1977–78 NBA season explained

1977–78 NBA season
League:	National Basketball Association
Sport:	Basketball
Duration:	October 18, 1977 – April 9, 1978 April 11 – May 17, 1978 (Playoffs) May 21 – June 7, 1978 (Finals)
No Of Games:	82
No Of Teams:	22
Tv:	CBS
Draft:	Draft
Draft Link:	1977 NBA Draft
Top Pick Link:	List of first overall NBA draft picks
Top Pick:	Kent Benson
Picked By:	Milwaukee Bucks
Season:	Regular season
Top Seed:	Portland Trail Blazers
Mvp:	Bill Walton (Portland)
Mvp Link:	NBA MVP
Top Scorer:	George Gervin (San Antonio)
Playoffs:	Playoffs
Playoffs Link:	1978 NBA Playoffs
Conf1:	Eastern
Conf1 Link:	Eastern Conference (NBA)
Conf1 Champ:	Washington Bullets
Conf1 Runner-Up:	Philadelphia 76ers
Conf2:	Western
Conf2 Link:	Western Conference (NBA)
Conf2 Champ:	Seattle SuperSonics
Conf2 Runner-Up:	Denver Nuggets
Finals:	Finals
Finals Link:	1978 NBA Finals
Finals Champ:	Washington Bullets
Finals Runner-Up:	Seattle SuperSonics
Finals Mvp:	Wes Unseld (Washington)
Finals Mvp Link:	NBA Finals MVP
Seasonslist:	List of NBA seasons
Seasonslistnames:	NBA
Prevseason Link:	1976–77 NBA season
Prevseason Year:	1976–77
Nextseason Link:	1978–79 NBA season
Nextseason Year:	1978–79

The 1977–78 NBA season was the 32nd season of the National Basketball Association. The season ended with the Washington Bullets winning the NBA Championship, beating the Seattle SuperSonics 4 games to 3 in the NBA Finals.

Notable occurrences

On October 10, 1977, and in a shocking moment to Knicks fans, the New York Knicks traded Walt Frazier to the Cleveland Cavaliers as compensation for a free agent signing. That free agent the Knicks got was Jim Cleamons.
The New York Nets moved from Uniondale, New York to Piscataway, New Jersey, and were renamed the New Jersey Nets. The New York Knicks, who forced the Nets to pay $4.8 million for invading the New York area prior to the previous season, remained the only NBA team in New York City for 35 years, until the Nets moved to Brooklyn in the 2012–13 season.
The 1978 NBA All-Star Game was played at the Omni Coliseum in Atlanta, with the East beating the West 133–125. Randy Smith of the Buffalo Braves won the game's MVP award.
The defending champion Portland Trail Blazers started with a 50–10 record and looked poised to repeat, but Bill Walton broke his foot and was sidelined for the remainder of the season. The Blazers, hurt by Walton's absence and by other key injuries, faded to an 8–14 finish and lost to the Sonics in the Western Conference semifinals.
On December 9, 1977, Kermit Washington punched Houston Rockets player Rudy Tomjanovich in the face during an NBA game. Tomjanovich sustained serious injuries and missed the rest of the season. The NBA fined Washington $10,000 and suspended him for 26 games.
Throughout the 1977–78 season, CBS broadcast NBA games during the regular season and the playoffs. During halftime of those games, they showed a pre-taped H–O–R–S–E tournament pitting players from the NBA against each other. It featured, among others, Pete Maravich, Paul Westphal, Bob McAdoo, Kevin Grevey, and George Gervin. Maravich and Westphal made it to the final, and CBS originally planned to hold their match at halftime during an NBA Finals game. However, Maravich was injured and could not participate, so CBS decided to have Westphal compete against "Bag-Man" (who was actually analyst Rick Barry with a bag covering his head) by letting them both shoot a free throw. Westphal, blindfolded, went first and hit his. Barry missed, and Westphal was awarded the trophy. The NBA H–O–R–S–E competition would not be re-instituted for 31 more years, returning for the 2009 All-Star Weekend.
This was the first season since the 1949–50 season that no Boston Celtics player was named to either the First or Second All-NBA Team.
This was also the last season for longtime Boston Celtics' player John Havlicek, who retired at the end of the season after sixteen years in the NBA all with the legendary franchise.
Also retiring this season were Dave Bing, Cazzie Russell and George Karl, though Karl would later become an NBA coach.
With 8 minutes and 43 seconds of the final quarter remaining in the game between the Atlanta Hawks and the Milwaukee Bucks on the 25th of November, the Hawks were leading by 29 points, and looked set for an easy win. The Bucks then outscored the Hawks 35–4 to win the game by two points, 117–115. The Bucks' victory is still the biggest fourth quarter comeback in NBA history.^[1]

