Our first semifinal matchup is a battle between the most balanced team in our tournament against arguably the most offensively explosive one. Boston has had a relatively easy path to this point, with a first-round bye and two five-game series, while Golden State shocked many with their narrow escape in the Elite Eight against the vaunted Spurs. Can the Warriors continue their magical run by outscoring the number one seed? The All-Time Boston Celtics vs. All-Time Golden State Warriors is an intriguing matchup, featuring some of the game’s greatest stars.
Key Matchups
Wilt Chamberlain vs. Bill Russell – Perhaps the greatest rivalry in NBA history resurfaces in the Franchise Tournament. The greatest offensive force in league history faces the greatest defensive stopper. These two battled 57 times when Wilt was a Warrior, with Russell’s Celtics winning 41 of those encounters. Chamberlain averaged 35.4 PPG in those encounters, which, while obviously dominant, was less than the 41.5 PPG he averaged in his Warriors career. Russell’s ability to defend Chamberlain one-on-one with no help will be an essential part of Boston’s defense; they can’t afford to sag off of Golden State’s shooters if they have any chance of slowing the Warriors down.
Larry Bird vs. Rick Barry – An absolutely joyous matchup between an original (Barry) and his doppelganger (Bird). Both players were known for their transcendent shooting and passing skills, and each was the best player on a championship team (in Bird’s case, teams). Bird was a bigger player (6’9” and 220 lbs, compared to Barry’s 6’7” 205 pound frame), and can easily switch to power forward when needed. Neither player should be expected to stop the other, though Boston can switch the multitalented Kevin McHale onto Barry while Bird guards Neil Johnston. Expect John Havlicek to play heavy minutes on Barry as well, while Golden State’s best perimeter defender, Tom Gola, will often be tasked with guarding Bird and Boston’s other wings.
Bob Cousy vs. Stephen Curry – One of the first showmen in league history takes on the most recent. Cousy, one of the greatest passers in league history, led the league in assists for eight straight seasons, and was the second player in league history to win the MVP award. Curry, one of the greatest shooters ever, has led the league in made three point field goals for four years running, and has captured the last two MVP awards. Both are probably better defenders than they’re given credit for; Cousy accumulated more defensive than offensive win shares in his career, while Curry has become a solid defender over time, as detailed here. However, neither is a good bet to stop the other, but Cousy, in particular, must avoid defensive lapses against the explosive Curry, whose three-point shooting provides a unique challenge for opponents.
Biggest Mismatches
Boston’s versatility vs. Golden State’s – The Celtics have the ability to win any type of matchup with their depth and versatility. They can play big with any combination of Russell, Dave Cowens, Robert Parish, McHale, and Tom Heinsohn, or play small with Havlicek and Paul Pierce occupying the forward positions. They can also trot out a defensive lineup featuring Russell, McHale, Havlicek, and Sam Jones, and can space the floor on offense with Bird, Bill Sharman, and Pierce. They also have Red Auerbach on the sidelines, who got the most out of his players and popularized several strategic concepts, such as the sixth man. He’ll meld the extraordinary talent on the Boston roster and put them in position to succeed. Golden State has several solid wing defenders in Gola and Guy Rodgers, and two players who can protect the paint in Chamberlain and Nate Thurmond. However, their best lineup probably consists of one of Gola or Thurmond alongside Chamberlain, Barry, Paul Arizin, and Curry, which leaves them vulnerable to opposing perimeter threats. Expect Boston to hide their defensive liabilities better, and to benefit from the two-way ability of many of their stars.
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X-Factor
Wilt the Stilt – One could argue that despite his gaudy numbers as a Warrior, Wilt’s best years were with the Sixers, where he served as the centerpiece of one of the great teams in NBA history. The Warriors’ version of Wilt was accused of being a stat-monger who cared more about individual glory than team success. Is that a fair assessment? Probably not, since his teams made one NBA Finals appearance and two Eastern Division Finals appearances in his five and a half years there. However, there are concerns about how he will mesh with Barry, a notoriously difficult personality who has lambasted Chamberlain in the past, and how he will react to playing alongside so much firepower. If coach Al Attles can channel him to play like he did with the Sixers, then Golden State has a chance to win this series. If he’s not interested in letting his teammates shine, they’re in trouble.
Results
Despite the questions surrounding fit and personality, Chamberlain and Barry play brilliantly, and lead Golden State to several wins over the favored Celtics. Boston, however, has the deeper, more versatile roster, and their championship mettle comes through over the course of the series. Every single player on the Boston roster won at least one championship with the club, and the 17-time champions advance, as expected, to the Franchise Tournament finals.
