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In this thread we'll discuss and vote on the top 5 best player seasons of '72-73.

Trying something new now. Schedule will be Mon-Fri, and Thu-Mon. Typically this will be morning to morning.

Some things to start us off:

NBA
Season Summary http://www.basketball-reference.com/lea ... _1973.html
Playoff Summary http://www.basketball-reference.com/pla ... _1973.html
Award Voting http://www.basketball-reference.com/awa ... _1973.html
Final Box Score http://webuns.chez-alice.fr/finals/1973.htm

ABA
Season Summary http://www.basketball-reference.com/lea ... _1973.html
Playoff Summary http://www.basketball-reference.com/pla ... _1973.html

Topics
Knicks win again
Cowens wins MVP over Kareem
Billy Cunningham takes ABA MVP
Pacers again: modest in the regular season, champs of the playoffs. This time with a new star.

Wasn't sure what to do with Billy Cunnigham here.
This was the year I felt I could make a case for Walt Frazier.

1. Walt Frazier - Led in Playoff Win Shares, 4th in season Win Shares, 5th in WS Per 48 Minutes and Upset the top 2 teams record wise in the league. In fact, beat a team that had the best record ever that got upset. Beat a 68-14 win team. Also knocked off the defending champions this year.
Gets the D.Wade treatement in 2006 here.

2. Dave Cowens - League MVP, Led team to most wins in franchise history.

* Got Upset in Conference Finals

3. Kareem - 2nd in MVP voting, 1st in PER, WS and WS PER 48 minutes in the season.

* Got Upset in 1st series played

4. Wilt Chamberlain - 2nd in Win Shares, 2nd in Win Shares PER 48 Minutes, 1st in rebounds, highest FG% ever I believe, 2nd in playoff Win Shares.


5. Artis Gilmore - 1st in Win Shares and WS Per 48 minutes, 1st in RPG, 1st in BPG, 3rd in PER, 2nd in WS in the playoffs, 1st in WS Per 48 in the playoffs


HM: Billy Cunnigham (Gilmore, McGinnis and Cunningham are pretty much all the same here, wasn't really sure who to leave off), George Mcginnis (Won Title, finished 4th in Win Shares, 4th in PER)

Wilt has arrived

Oh, and I'm voting Kareem 1st EASILY. MVP voting was clearly a result of Kareem winning the last two and the Celtics 68 win season leading a hey, let's give it to Dave Cowens, he's got so much heart

1. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar - Easily #1. Was robbed of an MVP. 30/16/5 55FG%.

2. Dave Cowens - Won NBA MVP even though it should of went to Kareem. I don't understand anyone who would rank Cowens ahead of Kareem. Both were similar rebounders, but Kareem was a superior offensive player & a better defender & both didn't make it far in the playoffs. Kareem is easily ahead of Cowens.

3. Walt Frazier - All-NBA 2nd Team. Best perimeter defender in the league. 21/7/6 & NBA Champion.

4. Wilt Chamberlain - Best defensive in the league IMO. Led the league in rebounds. Set an NBA record by shooting 73 FG%. Led team to the Finals.

5. Jerry West - All-NBA First Team. All-Defensive First Team. 23/4/9. Team reached Finals.

This was a season of relative dominance in the NBA and relative parity in the ABA. As such, the top teams are all NBA.

1. Boston was the best team in the league, winning the division by 11 games over eventual champion NY (who beat Boston 4-3 in the ECF). As usual their best players were Cowens and Havlicek; Havlicek scored 3 more pts and had 2.5 more assists, Cowens got 9 more rebounds and played tough defense at the toughest position in the game. Efficiency was equal; I would vote for Cowens first though Havlicek is a reasonable contender with this strong a record.

2. New York finished only 3 games behind LA and Milwaukee then beat LA easily in the finals behind Walt Frazier who was easily their leading scorer and assist man with good efficiency and keyed their defense. Reed got Finals MVP for his inspirational appearance but Frazier was the one with the real playoff run, stepping it up from the regular season while Willis was hobbled.

3. LA was the other finalist with both guards scoring over 20ppg, though West was the clear PG with double the assists and the defensive stopper. However, despite scoring only 13ppg, Wilt is also an MVP candidate with his 19reb/4ast/strong defense. And, Wilt as usual scored a bit less in the playoffs (10ppg) but stepped up his rebounding (23rpg!) while West was nearly but not quite as good as the regular season. However, the final game against NY where Wilt was unable to dominate despite a hobbled Willis Reed hurts his candidacy. Still Wilt and West are co-MVP candidates.

