By Paul Casey Gotham
****Remember, try this without research. Release your inner James Joyce and show us your stream of consciousness as you try to decipher the answer.
My name doesn’t get mentioned much with the greats of the game. In fact, I kind of get lost in the discussion. I suppose that’s the way it should be. I played more than 800 games and averaged more than 17 points. All the while I maintained an assist to turnover ratio better than two to one for my entire career. Here’s the thing though. For two years, I was the leading scorer on a team that advanced to the finals. Still, you don’t hear my name much. I didn’t even make the all-star game those years. Tells you how good the league was then. First year we lost the championship. We got revenge on that team a year later. That was a great decade in the NBA. We were one of eight different organizations to claim the title in that ten-year span. We gave our city their only major sports championship to date. Lot of good that did. The organization relocated a couple of decades later. Eventually, I was named All-NBA. I guess that was the credit for helping my team to the championship. In college, I was a four-year starter at USC. I earned 2nd team All-American and was taken in the second round of the draft. How many guys taken in the second round lead championship teams in scoring? Oh yeah, I almost forgot. I sat out a season over a contract dispute.
Who am I?
Well the first clue I am reading is that the NBA franchise is no longer there. So cities that lost a NBA team? Off the top of my head – Rochester, Seattle.
Any others?
Good players from USC – Cliff Robinson, Paul Westphal, gulp.. OJ Mayo? Who else?
Something tells me this is coming from Seattle as they won one title in 1979. That is as far as I go. Gotta get going to work..
Definitely talking about the Seattle Supersonics who lost to the Washington Bullets in ’78 and then came back to beat them for the title in ’79. Seattle has since moved to Oklahoma City and became the Thunder. Lineup for the Sonics in ’79? Jack Sikma, Paul Silas, Dennis Johnson (before he went to Celtics), Gus Williams, Downtown Freddy Brown. I’m probably missing someone important. Freddy Brown was known for this outside shooting and came off the bench. DJ was much more accomplished and celebrated than the clues indicate for this person. Although I don’t know where he went to college, I’m gonna say the WAI is Gus Williams, who was a starter at guard and a good dependable scorer.
Didn’t Paul Westphal play for the Sonics?…before the Suns?
I only remember Westphal playing for the Celtics & Suns … especially during this time period we’re talking about here. He’s a USC guy, but he wasn’t on the Sonics title team. Of course, the “facts” can be verified. OK … here is Westphal’s year by year:
Boston Celtics (1972–1975)
Phoenix Suns (1975–1980, 1983–1984)
Seattle SuperSonics (1980–1981)
New York Knicks (1981–1983)
Explains your recollection, Chas. He had a cup of coffee with Seattle in between stints with Phoenix. I best remember him playing for the Suns in an epic Finals double OT loss to his former Celtics team in the mid ’70s.
Nice memory work, guys. I have NO clue! Still haven’t heard the final answer, but have little to offer. I do believe it would be Seattle; no other major championships in that city that I know of.
Sorry. I missed Wally’s final answer. I don’t have a better guess, so I’m buying it.
Wasn’t Westphal also a Sun in a playoff win when he called time out when he had none left, getting a technical but also getting the ball so they could score? Or is that the game to which you refer Wally and did it end up a loss?
Just looked it up. Same game.
Pete —
Yes … that’s the game where Gar Heard of the Suns was unconscious with big hoop after big hoop … and they STILL lost. I don’t know why I remember that game so well, but I think it made me an NBA fan at the time. I was watching it at my Uncle’s condo on Mother’s Day. (My uncle Jim, a priest and a great cook, would always host Mothers Day for the entire extended family). I wanted to get away from the crowd so I found a secluded bedroom with a TV and that was the game that was on. Double OT in the NBA Finals couldn’t have occurred at a better time for a 12 yr old !!!!
Westphal and Alvan Adams were a bit unusual … they had tans!
Oh … almost forgot … Uncle Jim is ND class of ’60 or so. And he still cooks for all the mom’s in our family on Mothers Day.
Ok. Without readin the comments this is my thought process. Leading scorer on a championship team but underappreciated? Then decades later they moved? Gave city only sports championship? Immediately made me think of Seattle, who I think won the title in ’79. I think it would be safe to say a lot of different champions in the 1970s. The PG was their leading scorer, right? Am I crazy, or is this Dennis Johnson? The Seattle coach at the time was Lenny Wilkins.
Looked at comments. I’m assuming you guys know that DJ didn’t go to USC. I have no idea what college he attended.
Gus Williams is the answer. Great discussion as usual.
Wally – you are correct on a few details about game 5 of the 1976 finals. But it was played on a Friday night. I know this because it was broadcast on tape delay. I was eleven at the time and got to stay up for the whole thing. It was 3 OT. A Christmas in June moment.
Go here: https://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/BOS/1976_games.html
Scroll all the way to the bottom. You will find the game listed.
I think Casey has the facts right re: the game, but as we always say in my family, “Never let the truth get in the way of a good story!” I like the Mother’s Day/Father Jim version just fine. It’s my type of version. One of my kids recently told me she saw my shirt walking in the crowd; “I make things up!” I expect I’ll be seeing that someday as a gift. And you can bet I will live up to it!