1963-1973 NBA BALTIMORE BULLETS
BALTIMORE BULLETS HISTORY
1963/64: After two nicknames while playing two seasons in Chicago, the NBA's newest franchise was on the move, heading to Baltimore where they paid tribute to the city's first NBA team named the Bullets, who got their name because they played in an armory. The original Bullets played in the ABL and NBA then called the BAA from 1944 until folding during the 1953/54 season. Along the way the Bullets took home the second Championship in league history in 1948. The new Bullets were quite different they were an up and coming expansion team with the two previous Rookie of the Year winners. After two last place finished in Chicago the Bullets finally escape last place, but finish far out of the playoffs with a 31-49 record, which lands them in fourth place in the Western Division.
1964/65: Prior to their second season in Baltimore the Bullets pull off a blockbuster trade sending Terry Dischinger, Rod Thorn, and Don Kojis to the Detroit Pistons for Bailey Howell, Don Ohl, Bob Ferry, and Wally Jones. The trade would work out for the Bullets as Howell proved to be a hustling, fundamentally sound player that helped the Bullets get into the playoffs for the first time in franchise history with a 37-43 record good enough for third place. The Bullets especially excelled at home posting a 23-14 record at the Baltimore Civic Center. In the playoffs the Bullets would stun the St. Louis Hawks in four games to reach the Western Finals. In the Western Finals the Bullets would split the first four games against the Los Angeles Lakers before falling in six games.
1965/66: Just a few games into the season the Bullets would stun their fans by dealing away their top player Walt Bellamy to the New York Knicks for Jim Barnes, Johnny Green, and Johnny Egan. The Bullets would make up for the loss of Bellamy by using a team approach that saw six players led by Don Ohl averaging double digits n scoring as they finished in second place with a 38-42 record. However, in the playoffs the Bullets would make a quick exit as they are swept in three straight games by the St. Louis Hawks.
1966/67: In their fourth season in Baltimore the Bullets are finally moved into the Eastern Division as Chicago receives a new expansion team known as the Bulls. However, the Bullets would never shoot straight as they struggled all year enduring a 13-game losing streak on the way to finishing in last place with a league worst 21-61 record.
1967/68: After losing 61 games the Bullets were forced to rebuild through the draft. They took a major first step in that direction by selecting Earl "The Pearl" Monroe with the first overall pick. The Pearl was a flashy player, a deft ball handler, and a creative, unconventional shot maker. He was the first player to make the reverse spin on the dribble a trademark move. In his rookie season he would lead the Bullets in scoring with 24.3 ppg, as the Bullets, winning the Rookie of the Year improved by 15 games posting a 36-46 record. However, they would still finish in last place.
1968/69: The Bullets continued to improve through the draft by selecting Center Wes Unseld, a two time All-American from Louisville. Unseld would have an immediate impact as he finished second in the NBA in rebounding with 18.2 per game as the Bullets went from worst to first posting a league best 57-25 record, as super rookie Wes Unseld won both the Rookie of the Year and MVP. However, in the playoff the Bullets would suffer a major let down as they are swept in four straight games by the New York Knicks.
1969/70: The Bullets would get started on a strong note as they won nine straight games in November on the way to a solid record of 50-32. However, in a competitive Eastern Division the Bullets would have to settle for 3rd place. In the playoffs the Bullets were matched up against the New York Knicks for the second straight seasons. After losing the first two games on the road the Bullets battled back to win the next two games at home. After the Knicks captured Game 5 in New York the Bullets forced a seventh game with a solid 96-87 win at the Civic Center. However, the Bullets would fall in Game 7 as the Knicks who would go on to win the NBA Championship won Game 7 at the Garden in a series in which the home team won all seven games.
