Hoops4theSoul

May

16

5-16-1980: Magic Tips Off, Takes Center Stage

Filed Under On This Day . . ., NBA, Loose Balls

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Magic Johnson in Game Six of 1980 NBA Finals Magic Celebrating after Game Six Magic with Championship Trophy after 1980 Game Six Could you imagine nowadays how much acclaim an underclassman would get for leading his team to an NCAA Championship and then following up in his rookie year in the NBA with a world championship?

That’s exactly what Earvin “Magic” Johnson did in the course of 14 months.

In the game that changed college basketball and set the stage for one of the greatest individual and team rivalries in NBA and sports history, Johnson led his Michigan State Spartans past Larry Bird and the Indiana State Sycamores in the legendary 1979 NCAA Championship Game.

Following this championship in his sophomore season, Johnson declared for the NBA.

A coin flip between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Chicago Bulls determined who would get the number-one overall pick in the 1979 NBA Draft.

To the dismay of Chicago fans who would end up with UCLA’s David Greenwood, Los Angeles would win the coin flip and select Johnson, who was teamed up with the best center in the game, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

On a side note, in one of the shrewdest moves in NBA history Boston’s Red Auerbach had selected Bird with the sixth overall pick in the 1978 NBA Draft and thus retained the rights to the Hick from French Lick after his senior season in 1979, thus leaving Chicago without this option at number two.

Anyways, it wouldn’t take long for Abdul-Jabbar and Johnson to display the promise of taking the Lakers to the promised land.

A Kareem sky-hook at the buzzer beat the San Diego Clippers in the season opener and set the stage for an incredible individual season.

Dominating the league in 1980 with just under 25 points and 11 rebounds per game, Jabbar would win the regular season’s Most Valuable Player award.

While Bird would win the Rookie of the Year Award with 21.3 points and 10.4 rebounds per game, Johnson would have a fine rookie campaign himself, averaging  18.0 points, 7.7 rebounds and 7.3 assists per game, and get his own hardware in the playoffs.

The Lakers would charge to the 1980 NBA World Championship Series and be pitted against Julius Erving and the Philadelphia 76ers, which knocked out Bird’s Celtics in five games in the Eastern Conference Finals.

Through the first four games, the series would be nodded up at 2 games apiece, thanks to Abdul-Jabbar’s overall dominance and Erving’s incredible “Baseline Move” in Game Four, which was remembered here this past Monday.

The Lakers would take a 3-2 series lead with a Game Five victory that did not come without a cost, as Abdul-Jabbar severely sprained his ankle and would be ruled out for Game Six in Philadelphia.

While the idea of going on the road and winning the series without the league’s MVP may have swayed most people, it did not affect the mature-beyond-his-years and cool-as-ice Johnson, who convinced L.A. Head Coach Paul Westhead to let him start the game at center.

The 6′9” Johnson would do just that and win the game’s opening tip, setting the stage for an incredibly dominating performance. Proving that his nickname did not do his basketball skills enough justice, Johnson scored 42 points, snatched 15 rebounds, dished out 7 assists and added three steals while playing all five positions in Game Six.

Most importantly, Johnson took over the game in the clutch after Philly had cut the score to 103-101 with a little more than 5 minutes to go.

Scoring nine points in a decisive stretch run, Magic and the Lakers would pull away to a convincing 123-107 victory that was also made possible by Jamaal Wilkes scoring a career-high 37 points and Jim Chones doing a good job of holding 76ers’ center Daryl Dawkins to just 14 points and 4 rebounds.

Due in large part to his Game Six performance, Johnson would win the 1980 NBA Finals MVP.

More importantly, his performance would set the stage for what would be an absolutely dominating decade, both for the Lakers and for himself.

After his first title in 1980, Johnson would reach 7 more Finals (1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1987, 1988, 1989) in the decade, win four more titles with the Lakers (1982, 1984, 1987, 1988), win the Finals MVP awards two more times (1982, 1987), and win the league MVP award twice in the eighties (1987, 1989).

Here’s a look back at Magic being Magic in Game Six.

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