4. Milwaukee was the other top regular season team behind Kareem’s monster 30/16/5 (Dandridge’s good 20/8/3 year sort of disappears, lol) in Oscar’s last stand (16/5/8). However, they were upset by GS in the first round of the playoffs as Kareem fell to a (relatively) weak 23/16/3 on poor .428 shooting (Oscar tried to sep up with 21/5/8 on .500 but it wasn’t enough). Still Kareem is the MVP candidate.

5. The other top teams were Baltimore, Chicago, GS and Atlanta. Batimore is led by Elvin Hayes and Wes Unseld with Hayes scoring the points but Unseld rebounding, passing, and leading the team. Both candidates but this is still Unseld’s team despite Hayes’s scoring (Hayes averaged 21ppg to Unseld’s 13 but the Bullets had three other 18-20ppg scorers plus for very balanced scoring keyed by Unseld’s picks and passing.

6. Chicago as usual had great defense and poor offense. Their big scorer was perennial All-D candidate Bob Love who outscored Chet Walker 23 to 20 and is probably their best candidate though he won’t get any top 5 votes.

7. Golden State had a good regular season then upset Kareem and Milwaukee before losing to LA. Rick Barry is the main scoring threat on 22/9/5 .452 but their best player is probably Nate Thurmond who put up 17/17/4 and stuffed Kareem in their playoff matchup.

8. Atlanta had one of it’s best runs of the Maravich era though it’s leading scorer was Lou Hudson (27 to Pete’s 26 on better efficiency) and they had a fat, aging, but still effective Walt Bellamy inside for help.

9. As I said, the ABA was much more balanced which hurts MVP chances. The regular season champ was Carolina by a game over Kentucky but Kentucky beat them in the playoffs. In the West, Utah was another game back with Indiana 4 behind them but Indiana ended up winning it all 4-3 over the Colonels. The Pacers MVP was George McGinnis breaking out in his second season with 28/13/2 (5 TO) with Mel Daniels still the 2nd best center in the league with 19/15/2 and physical defense.

10. Kentucky had Dan Issel having a big year with 27/11/3 on .513 but they won because they were the top defense in the ABA which has to be credited to Artis Gilmore (21/18/3 on .559)

11. Carolina was Billy Cunningham’s team (24/12/6 – playing a much more ball dominant role than he had in the NBA where he was not a big assist guy).

12. Utah was again led by defensive star Willie Wise who also led the team with 22/8/3.

Other guys with big numbers but on losing teams include Tiny Archibald who led the league in scoring AND assists (34/3/11), Spencer Haywood who put up 29/13/3 for 1st team All-NBA, and Bob Lanier who was 5th in PER (24/15/3 .490 – though the Pistons dropped back into the bottom half of the league defensively) plus Julius Erving in his last year for the hapless Virginia team who led the ABA in with 32/12/4 as well as leading the league in mpg.

MVP VOTES
Not really crazy about big stats, little outcomes so Tiny and Doc aren’t going to get my votes; most of the guys I was impressed by didn’t put up big numbers offensively.

1. Walt Frazier
2. Wilt Chamberlain (rebounding and defense)
3. Kareem (big numbers but a serious playoff choke job)
4. Dave Cowens
5. John Havlicek

HM – West, Gilmore, Thurmond

Just wanted to say that Walt Frazier should get some love this season. 21.1 points, a career-high 7.3 rebounds (second on the team behind Dave DeBusschere’s 10.2), 5.9 assists (depressed because Bill Bradley and Jerry Lucas averaged 4.5, Earl Monroe averaged 3.8, and Dave DeBusschere averaged 3.4), 49.0 percent shooting from the floor, in 40.8 minutes per game.

In the postseason he averaged 21.9 points (leading the team), 7.3 rebounds (second behind DeBusschere's 10.5), 6.2 assists (1st on the team), 51.4 percent shooting from the floor in 45.0 minutes per game. He averaged 26.1 points in the 1973 Eastern Conference Finals against the Boston Celtics, who won a league-best 68 games. In Game 4, Frazier played 57 of 58 minutes, scoring a game-high 37 points with nine rebounds and four assists to put the Knicks up 3-1 in a 117-100 double-overtime win. Frazier scored 15 in the fourth quarter in which the Knicks erased a 16-point deficit, and his jumper with 17 seconds left tied it at 89-89 at the end of regulation. In Game 7, Frazier had a team-high 25 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Knicks to a 94-78 win over the Celtics in Boston Garden—who had never lost a Game 7, much less at home—to advance to the NBA Finals.

