Clip: Bullets Swept as Finals Favorites, 48 years ago today

forty eight years ago today the washington bullets lost in four straight games in the n b a finals to the gold state warriors now it's it's hard to imagine this today where the bullets are like a no where you talk about a no where n b a team that's it you look around the league and and get to talking about the bullets that's like that that twenty fifteen you'll talk about may they they are absolutely nowhere but in a nine year period from nineteen seventy one to nineteen seventy nine they played in the finals four times they lost three of them and in the first two they were swept the first finals they made it there is the baltimore bullets in nineteen seventy one and they had no chance against oscar robertson and luau cinder the milwaukee bucks they swept them and they should have swept them out i don't think any of the games were close because they they were just a much better team then the team moves to washington nineteen seventy three and in the nineteen seventy four seventy five season you got west on celled and you got elven haze in their prime phil cineer great shooting guard uh... they got some other complementary players and they make it to the n b a finals with the best record in the league they were sixty and twenty two and heavily favored to uh... make the championship and they're facing the gold state warriors who struggled during the year they had some some down times they won only forty eight games during the year and it gets to the finals and the problem with the warriors is they their home court is is not available and uh... was the cow palace in in daily city they had scheduling conflicts because of that and uh... i'm sorry they they're scheduling conflicts were at the oakland arena which i may have been the last place the warriors play before they moved to san francisco i don't know but the the cow palace was the secondary place that's what it was so this the cow palace was where they had to play and uh... they they couldn't get that on memorial day weekend which is when the finals started so they they went to the bullets and they said you got two choices here uh... you can open on the road at at san francisco and then you get games to three and four at home so even if you lose the first game on the road you'll have the opportunity with three straight home games you should at least be able to win two of those and being great shape going back to gold state and then you didn't have the chance to win the championship at home if it goes seven the bullets and uh... nope we need to open at home so they opened at home and then they went and played two games at gold and state so they're coming home all three and i get to that in a second but they're down all three coming back home and they got a win just to stay alive which they did not now one of the things that nobody really talks about with this team they lost jimmy johnson during that year jimmy johnson was a backup guard but a key piece because they needed that they weren't playing many players al atles had hit on a formula as coach the warriors to go deep he was going like eight nine deep on his bench which nobody did at the time and really paid off especially in this series you know every thought oh boy they're gonna be worn out they went seven games with the chicago bulls in the western finals and they're gonna be totally worn out by the time they get to the series the bullets were rested they had one in six against the seltics and they were ready to go in the in the eastern finals and as it turned out the depth really paid off in all four of the games the bullets had a lead uh... they're opening up at home they'd go up by fourteen at the half at the capital center this is no three point shot in those days that not come in yet and you know that point of fourteen point lead usually was pretty safe but uh... the warriors had plenty reserves off the bench including phil smith who had twenty points in thirty one minutes and they won the first game one on one ninety five game to they have to go to the oakland coliseum and the warriors uh... take advantage of their debt again as the bullets get out to a thirteen point lead but they come back with thirty six points from rick berry to win the game ninety two to ninety one game three still out west because of this decision by the bullets to play the first game at home they have played game three on the road as well berry does it again thirty eight points and the warriors win one on nine one on one so now it's down to the last chance and they're at the capital center on this day in nineteen seventy five and there they're doing everything they can as a as a last resort to try and control rick berry who's just killing them as averaging thirty five points a game going into this mike reardon who is a you know tough new york i came out actually from the nicks in the roman road trade he tries to get into a fight with rick berry and al atles who knew about fighting he wants deck will chamberlain as a player uh... he comes off the bench in those days they didn't they didn't uh... you know ban you for for doing that but he comes off the bench and he's ready to fight and uh... and so they throw him out of the game reardon stays in the despite uh... despite you starting this fight and uh... gold and state has to be coached by assistant joe roberts the rest of the way uh... and in the fourth quarter the uh... bullets are leading there they're leading ninety eighty two and then reardon got hurt hurt his ankle and they put in dick gives who was slow and white and terrible uh... and he missed a wide open lay up at the end of the game and uh... and gold and state wanted ninety six to ninety five to sweep the series this was the locker room coverage it's oscar robertson doing the game as an analyst with brent must burger this kind of the national coming out party for brent must burger and oscar robertson was called in to do the commentary because rick berry who normally did the finals well he was involved in playing in the finals so this is oscar doing the locker room interviews with al atles and rick berry uh... with brent must burger wrapping it up did you think it did it for a real i won't say that i thought we could do it in four i thought after we got to this point i thought that we had a good chance and unfortunately i got put out the ball game right now almost gave it away but i think team held on they came back and got into it and they did an outstanding job i thought joe did a great job on the bench and i think they deserve everything they got now you know you go into sleep i've been in since nineteen sixty my first championship and uh... i'm real proud of it rick it's really not a real it's everything the only goal of a such way that's everything i only wish i was in position to retire now because it's a yeah i think you got a little time rick i just really feel like they knew you knew you knew you had the game won what went through your mind at that moment well oscar it was trying to trying to realize that it happened i mean this has been such a fantasy here i mean the way we started out the supposed to be also ran so we battle and scratch and fight our way to become the world champions it's it's a fitting climax i think one of the most unique teams in pro basketball history a team that has guys who care about one another is individuals guys who will never quit never give up i don't know how many teams have come from as many games behind as we have to wind up becoming champions of the world of being a team for straight that they were supposed to do that to us it's a it's a it's the end to the most rewarding and fulfilling year the basketball of my life i don't know how anything could possibly ever top of the fans back home it's fantastic we love them they were a big factor in our getting this far the golden state warriors everyone said they would lose it was just a matter of time and of course everyone was wrong they kept coming back they put it away they deserved it they played tremendous basketball epilogue it would be another forty years before the warriors would win another title the bullets made it back three years later when they finally won the championship they beat seattle in fact uh... it was game to that they finally won finals game they had gone what over nine right in the finals because there was web twice and uh... and wind up winning that series in seven coming from three one down and winning game seven on the road following year they played seattle in the finals again and they haven't been heard from sense and uh... what i think really comes out of this is that uh... golden state show that you can have depth and if you have it you wear the other team down which is what they were able to do plus they had the superstar and rick berry which uh... which always helps you also uh... with us for doing the the color this is significant because that time there were very few african-americans on television and this is before brent must burger started the nfl today we had a cross was groundbreaking in that regard so uh... for a lot of people around the country this was this was a new thing news this guy must burger and oscar robertson all just retired one of the rates of the nv just retired uh... doing the commentary as uh... unfortunately for us who were rooting for the bullets was very disappointing ending as they were they were swept out of the finals