Recently, the HBO series “Winning Time” offered a fictionalized account of the dynastic Los Angeles Lakers teams of the 1980s. While the show lasted only two seasons, it attracted lots of attention, both good and bad.
While some former players from those teams were critical of the series, plenty of fans enjoyed it and couldn’t get enough of it. Its first season focused on the 1979-80 season, which transformed a good but unremarkable and idle franchise into a truly special one.
When that Lakers team won it all, it was seen as a tremendous accomplishment. But perhaps nobody could’ve foreseen how much of a watershed moment it would be, not just for the organization but for the sport itself.
The beginning of Camelot
In 1979, the Lakers were a good team that just couldn’t get over the hump. Despite the presence of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, they had failed to reach the NBA Finals in four seasons with him on the roster. Overall, the Lakers had a bridesmaid reputation as a franchise. Since moving to L.A. in 1960, they had appeared in the NBA Finals nine times but had taken home only one world championship.
As a whole, the league was struggling. Because of the perception that the game was boring and its players were selfish, its ratings were low, so much so that the championship series had begun to be shown on tape delay late at night.
In the summer of 1979, the Lakers had the good fortune of holding the No. 1 pick in the draft because they had traded aging guard Gail Goodrich to the New Orleans Jazz for that pick three years earlier. They decided to take Earvin “Magic” Johnson, a hotshot 6-foot-9 point guard who had just led Michigan State University to the national championship over Larry Bird’s Indiana State University.
Some in the Lakers organization were reportedly skeptical that a player such as Johnson would succeed in what was then a league still predicted around structure and disciplined execution. But one man who insisted Johnson be drafted was new owner Dr. Jerry Buss.
The rookie didn’t just supply the team with several basketball needs. He also infused it with the type of spirit that it had severely lacked and had never been seen before in the NBA. Abdul-Jabbar sorely needed this spark, as some felt he was over the hill at age 32.
The Lakers took off as the 1979-80 season started behind the new fast-breaking offense devised by new head coach Jack McKinney. Even after McKinney suffered a near-fatal bicycle accident a few weeks into the season, assistant Paul Westhead filled in admirably as interim head coach while tapping a modest former player named Pat Riley to be his own assistant.
Los Angeles won 60 regular season games and got past the Phoenix Suns in five games in the Western Conference semifinals. It then toppled the defending world champion Seattle SuperSonics in the conference finals to earn the right to play Julius Erving’s Philadelphia 76ers for all the marbles.
A season of serendipity ends with unexpected glory
The first four games of the 1980 NBA Finals resulted in a 2-2 series tie, and the Lakers and Sixers seemingly couldn’t find an advantage as Game 5 progressed into the third quarter.
That is when Abdul-Jabbar severely sprained his ankle and had to momentarily exit. With him off the court, Johnson helped ignite a mini-spurt that put L.A. up by eight at the end of the period. Abdul-Jabbar returned for the fourth quarter and was dominant despite being in great pain. He scored the decisive three-point play with about 30 seconds left to give his team a 108-103 win.
But with a world title just one win away, the Lakers seemed to be afflicted by their old jinx again. Their dominant center would be unable to play in Game 6 in Philly, forcing Westhead to improvise. Johnson would have to start at center, and the team would have to wing it and hope that they would be able to run the Sixers out of their own building.
It did just that, as it jumped out to an early lead, and then went on a monster run to start the third quarter. In the final minutes, the Sixers ran out of gas, and Johnson finished off a 42-point, 15-rebound, seven-assist masterpiece to give the Lakers a 123-107 win and the NBA championship.
It was the first act of what would come to be known as “Showtime.” After some internal issues had to be resolved, the Lakers would win four more championships over the next eight seasons, making them a true dynasty. By mid-decade, once Hall of Famer James Worthy joined the team and Riley became its head coach, it would grow into arguably the greatest squad in NBA history.
Game 6 of the 1980 title series also served as a preview of what the NBA would become decades later. It may have been the first instance of what is known today as small-ball, as it worked against a Philadelphia team that had a big and nasty frontline and made its lunch money by playing gritty defense and throwing its weight around.
When one sees modern-day pace-and-space basketball, one should thank that 1980 Lakers squad for putting up the first trial balloon.