Boston wins, four games to two.
Next Round
Boston faces the winner of the All-Time Lakers vs. All-Time Pistons in the finals.
Wilt’s teams faced Russell’s C’s a total of 94 times in the regular season. Russell is widely acknowledged to have had a team-full of help on the defensive end; yet Wilt averaged only 5 ppg less vs them than he did against the entire rest of the League (which is very often claimed to be very weak at the Center position beyond: Wilt, Russ & Nate The Great). If the C’s here in THIS series can’t afford to help Russ in a HUGE way; Wilt will punish the C’s like he did all the other teams which didn’t TEAM up against him.
I wonder about what effect an other-wordly Curry could have on the entire series. I think he’d be good enough on D to contain Cousy much more than Cousy could do anything about that almost-unlimited range. This would then force all kinds of adjustments on the C’s to try to help contain Curry.
Otoh, I think you’re right as usual in who wins the Series (in a super-well-thought-out & written series of articles). It is hard to underestimate Red’s positive effect (back then, I “hated” him for his arrogance; but never doubted his genius as BOTH a GM & coach); including on very-close games – and we can expect a number of them here. In my opinion, relative to his competition, Red was THE most-far ahead coach of all-time.
btw, in the “Results” paragraph, you might want to change the words “won SEVERAL (my emphasis) games” to reflect that they “only” win two. Perhaps, “they forced several thrillingly close games”?
Appreciate your insightful comments as always. In the post, I was only focusing on Wilt’s time with the Warriors, which is why I referenced the 57 games above. I also think Wilt would dominate if he was played straight up, and Golden State would make this series close.
Thanks for following along! Only two more matches to go (plus a third place game).
I didn’t want to come across as questioning your use of the 57 games (you made your point well); but instead, just wanted to EXPAND it; because the larger sample size only further confirms how much trouble Wilt caused the C’s despite their vaunted TEAM-Defense led by the incomparable Russell.
btw I personally paid pretty close attention to Wilt’s entire career, starting with his days starting as Point Guard for the Harlem Globetrotters (we went to a number of games LIVE; he could bring the ball upcourt with the best of them!);and I “followed” him into the NBA …
It’d be maximum thrilling to see how the C’s would counter him; any double-teaming would unleash Barry & Curry – too high a price to pay, imo.
btw, I have serious doubts about Wilt’s (reputation for) selfishness and stat-padding. He pretty much did whatever his coaches asked him to do. When scoring 40 ppg wasn’t enough, and they told him they couldn’t win without more scoring from him, that’s when he went for 50.4 ppg. When, especially later on, he had the teammates for a more balance offensive attack, they asked him for more balance, and he “dominated” the League in assists from the Center position (as well as grabbing a huge share of the rebounds, etc).
Further, if you look at his character, this man, all by his lonesome, (through sitting at restaurants & not in the back corners either) integrated first whole cities and then whole regions of the U.S. – in the process. Each and every time he did that, he was surely risking his very life in the then deeply & violently racist South (and elsewhere). Such personal bravery for such a worthy cause to me doesn’t smack at all of someone with personal-insecurities or with the need to outshine everyone else.
I apologize for this NOT being directly b-ball related; but it does tend to inform a lot about the kind of person he was – and I, for one, believe this did carry over onto the court. He WAS a once-in-a-century physical freak of nature – so it was almost inevitable that he dominate, even over such a once-in-a-decade freak as Russell.
I’m really looking forward to your take on the remaining games – really fascinating & informed thinking on your part. (I might be able to critique your work; but I don’t have any illusions I could match it.)
For 4 years in the mid-60’s, 63-67, I went to a high school just outside of Boston. I had zero jumping ability so I never made our team; but I attended all the games both at home and away. We qualified for the end-of-the-year tournaments; and I was privileged to go to the Gaaaden a number of times. After awe of the scene & of the players, my second greatest impression: how disgustingly racist the BOSTON fans were towards the great Bill Russell (and his black teammates). It was those fans that turned me away from the C’s; certainly it wasn’t their formidable players, a virtual All-Star team (unequalled in all of history, with the possible exception, still be proven, of next year’s Dubs).
We experienced the same thing EVERY one of our high school games. EACH and every team (except ours, maybe we were too small to get that nasty?) has TWO sets of cheerleaders and TWO separate physically-separated groups of fans. When their white players scored, the white cheerleaders would rise and rally their white fans. Likewise with their black players / cheerleaders and fans.