1970/71: The NBA divides itself into four divisions as the Bullets are placed in the Central Division inside the Eastern Conference. Despite playing mediocre basketball all season the Bullets would capture the Central Division with a 42-40 record. In the playoffs the Bullets would get off to a quick start as they grabbed a 3-1 series lead over the Philadelphia 76ers. However, the Bullets would find themselves in a seventh game as the 76ers won two close games. Game 7 would also be close, but this time the Bullets would emerge victorious 128-120. Facing the New York Knicks in the Eastern Conference Finals again the Bullets found themselves in a familiar pattern as they lost the first two games on the road before winning the next two games at home. After an 89-85 loss in Game 5, the Bullets faced elimination at home, and came out strong winning 113-96 to send the series to a seventh game. In Game 7 the Bullets finally figured out a way to win in Madison Square Garden as they edged the Knicks 93-91 to reach the NBA Finals. However, the Bullets would run out of gas in the NBA Finals as they are swept in four straight games by the Milwaukee Bucks.
1971/72: The Bullets would stun their fans and the entire league by trading Earl "The Pearl" Monroe three games into the season to the rival New York Knicks for Dave Stallworth, Mike Riordan, and cash. The Bullets seemed to lose focus without the Pearl posting a 38-44 record. However, it would still be good enough to win the Central Division. In the playoffs the Bullets would be haunted by the Pearl as they are beaten by the Knicks in six games.
1972/73: The Bullets would improve themselves substantially by acquiring Elvin Hayes from the Houston Rockets and drafting Kevin Porter. After a slow start the Bullets began to come make their charge in December posting a 10-4 record on the way to capturing the Central Division for the third straight season with a 52-30 record. However, in the playoffs the Bullets would bye undone by the New York Knicks again losing the first three games before falling in five games. Following the season the Bullets would move to Landover a suburb of Washington D.C. Though no longer playing Baltimore the Bullets would continue to be vital part of the Baltimore community playing occasional games at the Civic Center over the next 20 years.
NBA Finals: (1)
1971
Conference Finals: (2)
1965, 1971
Division Champions: (4)
1969, 1971, 1972, 1973
Playoff Appearences: (9)
1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973
Hall of Famers: (7)
Walt Bellamy C 1963/64-1965/66
Elvin Hayes F 1972/73
Bailey Howell F 1964/65-1965/66
Gus Johnson F 1963/63-1971/72
Bob Leonard Coach 1963/64
Earl Monroe G 1967/68-1971/72
Wes Unseld C 1968/69-1972/73
WALT BELLAMY
BAILEY HOWELL
GUS JOHNSON
JACK MARIN
ELVIN HAYES
ARCHIE CLARK
THE BULLETS ARE HIGH CALIBER
And Baltimore is loaded. The return of Archie Clark, the acquisition of Elvin Hayes and the transformation of Mike Riordan have made it an explosive team, one with a real shot at the NBA title
By Peter Carry, Sports Illustrated, 1/29/73
Coaches of winning teams hate to face up to the inevitability of change, of filling the spot vacated by a retired star, of altering a proven style to accommodate the talents of new players, of revamping a starting lineup to replace injured regulars. Yet when wholesale change was recently forced upon the Baltimore Bullets, winners of sorts in the NBA for four seasons, Coach Gene Shue approached the situation with uncoachly relish. He made umpteen trades, force-fed good rookies into his lineup and, finally, made a deal few NBA coaches would even have considered.
As Shue had planned all along, it was change for the better. Last week, when the roster of the new Bullets was finally completed by the return of holdout Guard Archie Clark, it only made a hot team hotter. The old Bullets were good enough to win games, lots of them, but the new ones are better. They are capable of winning championships.
These are considerably toned-down Bullets compared to the ones who lost the championship round of the 1971 playoffs to Milwaukee in four straight games. Earl Monroe now struts his stuff for the Knicks. Gone too is weary-kneed Gus Johnson, who is best remembered in Baltimore floating on high, his gold-starred incisor twinkling amid a shower of purportedly shatterproof glass as he razed yet another see-through backboard. Only Center Wes Unseld and Forward John Tresvant remain from that squad. Today the Bullets go with the likes of smooth Guard Phil Chenier, spunky Forward Mike Riordan, solid Unseld, silken Elvin Hayes, speedy rookie Kevin Porter and the shifty Clark.