Frazier later said, “I’m disappointed not being named most valuable player in the NBA playoffs,” but added that Willis Reed was “the right guy” for the award. “I suppose I think the award should have been given for the entire playoff run instead of the final series against Los Angeles.”

penbeast0 wrote:3. Kareem (big numbers but a serious playoff choke job)

“Nate Thurmond […] has done such an outstanding job against Abdul-Jabbar that it almost seems as though he has the big Buck under hypnosis”

And this was the second consecutive season that Thurmond contained Kareem, but the Bucks won in '72. Kareem was robbed of the MVP during the regular season, but I'm afraid I can't give him Player of the Year overall, considering they were upset,

Who would have thought Golden State would extend Milwaukee to six games and who would have believed the Warriors could take the playoff series from the Bucks?

They did, though, beating Milwaukee 100-86 Friday night to reach the Western Conference finals of the National Basketball Association postseason games.

Golden State began the playoffs with five losses in six regular season games against the Bucks. What’s more, Milwaukee had a season-ending 14-game winning string to make the Bucks odds-on favorites in the matchup.

and "Credit must go to Nate Thurmond's containment of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar."

Frazier wasn't dominant enough to be my #1 player. In the Finals he put up 17/7/5 & wasn't even Finals MVP.

Mean_Streets wrote:Frazier wasn't dominant enough to be my #1 player. In the Finals he put up 17/7/5 & wasn't even Finals MVP.

Eh, I prefer to take a look at the context. Frazier didn't win Finals MVP in '70 either, but he should have. Reed played 30 minutes a game in the Finals, while Frazier played 46. How in the world does the Most Valuable Player of the Finals only play 30 minutes a game?

And your number #1 wasn't exactly dominant in the playoffs. Kareem's one of my favorite players, but his shackling by Nate Thurmond was the reason the Warriors were upset. 22.8 points on 23 field goal attempts, 42.8 percent shooting and 44.7 percent true shooting?

Mean_Streets wrote:Frazier wasn't dominant enough to be my #1 player. In the Finals he put up 17/7/5 & wasn't even Finals MVP.

He led the playoffs in Win Shares this season, and had almost double the WS that Reed had in the season and triple the WS that Reed had in the playoffs, not to mention upsetting 2 60+ win teams in the process while Kareem was on a 60 win team that lost the 1st series they played to a 47 win team.

JordansBulls wrote:

Mean_Streets wrote:Frazier wasn't dominant enough to be my #1 player. In the Finals he put up 17/7/5 & wasn't even Finals MVP.

He led the playoffs in Win Shares this season, and had almost double the WS that Reed had in the season and triple the WS that Reed had in the playoffs, not to mention upsetting 2 60+ win teams in the process

And at this time, that had never before been done.

NBA Finals preview article:

Los Angeles and New York open the best-of-seven playoff finals Tuesday night at 11 p.m., EDT, before a capacity crowd of 17,505 at the Forum with the Lakers hoping to duplicate their victory of 1972.

They beat the Knicks four games to one to capture their first title since moving to Los Angeles from Minneapolis in 1960. And they hoped the Boston Celtics wouldn’t win in the East this time.

During the regular season, the Celtics had a 4-0 edge over the defending champions, who were 2-2 against New York.

“I think we would have beaten the Celtics,” said Laker star Jerry West. “I think we can beat any team. But the homecourt advantage means a lot—especially if there’s a seventh game. I can still remember that seventh game we played in New York three years ago.”

The Knicks beat the Lakers 113-99 in that one to win the title.

During the regular season, the Lakers posted a 60-22 record and the Knicks were 57-25. The better record gets the home-court advantage. Boston, on the other hand, would have had the advantage because the Celtics finished a 68-14, the best record in the NBA.

Immediately after the Lakers beat the Golden State Warriors 4-1 in their Western playoff series, the Los Angeles players were virtually unanimous in wanting New York to beat Boston.

Forward Jim McMillian had an additional reason. He hails from New York and wants to play before his hometown fans.

