Originally Posted by
Tripping William
My earliest discernible basketball memory dates to the 1978 NBA Finals, which finished up just before my ninth birthday. Unseld’s Washington Bullets--also featuring Elvin Hayes, Bobby Dandridge, Kevin Greavey, and others--defeated the Seattle Supersonics in seven games. I distinctly remember the sounds of Queen's "We Are The Champions" playing as the television broadcast signed off to images of Dick Motta's squad drenched in champagne. Motta sported a t-shirt bearing the phrase "The Opera Isn't Over 'Til The Fat Lady Sings," which he had popularized earlier in the Finals. As an aside, until 1968, Motta had been the head basketball coach at Weber State College in Ogden, Utah (some of you may remember that institution, with some degree of joy), where a young undergrad (my father) was a student in the Phys. Ed. department and learned under the tutelage of Motta and assistant Phil Johnson (later Jerry Sloan's long-time assistant with the Utah Jazz). After the end of Motta's first season coaching the Chicago Bulls, yours truly arrived on the planet and, for a kid growing up in rural Utah, the notion of the NBA champs being coached by my dad's coach was more than I could process, but I knew it was really cool.
So, I owe a bit of a debt to Wes Unseld. Sad to hear of his passing.