Saturday, May 05, 2007

Turn Back the Clock



From the archives of CBS, ESPN Classic, and YouTube...

This is the intro to Game 7 of the 1975 Western Conference Finals, between the Chicago Bulls and the Golden State Warriors. This is a long time before hip-hop and the NBA became intertwined with each other. Heck, this is even slightly before disco. Some things to notice:

1) The cheesy opening intro music, complete with lyrics and 70's-style silhouette animation. "You'll see the best in basketball, when you watch the NBA..when you watch the NBA on CBS.."
2) A young Brent Musburger, when he was becoming the voice of EVERYTHING for CBS. He was better then, before his ego got in the way. He's now been with ABC/ESPN longer than he was with CBS, but ESPN has cheapened him by placing him on those spare Tuesday night Big Ten games, among other things. He is, however, filling the shoes of the once-great Keith Jackson on college football, and is the subject of a drinking game.
3) The Bulls in the Western Conference? Yes, they were. The Bulls and Milwaukee were in the Western Conference until 1980, when the Dallas Mavericks came into the league. When the Mavs came into the NBA, Houston and San Antonio moved to the West with them, and the Bulls and Bucks went east.

This video clip is really good stuff. By the way, the Warriors went on to win this game, then won the championship in the next round by sweeping the Washington Bullets, four games to none.

3 comments:

Zee said...

C H E E S E .

I miss the 70s.

John said...

They were great times, but not as great as the 80's. We just didn't know it at the time.

Anonymous said...

Oh, and the Big O! Too bad he got cut off. I had forgotten all about the silhouetted players.
The '75 Warriors were a team I didn't understand as an 8YO, because what the heck was a Golden State? Therefore I didn't like Rick Barry, but I later came to appreciate his unorthodox talents -- and his sons' abilities as well.
John and I used to sing that intro song when we were in college, so it's permeated in my brain of useless information. But he has two friends who cha-chinged on "Millionaire," one who went all the way and me, a mere 50K winner. So we all have brains full of useless information!