NBA Finals Game 7 Lore - Journey Through History's 19 Games Played To Prepare for Number 20
Jesse D. Garrabrant. Getty Images.Game 7. NBA Finals. Episode #20.
They say the lack of storytelling is hurting the game. But tonight, one of these teams gets chapter 20 in the Game Seven NBA Finals book. And it's a pretty incredible book that I see no reason not to skim right now to get ready for this winner take all.
Come take a stroll with me. We'll cover some classics and have a laugh along the way.
We start with the first.
1950-51 (Rochester Royals 79 - New York Knicks 75)
Alright now everyone, let's try to be serious here. No joking around. This is history! Just look at that rebounder. Dressed like a vert skateboarder from the knees down, he high points over the competition easily 9 feet in the air. And they say these guys couldn't last in today's NBA.
Let's check in on some stats from this one from players who's name I didn't make up.
Key stats:
- Ray Lumpp went 0-2 from the field with zero rebounds, zero assists, and we'll just call it zero steals and blocks (not tracked but who are we kidding?). The original Tony Snell.
- Pep Saul didn't miss a shot (0-0) and had one assist.
- This was the Knicks logo (maybe why they lost)
1951-52 (Minneapolis Lakers 82 - New York Knicks 65)
Back to back Finals Game 7 losses is brutal. But not as brutal as watching basketball must have been in 1952. You see - kids these days don't respect the glory days of the NBA back in the 90s and as a kid of the 90s I can say we were right to say our era was better than the last. I couldn't find film on this game, but I did find some on this random Lakers game from that same 1951-52 season.
Whatever you do. Do not play any of these clips with sound. But check out these sick shots in this curated 25 second clip (it should start and end for you):
Quick. Someone dare me to find a clip that's even less exciting.
Game 7 baby.
Love that they just cut the film there after 17 consecutive passes. I get it. Shit wasn't digital back in the day. You have to commit to what your putting on film and quite frankly, no one has time to see the almost guaranteed 18th pass that came next. Easily the most anti-climatic play of all time.
You know what. Let's skip ahead a bit. I'm sure I'm missing some stellar passes from the years in-between but we're going to jump to:
1956-57 (Boston Celtics 125 St. Louis Hawks 123 2OT)
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That's right. Two overtimes. In an NBA Finals Game 7. Seven Games weren't even enough to decide who the better team in the series was. Not even seven games and an overtime. And even then it came down a single bucket.
Bob Cousy played 58 minutes which is a thought that would put Joel Embiid back on the injury list by just reading. It was this game that started the legend of Bill Russell and the Celtics as a franchise. All thanks to the legendary "Coleman Play". A play in which if you ask any Celtics fan who's 90 years old claims they saw it they'll tell you Bill Russell went through a worm hole from one end of the court to the other to block Jack Coleman to save the game. No video exists to verify any of this, because people in the 50s would rather stay home and play solitaire than watch a Finals Game 7 on TV. Stephen A would have been a happy guy. All we have on this play is radio legend Johnny Most's "Blocked by Russell, blocked by Russell!"
Let's finally show the Knicks some love. They didn't lose ALL their Finals Game 7s.
1969-70 (New York Knicks 113 - Los Angeles Lakers 99)
New York Daily News Archive. Getty Images.The Willis Reed game. If you hear any basketball history story told by Bill Simmons that doesn't include the Celtics, there's a good chance it's about the Willis Reed game. The big bad Lakers had this series. West. Wilt. Elgin. And Knicks star Willis Reed tore a muscle in his leg, missing Game 6 and somehow coming back for Game 7 if only to run through the tunnel unexpectedly and score the first two buckets for Knicks. They would be his only four points in the game. Like Wesley bluffing by having no strength after being mostly dead in the Pit of Despair for several hours, the act was enough to get everyone in the building jacked.
By the way - poor Walt Frazier. 12/17 for 36 and all that anyone remembers is the guy with one leg putting up four.
1983-84 (Boston Celtics 111 - Los Angeles Lakers 102)
Not much is better than a Magic Bird in the Garden. Not by NBA standards anyway. The game reached new heights thanks to this duo that wasn't yet accounted for in the crowd control department. I've never seen a floor get swallowed whole like this before all while one of the saddest three point attempts in NBA history was being shot.
That ball must have felt what Mufasa felt falling into the stampede on it's way down from the rim. Let's check out one of the wildebeest.