“They wanted us, now they’ve got us,” declared Walt Frazier after the Knicks surprised the Celtics in Boston and won the deciding game 94-78 Sunday with an amazing defensive effort.

When that score was announced at the Forum during the USA-USSR game, a roar of approval went up from the partisan crowd, which fully realized the Lakers would be favorites against New York and underdogs against Boston.

Bookmakers in Nevada, where gambling is legal, rated the Lakers 4½ points over the Knicks in the opening game. The Reno Turf Club made the Western champs 17-10 favorites to win the series and Harrah’s Tahoe rated the Lakers 8-5.

The biggest problem for the Knicks will be stopping 7-foot-1 Wilt Chamberlain, who controlled the boards in last year’s series. New York has Jerry Lucas at 6-8 and injury-prone 6-10 Willis Reed, who didn’t see playoff action last year. Three years ago, Reed was the Most Valuable Player in the final series.

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=SJ ... 1050,57206

Can any one describe how Bob Love played, eg. any modern comparison? I could hardly find any playing footage of him. Looking at his stats and since he played with a SF Chet Walker, I assume he played as a PF. However he seemed to be a weak rebounder relative to his position.

What was Thurmond's recipe of success of defending Kareem? Because I seldom saw Kareem got handled in the 80s even when he was in his thirties. And from what I read Kareem still able to do what he wanted even against Wilt. So what was so special about Thurmond's defense?

Well, Thurmond's first rule for success was “hope that Kareem is hurt.” I'll dig around, but I'm about 99% sure that Kareem had a bum elbow in the postseason. Anyway, here's what was said in SI at the time

The Warriors did it by holding Milwaukee under 100 points four times with tight defense, especially by Nate Thurmond on Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. In no game did Abdul-Jabbar, who long ago rated Thurmond as the league's best defensive center, score more than 27 points—his regular-season average was 30—and he shot just 43%, 12 percentage points below his average.

"You can't block that hook shot of his," Thurmond said, "but I've found when I shoot my own hook that if the man guarding me works hard at keeping his hands up and leaning up toward my shooting arm, my shot is affected even though I know mine can't be blocked, either. What it does is make you shorten the arc of your arm and that makes the arc of the ball lower. That's what I try to make Kareem do." The strategy worked. Abdul-Jabbar hit enough of his favorite shots to average 23 points a game, but many of the hooks which are sure baskets against other defenders did not go in.

For me, there are two pairs at 1-2 and 3-4 I'm pretty torn this year.

1.-2. Kareem and Frazier. I've definitely got Kareem and Frazier at 1-2. Kareem was a better player in the RS; Frazier in the PS. I (personally) think Kareem was injured and guarded by an all-time great in the playoffs...still, that's not an excuse. But how much ground does Clyde make up—he was above average in the postseason prior to the Finals, and was melow his usual standards in the Finals? Can't tell yet. If there's some sort of quote or statement about Kareem's health not being 100%, I'll probably go with Cap. If not, it'll be Walt.

3.-4. Tiny Archibald and Julius Erving. Have a look at the lineup Julius Erving had in 1973. Other than 680 minutes out of a 20 year old Geroge gervin, how many names do you recognize at all? Not as good players...at all? Hel;l, I was there, and I remember Jim Eakins was a servcieable player. And Fatty Taylor was a good defenive player that didn't score much. Other than that...wow. I've got to give Doc some love here.

Same with Tiny. Let's be real...the dude led the league in scoring and assists. And they weren't half-assed numbers; he put up 34 and 11.4. He;'s like Allen Iverson to the next power—an Iverson that can shoot! But others than Sam Lacey and (I guess) Matt Guokas, thbe Kings ahd crap on the court and a lousy coach. That's not Tiny's fault.

5. John Havlicek. I have no compunction at all selecting Havlicek over Cowens. None. I thought Havlicek was at least as good in the regular season and playoffs. Sue me. There are a couple of other player sin the mix here—Wilt, Cowens, Gilmore, etc. But, for now, I'll go with Hondo.

Regular Season


Post Season


Awards Recognition / Misc



First and foremost, Kareem definitely should have been the MVP this year. I'm not going to boost Cowens just because he got it instead, and I'd rank Havicek higher anyway. That was clearly voter fatigue. Secondly, I think Kareem was so far ahead of the pack in the regular season that his post-season play, which was pretty bad (but still better or on par with other candidates), did not knock him down enough for guys like Frazier and Wilt to deserve rankings above him.

