channel.
Do you agree that Seattle Supersonics were the greatest NBA team ever assembled without
any superstars?
Maybe you think the 2004 Detroit Pistons were the better team?
Whatever your thought is - leave a comment below, like this video, and SUBSCRIBE for
future NBA content.
This was PRPLPRNCH, and I’m out.