I personally never had.... until today. Look what I found: [video=youtube;SEdoMmY2QBI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEdoMmY2QBI[/video] It's so great to finally see these guys in living color as opposed to hearing about how great they were or looking at their stats. Also- yes, that is Don Nelson in a Celtics jersey.
It's nice in color. That's the 4th quarter, with the Celtics ahead 15 at the start of the quarter, so normally that would be garbage time. I was going to say, can you get any quarter other than that one, but it was a championship game, so I guess it's CHAMPIONSHIP garbage time and thus interesting. To answer your question, I definitely didn't see Russell, but on Chamberlain, I honestly don't remember. I followed the Lakers every game rabidly in his last 2 years. I think my 1st game in person was an exhibition game after he left in 1973 for the Conquistadores. So my final guess is that I didn't see him. Nice to hear Chris Schenkel again. He became unpopular among overserious types in the 1970s for being silly but I still liked him. I looked up who the colorman was. It was Jack Twyman, the former great player. This link says that Games 1, 2, and 4 were not broadcast nationally on ABC. If you believe Stern propaganda, only in the late 1970s did the league sink to such infamy (even then, all games were shown tape delayed--in short, Stern didn't rescue the league). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_NBA_Finals_broadcasters
Dear lord look at Chamberlain's free throw at 1:35. Awful. I have to say that this is really entertaining. I like how the game was back then. And I do not see how this is garbage time, even "CHAMPIONSHIP garbage time". WTF is up with Don Nelson's free throws?
Yes, Wilt was a always a terrible FT shooter. That makes his 100 point game even more remarkable because he went 28-28 FT's that night. I did see Wilt in person against the Blazers and many times on TV. I also saw Russell a few times on TV. I'm old and was a fan of the NBA long before the BLazers. I remember listening to a radio station at night from SF of the Warrior games long before we had the Blazers. I think it is when they had Berry and Nate Thurmond. I walked up and went to 30 Blazer games the first season and bought season tickets for the 2nd season. They were only $2.50 face value each and I believe season ticket holders at that time got a discount from the face value.
It's not garbage time at all. Watch the whole quarter. The Lakers come back and only lose by two. Russell has a big block to clinch it. West finishes with 42 and wins Finals MVP. Interestingly, Russell only scored 6.
I only got to see Russell on TV, but I got to see Wilt live a few times. Watching him play was like watching Jordan or LeBron. Dude was a force of nature.
I have never looked at his stats, but I believe Bill Russell was never a huge offensive threat. More of a defender/rebounder. Wouldn't mind if Greg ended up that way.