As for Wilt, I'm not buying that he's a better defender at 36 than Kareem is at 25, and even if he was, Kareem was WAY more productive offensively at that point. Also, if we're going to say that Kareem played poorly in the playoffs, then I would love to know what you call these numbers from Wilt in the Finals: 11.6 PTS, 22-42 FG (52%), 14-38 FT (37%), 18.6 REB, 3.8 AST

Frazier played extremely well, especially in the playoffs, but it's not enough to catch Kareem. He gets the #2 spot.

Tiny Archibald is someone I almost overlooked, but I have to give him some love here. He put up some (Please Use More Appropriate Word) numbers on a bad team, and I simply don't see what else he could have possibly done. Yeah, his team missed the playoffs, but I've given Kareem love in the past for doing the same.

Wilt gets the nod for the #4 spot for having an amazingly efficient scoring season and being a great defender/rebounder, although scoring was not what he was focusing on this season. He had a lot of help with West and Goodrich, so it's certainly understandable, but that makes me wonder how valuable he truly was when his offense wasn't really needed.

Cowens gets the poop end of the stick on this one. Yeah, he was the MVP, but he most certainly didn't deserve to be, and his consistently bad efficiency is hard to swallow for a big. I can't bring myself to rank him above any of the others, and I'd rather have West or Havlicek so he's the one who gets left off.

RE: West vs. Havlicek, I think I have to go with West here. He was probably the best overall playoff performer, and despite missing games in the RS he led his team further in the playoffs.

As for the ABA, I just don't think anyone there deserves a ranking this year. The NBA competition is just too good.


Final Rankings:

1) Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
2) Walt Frazier
3) Tiny Archibald
4) Julius Erving
5) John Havlicek

HM: Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West, Dave Cowens, Billy Cunningham

Edit: After hearing about what Wilt pulled at the end of the regular season to cost his team the #1 seed (not attempting FG's to preserve his FG% record), I'm taking him out of my top 5. He also failed miserably in the Finals by missing 24-38 free throws, and since the strategy was to put him at the line, he was instrumental in causing them to lose. Tiny moves up to #3 and West is in at #5.

Edit: OK, I wasn't comfortable with my #4 and #5 picks, so I added Dr J and Hondo.

Mean_Streets wrote:Frazier wasn't dominant enough to be my #1 player.

Couldn't agree more. I guess I'm not feeling the love for Frazier. For second or third, sure. But definitely not for the top spot.

I'm looking at Kareem pretty much the same way I did LeBron for last year. He obviously underperformed in the playoffs, but he was so far ahead of the pack during the RS that it doesn't seem possible to me that the ground can be made up.

Especially by a player who, despite obviously playing extremely well, wasn't exactly the second coming of Dwyane Wade or Hakeem Olajuwon. He was New York's best player, but that was an ensemble if there ever was one, and he just didn't dominate enough to make up the massive chasm Kareem built up between himself and the rest of the pack.

Kareem was at an all-time great level in the regular season, while Clyde was merely an All-Star.

Point taken for his performance in the ECFs. But I guess I find his Finals performance a little underwhelming. He played well, obviously.

But that Knicks team was so talented and so balanced that every one of their starters scored 20 or more in at least one game. I also think it's telling that in Lazenby's Official History of the NBA Finals, Frazier isn't mentioned once during the 73 series overview, other than his quote that Game 1 was probably the worst playoff game he's ever played.

Overall, he didn't really raise his game all that much from the RS, and that's what it was going to take for me to put him ahead of Kareem.

RS: 21.1 ppg, 7.3 rpg, 5.9 apg, 19.7 PER
PS: 21.9 ppg, 7.3 rpg, 6.3 apg, 19.7 PER

That's obviously really, really good, especially when you include his defense. But enough to overcome what Kareem did in the RS? I don't think so.

And here's something else I don't get:

Erving is doing pretty much the same thing this year (32 ppg, 12 rpg, 4 apg, 2.5 spg, 1.8 bpg, 27.7 PER) as he did in the previous handful -- props to TLAF for pointing this out -- yet he's not even on the radar because his team sucked.

Swap him out for Frazier on the Knicks, and how would the voting go then?

Yes, but losing your 1st series played in the playoffs against a team you are clearly superior than and also Frazier winning against 2 teams that won 60+ games (1st time that had ever happened) and in the process dethroned the reigning champs and the team with the best record in the league.