How the NBA was Changed by a Trade & Coin Flip: The 1976 Trade that Triggered the Initial Rise of the NBA

When we look back at the history of major sporting leagues, we're often reminded as fans of bad deals and trades that should of or shouldn't have been made. The one constant in all this is that there are at least two sides to every deal and trade. We as fans may not know the impact of such a trade until years down the road. But one such trade in 1976 triggered the beginning of the rise of the NBA.

In 1970, the Los Angeles Lakers had re-aquired guard Gail Goodrich from the Phoenix Suns after they had originally drafted him 1965. By 1971, the Los Angeles Lakers had come full circle an had finally won their first NBA Championship in that city. The team had future Hall of Famers Wilt Chamberlain and Jerry West leading the way. Goodrich, who was often shunned by doubters because of his small height, had proven everyone wrong by becoming a First-team NBA All-Star and averaging over 25 points a game in 1974 as the team tried to remain competitive.

The Lakers were beginning to slip as a franchise until they made a trade in which they acquired All-Star center and future Hall of Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar from Milwaukee before the 1975-76 season. Goodrich also held out for money in the offseason and despite Abdul-Jabbar's MVP season, the team missed the playoffs for the second consecutive year.

After the season, the free agent Goodrich signed with the New Orleans Jazz on July 17, 1976. Because of NBA rules that teams losing veteran free agents would be compensated at the time, the Lakers were to receive full compensation as a result of the loss of Goodrich. So the Jazz and Lakers reached an agreement on August 5, 1976. The Jazz would receive the Laker's 1977 second round pick and 1978 first round pick in exchange for the 1977 first round pick, 1978 first round pick, 1979 first round pick, and 1980 second round pick to complete the deal for Goodrich. This move wasn't as significant at the time, but the effects of this trade would forever change the landscape of the NBA as we know it many years later.

As the 1976-77 season rolled around, the Lakers moved on without Goodrich and ended up returning to the playoffs before losing to the eventual NBA Champion Portland Trail Blazers.

Meanwhile, Goodrich injured his Achilles heel that season and had to have surgery. The Jazz never recovered and the Lakers took the No. 6 overall pick that they would have had to select Kenny Carr out of North Carolina State. Carr failed to make any impact for the Lakers, and was traded in 1979.

For the next two years, the Lakers were eliminated by Seattle in the playoffs, and it was an incident in 1977 during that period that they were more remembered for. In a televised game against the Houston Rockets, the Lakers Kermit Washington punched Rudy Tomjanovich after Washington got in a fight with another player. Washington punched Tomjanovich so hard that it nearly killed him, and the result gave the city of Los Angeles a negative basketball image.

With the Jazz continuing to slump on the court and Goodrich's career beginning to wind down, the Lakers were not able to improve with the trade or in the playoffs. Goodrich retired after the 1978-79 season in which the Jazz finished with the worst record in the Western Conference. Before 1985, the NBA's rule regarding the draft was that the worst team in each conference would have the first two picks in the draft settled by a coin flip. When the Jazz finished with the worst record in the 1978-79 season, the Lakers were guaranteed one of the top two draft choices.

Also in 1979, the Lakers changed ownership as Dr, Jerry Buss bought the team from Jack Kent Cooke. Buss immediately wanted to turn the Lakers enigma of nasty court incident in 1977 and failed success in the playoffs.

The Jazz fell on hard financial times in 1979, and moved to Salt Lake City, Utah to become the Utah Jazz.

In college basketball, the Michigan State Spartans were making noise as point guard Earvin "Magic" Johnson led them to the NCAA Championship in 1979 by beating Indiana State led by forward Larry Bird in what is still the highest rated college basketball game ever. After the win, the sophomore declared himself eligible for the NBA Draft.

Bird, the No. 6 overall draft selection by the Boston Celtics in 1978, played one more year and just missed winning a national title. Rules at the time allowed Bird to play in school while the Celtics still had the rights to his contract when they drafted him in 1978. The Celtics had hit the bottom of the league, and were looking to Bird to lead them back when he arrived in 1979. Little did anyone know that the paths of Bird and Johnson would bring the NBA to heights never seen before at the next level, too.

As it turned out, the Chicago Bulls had the worst record in the NBA in 1978-79, and were the other team that was guaranteed one of the top two draft choices. The Bulls, because they had the worst record of the two teams, had the coin toss in which GM Rod Thorn made the call. Thorn called "heads" and the result was "tails" thus giving the Lakers the first overall pick in the draft.

