What happened to the belle of the ball? Has the NBA always been this predictable league where the top teams are always playing against each other once they get to the final four teams playing for a spot in the Finals? And why does it seem like we never see some random team reach the conference finals or even the Finals? The reality of the situation is that the NBA hasn’t always been this way. There was a time when the NBA was seeing a Cinderella team reach the conference finals pretty regularly. This happened in the 80s, the golden era of basketball as they call it.
There were four different instances where this happened in that decade. We’re talking about teams that were fighting to have a winning record, but they somehow were able to fight for a chance to play in the Finals. The first time it happened came in 1981, and there were two teams that no one expected that would be playing for a chance to represent the Western Conference in the Finals.
It was the Houston Rockets and the Kansas City Kings, and both teams finished with a 40-42 record. At the time, the playoffs only had six teams from each conference that made the playoffs. So the Rockets ended up having the 6th seed and the Kings had the 5th seed. The Kansas City Kings were led by Reggie King and Scott Weldman, and they shocked the best team in the Western Conference that season. They defeated the Phoenix Suns in seven games, and this was the same team that won 17 more games than the Kings did in the regular season. However, they were no match for the inside presence that Moses Malone was for the Houston Rockets. The Rockets had the most surprising run to the Finals from any team since the NBA/ABA merger. In fact, they are the only team to reach the Finals while posting a losing record in the regular season.
The Phoenix Suns in 1984 also had an unexpected run in the playoffs. They finished with a 41-41 record, and they ended up as the sixth seed in the West. Led by Walter Davis, the veteran presence of Maurice Lucas, and a young Larry Nance, the Suns were able to beat the Adrian Dantley-led Utah Jazz in the second round. That set up what should have been a rather easy series victory for the Los Angeles Lakers, but the Suns nearly extended the series to 7 games. They were only one shot away from forcing overtime in game 6 and giving the Lakers a run for their money. It should be noted that the Suns won all six overtime games they played that season, including the overtime victory against the Lakers in game 3. It wouldn’t be far-fetched to say that they could have won that game if James Edwards would have made that rather easy lay-in in the final possession of that game.
Then we have the Seattle SuperSonics in 1987, and they ended up having a losing record going into the playoffs. They had a 39-43 record. They started the postseason by defeating the two-seed Dallas Mavericks. After losing game 1, they won three games in a row to eliminate the Mavericks. This was the same team that won all five regular-season matchups against Seattle by an average of 18.5 points. However, the trio of Dale Ellis, Tom Chambers, and Xavier McDaniel could not be stopped. They all averaged over 20 points per game for the series. Dale Ellis was the most impressive during this series, and he surely was looking to get some revenge on his former team that traded him that offseason. He averaged for the series 29.5 points per game on 55.7% shooting. In the following series, they defeated the defending Western Conference champions in six games. The Houston Rockets fell behind 3-1 in the series and Hakeem found himself trying to win most games by himself. It was an unfortunate trend that followed him for the next 8 years with the Rockets.
As you can already tell now, all of these Cinderella seasons came from teams that played in the Western Conference. We all know that the Los Angeles Lakers owned the Western Conference in the 80s, and there were only two seasons where the Lakers didn’t reach the Finals during that decade. For both times that they fell short, they were defeated by the Houston Rockets. But for the most part, there was never that one team that was going to be a legitimate challenge for the Lakers. Everyone was basically playing for second. There was just a clear talent deficiency between the two conferences. In the early 80s, the West had Moses Malone and George Gervin that were all-time great talents, and they could at least give the Lakers a run for their money. But in 1982, Moses Malone got traded to the Philadelphia 76ers, and then the Spurs self-imploded after the 1983 season. They went from a conference finalist to not reaching the playoffs in the following season.
So who was going to be that one team and that one player that was going to challenge the throne? You had Alex English and the Denver Nuggets, but they suffered through mediocrity for that whole decade. They only reached the conference finals once during that decade. You also had Hakeem Olajuwon and the Houston Rockets. This was the same team that beat the Lakers pretty convincingly in the 1986 conference finals. However, the Rockets had some locker room issues that reportedly they were facing, and then Ralph Sampson had some major knee injuries that ruined his NBA career. So that’s why the Lakers never really had any real rivalries from their own conference. It was always with the teams in the East. Whether it was the Celtics, the Sixers, and then the Pistons.
