1976–77 NBA season explained

1976–77 NBA season
League:	National Basketball Association
Sport:	Basketball
Duration:	October 21, 1976 – April 10, 1977 April 12 – May 17, 1977 (Playoffs) May 22 – June 5, 1977 (Finals)
No Of Games:	82
No Of Teams:	22
Tv:	CBS
Draft:	Draft
Draft Link:	1976 NBA Draft
Top Pick Link:	List of first overall NBA draft picks
Top Pick:	John Lucas
Picked By:	Houston Rockets
Season:	Regular season
Top Seed:	Los Angeles Lakers
Mvp:	Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Los Angeles)
Mvp Link:	NBA MVP
Top Scorer:	Pete Maravich (New Orleans)
Playoffs:	Playoffs
Playoffs Link:	1977 NBA Playoffs
Conf1:	Eastern
Conf1 Link:	Eastern Conference (NBA)
Conf1 Champ:	Philadelphia 76ers
Conf1 Runner-Up:	Houston Rockets
Conf2:	Western
Conf2 Link:	Western Conference (NBA)
Conf2 Champ:	Portland Trail Blazers
Conf2 Runner-Up:	Los Angeles Lakers
Finals:	Finals
Finals Link:	1977 NBA Finals
Finals Champ:	Portland Trail Blazers
Finals Runner-Up:	Philadelphia 76ers
Finals Mvp:	Bill Walton (Portland)
Finals Mvp Link:	NBA Finals MVP
Seasonslist:	List of NBA seasons
Seasonslistnames:	NBA
Prevseason Link:	1975–76 NBA season
Prevseason Year:	1975–76
Nextseason Link:	1977–78 NBA season
Nextseason Year:	1977–78

The 1976–77 NBA season was the 31st season of the National Basketball Association. The season ended with the Portland Trail Blazers winning their first NBA Championship in franchise history, beating the Philadelphia 76ers in six games in the NBA Finals.^[1]

Prior to the season, the NBA merged with its primary rival league, the American Basketball Association (ABA). Four ABA teams joined the NBA, all four of which are still in the league today: the San Antonio Spurs, Indiana Pacers, Denver Nuggets, and New York Nets. The Nets became the New Jersey Nets the following season, and now play as the Brooklyn Nets. With these additions, the NBA expanded from eighteen teams to twenty-two.

Notable occurrences

The NBA's rival league, the American Basketball Association, joined with the NBA in the ABA–NBA merger. Four ABA franchises joined the NBA: the New York Nets, the Indiana Pacers, the San Antonio Spurs, and the Denver Nuggets. The other ABA teams had folded prior to the merger, except for the Kentucky Colonels and Spirits of St. Louis, both of whose players were picked up by NBA teams in the ABA dispersal draft.
The NBA Playoffs were expanded from 5 teams per conference to 6, resulting in division winners getting a first round bye.
The 1977 NBA All-Star Game was played at The MECCA in Milwaukee, with the West beating the East 125–124. Julius Erving of the Philadelphia 76ers (one of the new arrivals from the ABA) wins the game's MVP award.
5 of the 10 All-Star starters and 10 of the 24 All-Star participants were former ABA players, and former ABA players filled 4 of the 10 slots on the All-NBA first and second teams. Five former ABA players competed in the NBA Finals: the Philadelphia 76ers' Julius Erving, George McGinnis and Caldwell Jones, and the Portland Trail Blazers' Maurice Lucas and Dave Twardzik.
The Portland Trail Blazers made their first playoff appearance, winning their first and, to date, only NBA Championship. They also become the second team in history (after the 1969 Celtics) to win the NBA Finals after dropping the first two games.
This season saw the introducing of new championship trophy which would later become known as the Larry O'Brien Championship Trophy replacing the Walter A. Brown Trophy

Offseason
Team	1975–76 coach	1976–77 coach
Atlanta Hawks	Bumper Tormohlen	Hubie Brown
Buffalo Braves	Jack Ramsay	Tates Locke
Chicago Bulls	Dick Motta	Ed Badger
Houston Rockets	Johnny Egan	Tom Nissalke
Los Angeles Lakers	Bill Sharman	Jerry West
Portland Trail Blazers	Lenny Wilkens	Jack Ramsay
Washington Bullets	K. C. Jones	Dick Motta
In-season
Team	Outgoing coach	Incoming coach
Buffalo Braves	Tates Locke Bob MacKinnon (interim)	Joe Mullaney (interim)
Milwaukee Bucks	Larry Costello	Don Nelson
New Orleans Jazz	Butch Van Breda Kolff	Elgin Baylor

Teams

1976-77 National Basketball Association

Division	Team	City	Arena	Capacity
Atlantic	Boston Celtics	Boston, Massachusetts	Boston Garden	13,909
	Buffalo Braves	Buffalo, New York	Buffalo Memorial Auditorium	15,280
	New York Knicks	New York, New York	Madison Square Garden	19,812
	New York Nets ^	Uniondale, New York	Nassau Coliseum	14,890
	Philadelphia 76ers	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania	The Spectrum	18,176
Central	Atlanta Hawks	Atlanta, Georgia	Omni Coliseum	16,378
	Cleveland Cavaliers	Richfield, Ohio	Richfield Coliseum	20,900
	Houston Rockets	Houston, Texas	The Summit	16,285
	New Orleans Jazz	New Orleans, Louisiana	Louisiana Superdome	55,675
	San Antonio Spurs ^	San Antonio, Texas	HemisFair Arena	16,057
	Washington Bullets	Landover, Maryland	Capital Centre	18,756

Midwest	Chicago Bulls	Chicago, Illinois	Chicago Stadium	18,676
	Denver Nuggets ^	Denver, Colorado	McNichols Sports Arena	17,171
	Detroit Pistons	Detroit, Michigan	Cobo Arena	12,191
	Indiana Pacers ^	Indianapolis, Indiana	Market Square Arena	17,171
	Kansas City Kings	Kansas City, Missouri	Kemper Arena	16,700
	Milwaukee Bucks	Milwaukee, Wisconsin	MECCA Arena	10,783
Pacific	Golden State Warriors	Oakland, California	Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Arena	13,155
	Los Angeles Lakers	Inglewood, California	The Forum	17,505
	Phoenix Suns	Phoenix, Arizona	Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum	14,870
	Portland Trail Blazers	Portland, Oregon	Memorial Coliseum	12,888
	Seattle SuperSonics	Seattle, Washington	Seattle Center Coliseum	17,072

Team merged from ABA ^

Map of teams

Final standings

By conference

Notes

z, y – division champions
x – clinched playoff spot

Playoffs

See main article: 1977 NBA playoffs.

Statistics leaders


Category	Player	Team	Stat
Points per game			31.6
Rebounds per game			14.4
Assists per game			8.5
Steals per game	Don Buse	Indiana Pacers	3.47
Blocks per game	Bill Walton	Portland Trail Blazers	3.25
FG%			.579
FT%			.945