I got to the point where I was so incensed by it & demoralized by it that I started believing the ugliness would never go away.
West-Baylor, with their beautiful bi-racial on-court harmony & phenomenal skills sets, literally changed my life – inspiring 50+ years of political activism for peace-justice causes.
If it can be said that I appreciate the game differently than most; it would be because of such personal experiences around the game.
P.S. IF this is too far off-topic, don’t hesitate to not publish it in the comments section – I figure you’d find it personally interesting / informative regardless.
This is awesome – please keep sharing your insights! Comments, critiques – all are welcome, especially from someone with such great perspective.
You humble me with your compliment.
I was born “half-calculator, half-boy” with an off the charts IQ particularly in math (at the age of 8, in response to a cover article in Sports Illustrated which showed a perfect bridge hand that had been dealt somewhere in the U.S. (iirc); and listed the odds against it (a one followed by an almost endless stream of zeros); I said to my dad – “This number is wrong.”)
He has written that I spent the next two weeks alone in my room filling notebooks full of mathematical notations – and in the process I re-invented algebra and logarithms. At last, I came back to him and said, matter of factly, “See, I was right!”
He was super-smart himself, but not especially in math. But he was a top-level exec. for a big NYC accounting firm & took all my notebooks there and asked the Accounting Department to take a look at them. Some time later they came back to him and said, “No 8 year-old is capable of this work; it’d take somebody more like 28. See right here, he’s re-invented … And the thing is, he absolutely nailed the math, he was right and the SI article’s odds-against-a-perfect-bridge-hand are incorrect. He made only one small “mistake”; he solved for each player having one SPECIFIC suit, rather than any of the four suits. This is just phenomenal – no joke, would you let him come work in our department?”
As a pre-frosh in college, I took two courses: Logic & Math; and in both, during the 2nd week, the teachers each asked me to be their Assistant for tutoring the to-be seniors. Later on, in a “test” set up by another teacher, without using a calculator, I beat a room full of people WITH calculators at a series of math problems.
Seeing as I did nothing to “merit” such abilities, other than “choosing my parents really well”; I take no pride in being skilled at math. In my personal opinion, if a person only, or mostly, uses any gifts for their own personal benefit – then those people are worse than useless. Either you help others and society in general, or such gifts are terribly wasted on you.
My mom read an entire book a day all her adult life (reading every last book in the local city library); but, despite this, she was blinded by her religion and was very conservative & intolerant. My dad, otoh, was super-tolerant in such an intolerant age.
He “raised” me on the NBA (especially all-things Mikan, including naturally the “Mikan Drill”.) He loved great plays and great players regardless of their race or team. Thus, my appreciation of players, since back then, based on their talent rather than “local-team ‘patriotism'”.
Between the two of them, they produced a son who is in many ways pretty unique.
I had major difficulties getting along with classmates in grammar school & high school – I didn’t think like anybody else (for example, nobody got my sense of humor at all); but I didn’t realize for the longest time that it was I that was “the freak”; and needed to learn how to communicate with others on “normal” terms.
One thing I’ve always done, is count everything; & make ranking lists. By way of example, I have made/updated a list of the greatest individual songs and LPs for rock musicians, starting 55 years ago. Likewise for great NBA players.
Where all this is heading is that I’ve been working (probably far too hard) on my latest version of a NBA- (ABA-, NBL-) Greatest Players GOAT List. What’s been taking so much of my time is really trying to make “my” list as objective as possible (on a subject matter that is, by its very nature, so subjective, difficult to measure); i.e., resisting / overcoming so many of the biases displayed by pretty much everybody who opines on the subject.
I have not quite completed this project, and have no real idea of how my calculations will end up ranking the top 50 & 100 players.
But perhaps within a week or so, it should be done.
I’d be really interested to get your opinion on “my” list (and underlying methodology). Close or way off, “my” list is surely going to display some uniqueness.
I also do not have either a website or a blog – so I have no idea, IF my NBA GOAT rankings are any good; where/how to publish them.
You obviously are very skilled at both the analysis and the presentation – thus, this long-winded note; which embarrasses me no end – and yet I’ve written it and am sending it on for your thoughts.
I’d love to see your list. You can send it to my e-mail address (chris@bballhistory.com) when you’re done and I’d be happy to give feedback. Looking forward to it!
That goes for me too, as well. I can empathize the feeling of being gifted and yet being punished for it.
At the same time, this gift is for everyone – whether they want it or not, whether it impinges on their insecurities or stokes their higher aspirations.
Please, do find a way to share your findings with the rest of us. 🙂