Revisiting that Time the Washington Wizards Won the NBA Finals

Washington Wizards fans and alumni remember the 1978 NBA Finals winning team fondly, although many weren’t alive at the time. On Thursday, the 2017 NBA Finals kick off in Oakland, CA, so at Wiz of Awes we take a stroll down memory lane.

The 2017 NBA Finals start tomorrow. After a more than week-long hiatus, fans will finally get to see the hopefully thrilling third part to the Cavaliers-Warriors trilogy.

With that in mind, I wanted to revisit a time long, long ago. Back when the league had only 22 teams, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird were still in college, and the Supersonics were not only in the existence, they lost to the Washington Bullets in the Finals.

The team had local legends Wes Unseld, Elvin Hayes, Bob Dandridge, a rookie Greg Ballard, a young Mitch Kupchak, and Phil Chenier. Chenier, who had been one of the best young shooting guards in the league suffered an unfortunate back injury only 36 games into the season. It required season ending surgery.

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Despite that early gloom, the team responded by finishing the season with a 44-38 record, the third best record in the conference, and eight best in the league. The 44 wins were four win drop off from the previous two seasons, and a twelve win decrease from three years prior.

With the worst winning percentage since 1972, expectations weren’t very high for the team.

In the first round, Washington was matched up against the 6th seeded Atlanta Hawks. Washington made quick work of them, sweeping the Hawks in two games. Despite averaging 15.5 per game, Kevin Grevey would lead the team in points per game that series with 29.5.

Following the first round win, the Wizards advanced to play the San Antonio Spurs in the second round. Although you remember the Spurs as a powerhouse Western Conference franchise run by Gregg Popovich, the Spurs of 1978 were in the Eastern Conference.

The Spurs would end up falling to the Bullets in the postseason for the first of two straight seasons as the higher seed, this time in six games.

In this series, Washington took a commanding 3-1 series lead, before closing the series at home in game six. Elvin Hayes led the team in scoring at 24 points per game.

With that series win, the Bullets advanced to the conference finals for the first time in three seasons.

The Eastern Conference Finals pitted Washington against the 55-win Philadelphia 76ers, led by Julius Erving, Doug Collins, George McGinnis, World B. Free, and Darryl Dawkins.

The season before Philadelphia lost in the NBA Finals to the Portland TrailBlazers despite holding a 2-0 lead. In 1977-78, the team used the motto “We owe you one,” yet, weren’t able to get back to the Finals because of the suddenly hot Bullets.

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Washington again took a commanding 3-1 lead before winning the series at home in game six. Hayes and Dandridge led the way with 23 PPG each.

Thus, the Bullets were now in the NBA Finals for the third time in franchise history. On the other two occasions, the team was swept 4-0. We know they say the third times the charm.

After going 10-4 through the first three rounds of the playoffs, the Finals would certainly be a tougher test. Although Seattle was the #4 seed in the West, the team had 3 more wins than Washington.

In a back and forth affair, Washington won every other game, winning games two, four, and six.

Two games in the first six, came down to the buzzer. Seattle won game three by one point after a game winning shot by Dandridge missed. Game four saw Washington win in Overtime. Charles Johnson, who averaged 8 points a game during the regular season, became the unlikely hero by making three straight shots to start the overtime period.

Of course, the series came down to the pivotal Game 7. Before Cleveland won game seven last year, the Bullets were the last team to win a Game 7 in the Finals on the road. How’d they do it?

For one, the Bullets used a balanced approach. No player scored more than 20 points, but six players scored at least 12. The Bullets shot a very average 45% from the floor, but were helped by the fact that the Sonics shot only 38% on 91 shots.

The Sonics had three players score 21 points or more and somehow still lost. The late Dennis Johnson missed all 14 of his shot attempts. Washington was up by 11 in the fourth quarter before the Sonics rallied to bring it close in the final minutes.

After cutting it to 101-99, the Bullets pulled away by making clutch free throws, and getting a late dunk.

You can watch the fourth quarter of Game 7 below.

The 1977-78 Bullets still leave memories for Washington sports fans as the only team to bring an NBA championship home to the District. Wes Unseld finished at Finals MVP, despite averaging only 9.7 points per game.

Hayes and Dandridge led the way offensively averaging 20.7 points and 20.4 respectively.

Despite the immense high school and college talent coming from the area, the professional teams have floundered in the past.

The new team, led by John Wall and Bradley Beal, has its sights on breaking that drought in the near future, and still have the local legends to inspire them and give advice.

Next: Washington Wizards 2016-2017 End of Season Awards

But first, we have the third straight finals matchup between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Golden State Warriors.

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