1971–72 NBA season

1971–72 NBA season
League	National Basketball Association
Sport	Basketball
Number of games	82
Number of teams	17
TV partner(s)	ABC
Regular season
Season MVP	Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Milwaukee)
Top scorer	Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Milwaukee)
Playoffs
Eastern champions	New York Knicks
Eastern runners-up	Boston Celtics
Western champions	Los Angeles Lakers
Western runners-up	Milwaukee Bucks
Finals
Champions	Los Angeles Lakers
Runners-up	New York Knicks
Finals MVP	Wilt Chamberlain (L.A. Lakers)

The 1971–72 NBA season was the 26th season of the National Basketball Association. The season ended with the Los Angeles Lakers winning the NBA Championship, beating the New York Knicks 4 games to 1 in the NBA Finals.

As the 25th anniversary of the founding of the modern NBA, the league unveiled a new logo, inspired by the logo of Major League Baseball, to commemorate the occasion. It features the white silhouette of a basketball player dribbling, framed by red and blue. Jerry West of the Los Angeles Lakers was used as the model for the logo. Coincidentally, Jerry West would win the only NBA Championship of his career during the season.

Notable occurrences

The San Diego Rockets relocated to Houston, Texas and became the Houston Rockets.^[1]
The San Francisco Warriors were renamed the Golden State Warriors and the team moved across the San Francisco Bay to Oakland.^[1]
The 1972 NBA All-Star Game was played at the Forum in Inglewood, California, with the West beating the East 112-110. To the delight of the home crowd, Jerry West of the Lakers won the game's MVP award, making a basket at the buzzer to win the game.
The Lakers' 69 wins set a new record for most regular season wins in NBA history. This mark would stand for 24 seasons, until it was bettered by the 1995–96 Chicago Bulls.^[1]
The Lakers' Elgin Baylor announced his retirement nine games into the season. That night, the Lakers began a winning streak that would last for two months, totaling 33 games. That streak still stands as the longest winning streak in the history of major American professional team sports.^[1]
The current NBA logo, which features the silhouette of Jerry West, made its debut. The blue/red pattern was adopted from the Major League Baseball logo.
This was the first season the Syracuse Nationals/Philadelphia 76ers did not make the playoffs.

Regular season

The Los Angeles Lakers came into the season returning a veteran squad from their playoff run a year before. Nine games into the season, aging and oft injured Elgin Baylor announced his retirement after 13 seasons. He was replaced at the starting small forward spot by Jim McMillian, who would go on to average 18 points per game, third best on the team. Despite Baylor's retirement, the Lakers went on a 33-game winning streak. The Lakers completed two undefeated months, going 14–0 in November and 16–0 in December. After winning their first three games in January, the Lakers lost 120–104 to the Milwaukee Bucks. On March 20, 1972, the Lakers beat Golden State by a record 63 points (162–99), a mark that would stand until 1991, when Cleveland beat Miami by 68 points (148–80). The Lakers finished the season with a record 69 wins, which would stand until the 1995–96 season when the Chicago Bulls won 72 regular season games.^[1]

The defending champion Milwaukee Bucks won 63 games on the play of renamed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, formerly Lew Alcindor, and Oscar Robertson. The Celtics, led by second year center Dave Cowens, point guard Jo Jo White and 32-year-old swingman John Havlicek won the Atlantic Division with 56 wins. Boston had recovered from the retirement of Bill Russell, K. C. Jones and Sam Jones by winning 12 more games than the previous season.

Playoffs

In the first round, the Lakers swept the Bulls and Milwaukee defeated Golden State. New York eliminated the Bullets and Boston won against the Atlanta Hawks. In the Western Conference Finals, the Lakers lost game 1 versus the defending champion Bucks at The Forum 93–72, a game that saw the Lakers score only 8 points in the third quarter. However, the Lakers led by assist champion Jerry West, leading scorer Gail Goodrich and veteran Wilt Chamberlain would win 4 of the next 5 games and beat Milwaukee in six games. In the Eastern Conference Finals, New York defeated the top-seed Celtics in five games.^[1]

In the NBA Finals, New York won game 1 very easily, but Los Angeles won game 2 106–92 to even the series. In game 3, the Lakers jumped out to a 22-point lead and regained home-court advantage with a 107–96 win. In game 4, the Knicks forced overtime. At the end of regulation, Wilt Chamberlain was called for his fifth foul. In his first 12 seasons, he had never fouled out of a game. Chamberlain did not foul out and led the Lakers to a 116-111 victory, but he broke his wrist in the overtime period. The Lakers held a 3–1 series lead going into game 5 in Los Angeles. In game 5, Chamberlain played despite his injury. The score was tied at 53 in the first half, but the Lakers outscored the Knicks 61–47 in the second half to win the game and the NBA Championship, 114–100.^[1]

