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| Dates | May 22 – June 5 | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MVP | Bill Walton (Portland Trail Blazers) | |||||||||
| Hall of Famers | 76ers: Doug Collins (2024) Julius Erving (1993) George McGinnis (2017) Trail Blazers: Bill Walton (1993) Coaches: Jack Ramsay (1992) Officials: Darell Garretson (2016) Earl Strom (1995) | |||||||||
| Eastern finals | 76ers defeated Rockets, 4–2 | |||||||||
| Western finals | Trail Blazers defeated Lakers, 4–0 | |||||||||
The 1977 NBA World Championship Series was the championship round of the National Basketball Association (NBA)'s 1976–77 season, and the culmination of the season's playoffs. The Western Conference champion Portland Trail Blazers played against the Eastern Conference champion Philadelphia 76ers, with the 76ers holding home-court advantage. Their four regular season meetings had been split evenly, 2–2, with neither side winning away from home. The series was played under a best-of-seven format.
The 1976–77 NBA season started with the ABA–NBA merger. Portland had benefited from the resulting ABA dispersal draft as they acquired Spirits of St. Louis power forward Maurice Lucas to partner with Bill Walton, and Philadelphia had signed ABA All-Star and 3-time ABA MVP Julius "Dr. J" Erving, who had taken the New York Nets to the ABA title the previous year. In the 1977 NBA Finals, five of the ten starting players were former ABA players (Julius Erving, Caldwell Jones, George McGinnis, Dave Twardzik, and Maurice Lucas).[1]
While it was no surprise that Philadelphia had made it to the championship series, having posted the best record in the Eastern Conference (50–32), Portland's appearance in the finals was a mild surprise. Portland had joined the league in 1970 and it was making its playoff debut in its seventh season as the third best team in the Western Conference (49–33). It was also making its Finals debut after sweeping the Los Angeles Lakers in four close games in the Western Conference Finals to make this the second straight NBA Finals with at least one team making their first Finals appearance.
The series started 2–0 in favor of Philadelphia, but Portland rebounded in the next four games to become the second team to overcome a 2–0 deficit to win the Finals since the Boston Celtics in 1969 and the first to do so with four straight wins. No team would accomplish the feat again until 2006.
- ^ Pluto, Terry (1990). Loose Balls: The Short, Wild Life of the American Basketball Association. Simon & Schuster. pp. 435–436. ISBN 978-1-4165-4061-8.