How 1970s NBA pioneers paved the way for today's game (LogOut/ Havlicek is widely considered to have been one of the greatest players in the history of the game and was inducted as a. Elvin Ernest Hayes (born November 17, 1945) is an American retired professional basketball player and radio analyst for his alma-mater Houston Cougars. They appreciated the game on its merits, and embraced the athletes as individuals and fellow entertainers. 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For better or worse, basketball fans love to compare different eras of their favorite sport. The most notable of his scoring feats came on March 2, 1962, when he put up an astounding 100 points in a game, an NBA record that will likely never be broken. NBA coach Pat Riley and players Isiah Thomas and Julius Erving have called, John Joseph Havlicek ( HAV-li-chek; April 8, 1940 April 25, 2019) was an American professional basketball player who competed for 16 seasons with the Boston Celtics, winning eight NBA championships, four of them coming in his first four seasons. Calvin Murphy San Diego/Houston Rockets 1970-79 Calvin Murphy was a scoring machine at Niagara and San Diego rolled the dice on the 5-foot-9 guard in the second round of the 1970 NBA Draft.. His pro career essentially spanned the entire decade, and he racked up five All-Star bids, two first team All-NBA nods and a scoring title. Or write about sports? Like Magic, Jordan and LeBron later on, he melded exciting play and quality in a way that reeled fans in and never let them go. Initially, free agency was restricted. He is a retired professional basketball player in the National Basketball Association who played small forward (NBA). Basketball. The Doctor was the original Dunk king. The 6'9" Johnson (making him the NBA's tallest point guard) not only posted the best assists-per-game mark in league history (11.2) but had a tremendous all-around game, as well. Previous Decade > Next Decade . Find out what the legends have to say about sports this week. $2000 Risk Free $1000 + $100 in site credits, Must be 21+. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. This decade served as the start of the second Sooner. Best 1970s Basketball Players | Top 70s NBA Player List The Best Players in the NBA in 2022 Greatest Players with No Rings The Best Ever Team Owners Tall Players Over 7'2 Best Players from Foreign Countries Short Players Under 5'9 The Best White Guys in the NBA Hall of Fame Candidates Worst Team Owners of All Time Players with Their Numbers Retired Richardson was a four-time All-Star in the NBA. Spalding created some of the first padded shorts worn by basketball players during this era. 26,045 Sets. Julius Erving 3. How Many Championships Does Michael Jordan Have? He averaged 21+ points, 6+ rebounds, and 5+ assists per game in the 1970s, in the process earning nine All-Star selections, making seven All-NBA and All-Defensive teams, and winning two titles. J Julius Erving against LeBron James? He was easily the best point guard of the era, and he led his New York Knicks to NBA championships in 1970 and 1973. Playing for the Detroit Pistons until he was traded in 1980, Lanier was the heart and soul of his teams and promoted a tough, intense culture. He was also a three-time MVP in the ABA during the seventies, capturing a three-peat in the award from 1974-1976. At their best the Knicks were a hybrid of downtown artistry mixed with old-school values. The 70s was, as novelist Tom Wolfe once famously wrote, the me decade. Join our linker program. Kareem won five of the 10 MVPs awarded in the '70s, made the All-Star team every year but '78 and only missed All-NBA first team three times in the decade. has been obsessively watching sports for nearly three decades and arguing about them with friends for nearly as long. Where Timmy would work his way around an opponent in the post with his superb footwork, Shaq would often use his extraordinary bulk (71 and 315 pounds) to bully his way to the basket. 1986 Boston Celtics - Were they the greatest Team? Top 30 Greatest NBA Players Of The 1970s 1. 1970s Basketball Players Basketball 1970s vs. now. The Celtics had played for 10 seasons before Russell joined the team, never once reaching a championship series in that time. How to keep your Expected Value bets Positive? Most obsessively competitive to the detriment of ever having normal human relations with anybody? Though he was a great offensive player, Cowens made his biggest impact on defense, being named to three All-Defensive teams in his career. Mac remains one of the greatest athletes in Buffalo history, though, which is something. Frazier was one of the most significant point guards in NBA history. The Doctor averaged 26+ points, 10+ rebounds, and 4+ assists per game in the 1970s and was an 8x All-Star and 7x All-ABA/NBA selection. Oh, and while this has nothing to do with his ranking on this list, its still incredibly awesome and noteworthy that he has successfully fought off HIV for over two decades, helped de-stigmatize AIDS through his high-profile advocacy, and launched a second career as an entrepreneur who opens businesses predominantly in poverty-stricken areas in efforts to spur urban revitalization. Hayes was an All-Star every year, 6x All-NBA, 2x All-Defensive, 2x rebounding champion, and NBA champion with the Washington Bullets in 1977-1978. But let's face it: the old-school center has been going out of style for a long, long time, all thanks to the chaos and rebirth in the '70s. Teams: Atlanta Hawks (1970-74), New Orleans/Utah Jazz (1974-80), Boston Celtics (1980 . 6. But Maravich was so unbelievably '70s. Rick Barry, a two-time NBA All-Star, made $45,000 in the NBA and jumped leagues for a $75,000 payday. Pistol Pete was one of the best scorers of the 70's. He led the NBA in scoring in the 1976-'77 season. These coaches do not understand the game of basketball, as far as Im concerned. 