#5
The 1966-67 Philadelphia 76ers
Regular Season: 68-13 (84)
Playoffs: 11-4 (73.3)
Total: 79-17 (82.3)
Award winners;
Wilt Chamberlain: League MVP, 1st Team All-NBA, All Star
Hal Greer: 2nd Team All-NBA, All Star
Chet Walker: All Star
Wilt Chamberlain is one of the more interesting figures in NBA history. He’s held up as maybe the greatest ever by some old timers and gets dismissed as “trash” by some young fans who write off his competition as “plumbers” and “5’6 white guys.” On the court he could do seemingly anything he wanted. He was 7’1 and between 250 and 300 pounds when the average NBA player was an inch or two shorter than they are now. He was maybe the strongest guy ever to play in the league. He was obsessed with statistical accomplishments, but always met his goals. He was determined to maintain his streak of never fouling out of a game, to the point that he’d kind of stop playing defense once he had four or five fouls on him. It worked though, and he never fouled out once in high school, college, or the NBA. In 1962 he wanted to average 50 points a game, so he did. In 1968 he wanted to lead the league in assists, so he did (technically it was total assists, not assists per game, but still). In 1973, he wanted to set a new record for field goal percentage, so he did. And in 1967 he wanted to win a championship. So he did.
Off the court, he appeared in a few movies and TV shows, was an excellent volleyball player and even founded a professional volleyball league, owned a nightclub, released an actually pretty good R&B single, wrote several non-fiction books, was an elite track and field athlete in college, was apparently a heck of a dancer, and claimed he had sex with 20,000 women (off the record he admitted it was more like 2,000, but still). One of these days I should write a full article on the life and times of Wilt Chamberlain, it’d probably be a good read.
Wilt started his career in 1959 with his hometown Philadelphia Warriors and moved with them to San Francisco in 1962. In 1964 he made the first of his six finals appearances but lost to the Boston Celtics, who put both Wilt and the 76ers franchise through all kinds of hell in the ‘60s. Midway through the ‘64-65 season, he was traded back home to the 76ers, who until recently had been the Syracuse Nationals. Wilt liked it in California and wasn’t thrilled to head back east, as evidenced by his move to the Lakers in 1968. He helped them reach the Division Finals against the Celtics, but had a possible victory snatched away from them by John Havlicek’s famous steal in the dying moments of game seven.
In 1965-66, Wilt’s first full season back in Philly, the Sixers improved from 40-40 to 55-25. In the division finals though, they lost in five games to who else but the Celtics, who were on their way to their eighth straight championship. It was already the ninth playoff meeting between the two franchises (seven of them took place when the Sixers were still the Nationals) and the fifth straight the Celtics had won. Boston was also 5-0 when facing Wilt’s teams in the playoffs at that point in his career.
Now that Wilt’s been covered, what about the 76ers themselves before ‘67? The team was still the Syracuse Nationals until 1963, and they made three finals while in upstate New York, winning a championship in 1955 against the Pistons. They had one of the best players of the era in big man Dolph Schayes, who retired in 1964. In 1958, the Nats drafted Hal Greer 6th overall and picked up Chet Walker at 5th in 1962. Not too long after the move to Philadelphia, Billy Cunningham was drafted 5thoverall in 1965.
So what changed in the ‘67 season? For one thing, Wilt took a big step back. The 30 year old center went from taking 25.2 shots a game in ‘66 to 14.2 and his points per game dropped from 33.5 to 24.1. For the first time in his career he didn’t lead the league in scoring. He was scoring much more efficiently though and his field goal percentage rose greatly, from 54% up to 68.3, by far the highest of his career so far. His assists increased from 5.2 to 7.8 and his rebounds stayed about the same at 24.2. In other words, he was more of a team player than he ever had been before.
Chet Walker and Billy Cunningham on the other hand saw significant increases in points per game. Wilt led the way of course with his 24, 24 and 8 on 68% shooting, but he had an excellent supporting cast. 30 year old two guard Hal Greer averaged 22.1 points, 5.3 rebounds and 3.8 assists. 26 year old small forward Chet Walker had 19.3 points and 8.3 rebounds on nearly 49% shooting. 23 year old small forward Billy Cunningham put up 18.5 points and 7.3 rebounds despite playing less than 27 minutes a game. The first 50 games of the season were an absolute cakewalk for these guys, who put up an insane record of 46-4. 46 wins out of a possible 50, that’s gotta be some kinda record. From late November to early January, they put up two separate eleven game winning streaks, for a total stretch of 22-1, and the team finished at 68-13.