Notable trades

1971

To Baltimore Bullets

Mike Riordan, Dave Stallworth, 1973 first-round pick, 1976 second-round and first-round picks

To New York Knicks

Earl Monroe

Final standings

By division

Atlantic Division	W	L	PCT	GB	Home	Road	Neutral	Div
y-Boston Celtics	56	26	.683	–	32–9	21–16	3–1	15–3
x-New York Knicks	48	34	.585	8	27–14	20–19	1–1	11–7
Philadelphia 76ers	30	52	.366	26	14–23	14–26	2–3	6–12
Buffalo Braves	22	60	.268	34	13–27	8–31	1–2	4–14

Central Division	W	L	PCT	GB	Home	Road	Neutral	Div
y-Baltimore Bullets	38	44	.463	–	18–15	16–24	4–5	9–9
x-Atlanta Hawks	36	46	.439	2	22–19	13–26	1–1	9–9
Cincinnati Royals	30	52	.366	8	20–18	8–32	2–2	11–9
Cleveland Cavaliers	23	59	.280	15	13–28	8–30	2–1	9–11

Midwest Division	W	L	PCT	GB	Home	Road	Neutral	Div
y-Milwaukee Bucks	63	19	.768	–	31–5	27–12	5–2	13–5
x-Chicago Bulls	57	25	.695	6	29–12	26–12	2–1	12–6
Phoenix Suns	49	33	.598	14	30–11	19–20	0–2	7–11
Detroit Pistons	26	56	.317	37	16–25	9–30	1–1	4–14

Pacific Division	W	L	PCT	GB	Home	Road	Neutral	Div
y-Los Angeles Lakers	69	13	.841	–	36–5	31–7	2–1	21–3
x-Golden State Warriors	51	31	.622	18	27–8	21–20	3–3	14–10
Seattle SuperSonics	47	35	.573	22	28–12	18–22	1–1	12–12
Houston Rockets	34	48	.415	35	15–20	14–23	5–5	9–15
Portland Trail Blazers	18	64	.220	51	14–26	4–35	0–3	4–20

By conference

#	Eastern Conference
#	Team	W	L	PCT
1	z-Boston Celtics	56	26	.683
2	y-Baltimore Bullets	38	44	.463
3	x-New York Knicks	48	34	.585
4	x-Atlanta Hawks	36	46	.439

5	Philadelphia 76ers	30	52	.366
5	Cincinnati Royals	30	52	.366
7	Cleveland Cavaliers	23	59	.280
8	Buffalo Braves	22	60	.268

#	Western Conference
#	Team	W	L	PCT
1	z-Los Angeles Lakers	69	13	.841
2	y-Milwaukee Bucks	63	19	.768
3	x-Chicago Bulls	57	25	.695
4	x-Golden State Warriors	51	31	.622

5	Phoenix Suns	49	33	.598
6	Seattle SuperSonics	47	35	.573
7	Houston Rockets	34	48	.415
8	Detroit Pistons	26	56	.317
9	Portland Trail Blazers	18	64	.220

Notes

z, y – division champions
x – clinched playoff spot

Playoff bracket

Conference Semifinals			Conference Finals			NBA Finals

1	L.A. Lakers	4
3	Chicago	0
			1	L.A. Lakers	4
Western Conference
			2	Milwaukee	2
2	Milwaukee	4

4	Golden State	1
						W1	L.A. Lakers	4
						E3	New York	1
1	Boston	4
4	Atlanta	2
			1	Boston	1
Eastern Conference
			3	New York	4
2	Baltimore	2

3	New York	4

Finals

Game	Date	Winner	Score	Site
Game 1	April 26 (Wed.)	New York Knicks	114-92	at Los Angeles
Game 2	April 30 (Sun.)	Los Angeles Lakers	106-92	at Los Angeles
Game 3	May 3 (Wed.)	Los Angeles Lakers	107-96	at New York
Game 4	May 5 (Fri.)	Los Angeles Lakers	116-111	at New York
Game 5	May 7 (Sun.)	Los Angeles Lakers	114-100	at Los Angeles

