The Killer Crossover 3.12.08: Spirit of 76(ers)

Posted by Todd Spehr on 03.12.2008

A quarter of a century after their championship, 411's Todd Spehr looks back at the '83 Sixers, one of the NBA's greatest teams.

Big Mo, Little Mo, The Doctor, Andrew Toney and Iavaroni. No balongne. Sixers all the way.

I hesitate to go old-school on you, especially with the NBA perhaps at the high-point of excitement in the post-Mike era. But I realize that if I don't write this column now, on the twenty-fifth anniversary of a championship for one of basketball's greatest teams ever - the '83 Sixers - then I simply won't write it anytime.

First things first, I was a Sixers fan growing up – albeit in an era where they lost a bunch of games, it was the post-Barkley/pre-Iverson Sixers. Anyway, despite that, I was well aware of the tradition that had been built over time in Philly with their hoops teams. The normally ruthless Philly fans, who even booed Santa for crying out loud, held the '67 Sixers (a team centered on Wilt Chamberlain) and the '83 Sixers (ditto, on Moses Malone) in the highest regard possible. Because that '83 team was their last title, and it also represented my birth year, the older I got the further in the rearview mirror it became. And rarely did a Sixers telecast from my early days as a fan not include a shot of the Spectrum rafters, spotlighting the championship banners of those two teams.

I always had a soft spot for the '83 Sixers, largely due to a NBA home video that my brother and I watched roughly 63,000 times growing up – Champions: The NBA's Greatest Teams. As usual, the folks at NBA Entertainment packaged together a five-minute highlight of this dominant team just going gangbusters on anyone and everyone during that memorable season. Sure, highlights were always going to make them look great, but the funny thing was, they really were that dominant.

How dominant?

Well, no Hollinger stat, or any stat really, can produce a definitive number to show you just how dominant the '83 Sixers were. But gosh darn it, I'm sure gonna try.

OK, let's see: Philly won seven games more than the next best team in the league (LA) and won the East by nine games; they won their games by an average of almost eight points per; they featured two All-NBAers (Moses Malone and Doc), the leagues top sixth man (Bobby Jones), four All-Stars (that wouldn't happen for another fifteen years and has happened just twice in the last 25) and three All-Defensive first-team members (Moses, Jones and Cheeks); oh yeah, almost forgot, they lost just one game in the '83 playoffs after their newly-acquired leader and league MVP claimed that they'd actually sweep everyone – "Fo, Fo, Fo" Malone mumbled, and you can forgive them for only going "Fo, Fi, Fo" instead.

You could probably name a million differences from the '83 team to any other Sixer-squad – one that had been to the Finals, and lost, in two of the previous three years - from that era, but this column couldn't hold one million reasons, and besides, all one million centered around one giant addition: Moses Malone. Just realize that Philly (in the Dr J era) had lost to teams in the playoffs that had great centers (Walton in '77, Unseld in '78, Abdul-Jabbar in '80 and '82, and Parish in '81).

Someone, somewhere in the Philly front office in the summer of '82 had one of those light-bulb moments, and then decided to go and get the best player on the planet at that time, who also happened to play center. And all Malone, who came over from Houston, did was turn a very good team into what some consider the best team of all-time.

Not only did Malone bring his hard-hat, two MVP's and his offensive rebounding obsession, but he also gave Philly a swagger. Yeah, it's still amusing actually thinking about the concept of "Fo Fo Fo," but also know that he was predicting three consecutive sweeps during an ultra-competitive time for the league. Think about that. No team in that decade - not the '86 Celtics, not the '87 Lakers, no one - went through the playoffs just destroying teams the way Philly did in '83. Basically there were two things you could rely on that year: Philly being on top of the league, and Michael Jackson's Thriller album being on top of the charts. Thrilladelphia, perhaps?

Anyway, Malone gave the Sixers this feeling of invincibility, because coming into that season there were two major things going on: 1) Julius Erving had never won a title, not in the NBA that is, and the feeling was that after successive failures (in the '80 and '82 Finals, not to mention conceding a 3-1 lead to the Celtics in the '81 ECF) he was headed in the same direction as his predecessor, Elgin Baylor: Ring-less; 2) Philly adopted this slogan in the late ‘70s, "We Owe You One!" and basically things had gone to crap since that concept was originated. If Philly owed their fans one, then there sure was a lot of pressure to deliver. Moses erased that.

And while Malone was the final piece, he did have studs by his side:

Julius Erving: Still had something left… Surely somewhere there is footage of him exhaling as the final buzzer went off and the title was finally his… He and Malone co-existed almost too well, each content to sacrifice… A great player on a great team.

Andrew Toney: Barkley once said was the best player he ever played with (!)… Was entering his prime in ‘83… Should be known by the average fan these days, because this guy was great until his feet fell apart… The Boston Strangler… As a matter of fact, if he played today, there'd be some nut devoting an entire blog entry to him. Hmmm… I have an idea.

Mo Cheeks: The ultimate floor leader… Your typical efficient PG who'd set everything/everyone up, penetrate at ease, and hit the open jumper when left unattended… Just a flat-out thief… The ideal guy to run this team… Did anyone actually know he could dunk before he threw one down as time expired in Game 4 against the Lakers?

Bobby Jones: The most versatile defender in the league… Played the same role as his coach, Billy Cunningham, once did for the '67 Sixers, that of the sixth man… Goofy white dude who actually dunked on people… Definitely one of those "glue" guys that shows up on every championship team.

Throw in banger Marc Iavaroni, bench scoring in the form of Clint Richardson and frontline help from Clem Johnson, and you realize Philly was loaded. Heck, I probably could've suited up and they wouldn't have missed a beat.

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It was one of those classic seasons where everything clicked. They rolled New York in four, Milwaukee in five, and then the Lakers in four. Just how big was Malone in the Finals? He grabbed three less offensive boards than Abdul-Jabbar did total rebounds, which can't be fully comprehended by anyone who moderately understands basketball. He dominated probably the best center he ever played against, while his team did the same.

25 years on, and Philly's hoop fans are still waiting on another title. Believe me, if they were waiting on another team that was even reached near the dominant level of this '83 team, then there's a fair chance that wait might be a while. All we have is memories, and admiration.

And on this 25th anniversary, I'm doing just that.

Todd Spehr, who often wonders what injury would actually cause Allen Iverson to play badly, drops his NBA column every Wednesday at 411mania.com