#JULIUS ERVING 76ERS PROFESSIONAL#

And all 17 of the Celtics and the 17 Lakers title teams.Īnd the experts’ evaluations wrongly will put the Nuggets down below the Minneapolis Lakers. Louis Hawks and the ’51 Rochester Royals. The Nuggets will not be listed above the 1983 76ers of ex-ABA players Julius Erving, Moses Malone and Bobby Jones.

That is a special team (who had two hurt starters),’’ Portland coach Dr. Should the Nuggets win in seven, six, five or four straight, they’d still not be, understandably, ranked in the top 25 in a league with the Michael Jordan Bulls championship teams, the Magic Johnson Lakers, the Larry Bird Celtics, the Tim Duncan-David Robinson Spurs, the Shaq-Kobe Lakers, the Steph Curry-Klay Thompson-Draymond Green et al Warriors, the Celtics of old with Bill Russell, the Lakers of the past with Jerry West and the LeBron James teams with Miami, Cleveland and Los Angeles.Īnd they are ranked behind the 1977 Trail Blazers, who, with Bill Walton at center and a couple of starters from the defunct ABA, beat the Nuggets in the playoffs. Other buffoons declare that the Nuggets are lower than whale waste in rating league champions. One silly self-proclaimed authority states that statistical studies prove the Nuggets to be much beneath the 2020 bubble Lakers, the ’21 Bucks and the ’22 Warriors. But if they accidentally succeed because of Heat flop sweats, they aren’t highly ranked, but just lowly rank.

However, impertinent basketball court jesters have advanced the notion that the Nuggets won’t win the series. If Our Little Old Dusty Cowtowners are the best in the NBA this season, they undoubtedly will not be among the worst champions of all time or all time zones. The Nuggets of now probably wouldn’t have beaten the then Lakers and the Celtics in the 1980s, the Bulls in the 1990s, the Lakers and the Spurs in the 2000s and the Warriors in the 2010s.īut the current cast of characters for the Nuggets could have beaten several title teams from Texas, Ohio, Michigan, Washington D.C., and Canada, including a Spurs or a Lakers team, too and, yes, a Heat team.

#JULIUS ERVING 76ERS PROFESSIONAL#

Minneapolis defeated Chicago, Fort Wayne (Indiana), Anderson (Indiana) and Syracuse, yet nobody complained that the Lakers were undeserving.Īt age four, I didn’t know of the NBA in 1949-50, but I have covered professional basketball for more than a half century and Finals since 1976 and 211 ABA and NBA playoff games. 4 (Suns) and against teams with multiple injured players.

The Nuggets have been denigrated for playing two eighth seeds (the Los Angeles Lakers and the Heat) and a No. The 6-feet, 11-inch Jokic is at 29.8, 13.1 and 10.5 in 16 with a record nine triple doubles. Mikan averaged 31.3 points, 10.6 rebounds and 1.3 assists in 12 playoff games without a triple double. The Nuggets average 115.6 points in the postseason. Basketball (Mikan) and The Joker (Nikola Jokic) might have been fascinating, although the Lakers scored 66, 85, 77 and 76 in four of the six Finals games. Surely these Nuggets could have beaten the 1950 Lakers – of Minneapolis – despite the presence of 6-foot-10 center George Mikan and a team with seven rookies and seven players 6-2 or shorter. D-I-S-R-E-S-P-E-C-T, Aretha and the Nuggets would contend.

Julius erving 76ers