It was no secret that Magic Johnson was the best player available in the 1979 NBA Draft, and it was the obvious choice for the Lakers to make. However, if the coin flip would have been different in that if Chicago picked first, the Bulls would have taken Johnson with that pick. The Bulls picked David Greenwood of UCLA with their second overall pick instead. The NBA should be very glad that the coin flip favored the Lakers because had the Bulls won it, history in the league as we know it would be drastically different - even now.

Had the Bulls been able to grab Johnson in the draft, Chicago would have had a nice 1-2 punch with him teaming with Reggie Theus. Theus, a three-time NBA All-Star, would have benefited the most with having a dynamic and versatile player like Johnson with him. At the time, the Bulls used an offense built around Theus and the addition of Johnson would have at least made the Bulls a consistent playoff contender, or better team than they ended up being in the early-1980s anyway. Their play would have been plenty good enough had they kept Johnson for the next five years, and they wouldn't have been in much of a position to draft Michael Jordan at the No. 3 spot in 1984 as a result of being better off.

Johnson was criticized early on in his rookie year for not passing the ball enough, but was much better at it by season's end. In fact, the Lakers made the NBA Finals in his first season and played the Philadelphia 76ers in the NBA Finals. With the Lakers having a 3-2 series lead, Abdul-Jabbar was injured in Game Five which set the stage for the versatile Johnson to take his spot at center. Johnson scored 42 points, grabbed 15 rebounds, and had seven assists to lead the Lakers to their second NBA Championship in Los Angeles. Johnson was the first(and currently the only) rookie to win NBA Finals MVP for his play in that series. Johnson had immediately impacted the Lakers and league in his first year.

The Boston Celtics had also began to turn things around as Bird had become the leader of the franchise. The Celtics and Lakers were coming close to a collision course in the NBA Finals.

By 1981, the Celtics had come full circle as they defeated the Houston Rockets in the NBA Finals in six games. The NBA Finals only drew a 6.7 rating, and it had gotten so bad that Finals games were on tape delay between 1978-81. The image of the NBA was still bad after fights on court and even though the league addressed those issues, it still had a lingering effect on attendance and ratings for games.

However, the Lakers returned to the NBA Finals by defeating the 76ers in six games. The series drew a 13.0 rating, and the NBA was getting on track with fans. The 76ers got revenge by sweeping the Lakers the next season in the NBA Finals as it drew a 12.3 rating.

Magic Johnson and Larry Bird finally met in the NBA Finals for the first time in 1984, and it drew another 12.3 rating. The Celtics won the series in seven games, and they would meet again the following season with Lakers winning 4-2. That series earned a 13.7 rating, the highest ever for an NBA Finals. The NBA Finals wouldn't dip lower than that rating until 1990.

The rivalry was really one-sided in favor of the Celtics in the 1960s. With Bill Russell and Bob Cousy, the Celtics beat the Lakers everytime they played then even though Los Angeles had the likes of Jerry West and Wilt Chamberlain on those teams. But the rivalry was perfect in so many ways.

East vs West. Tough-minded, blue-collar town vs glamour and fame of Hollywood. Half-court game vs "Showtime" fast-paced action. Magic vs Bird. Even though they're miles apart, the NBA's only great rivalry had been rekindled.

The ratings peaked in the 1987 NBA Finals when the Lakers beat the Celtics in six games while drawing a 15.9 rating. Between 1980 and 1989, at least either the Lakers or Celtics made the NBA Finals, and their success was the biggest reason why the ratings reached heights it had never seen before. In fact, the NBA Finals in 1990 between the Detroit Pistons and Portland Trail Blazers drew a 12.3 rating, the lowest in six years.

In 1991, the Lakers made it back to the NBA Finals to face the Chicago Bulls. The dream match-up between Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan didn't live up to expectations as the Bulls beat the Lakers in five games. However, the series was a financial success with a strong 15.8 rating.

With Jordan taking the unofficial torch from Bird and Magic, the league continued to flourish as the NBA Finals in 1993 between Chicago and Phoenix drew a 17.9 rating, the highest ever at that time as the Bulls won their third NBA Championship in a row. After Jordan retired after 1993, the NBA Finals saw a dip in ratings the next two years when Houston won back-to-back NBA Championships. The ratings drew a 12.4 and 13.9 rating the years Houston won it all.