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1987-88 (Los Angeles Lakers 108 - Detroit Pistons 105)
Speaking of crowd control. There's simply no way any NBA Finals Game 7 could ever end with fans rushing the court when the away team is only down three with two seconds to go. What a catastrophe that would be. The Celtics were up big when the Lakers shot that last sad three in the clip above so that didn't matter. Enter the 1987-88 Finals.
Couple of notes here. A.C. Green shouldn't have shot that layup to give the Lakers a 3-point lead. Just throw the ball up in the air dude. You can't give the Pistons any time for a reasonable shot at overtime. Any good announcer would call that out in the moment as a huge blunder.
Dick Stockton: "GREEN WILL WIN IT!"
Just an all time moment for the NBA. And a par the course moment for Dick Stockton.
1993-94 (Houston Rockets 90 - New York Knicks 84)
The infamous John Starks game. 0-11 from three and 2-18 overall. My first memories of watching basketball was when the Bulls beat the Suns in the Finals and this was the first year I started watching the entire playoffs as a kid. I remember this one being electric. Marv Albert and Make Guokas were the best to ever do it, and Robert Horry gave us the best posterizer perhaps of all time.
I mean, get a load of this.
Yeah let's take a look at that.
Hard to imagine the Knicks not coming away with this is Starks could at least go a respectably bad 4-11 from downtown. But Ewing/Olajuwon was some great 90s ball.
Also - it makes me feel really old to watch these highlights and notice we didn't even have full time score bugs yet. Barely part time either. More of a gig thing. They'd pop up here and there and a few times at the end, but that's about it. You still had to kinda know the score in your head as baskets were being made. Crazy thinking back that I grew up in the days when you still might actually ask your dad what the score was while the game was in live action. Even in a close game at the end. I'd actually like to go back to this just to watch the younger generations struggle to add 1, 2 or 3 to things.
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But that probably wouldn't be much of an issue for our next Finals Game 7…
2004-05 (San Antonio Spurs 81 - Detroit Pistons 74)
If you're ever wondering why the NBA went on a crusade to kill defense in the early aughts, this score bug clip of an NBA Finals Game 7 might help explain why.
Fittingly - Al Michaels was on the call for this game. I'll be honest. I don't remember him calling NBA games, but after watching the highlights I can see why he wasn't asked to do this much. It's not Jaguars/Chargers Wild Card game bad, but it's not great.
2009-10 (Los Angeles Lakers 83 - Boston Celtics 79)
This game might have lacked some modern scoring - but was intense until the very end. And there were fireworks in the final 90 seconds with the Lakers up six. The Celtics hit a three. The Lakers answered with one of their own. Then Ray Allen came back with one more. Kobe hits a pair from the line and Rondo answers with a third three in as many possessions for the Celtics. But it would end there.
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2012-13 (Miami Heat 95 - San Antonio Spurs 88)
LeBron dropped 37. Duncan missed an easy lay in for the potential tie to keep the Spurs in it. Another classic.
2015-16 (Cleveland Cavaliers 95 - Golden State Warriors 89)
The Draymond game. Can you imagine Draymond going 6/8 from three including making his first four? Well it happened. Dude straight balled in a losing effort. Watching the Splash Brothers in their prime though was incredible. Not just these Finals, but their Western Conference run ins as well.
If the NBA had any sense these days, they'd do a lead up video Marv Albert style going through all these classic Game 7 moments. Remember the "Miller Genuine Moments" in game flashback for a similar situation late in the game? Those were the best.
Anyway, since there will be no suspenseful lead up, I'll do one for you myself. But there's only one voice you can read it in. Marv Albert:
Tonight. We find out what storyline isn't going to fade into the abyss of everyone's discarded memories. That is what's on the line for these teams. For these two fanbases. A loss convicts you to remember what could have been. While everyone else moves on with life… yours stops.
For the Pacers - no one will remember how you were the team of destiny throughout the entire playoffs. Not if you don't win tonight. Ten years from now even you might start to forget having three of the most ridiculous playoff comebacks in league history all happen in one season to and for one team. Team of destiny? No. - you'll just be scrappy overachievers who didn't quite have enough.
For the Thunder - no one will care about SGA winning the MVP on one of the most dominant teams in NBA history. You'll just be the next 2015-16 Warriors. It won't be forgotten how good you were, but the first and last thing everyone will think of when it comes to this season is how you couldn't finish the job. While the Pacers will be viewed as overachievers if they lose, you'll be treated as underachievers.
But if you win. You get it all. The glory. The fame. The memory.
Game 7. Next.