1970 Topps #75 Lew Alcindor. Oh my, yes. The league was a creation of sports promoter Bill Byrne, who had previous involvement in start-up ventures such as the World Football League (1974-1975) and the American Professional Slo-Pitch League (1977-1980). Football. UCLAs Lew Alcindor. Randy Denton easily has the most unique afro in the history of basketball. How Many Championships Does Kobe Bryant Have? . Star Power: Now we are on the to 70's. ABC News Live. He finished his career eighth all-time in both points and steals as a player who truly had a complete game.His ability to dominate as a wing was something the NBA had not seen much of before, and his mark on the game will always be remembered. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, and wants help, call or visit: (a) the Council on Compulsive Gambling of New Jersey at 1-800-Gambler or www.800gambler.org; or (b) Gamblers Anonymous at 855-2-CALL-GA or www.gamblersanonymous.org. Missouri Valley Tournament 2023: Bracket, schedule, scores, teams, and more. Dr. J isn't just symbolically important as a harbinger of the style that would arrive in the '80s: he was a two-time ABA champion and won the last three MVPs of the ABA. Sure Barry was an asshole, but he was also a prolific scorer who averaged 24+ points, 6+ rebounds, and 5+ assists per game during the 1970s across the NBA and ABA; during the decade, he was also a 9x All-Star and 7x All-ABA/NBA selection who took home Finals MVP in 1974-1975 while guiding the Golden State Warriors to the championship. Logos were compiled by the amazing SportsLogos.net. Goose Givens won National Player of the Year. He is a member of the NBA's 50th Anniversary All-Time Team, and an inductee in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Most famous player ever? A high scorer and rebounder, the purveyor of the Sky Hook and a thoughtful off-court presence, it's really a shame KAJ isn't more beloved. Athlete Body Size Changes Over Time Sports Nutrition for Basketball Top 10 Boxers of the 1990s: Was Roy Jones Jr. the best? Yes, they played the kind of slow-paced ball that put most fans to sleep by the third quarter, but there was often a thing of pure beauty hidden among the tire-fire of a 7871 final score: Tim Duncans bank shot. He made eight All-Star games in the seventies, only missing out in his rookie year and in 1978-79 when he was injured. With the Knicks leading the way, this early to mid-70s period was the moment when the NBA was supposed to take hold as the nation's trendiest sport, just as baseball went through one of its periodic downturns. Two rival leagues (the NBA and ABA) were . Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Highlights in his Prime / 1969 1975, Top 13 Indiana High School Players of all Time, The 6 greatest Indiana Highschool pure Shooters, The 8 greatest IHSAA Championship Games in History. Two answers: the ABA and free agency. Understanding the marketability of high-flying, slam-dunking showmen, the NBA copied the dunk contest concept in 1977 (won by Indiana Pacer Dr. For his unbelievable scoring and ball-handling ability, Maravich was a three-time SEC Player of the Year and Consensus First-Team All-American and was the National College Player of the Year in 1969 and 1970. Courtesy of Flickr. FLANNERY DISSENTS: I had Dave Cowens on my Third Team and forgot to include him on the Honorable Mention list when we pubbed this list. If Team A signed a player from Team B, A owed B some combination of players, draft choices, or money in compensation. Top 21 ACC Basketball Players of All Time: Where does Michael Jordan Rank? So might Barry, who bounced between the ABA and NBA before leading the Warriors to the '75 title. Overall, he averaged 28.6 points per contest from 1969-70 through 1979-80. And, frankly, its sort of fun tweaking all the Chicagoans who are surprisingly defensive about their sporting accomplishments. Parish was drafted in 1976 by the Golden State Warriors and didnt retire until 1997, capping off a 21-year career. Oscar Robertson versus Russell Westbrook? Money was hard to come by for basketball players in the early days of the league as well. Why did salaries increase so much during the decade? . Nash led the 15th seeded, and lightly regarded, Santa Clara to an improbable upset win over 2 seed Arizona in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Note: We wanted guys who brought it for an extended period of time, so the bar was set at 20,000 minutes, the equivalent of 25 minutes per game, 80 games per season for 10 seasons. Most importantly, free agency also gave players newfound leverage in negotiations. List of all the NBA and ABA Players Born in 1970 | Basketball-Reference.com We've added Women's stats dating back to 2009-10 on College Basketball Reference!. PSA . [1] Curious as to what these terms mean? The 1970 Draft is also known as the first draft where international players who had never played U.S. high school and college basketball were selected. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. Do folks give Jerry credit for building future champions as a GM?). In 1996, he was honored as one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History. This was the period of time that reallyhelped build the foundation to sneakers as we know it today. Dugan has called him the best player he's ever coached. What survived was the hoops cognoscenti, made up notably of writers, musicians and actors who were active followers on both coasts. On defense, he was one of the most feared rim protectors of his time, swatting away every attempt that was thrown up. There was actually a good deal of legal wrangling over the reserve clause, the ABA merger, draft eligibility and What Team Rick Barry Would Be Playing For. The struggles and hard-won glory of pioneers such as Alice Coachman, Althea Gibson, Wilma Rudolph and Lynette Woodard helped pave the way for later generations of sports greats like Jackie. The decade has some incredible players and good teams, but with how different the game would become in terms of the rules and the way it's played, it is not an easy measurement. University of California at Berkeley was given an outdoor basketball court for women by philanthropist Phoebe Hearst. The easy answer would be to point to a lack of analytics (seriously, how did they survive without WAR, BPM, or VORP?)[1].