The Bulls won three NBA Championships in a row again between 1996 and 1998 and the ratings reached a peak it hasn't seen since when it drew a 18.7 rating in 1998 when Chicago beat Utah in six games.

The NBA had also seen six expansion teams come aboard since 1988. Charlotte(now New Orleans), Miami, Minnesota, Orlando, Toronto, and Vancouver(now Memphis) have joined the league over that period of time. Charlotte got another team in 2004.

Without that trade or coin flip that eventually worked in the Lakers favor, it's hard to think the NBA would have become as big as it did. Had Goodrich and the Lakers worked out a deal to keep him in Los Angeles, the Jazz would have been able to keep that pick because they were bad enough even with Goodrich in the lineup. The Jazz and Bulls would have been in the running for the Magic Johnson sweepstakes, and the Lakers would have been out of the picture.

If only Rod Thorn called "tails" instead of "heads" on the coin flip in 1979, Chicago would have had Johnson on their team, and it likely would have meant the Lakers coming up short for years....again. Also, the Chicago Bulls would have been a much better team for the next several years which would have prevented them from being in position to draft Michael Jordan five years later at the No. 3 spot. Whether the Bulls would have been able to build into an NBA Championship team much earlier than what they did is anyone's guess, but their fortunes in the 1990s would have been drastically different.

The Lakers landing Johnson was the best thing that happened to the NBA in terms of saving a league that had a damaged reputation. Without it, the Magic vs Bird, and more importantly Lakers vs Celtics rivalry, would have never happened. And although the Bulls would have been a better team and maybe could have developed an Eastern Conference rivalry with the 76ers and Celtics, it wouldn't have helped the league. It would have made the Eastern Conference much better, and more competitive. However, it would have likely produced lower ratings because of the perceived imbalance that it would have had. This is also not factoring in the rise of the Pistons in the Eastern Conference in the late 1980s that won two NBA Championships. Furthermore, the Lakers wouldn't have won five NBA Championships, and it's hard to think anyone(other than maybe Houston) would have won an title out of the Western Conference in those years.

With the NBA drawing more fans, money, and a better reputation, this was the main reason that expansion happened. Without that trade or coin flip going in the Lakers' favor, the league may not have been able expand six times during that period. The league would be more competitive without expansion, but television coverage and ratings in those cities and surrounding areas wouldn't have helped boost the bottom line had they not been able to expand.

Even though Jordan and the Bulls dominate ways produced the highest ratings in NBA history, it wouldn't have happened had it not been for the trade, coin flip, and rekindling of the Celtics-Lakers rivalry in the first place. Jordan's impact on the game can never be understated in anyway, but Magic, Bird, and the rivalry between them and their teams came when the NBA needed it during a time when the league was on the brink of dying a slow death.

Over thirty years later after the trade that triggered the ultimate growth of the NBA, the Celtics fell off in a big way only to revive themselves this year by bringing hope to the city of Boston and the NBA. The Lakers eventually rebuilt around Kobe Bryant, acquired Shaquille O'Neal, and hired former Bulls head coach Phil Jackson to win three NBA Titles in a row between 2000-02. However, the highest ratings for an NBA Finals since Jordan retired and the league experienced a lockout in 1998, was 12.1 in 2001 when the Lakers beat the 76ers. The NBA Finals reached an all-time low of 6.5 last year.

If there was ever a time for the league to catch a break to save themselves, it was then....until now. With the league seeing the lowest ratings in the NBA Finals in years last season as well as a negative image from fans in a hip-hop organization, something needs to happen to bring fans back. It's only fitting that the two teams and rivalry that helped save the league, are now in the NBA Finals. While it doesn't have the same ring as Magic vs Bird, the fact that the Lakers and Celtics are once again strong teams gives the NBA hope for it's unsure future. The league has superstars, but what it needs is the teams on each coast to meet again to bring back the glory of the NBA.

In closing, I'm a big Chicago Bulls fan and I'm proud of what they've accomplished back in the 1990s. But as I look back at what could have happened, I think the worst for the NBA. I'm glad that the trade and coin flip favored the Lakers and changed the fortunes of their franchise and the others involved in both as well as the league forever. It's my hope that the Lakers and Celtics begin the second revival of the NBA. I wouldn't have had it any other way then, and any other way now.

Sources: nba.com, sportsbusinessdaily.com, espn.com, prosportstransactions.com/basketball