1970-71 Three new teams in NBA. The Bucks win title.
1970-71 Three new teams in NBA. The Bucks win title.
The new season brought three new teams to the NBA, Buffalo, Cleveland and
Portland. The NBA was now devided into four divisions, two in each Conference,
East and West. In 1965, nine teams had played 360 games in a league with 108
players. Five years later, the NBA season opened with 17 teams playing 697 games
in a 204-player league.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar dominated the NBA his hooks, and led the league in
scoring (31.7 ppg) and also won the MVP for the first time in his career.
Abdul-Jabbar was surrounded by Greg Smith and Bob Dandridge at forward and
Lucius Allen and Jon McGlocklin at guard. During his career, Robertson had led
the NBA in scoring and in assists and had won the Rookie of the Year and MVP
awards, but he had never won an NBA title. At 32, he knew the time was now.
Milwaukee won 66 games – the most in the league - and on their way to the
Finals, they beat San Francisco and Los Angeles. Baltimore surprised everybody
by defeating the New York Knicks in a seven-game series, but Wes Unseld, Earl
Monroe and Gus Johnson all sustained injuries during the Finals, and Baltimore
lost to Milwaukke in four straight. Milwaukke became only the second team to in
NBA history to win in a 4-0 sweep.
The Bucks capture the title. Everything started when the Bucks signed
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. The Bucks management decided to help Jabbar and they got
Oscar Robertson, Lucius Allen and Bob Boozer. "Larry, Oscar and I agree to be as
efficient as possible to reduce our chances for errors" said Karrem
Abdul-Jabbar. In 1971, Milwaukee avoided most errors and won 66 games, going
12-2 in the Playoffs to win the title.
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