In 1982, Bob Ryan left the Boston Globe for a job at a television station. Everyone figured it was the end of an era. Ryan had seen more great basketball in twenty years than most people do in a lifetime. Before he left, he began compiling lists.Here's one of them.Five Best Regular Season Teams:
1. 1971-72 Lakers;
2. 1969-70 Knicks;
3. 1977-78 Trail Blazers;
4. 1972-73 Celtics;
5. 1970-71 Bucks
Opposing Team I'd Most Like To See Take The Garden Floor Again: The Old Knicks, the greatest half-court team of all time.
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Now this list is of particular interest. Written in 1982, it (obviously) includes none of the great Lakers or Celtics teams from the 1980s or the Bulls teams from the 1990s. Despite having won fourteen championships by then, no one Celtics team ranks in the top three. In fact, the only green team making the list is the 1972-73 Celtics, a squad that won 68 regular season games, but lost to the Knicks in the Eastern Conference Finals.
Ryan sure did love that 72-73 team. Look how high he put them on this list.
Still, it is a tad disconcerting that a titleless Celtics team is ranked higher than any of the fourteen who brought home the bling.
No?
2 comments:
There were some pretty good teams playing in the early 70's, and the '73 Celtics did manage to go 68-14 something that no other Celtics team managed to do. The '73 Eastern Conference Finals sounds it was like one of the greatest ever played but sadly it's never talked about much.
I've got a couple of books that might cover it. I need to read them.
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