Although Baltimore has won three division championships and a conference title in the past four seasons, Shue has generally been overlooked when the NBA's best coaches are mentioned. But in recent weeks he has become the object of considerable admiration, not so much for his team's 18-5 record since Dec. 1 and a 4½-game lead in the Central Division as for the alacrity with which he disbanded one team, put together another and molded it into a cohesive unit. The old Bullets were a helter-skelter fast-break outfit, which even in their best season allowed 112 points a game and whose set offense consisted of four men going one-on-one while Unseld looked on. This year Baltimore is among the league's best defensive clubs, permitting fewer than 100 points in 23 of its games, and it runs a pattern offense as smoothly as it does the break. Even Bullet practices, once among the rowdiest in the league, have turned serious—except when Stan (California Dreamer) Love, a 6'9" reserve, decides to spit in his shirt. "It's better than spitting on the floor," he explains.
Events beyond Shue's control forced the transformation of his team and he pulled it off because he was willing to gamble. At the start of last season Johnson showed up with two inflexible knees while Monroe barely bothered to appear, preferring to hold out until the Bullets traded him to a city more commensurate with his life-style. The Pearl went to the Big Apple and Baltimore got the 6'4" Riordan, a former guard who is now the NBA's shortest starting forward and most improved jump-shooter, as part of the deal. Putting Riordan alongside Unseld and Hayes in the forecourt has turned out to be one of Shue's best moves, although it means playing a lineup composed of two centers, three guards and no forwards.
To replace Monroe the Bullets shipped two players to Philadelphia for Clark, a tough defender who had played in the shadows of Jerry West and Elgin Baylor at Los Angeles and Billy Cunningham on the 76ers. Until he averaged 25 points for Baltimore last season, Clark was best known as one of the fellows for whom Wilt Chamberlain was traded. Clark, however, proved himself Monroe's equal at one-on-one play, although where the Pearl is smooth and slithery Archie is herky and jerky. When he has the ball Clark will bow his head, dip a shoulder, lean over from the waist and appear about to fall on his beard. There is method in this ungainliness, however; as soon as Clark seems sure to nosedive in one direction he squirts off in another, leaving defenders dumfounded while he fires one of his splay-legged, fall-back, semi-jump shots.
Clark's play last season, when he earned $135,000, convinced many folks, not the least of them Archie, that he belonged in the superstar class. This fall he reportedly asked for a $375,000 salary; the Bullets offered $175,000, and an impasse was reached. Through negotiations, court hearings, forced arbitration and the first 43 games of the season, Clark worked out on his own while the Bullets played—and improved—without him. Two weeks ago the dispute was settled and Clark became the highest-paid Bullet, earning slightly more than either Unseld or Hayes, who make about $200,000 apiece.
Still, the bulk of the Bullets' title hopes rest upon Unseld and the man who came to Baltimore as a result of Shue's most daring move—last summer's trade of Jack Marin to Houston for Hayes. The Big E was recognized as a multitalented center who could score (27.4 average), rebound (17 per game) and block shots. The only criticism of his play was that he had trouble catching and throwing passes. "Elvin has hands by Georgia-Pacific," says one NBA coach.
Most coaches admitted they would rather take arsenic than Elvin Hayes. His reputation was that of a man with a fragile ego who alternately stormed and sulked at criticism, who was sometimes sullen with his teammates and coaches, who could cause dissension in the Partridge family. At the press conference announcing the deal, Shue was asked if it was strictly one-for-one. "No," he replied, "we get Elvin's psychiatrist, too."
A man of considerable self-confidence, Shue believed he could alleviate most of the pressure that had so obviously troubled Hayes on the Rockets, a poor
team for which Elvin felt he had to win games singlehandedly. Shue has done it by dividing the center's offensive duties between sure-handed Unseld, who does most of the passing and picking, and Hayes, who takes—and makes—most of the shots. As a result the Bullets now have the best one-two rebounding punch in the league. Hayes has shot less and averaged fewer points than ever while shoring up the defense with his shot blocking, and he has been so cooperative and friendly that the once-apprehensive Baltimore management and press are now wondering if any of those old Big E stories were true.
