The Wiz weren't a strong champion
Huh? The Bullets were a
great team in the mid-to-late 70s. Had the most wins in the regular season for half a decade (74-75 to 78-79) and got to those 3 Finals in just 5 seasons with basically the same core - Hayes, Unseld, and Chenier.
In the 77-78 playoffs they beat one of the best teams in the league in the 76ers, then a great defensive Sonics team in the Finals.
You may be sour 'cause they lost 2/3 Finals but that doesn't take away from how they dominated the league for half a decade.
Heck the Utah Jazz never won a title but dominated the 90s (other than the Bulls), averaged 54 wins a season over the entire decade, including three 60+ win seasons. At least your Bullets got one title.
Kareem was a great individual player but didn't seem to make his teammates great
What are you talking about? He won a title in just his second season in the league, and his first five years in the league Milwaukee won more games than any NBA team, averaged 61 wins a season. Oscar was already the age of 32 most of his first season with the Bucks, was the ages of 33-35 the next few seasons. Care to guess how many others PGs that old were playing major minutes at that same time? Just two - West and Wilkens.
And his other "best" teammate those 5 years was likely Bobby Dandridge. That's it - his key support those 5 seasons where the Bucks won the most games in the league was an old Big O and Dandridge. That's it. Their other big minute players were who? Jon McGlocklin, Lucious Allen, Curtis Perry, and Greg Smith? How great could he have made those guys be? His next 4 years with the Lakers you know who played the most besides him? Don Ford, Norm Nixon, and Lucious Allen.
How many HOFers did Russell play with his first decade in the league compared to Kareem? Had a prime Russell played for the Bucks and Lakers in place of Jabbar they'd have been far worse.
the way other greats before and after him did
Like who?
and there seemed to be far more showboats that put up empty numbers like Maravich, John Drew
Don't forget "Super" John Williamson and Freddie "Mad Dog" Carter.
Team had less depth of talent, the top end talent other than Kareem (and Doc in the ABA) wasn't as special as the 60s
I don't see this at all. As a matter of fact, the 70s did not have a perennial doormat like some decades did. Of the teams that played at least half the decade the worst averaged 32 wins a season (New Orleans).
Yet in the 80s the Clippers averaged just 23 wins a season, in the 90s Dallas averaged just 25-26 wins a season.
And I already mentioned a lot of the top end talent that played in the 70s. They were as good as if not better than that in the 60s.
and there were too many teams that didn't play like teams
Again - like who?