The1975 NBA World Championship Series was the championship round of the1974–75 NBA season of theNational Basketball Association. TheWestern Conference championGolden State Warriors (48–34) played against theEastern Conference championWashington Bullets (60–22) for the championship. The series was played under abest-of-seven format. Theunderdog Warriors won in four games, sweeping the heavily favored Bullets to take the title. Warriors small forwardRick Barry was named as theseries MVP.^[1][2]

The Warriors' home games were played at theCow Palace inDaly City near San Francisco due to scheduling conflicts at their normal home court ofOakland Arena during the week of May 19–26. In addition, an odd scheduling format had to be used because Golden State could not secure the Cow Palace forMemorial Day Weekend (May 24–26). ASports Illustrated article about the series reported that Washington, which heldhome court advantage, was given the option of a 1-2-2-1-1 scheduling format due to Golden State's problems or, if they wished, opening on the road and then having Games 2, 3, and 4 at home. Washington opted for the 1-2-2-1-1 format not out of a sense of fairness, but because they wanted to open the series at home.^[3]

The series is notable as it was the first championship game or series in any of themajor U.S. professional sports leagues to feature two blackhead coaches or managers, asAl Attles coached the Warriors andK.C. Jones coached the Bullets.^[4] It would remain the only series or game of such untilSuper Bowl XLI in 2007.

TheGolden State Warriors last made the NBA Finals in1967, when they were still in San Francisco. In the years since, they moved toOakland, briefly lostRick Barry to theAmerican Basketball Association, and named Warriors greatAl Attles as head coach. Before the start of the1974–75 season they traded future Hall of FamerNate Thurmond to theChicago Bulls for young centerClifford Ray. They also draftedJamaal Wilkes, then known as Keith Wilkes, out ofUCLA. With Barry as the offensive leader, and with Attles using a team approach to coaching, the Warriors managed to finish the season atop the Western Conference with 48 wins. In the playoffs, they defeated theSeattle SuperSonics in six games, then eliminated Thurmond and the Bulls in seven games to advance to the Finals.

TheWashington Bullets were in their second season in theWashington Metropolitan Area, having moved fromBaltimore prior to the1973–74 season. The Bullets, led byWes Unseld andElvin Hayes, and coached byK. C. Jones, won 60 games that season, then overcame theBuffalo Braves and thedefending championBoston Celtics in seven and six games, respectively. The Bullets franchise headed to their second NBA Finals appearance, the last of which was a sweep by theMilwaukee Bucks in1971.

Washington won the regular season series 3–1.

Golden State wins the series, 4–0.

This was the first time in NBA Finals history in which the team who did not have home court advantage swept the series. This has happened only one time since, in1995, when theHouston Rockets swept theOrlando Magic.

Opting to open the series at home, the Bullets built a 14-point lead at the half over the Warriors at theCapital Centre. The Warriors began to storm back, withPhil Smith coming off the bench to score 20 points in 31 minutes of playing time, as Golden State took the first game, 101–95.[1]

Instead of their familiarOakland Coliseum Arena, the Warriors were forced to play their first two scheduled home games of the series at the nearbyCow Palace (the Oakland facility being unavailable due to theIce Follies^[5]). The Bullets jumped to an early 13-point lead, but Golden State battled back, led by 36 points fromRick Barry, to take a 92–91 lead in the closing seconds. Washington got the ball back with six seconds left but missed two shots and now were down 2–0.[2]

Rick Barry poured in 38 points and backup centerGeorge Johnson had 10 points and nine rebounds off the bench to help the Warriors to a key Game 3 109–101 win.

Two major factors enabling the Warriors to take an insurmountable lead were the defensive play of the seemingly undersizedJamaal Wilkes on Bullets' power forwardElvin Hayes and the play of the Warrior bench. In three games, Hayes had only 29 points and the Warriors' bench players had outscored the Bullets' reserves 115–53.[3]

Back at home, the Bullets seemed to be on their way to staving off an unexpected sweep by the underdog Warriors, leading by 14 points early on. Bullets forwardMike Riordan was assigned to guard Barry, who had killed the Bullets in the series up to that point by averaging 35 points a game. Riordan played Barry very physically, arousing the ire of Warriors' coachAl Attles. Midway through the first quarter, Barry went on a drive to the basket and was fouled hard from behind by Riordan. Barry reacted with a shove, but Attles bolted onto the court and initiated a fight of his own with Riordan, thereby protecting his star player from an ejection and getting ejected himself. The remainder of the game was directed by assistant coachJoe Roberts.

The Bullets controlled the game and led most of the way, leading by as many as eight in the fourth quarter at 90–82 after a Riordan drive and layup where he injured his ankle. Bullets coachK.C. Jones pulled Riordan and sent in little-usedDick Gibbs, withNick Weatherspoon mired in a shooting slump. Barry and Hayes exchanged baskets, keeping the Bullets up by eight at 92–84. After aJamaal Wilkes basket,Kevin Porter missed a pair of free throws andButch Beard hit a jumper to cut the Bullet lead to four at 92–88. Porter then threw away an easy pass on the Bullets' next trip, and Wilkes canned a jumper to cut it to two at 92–90. Porter missed a layup, and then Wilkes hit a rebound basket to tie the score. Hayes, who had only 15 points, then hit one of two to give the lead back to the Bullets. Beard answered with a drive and basket to give the Warriors a 94–93 lead. Unseld then threw away an easy bounce pass to give the ball back to the Warriors with 1:26 left. With 1:08 left, Barry put up a jumper and missed, and Hayes hit a wide-open Gibbs with an outlet pass, but Gibbs blew the layup. The Warriors turned the ball over on a 24-second violation with 33 seconds left, but the Bullets gave it back to them after a timeout when Unseld fumbled an inbounds pass into the backcourt. Beard then hit one of two, then one of three to give the Warriors their final margin.

CBS broadcast the 1975 NBA Finals in the United States, withBrent Musburger on play-by-play andOscar Robertson on color commentary. With Rick Barry playing for the Warriors in this series, the recently retired Robertson filled his spot; Barry went on to cover the next six NBA Finals, five of which while still an active player. The 1975 Finals is also the oldest NBA championship series whose TV coverage still exists in its entirety; since 1975, only the 1978 Finals, where three of the seven contests are now considered missing, is the one exception.

The Washington Bullets would re-appear in the NBA Finals in1978 and1979 against theSeattle SuperSonics, with a series win in seven games and a series loss in five games respectively.

After the upset win, the Warriors entered a massive slump, making the playoffs only ten times over the next four decades. They would not win their next championship until40 years later in2015 against theLeBron James-ledCleveland Cavaliers in six games.

• 1975 NBA playoffs
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• NBA Finals
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• 1974–75 NBA season
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