"The Big E has been a gem," says Shue. "I mean a G-E-M. Without him we'd be nowhere. He has worked very hard and he has made the big effort to team up with Wes. I couldn't be more pleased."
"I'm sure a lot of people around the NBA laughed when they heard I was traded," says Hayes. "They said I'd ruin this team. But a lot of them don't even know' me. They didn't realize I'd always been a winner except with the Rockets. Still, they blamed me every time the team lost and called me a confirmed loser. I know I'm a guy who needs his confidence built up, but from the very first day I came into the pros, coaches emphasized the things I can't do, even in the years I led the league in scoring or rebounding. And I was an easy target. I was taking most of the shots because I was told to and I was the highest-paid player. I was expected to make a winner out of a team which didn't have the ability.
"It almost ruined my game and my health. I got to the point where I couldn't sleep, and my stomach was always acting up. They took X rays and couldn't find anything wrong. I had become a hypochondriac. I took sleeping pills and was constantly chewing Tums and Rolaids. I haven't taken any of those pills since I heard about the trade."
Now it is Baltimore's opponents who are feeling a little queasy. By the end of last week the Bullets had run off a seven-game winning streak, including a team-record five straight on a single road trip. The best of the away wins came early last week in Los Angeles where the Lakers fell 112-104. The Bullets played a tightly controlled game most of the time, none of them more so than Hayes, who selected his shots carefully, hitting 13 of 21 and scoring 32 points. Clark made his season's debut as a substitute and although he scored only seven points, his defense was sharp, particularly on Gail Goodrich in the fourth quarter when Los Angeles threatened.
Three nights later, against the hapless 76ers, the Bullets breezed to a 24-point lead in the third quarter. Philadelphia closed the margin to eight before Clark herked and jerked for eight points in the final period—he had 16 for the game—and fed teammates for two more baskets, the Bullets winning 110-94. Saturday-night against Seattle Clark scored 10 of his 18 points—as well as five rebounds and three assists—in the fourth period as Baltimore built a 99-95 lead into a 126-106 victory
Earlier in the week Shue was asked when he expected Clark to become a regular, an unavoidable move the coach seems reluctant to make, since Chenier and Porter are playing so well. "I've got 300 guards," Shue said, "so please don't ask me when Archie's going to start." With problems like this, Shue doesn't need Tums, either.
WINNER GETS TO PLAY ALCINDOR
The battered Baltimore Bullets and the numbed New York Knicks assaulted each other through seven games. When it was all over, the last barrier to the title was the most-feared team in basketball by Peter Carry, Sports Illustrated, April 26, 1971
Two weeks ago, just as the Baltimore Bullets were preparing to open their semifinal playoff series with the New York Knickerbockers, a parade was scheduled in what Mayor Thomas D'Alesandro likes to call "The City of Champions." The world champion Orioles and Colts would be honored and so would the Clippers, who are considered very tough in the American Hockey League. Even the Baltimore City Fire Department, recent winner of a national firefighting award, was invited. And they asked the Bullets to come along, too, even though their season was not officially over and despite the fact that the appearance of all those injured basketball players with their casts and their crutches might have an unsettling effect on the cheering crowds. Perhaps they would break into an a cappella rendition of the Colonel Bogey march. Anyway, Coach Gene Shue's cripples could ragtag along.
Certainly, delaying any championship celebration on account of the Bullets seemed absurd at the time. Baltimore apparently had already taken its basketball title for this year by winning something called the NBA's Central Division. The Bullets did it with a 42-40 record, only the ninth best in the league. One of their starting guards, Eddie Miles, had been wearing a cast on his foot since midseason. His replacement, Kevin Loughery, and team captain Gus Johnson were both doubtful performers for the series with New York, not to mention Earl Monroe, whose knees are always impending disasters.
