1980s NBA – From Way Downtown

Dave Cowens Pens His Boston Celtics Obituary, 1980

I have enjoyed performing for you over the past 10 years while hopefully engraving myself into the history of the Celtic organization.

Phil Ford: Have You Driven a Ford Lately? 1983

Ford never has taken a nap on the basketball floor. Loose balls? He’d dive for them. Draw a charge? It didn’t matter if the player was 6-10, 300 pounds.

Why It’s All Turned Sour for David Thompson, 1980

“I do what I’m asked to do, but something is missing. I’ve got a long way to go towards being the player I feel like ought to be.”

Charles Barkley: Here Comes Trouble, 1989

You don’t challenge Barkley by telling him what to do, but by telling him what he can’t do. Limit him, sell him short, cut him down, and he’ll die proving you wrong.

The $10 Million Gamble to Save Pro Basketball: Bill Walton and Larry Bird, 1980

The Clippers and Celtics paid a fortune to get them. Now, they and the rest of the league can only hope Walton and Bird get back the fans and make pro basketball “The Sport of the 1980s.”

Tom LaGarde: Tendon to Business, 1979-1984

“It’s a business,” he shrugged at a 3 p.m. news conference in the Sonic office. “I’m ready to go.”

Julius Erving: Basketball’s Most Valuable Pro, 1984

He is 34 years old now. He has won the NBA title. If things go according to plan, 1985 will be his final season. It’s a cause for concern inside the game.

How Julius Erving is Fighting His Critics, 1980

By August, Erving was able to run again, working himself up from a quarter mile to two miles. By the start of camp, he was so strong that he didn’t bother wearing those ugly braces on his once aching knees.

Rickey Green: The Fastest of Them All

“Rather than sitting around and worrying about the NBA, you’ve got to do something else. I mean, everybody wants to be in the NBA. It’s the best in the world. It’s everybody’s dream. But dreaming about it grows old, and you just got to move on.”

Tuning Up the Utah Jazz, 1981

Despite the size factor, despite the fact that the Jazz have never had a winning record in five years, they are welcomed in Salt Lake City, their now year-old home, as if they were on the verge of a world title.