Lakers win series 4-1

Statistics leaders


Category	Player	Team	Stat
Points per game	Kareem Abdul-Jabbar	Milwaukee Bucks	34.8
Rebounds per game	Wilt Chamberlain	Los Angeles Lakers	19.2
Assists per game	Jerry West	Los Angeles Lakers	9.7
FG%	Wilt Chamberlain	Los Angeles Lakers	.649
FT%	Jack Marin	Baltimore Bullets	.894

NBA awards

Most Valuable Player: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Milwaukee Bucks
Rookie of the Year: Sidney Wicks, Portland Trail Blazers
Coach of the Year: Bill Sharman, Los Angeles Lakers
All-NBA Team:
First Team:
- C Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Milwaukee Bucks
- PF Spencer Haywood, Seattle SuperSonics
- SF John Havlicek, Boston Celtics
- PG Jerry West, Los Angeles Lakers
- SG Walt Frazier, New York Knicks
Second Team:
All-NBA Rookie Team:
- Sidney Wicks, Portland Trail Blazers
- Clifford Ray, Chicago Bulls
- Austin Carr, Cleveland Cavaliers
- Elmore Smith, Buffalo Braves
- Phil Chenier, Baltimore Bullets
NBA All-Defensive Team:
First Team:
- Dave DeBusschere, New York Knicks
- John Havlicek, Boston Celtics
- Wilt Chamberlain, Los Angeles Lakers
- Jerry West, Los Angeles Lakers
- Walt Frazier, New York Knicks (tie)
- Jerry Sloan, Chicago Bulls (tie)
Second Team:

Note: All information on this page were obtained on the History section on NBA.com or Basketball reference.com

External Links

References

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "NBA.com history". Retrieved 2009-06-24.

1940s

1950s

1960s

1970s

1980s

1990s

2000s

2010s

1971–72 NBA season by team

Eastern

Atlantic	Boston Buffalo New York Philadelphia

Central	Atlanta Baltimore Cincinnati Cleveland

Western

Midwest	Chicago Detroit Milwaukee Phoenix

Pacific	Golden State Houston Los Angeles Portland Seattle

NBA on ABC

Related
programs

NBA on ESPN	Radio NBA Shootaround NBA Wednesday NBA Friday WNBA on ESPN

NBA Drafts	2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016

Non-NBA programs	ESPN College Basketball on ABC Olympics on ABC

Key figures

Play-by-play	Mike Breen Jim Durham Bill Flemming Chet Forte Jim Gordon Curt Gowdy Chuck Howard Keith Jackson Mark Jones Jim McKay Al Michaels Brent Musburger Brad Nessler John Saunders Chris Schenkel Commentators All-Star Game ESPN NBA Finals WNBA Finals

Color commentators	Greg Anthony Hubie Brown Bob Cousy Sean Elliott Len Elmore Tim Legler Mark Jackson Steve Jones Johnny Kerr Dan Majerle Jack Ramsay Doc Rivers Bill Russell Tom Tolbert Jack Twyman Jeff Van Gundy Bill Walton Jerry West

Sideline reporters	David Aldridge Doris Burke Howard Cosell Heather Cox Dave Diles Mark Jones Sal Masekela Craig Sager Lisa Salters Michele Tafoya

Studio hosts	Dan Patrick Stuart Scott Sage Steele Hannah Storm Mike Tirico Michael Wilbon

Studio analysts	Jon Barry Chris Broussard Doug Collins Steve Javie Avery Johnson Magic Johnson George Karl Scottie Pippen Jalen Rose Byron Scott Bill Simmons

ABC Radio announcers	Marv Albert Dave Barnett Chick Hearn Rod Hundley Steve Jones Fred Manfra Earl Monroe Johnny Most Oscar Robertson Dick Vitale

NBA Finals

ABC Radio's coverage	1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990

WNBA Finals	2003 (Game 2 on ABC) 2004 2005 (Game 3 on ABC) 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 (Game 1 on ABC) 2011 2012 2013 2014 (Game 1 on ABC)

All-Star Game

ABC Radio's coverage	1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990

Music

"Let's Get It Started" (2004)
"ABC" (2004)
"Lose My Breath" (2005)
"This Is How a Heart Breaks" (2005)
"Runnin' Down a Dream" (2006)
"Right Now" (2007)
"It Ends Tonight" (2007)
"Nine Lives" (2007)
"Get On Your Boots" (2009)
"All I Want for Christmas Is You" (2009)
"Rip This Joint" (2010)
"Oh Santa!" (2010)
"Black Dog" (2011)
"Timber" (2014)

Lore

Rivalries	Bryant–O'Neal Lakers–Pistons Celtics–Lakers

ESPN lore	Pacers–Pistons brawl

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