The Lakers were down 3 games to one because Wilt was drawn away from the hoop by Fox. Then, Elgin switched to Fox and Wilt guarded the non-shooting Silas. The Lakers won the remaining three games.
You really think the sole and only reason the lakers were down 3 games to 1 was because Fox drew Wilt away from the hoop whom averaged just 11 points and off 36% shooting for the series and in game 2s win dropping a mere 8 points off 37% shooting, then games 3s win dropping 17 pts off 53% shooting, then back down to 11 points off a horrible 33% shooting in game 4s win, despite all the other stuff going on in the game? Where in the world would this be considered sanity?
@@Baselinehangtime8 The biggest stat change that I saw was Phoenix averaged 13 more rebounds the first 4 games but the teams were even the last 3 games. Wilt dominated game 7 with 30 PTS 27 REB 6 AST Lakers: Wilt 23.7 PTS 20.3 REB 5.1 AST 54.9% FG West 29.7 PTS 2.4 REB 9.6 AST 45% FG Phoenix: Connie 25.4 PTS 13.9 REB 5.9 AST 41.3% FG Goodrich 20.3 PTS 4.6 REB 5.4 AST 47.5% FG
I read (maybe in "FOUL"?) that Wilt was trying to play himself into shape during the playoffs after coming back from what really should have been a season-ending knee injury. He sure looked glued to the floor in these clips. Painful to watch. My two favorite players, by the way- Hawkins and Chamberlain. I got to see Hawkins at MSG when he was on the Hawks at the end of his career.
The Lakers won Game 1 with Wilt playing in only his 4th game since returning from a career threatening knee injury in Game 9 of the regular season. In Game 1 of this playoff series, the Big Dipper scored 29 points, grabbed 19 rebounds, and dished out 5 assists. Once they were down 3-1, Chamberlain turned it up a notch in Games 5-7. Just another in a long line of examples of Wilt being a dominant force in the playoffs. GAME 5 36 PTS 14 REBS 2 ASTS 10 BLKS GAME 6 12 PTS 26 REBS 11 ASTS 12 BLKS GAME 7 30 PTS 27 REBS 6 ASTS 11 BLKS CONFERENCE PLAYOFF AVERAGE 23.7 PTS 20.2 REBS 5.1 ASTS
Love the Hawk and "Dipper" -- two of my all-time favorites, even if I never saw their very best. It's crazy how big and strong Connie Hawkins' hands were, and obviously, there's never been a physical force in the NBA quite like Wilt.
Such a shame Connie Hawkins lost a majority of his years to that point shaving bs.. Im glad he had the heart to fight the NBA on it so we can get this series
I just watched another video on this series, which mainly featured Jerry Colangelo talking about the team. With very little experience, Colangelo became the GM of the expansion Suns. He was only 29 at the time. He fired the Suns coach Red Kerr in the middle of the 1969-70 season and put himself in as coach. The team went 24-20 under Jerry. In the video, Colangelo stated that the turning point for the Suns came when Jim Fox twisted his ankle. Fox did not play in Game 5 and was replaced by rookie Neal Walk. Wilt went on to score 36 points, and Walk didn't fare too poorly scoring 18 points. Fox did go on to play in Games 6 & 7.
It's kind of odd that the Lakers did not protect him. Each of the 12 existing teams in 1967-68 season were allowed to protect 7 of their players when the expansion draft started. I assume the Lakers decided to protect Elgin, Jerry, Mel Counts, Archie Clark, Tom Hawkins, Darrall Imhoff, and one other player. It's hard to believe the Lakers would rate that other player, whoever he was, as more worthy than Goodrich to be protected. Goodrich was coming off a year where he was the Lakers fourth leading scorer, and he was young and improving. Of course, it's then even more confusing to understand why a couple of years later, when Goodrich had emerged as a star, the Suns would trade him back to the Lakers for Mel Counts. When you look at the list of players selected by the expansion Suns and Bucks, the best players were clearly Goodrich and Dick Van Arsdale (from the Knicks who were clearly loaded with talent) for the Suns, and McGlocklin for the Bucks. The Bucks also picked up Bob Love, but this was before he became a star and, in fact, traded him to the Bulls during their expansion season. The Bucks drafted Wayne Embrey and Guy Rodgers, former All-Stars but past their primes and Larry Costello, but he choose to retire (and then became the Bucks coach).
@@ddenuci wish I had your knowledge John. I’m still working on it. Being Canadian I had to mostly learn by listening and reading. Basketball was not prominent here until the 90s. (Raptors and Grizzlies.) As a kid, it wasn’t easy. I’m 55. I’ve always loved Wilt. Thank God for RU-vid.
Thanks for posting. The Phoenix Suns were an expansion team in the 1968-69 season and went 16-66. The NBA then conducted the famous coin toss to determine who would win the Lou Alcindor sweepstakes, and the Suns lost out to the Bucks. In the 1968-69 season, the Suns added Hawkins and Paul Silas (from the Hawks), as well as center Neal Walk who they made the second overall draft pick after the Bucks took Kareem. The Suns finished with a 39-43 record, which tied for 3rd place in the Western Conf. As a result of tying the Bulls, there was yet another coin flip to determine which team would be seeded 3rd and which would be 4th. This time the Suns "won" but it meant that as the 3rd place team, they would face the 2nd place Lakers instead of the 1st place Hawks.