Offseason
Team	1976–77 coach	1977–78 coach
Buffalo Braves	Joe Mullaney (interim)	Cotton Fitzsimmons
New York Knicks	Red Holzman	Willis Reed
Seattle SuperSonics	Bill Russell	Bob Hopkins
In-season
Team	Outgoing coach	Incoming coach
Boston Celtics	Tom Heinsohn	Satch Sanders
Detroit Pistons	Herb Brown	Bob Kauffman
Kansas City Kings	Phil Johnson	Larry Staverman
Philadelphia 76ers	Gene Shue	Billy Cunningham
Seattle SuperSonics	Bob Hopkins	Lenny Wilkens

Teams

1977-78 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 Jersey Nets	Piscataway, New Jersey	Rutgers Athletic Center	8,500
	New York Knicks	New York, New York	Madison Square Garden	19,812
	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

Map of teams

Final standings

By conference

Notes

z, y – division champions
x – clinched playoff spot

Playoffs

See main article: 1978 NBA playoffs. Teams in bold advanced to the next round. The numbers to the left of each team indicate the team's seeding in its conference, and the numbers to the right indicate the number of games the team won in that round. The division champions are marked by an asterisk. Home court advantage does not necessarily belong to the higher-seeded team, but instead the team with the better regular season record; teams enjoying the home advantage are shown in italics.

Statistics leaders


Category	Player	Team	Stat
Points per game			27.2
Rebounds per game			15.7
Assists per game			10.2
Steals per game			2.74
Blocks per game		New Jersey Nets	3.38
FG%			.578
FT%			.924

NBA awards

Most Valuable Player: Bill Walton, Portland Trail Blazers
Rookie of the Year

Walter Davis, Phoenix Suns

Coach of the Year

Hubie Brown, Atlanta Hawks

All-NBA First Team

- F – Julius Erving, Philadelphia 76ers
- F – Truck Robinson, New Orleans Jazz
- C – Bill Walton, Portland Trail Blazers
- G – George Gervin, San Antonio Spurs
- G – David Thompson, Denver Nuggets

All-NBA Second Team:
- F – Walter Davis, Phoenix Suns
- F – Maurice Lucas, Portland Trail Blazers
- C – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Los Angeles Lakers
- G – Paul Westphal, Phoenix Suns
- G – Pete Maravich, New Orleans Jazz

All-NBA Rookie Team

- Bernard King, New Jersey Nets
- Marques Johnson, Milwaukee Bucks
- Jack Sikma, Seattle SuperSonics
- Norm Nixon, Los Angeles Lakers
- Walter Davis, Phoenix Suns

NBA All-Defensive First Team

- Bobby Jones, Denver Nuggets
- Maurice Lucas, Portland Trail Blazers
- Bill Walton, Portland Trail Blazers
- Lionel Hollins, Portland Trail Blazers
- Don Buse, Phoenix Suns

NBA All-Defensive Second Team:
- E.C. Coleman, Golden State Warriors
- Bob Gross, Portland Trail Blazers
- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Los Angeles Lakers (tie)
- Artis Gilmore, Chicago Bulls (tie)
- Norm Van Lier, Chicago Bulls
- Quinn Buckner, Milwaukee Bucks

Notes and References

Book: McCollum . Sean . Pro Basketball's All-Time Greatest Comebacks . 2019 . Capstone Press . United States . 9781543554335 . 29 June 2020.