Many NBA enthusiasts consider the 1982-1983 Sixers, who went 12-1 in the 1983 playoffs and swept the Lakers in the finals for the franchise's first championship in sixteen years, one of the best single-season teams to ever take the court. With Julius Erving, Mo Cheeks, Andrew Toney, Bobby Jones, and the recently-added Hall-of-Fame center Moses Malone, the team looked to have a core in place that could have been the makings of a dynasty. But age and arrogance caught up with the team much sooner than expected, and on April 26th, 1984, they laid those hopes to rest with their game-five loss to the New Jersey Nets, cementing their exit from the '84 playoffs in the first round.
The '84 Nets were an odd bunch, an assemblage of reclamation projects like point guard Micheal Ray Richardson and one-time Sixers big man Darryl Dawkins and young'ns like swingman Albert King and rebounding machine Buck Williams. Few predicted them to have a chance against the defending champ Sixers, but the Nets shocked the NBA by taking the first two games in Philadelphia, before the Sixers returned the favor with two victories in New Jersey. "You can mail in the stats," infamously boasted an over-confident Dr. J about the pre-determined result of the decisive game five, essentially defining the term "bulletin-board material" in the process.
The Sixers were up seven with seven minutes to go in the game, but the Nets refused to follow the script. A surge led by Richardson saw the Nets battle back to reclaim the lead, and they held on to win the game, 101-98. Blame for the upset was cast on a post-championship hangover, which left a number of the players either worn down, out of shape, or simply not as hungry as years before. Injuries and chemistry issues took their toll as well over the course of the season, and by the time of the playoffs, concluded Coach Billy Cunningham, "We had nothing left--nothing--and there was nothing I could do."
You can read a somewhat interesting first-hand account of that era-ending game five from the perspective of Nets scoring leader Otis Birdsong here. Sez Otis: "I remember looking up in the stands and seeing Doc's wife, Turquoise. They had been the champions, now they lost the fifth game of the first round at home. She was just in shock. You could just see the pain on her face."
Original Story:
http://www.the700level.com/2010/04/to...