@@70sfan The Hawks had a strong team - very good rebounding with Bellamy/Bridges and good scoring with Hudson/Caldwell. And the Hawks were healthy the whole year. All 5 starters played over 79 games (note that Bellamy was traded to the Hawks during the season, but he played 79 games total between Pistons and Hawks). The Lakers, on the other hand, had injuries to their key players- Baylor (54 games) and Wilt (12 games). By the time the playoffs rolled around, the Lakers were healthy. So, though they finished 2 games behind the Hawks in the regular season, the Lakers were clearly a better team when healthy. BTW, Detroit not only traded Bellamy to the Hawks during the season but they also traded Happy Hairston to the Lakers during this season. In both cases, they got practically nothing in return.
@@grammysworld5449 Correct. Because it was a special situation (i.e, Hawkins had just won a lawsuit to allow him to play in the NBA), the NBA decided the two worst teams not including the Bucks should get a consolation prize to pick Hawkins, and of course the Suns won that flip. The Suns actually had the worst record, and the Sonics were the 3rd worst.
This is sad in that it was the last year Phoenix made the playoffs with Hawkins and players like Paul Silas and Dick Van Arsdale. The next season the league expanded and decided to create four divisions. At playoff time the top two teams from each division made the playoffs. No matter how many games they won. So that year in the Midwest division Milwaukee won first place with 66 wins, Chicago made second place with 51 wins. Both teams made the playoffs. Phoenix was third with 48 wins, but third place meant they missed the playoffs. Over in the Central division Baltimore came in first with 42 wins and Atlanta was second with just 36 wins yet both teams made the playoffs. Other teams like Detroit (45 wins), Boston (44 wins), and San Diego (40 wins) all missed the playoff because they didn't finish in first or second place. You'd like to see the best teams compete in the playoffs each year, but the NBA leaders had other ideas. This was why Milwaukee blew Baltimore away in four games. And they did the same stupid thing next year.
Game 2 Phoenix 114 Lakers 100 - Connie Hawkins 34 points 20 rebounds; Jerry West 33 points 11 assists; Wilt Chamberlain 19 points 25 rebounds. Lakers won the series 4-3. Lakers came back down 3-1.
Does anyone know why Wilt wasn't called for an illegal defense? Virtually every game I have seen him play, there are times (e.g., 0:09 - 0:13 and 1:22-1:26) when he is in the 3 second lane covering no one. In today's NBA, that would result in an illegal defense call because a defender cannot stay in the 3 second lane for longer than 3 seconds if he's not actively covering an offensive player, and I believe a similar/same rule must have been in place even in the 1969-70 season.
There was no defensive three seconds rule back then. To compensate that, NBA disallowed zone defense, but without solid establishment within the rulebook that happened in the 1980s team could play zones all the way they wanted back then.
@@70sfan Yes, i did a little reading and you're correct that the 3-second rule didn't come into play until the 2001-02 season, which is the same year the NBA allowed Zone defense to be played. The motivation for doing this was to help reduce the 1:1 isolation plays that had become commonplace in the 80s and 90s (think of Chuck Barkley taking eight seconds or so to back down his man, while trying to get to the rim and all other 8 players on the court basically stationary). But the NBA instituted rules (Jan 1947) against the Zone defense almost from the time the league started. It seems like Wilt is a playing a zone even though his teammates are not. I'm just wondering what actually constituted a zone defense violation in Wilt's era? It must have been something along the lines that a defender must be within a certain distance of the offensive player he is guarding. Wilt basically just parks himself in the lane (which was OK if he was guarding a player like Kareem because Kareem was a post player) and rarely worried about the opposing center unless the center had the ball in his hands. And that's part of the reason Wilt would have difficulty guarding players like Willis Reed who could shoot effectively from outside.
It was obviously legal at that time for him to do so, otherwise he’d get called for an illegal play. Chamberlain was always a very high IQ player. Ask Bill Russell, another high IQ player/coach.
@@ddenuci Just talking as a fan from the era. There was a certain realism to the rule. Everybody had to guard somebody but if the man you were defending could not shoot (Paul Silas, in this case), then you did not have to guard him away from the basket. Also, automatic switching was called if a guard automatically switch to anyone in his area rather than staying on his man.
Nobody forces you to do so, just keep in mind that I'm the one who paid for digitizing process and you wouldn't be able to watch it without financial help of my patrons.
This was probably the NBA's worst year in terms of talent. Expansion and the ABA made starters out of benchwarmers. Connie Hawkins was the only Sun that would have been a starter before expansion.
Dick van Arsdale was a starter for Knicks in 1966. Paul Silas started for Hawks in 1968, that's when he started to reach his prime. I'm quite positive that Gail Goodrich would start on majority of pre-expansion teams. He didn't start before 1969 strictly because he played for the Lakers and had fierce competition at guard positions there.
I think the effect of the ABA really was felt a few season later when the upstart league started getting top notch players. The weakest years overall in the NBA where when Wilt, WIllis Reed, Oscar, Jerry West, etc had all retired- 73-74, 74-75 and 75-76 were the weakest seasons overall. You could make a strong argument in 75 and 76 the ABA was just better- but not in 1970. This season (1970) had the great Knicks team that won the title and this Lakers team with Wllt, West, Baylord. Oscar Robertson is still going. But I agree that it was weaker overall than some of the previous seasons- this is the first post- Russell season.