No, the parade was not postponed for the Bullets but because of rain and perhaps that was fortunate. Now if the parade is ever rescheduled, the Bullets can show up with another championship—of the NBA's Eastern Conference. They upset New York 4-3, swamping the Knicks in three games at Baltimore Civic Center before finally winning one at Madison Square Garden following three losses there. The Bullets might even have another championship—that of the entire NBA—except that their final opponents are Lew Alcindor and the Milwaukee Bucks, who bullied the scarred Los Angeles Lakers in five games.
Baltimore defeated New York with some uncharacteristic team play and by taking advantage of Willis Reed's disabilities. An old knee injury restricted Reed's mobility, as it has all season, and his newly sprained right shoulder wrecked his rebounding and shooting.
Against the Bullets, the Knicks repeatedly failed to compensate for Reed's handicaps. Last year they won because they have excellent shooters at every position, including the bench. In the Baltimore series, while Reed's scoring average slipped badly, most of the other Knick totals fell with it. Their offense often looked flat and motionless, as if waiting for the same sort of psychic boost Reed gave it in the final game last year when he dramatically took the court despite a painfully injured leg.
The opening game, played in New York, established several patterns that persisted throughout the series. The Knicks won 112-111 on Walt Frazier's two last-minute drives; on one he scored with a layup and on the other he set up an easy basket for Reed. From the outset, the matchup between Willis and Baltimore's Wes Unseld was no contest. The Bullet center soon eliminated Reed's inside game—the quick turn-in moves accompanied by head, shoulder and foot fakes off which Willis likes to shoot his deadly short jump shots. Three times Reed spun into Unseld and each time Wes snatched or slapped the ball away.
For the rest of the series, Reed roamed outside, occasionally attempting long jumpers but rarely figuring importantly in the Knicks' scoring. Frequently out of position away from the basket and hampered by his sore shoulder. Reed was badly outrebounded by Unseld. By the close of the series, Wes had grabbed twice as many rebounds as Willis and had held his opponent to a shooting average below 40%. "I'm in the habit of leaning against people under the basket, but now I'm afraid to push for fear of damaging my shoulder even more," Reed said. "It also affects my shooting because my right hand is my guiding hand."
"Willis is basically only playing defense and setting picks," said Frazier. "That's enough to get us by if he's in there doing that and containing Unseld."
Containment became Reed's only real weapon and by the fifth game even Unseld remarked about it. "Willis wasn't any kind of factor tonight," he said. "He wasn't even going for rebounds. He was just trying to block me out."
It also became apparent in the first game that Baltimore's style was suddenly much more restrained. The Bullets have long been a team with too many itchy trigger fingers, and the only consistent part of their offense was that the man with the ball was much more apt to shoot it than pass it. Several years of cajoling by Coach Gene Shue and an injury to Unseld late this season apparently changed some Bullet ideas. Without Unseld around to retrieve all their missed shots, the gunners began to think before they fired, a trend that continued after Wes rejoined the team for the playoffs. The Bullets worked their patterns carefully against New York, consistently eating away most of the time on the 24-second clock before shooting. Even Earl Monroe, the sport's most spectacular one-on-one player, who needs the barest opening to score, picked his spots with some restraint. The Knicks' Dave DeBusschere remarked that some of his own team's offensive lethargy could be blamed on the slow tempo being set by the once freewheeling Bullets.
"It's never been my design to force things," said Shue. "My biggest coaching problem has been to get a bunch of strong-willed one-on-one players to run the offense. We have a lot of schoolyard players who think they can do it all on their own, but they can't."
Unseld's control of the pivot and the cohesive Bullet style compensated somewhat for Baltimore's lack of personnel and the cool performance of Frazier, the only Knick who enjoyed an exceptional series. Jack Marin, a misfit on the Bullets simply because he has not had an injury serious enough to keep him out of the team's last 374 games, sat out much of the first half of the opener with foul trouble. In the second game Baltimore trailed by only six points with seven minutes remaining, but lost by 19. Monroe and Loughery were both injured, and Unseld and John Tresvant came close to fouling out.
