Dave Sheinin has a must-read piece in the Post about Washington's lone NBA champion, the 1977-78 Bullets team of Wes Unseld, Elvin Hayes [both Hall of Famers], Bobby Dandridge, Phil Chenier, Kevin Grevey, Mitch Kupchak and head coach Dick Motta. The great Bullets teams of the 1970s had been to two NBA Finals earlier in the decade, but had been swept out both times. The third time would be the charm in a brutal slog of a 7-game Finals against the Seattle Super Sonics.
The franchise is making an effort to properly honor that team 35 years after its greatest achievement. As the article notes, the team has not done much to celebrate it's sole NBA champ and the actual Finals trophy was only recently recovered from the closet of a deceased team employee. As the aging veterans of that team -- all but guard Charles Johnson, who passed away from cancer -- look back on what they accomplished, they now appreciate the memories far more than they once did.
“We all wanted it so badly,” Grevey recalled. “Wes had always come up short. Elvin had come up short. You can’t be considered a great player unless you win a championship . . . We talked about it all the time. Dick Motta talked about it. He knew this might have been the best assembled talent he’d ever had. We had a lot of belief, but not a lot of other people did.”
And then the Bullets, the third seed in the Eastern Conference, swept a best-of-three “mini-series” against Atlanta, and took down both the San Antonio Spurs (led by George “The Iceman” Gervin) and Philadelphia 76ers (led by Julius “Dr. J” Erving) in six games apiece. The NBA Finals against the Seattle Supersonics took a whopping 17 days to complete, start to finish --thanks to a scheduling conflict in Seattle with a mobile-home show that necessitated a bizarre 1-2-2-1-1 format, and a back-and-forth battle that pushed the series to a Game 7, on June 7, 1978 in Seattle.
In the locker room before Game 7, Hayes and Unseld, the Bullets’ veterans, called a team meeting. They were both 32 years old, looking out at a locker room in which seven of the other 10 players were 25 or younger. “We said, ‘We don’t have four or five more years – we have to do this now,’” Hayes recalled. “I think the guys looked into their hearts and said, ‘Let’s do it.’” ...
The game was as tight as you might expect, ultimately turning on a three-point play by Bullets forward Mitch Kupchak with just under a minute to play. Unseld, a 53.8 percent free-throw shooter that season, nailed a pair of free throws to clinch the victory – still the last time a team has won Game 7 of the NBA Finals on the road – and set off a wild celebration that stretched from the court in Seattle to the streets of D.C.
“I know for myself, it’s a vivid picture in my mind,” said Hayes, the Hall-of-Fame forward now living outside of Houston. “I can constantly close my eyes and see it. I can see Kevin Grevey running off the court at the end of Game 7, and I can see Wes, after so many years of coming up short – I can see that great weight lifted off his shoulders. Just moments that will never part from your memory.”
Back in their victorious locker room, the Bullets players were disappointed to find no champagne, only beer and soda, waiting for them. So they made do with the beer and soda until it was time to head back to the hotel, whereupon a group of players demanded the bus stop at a liquor store. Out of the bus and into the store went Grevey and a half-dozen teammates, armed with Abe Pollin’s credit card.
“The guy at the liquor store is looking at us like we’re crazy,” Grevey recalled. “He says, ‘Are you guys that basketball team?’ I said, ‘Yes, we are – and we want all your champagne.’”
Go read the whole article.
The feelings of that time were summed up in an infectious tune called "Bullets Fever," written by local musician and big fan Nils Lofgren. Here they are:
Bullets Fever! Happens to me every year
Bullets Fever. And this year’s the one
Bullets Fever. Got the Doctor and the Iceman
Bullets Fever. Seattle was stunned
You’ve gotta be a fan from old DC
To know what the Bullets mean to me
To see them get up and go all the way
For me Bullets Fever is here to stay
Bullets Fever! Happens to me every year
Bullets Fever. And this year’s the one
Bullets Fever. Got the Doctor and the Iceman
Bullets Fever. Seattle was stunned
C.J. and Larry, Greg, Joe and Mitch
Ran the Bomb Squad into a ditch
C.J. Tom and Larry are fast as light
Kevin, Bobby and Elvin they shoot out of sight
Aint it beautiful how Bobby D plays so great
With the Big E!
(inaudible) …we blew the Sonics out
Now all the world knows what our team’s about
Bullets Fever! Happens to me every year
Bullets Fever. And this year’s the one
Bullets Fever. Got the Doctor and the Iceman
Bullets Fever. Seattle was stunned
With all his heart Wes fought the west
Now every Bullet wears a champion’s ring
They’ve got our town screaming and stompin’
They turn it into a family thing
Come on coach Motta
King of basketball chess
Come on now fans support them every test
Bullets Fever! Happens to me every year
Bullets Fever. And this year’s the one
Bullets Fever. Beat the best in the world
Bullets Fever. Now we’re number one!
Bullets Fever. Come on Bobby D
Bullets Fever. Put in a swish for me
Bullets Fever. Let’s see that turnaround, Mr. Hayes
Bullets Fever. See your play is amazing
Bullets Fever. Hey Dick and Bernie, we’re pulling for you
Bullets Fever. Dreams come true
Number one, number one…
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