However, the Eastern conference never had that issue. From 1980 to 1988, the same four teams would always wound up in the conference finals. It was the Boston Celtics, the Philadelphia 76ers, the Milwaukee Bucks, and the Detroit Pistons. The only exception was in 1989 when Michael Jordan single-handedly carried the Chicago Bulls to the conference finals. The Bulls were only the 6th seed and finished with a 47-35 record. But that’s how the NBA has looked for the past 30 years or so. The main culprit that many people have blamed it on are the various expansion seasons that the league has had that make it harder for teams to build a strong team that could challenge the stronger teams of the league. It became increasingly rare following the 80s decade to see a team with a lower seed go far in the playoffs. The only team that finished with a 6th seed or lower that reached the conference finals since 1990 are the Houston Rockets in 1995 and the New York Knicks in 1999. The Knicks are currently still the only team in NBA history to reach the Finals as an 8th seed, and the Rockets are currently the team with the lowest win percentage to win a title since 1978. That was the season where the Washington Bullets won the title with a 44-38 record.
Since the turn of the 21st century though, we didn’t see it for two decades. It was always one of the top 3 teams in the league going head to head in the conference finals. Unless of course, you count the Utah Jazz making the conference finals in the magical 2007 season. But something interesting has happened in the past three years. In 2020, the NBA made the decision to not cancel the regular season and to instead make the top teams play high-intensity basketball in the happiest place on earth. The last thing the Los Angeles Lakers wanted to say after winning the championship was, “We’re going to Disney Land!!” With the way the players were complaining, you would think the rodent with overalls gave the players PTSD after their tragic experience in the resort.
Anyways… No one was surprised that the Lakers reached the Finals, but no one was expecting the Miami Heat to come out of the East that season. Many people pointed to the fact that the playoffs were played on a neutral site, and that allowed the Miami Heat to make the unexpected run to the Finals. However, this wasn’t just a one-year sample. In the following season, the Atlanta Hawks were the team that ruined everyone’s playoff predictions by reaching the conference finals. The Hawks only won 57% of their games that season, which would equal up to about 47 wins in a normal 82-game schedule. The Hawks were not viewed as a strong contender, but they defeated the team with the best record in the Eastern Conference. We can’t forget that they won game 7 at Philadelphia, and the Sixers had the player that finished second in MVP voting that season. This was no easy feat by the Hawks. We can’t blame the bubble for the unexpected run that the Hawks had.
I believe there is a new precedent. I believe the NBA is looking at providing a much more entertaining brand of basketball in the playoffs. If you’re a true fan of the game, you’re going to be tuning in as much as possible to watch all the games of the playoffs. But if you’re more of a casual fan, then it’s more likely that you would skip the first two rounds of the playoffs and to pay more attention once the conference finals or the Finals arrived. If you already knew who was going to be the final four teams to reach the conference finals, then why would you tune in to watch the inevitable? But if there is less unpredictability, then maybe those same fans would start tuning in as early as the first round for some of the games. Are we sure that the second seed Memphis Grizzlies will be able to knock out the Minnesota Timberwolves? Are we sure that the second seed Boston Celtics will knock out the Brooklyn Nets? The possibility of one of the top teams in the league being knocked out in the first round makes people want to tune in to watch. The possibility of the 7th seed Brooklyn Nets being able to make a run at the Finals would make people more invested in watching them try to make history.
So what changed? I believe there are a few factors. I believe the talent level that exists in the NBA is as high as it’s ever been. But more importantly, it’s much more spread out. Even if you decide to team up with your buddies to form a super-team, it still won’t guarantee you a shot to even make the Finals. The competition that exists in the league is that good. Just look at the Los Angeles Lakers and the Brooklyn Nets this season. You have one team that thought they hit the jackpot at the beginning of the season, but now they’re headed for the lottery in the bad kind of way. The other team is in danger of getting bounced from the first round. Then we also have the LeBron James effect. Ever since he decided to play on the West Coast, the Eastern conference has been wide open for the taking. When he was playing for the Miami Heat and the Cleveland Cavaliers, no one else ate. He won the eastern conference title 8 years in a row. But once he left, we’ve seen a different winner every single year. The question remains if Giannis will have that same type of effect, but it looks like we’re bound to see another team reach the Finals. The same thing can be said about the western conference when Kevin Durant decided to sign with Brooklyn.
There’s a new day in the NBA. It’s no longer dominated by LeBron James, and it’s no longer dominated by super-teams. But just maybe… it’s better for business. Just maybe… the league will be all right without its king and savior. Instead, we will be looking for a new team that can fill those “glass slippers”, and give us a postseason that is more entertaining from start to finish. Can this be the new golden era of basketball?
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