Johnson, who had played very well in the Bullets' previous series with Philadelphia during which his sore left knee was repeatedly injected with a painkiller, found he could not bend his leg the day before the opener with New York. Unwilling to take any more shots, he decided to sit down until some natural mobility returned to the knee. "I just couldn't take it anymore," he said. "For 2½ days after the last game against Philly I felt like I could've cut my leg off. When that Xylocaine wears off it's not just a downer, it's a flip-out." Johnson, rumored to have signed a contract with Pittsburgh of the ABA for next year, was replaced by Tresvant, a bench-warmer on the Pistons when DeBusschere was the Detroit player-coach. He harassed his old boss effectively after being outplayed in the first game.
In both of the first two games in New York, it was the Knicks' defense that ultimately won for them, forcing 42 Bullet turnovers and keeping New York in the games when the offense sputtered. Even after the wide final margin of the second game, Frazier remained displeased with the Knick performance. "We've played way below average," he said. "We just can't seem to get together and put them away unless we get something like today, when Earl and Loughery get hurt and Wes gets into foul trouble."
The Bullets were not bothered by such mishaps in the third and fourth games, played at the Civic Center. Marin and Monroe scored 105 points in the two games as Baltimore won 114-88 and 101-80. In the first of these, Unseld put on an extraordinary show, scoring on eight of nine shots, assisting on nine baskets and pulling down 26 rebounds. "We kept yelling at me to get more rebounds, but then he wouldn't let mc have any," Marin said. The Knicks' score in the second game was their lowest in seven years as the Bullets checked them with a defense described by Fred Carter as aggressive without contact. "We've got so few players, we can't afford to give fouls even when it's to our advantage," said Carter, who became a starter in Loughery's place. Shue has never admired the standard NBA tactic of "giving fouls" and he all but discarded the practice during the playoffs to protect his limited supply of players. In the games in Baltimore, the Bullets rarely had to worry about fouling the Knicks for any reason. Without Reed to provide a threat in the middle, New York is essentially a perimeter-shooting team. Players moving along the outside of the defense rather than driving through it are easier to guard. In their first two wins, the Bullets committed only 33 fouls.
In the fifth game in New York the Bullets were called for only 18 personals and they held the Knicks to 89 points. But New York's defense was even tougher allowing the Bullets, who shot only 33%, just 84 points. Once again it was Walt Frazier who led the way, scoring 28, including a tough jumper with less than a minute to play—and with two seconds on the 24-second clock and Baltimore trailing by just two points. Frazier had help from Mike Riordan, who showed how-variety on offense could help New York as he surprised Baltimore with successive—and successful—drives.
In this game New York purposely surrendered its offensive board to the Bullets, something which had been happening unintentionally throughout the series. Instead of attempting to wrestle with Unseld for rebounds they rarely got, the Knicks, always one of the quickest teams in the league at dropping back to cover the fast break, fell away from the boards and attempted to sever Baltimore's passing lanes. At least one, and often two, players lunged at Unseld with arms raised to obscure his vision and occasionally deflect his passes. The other Knicks scrambled downcourt to cover the remaining Bullets, effectively halting Baltimore's running game. Unseld was often forced to wait for one of his teammates to circle back to take short laterals from him. The result gave the impression that Baltimore was playing its most cohesive offense, passing and running patterns more frequently, but even a team man like Gene Shue would have preferred not being pressured into it this way. The tactic forced Baltimore to grind out its baskets and was responsible for the Bullets' low shooting percentage.
New York did not continue these tactics in Sunday's sixth game, at Baltimore. With Monroe playing sleight-of-hand tricks for 27 points and Johnson finally back in the lineup, the Bullets broke away in the first half. The final score of 113-96 was a great deal closer than the game itself.