In the first round of the playoffs, the Sixers faced Oscar Robertson and the 39-42 Cincinnati Royals (now Sacramento Kings). In game one the Royals surprised the 76ers in Philly, 120-116, despite Wilt having a monster game with 41 points, 22 rebounds and 5 assists on 19 of 30 shooting. Oscar had a great game too with 30 points and 16 assists, shooting 11 for 20 from the field and a perfect 11 of 11 from the line. It was over for Cincinnati after that though, and the Sixers won the next three games by 15 to 21 points to win the series. Game two was the biggest blowout, with Philly winning 123-102. Wilt had another absurd stat line, putting up a 37 point triple double with 27 rebounds and 11 assists while shooting 16 for 24.
In the division finals, both Wilt and the 76ers had a chance for revenge over the bane of their existence, the Boston Celtics, who’d won their eighth straight championship in 1966, went 60-21 in the ‘67 season and were led by Bill Russell, Sam Jones, John Havlicek and Bailey Howell. It was a chance they would not let slip away. Philly won the first three games, including a 127-113 win in game one where Hal Greer scored scored 39 points plus 6 assists, and Wilt had another crazy triple double with 23 points, 32 rebounds and 13 assists. The Celtics prevented a sweep by winning game four in Boston 121-117. Sam Jones was the high scorer with 32 points plus 7 rebounds, Havlicek had 31 points and 13 rebounds, and Russell grabbed 28 rebounds to go with 9 points and 5 assists. The Sixers really ran up the score in game five though, 140-116. Wilt was in God mode yet again, with 29 points, 36 rebounds and 13 assists for another triple double. Four other 76ers had at least 20 points, including Hal Greer, who led the team with 32, the others being Chet Walker, Wali Jones and Billy Cunningham. As the clock wound down, the jubilant Philadelphia crowd started chanting “BOSTON’S DEAD! BOSTON’S DEAD!” The fans had reason to hate the Celtics since the Philadelphia Warriors days and were finally getting their time in the sun as their boys crushed the team that’d won nine of the last ten titles.
In the NBA Finals, the Sixers faced Chamberlain’s (and Philadelphia’s) old team, the 44-37 San Francisco Warriors. They were led by 22 year old small forward Rick Barry, who’d led the league in scoring that year with 35.6 points a game. They also featured 25 year old center Nate Thurmond, who averaged 18.7 points and 21.3 rebounds. It was a high scoring series, as exemplified by the first game, which the Sixers won 141-135 in overtime. The 76ers biggest win was game two, at a score of 126-95. Hal Greer nearly had a triple double with 30 points, 12 rebounds and 9 assists, and Wilt had another real triple double with 38 rebounds, 10 points and 10 assists. The Warriors kept things interesting by winning game three back home in Daly City, 130-124. Rick Barry put up a ridiculous 55 points, 12 rebounds and 5 assists, with Nate Thurmond getting 17 points and 25 rebounds. Philly took a commanding 3-1 by taking game 4 122-108. The Warriors hung on to win game five 117-109, but Philly closed them out in game six on the road, 125-102. It’s honestly pretty damn impressive how close this 44 win Warriors team got to taking these 76ers to seven games. Rick Barry is a well-known asshole but the dude could play basketball. I really think he’d be ranked pretty highly on the all time list if not for the five years he missed so he could play in the ABA. But anyway, back to game six. Wilt had a big game as always with 24 points and 23 rebounds. Wali Jones led the scoring with 27 points plus 6 assists, Luke Jackson had 21 rebounds and 13 points and Chet Walker had 20 points and 7 rebounds. Wilt won Finals MVP, with averages of 17.7 points, 25.8 rebounds and 6.8 assists on 56% shooting.
So what happened to these guys? They had another strong season the next year, going 62-20, but Boston just wouldn’t stay dead. The Sixers lost to them in seven games in the division finals and the Celtics went on to win their tenth title. That Summer, Wilt requested a trade to the Los Angeles Lakers. Two of the players they got in return (Jerry Chambers and Archie Clark) played in an All Star game or two, but Wilt wasn’t really replaceable. The team still had Greer, Cunningham and Walker in ‘68-69 and won 55 games, but after that they started to slide into mediocrity. To find out what happened to Philly after that, I recommend reading the entry on the 1983 76ers. There’ll be more about Wilt as well in a later entry.
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