January 5 1983: Lakers at Sixers in OT rematch of '82 Finals; Dr. J with the greatest in-game dunk of all time; Magic 23pts 20ast 12reb. Sixers win a 122-120 regular season classic. These were two superteams of the early 80's. The Sixers finished the '83 season with a league best 65-16 Kareem was unavailable for the Lakers. Sixth man of the Year Bobby Jones of the Sixers had a great chasedown block on Michael Cooper. Rookie James Worthy was flying around. Despite the Lakers winning the championship, they found themselves with the first pick in the draft, and they took NCAA national champion Tarheel James Worthy. Jamaal Wilkes of the Lakers led all scorers with 36pts. Andrew Toney had 28pts, the Doctor 27pts. A 23-year-old Magic Johnson had a triple double with 23pts and 20ast. Moses Malone had 21pts and 15rebs for the Sixers. This was Malone's first season on the Sixers. He would go on to win Finals MVP when the Sixers met the Lakers for a Finals rematch. The Sixers swept them. Malone was asked before the playoffs how the Sixers would fare. His response was the famous "fo', fo', fo'", meaning the Sixers would complete 4-game sweeps for each of the 3 rounds of the playoffs. They ended up losing only 1 game, in the second round. Thus, fo' five 'fo. The Finals for the previous 3 seasons had featured either Julius Erving or Moses Malone. 1983 would be the 4th year in a row one of them reached the Finals. This time, they were on the same team. Dr. J reached the '80 Finals, losing the Lakers. Moses it made to the '81 NBA Finals with the Rockets, losing to the Celtics. As previously mentioned, the '82 Finals saw the Lakers defeat Dr. J and the Sixers again. The Doctor was 0-3 in the Finals going into '83, having lost also to the Blazers in '77, his first year in the NBA after 2 championships in the ABA in '74 and '76. The Lakers would make it back to the Finals the season after this in '84 and lose to the Celtics, and then again the season after that in '85 and beat the Celtics. Dr. J and Moses Malone never made it back to the Finals, even with Barkley arriving in '84.
🎶: "Let it Whip" by Dazz Band was released in 1982.