FIFTY YEARS AGO A LAKERS TEAM RIDDLED
WITH QUESTIONS EMBARKED ON THE LONGEST
WINNING STREAK IN MAJOR PRO SPORTSI
SCORECARDTWO MONTHS,
ZERO LOSSES
N THE summer of 1971—
in the offseason before
they would make history
with the longest winning streak
by a team in one of the four major
men’s sports, a mark that remains
unsurpassed 50 years later—the
Lakers had a lot going on.
First there was the issue of
who was in charge. Six weeks
after losing to the Bucks 4–1 in
the Western Conference finals,
Los Angeles canned coach
Joe Mullaney. “I am shocked,” said
point guard Jerry West, who was,
at the time, ranked fourth on the
NBA’s all-time scoring list—and
third among the Lakers. The two
ahead of him, Wilt Chamberlain
and Elgin Baylor, were nearing the
end of their careers and struggling
with injuries. The 37-year-old Baylor
had played only two games in
1970–71, and Chamberlain, 35, had
missed almost all of the previous
season. West was 33 and hadbeen largely healthy—until a knee
injury sidelined him for the 1971
postseason. The three had played
just 14 games together in Mullaney’s
two seasons, yet he had taken L.A.
on two strong playoff runs.
Still, the perception existed
that Mullaney was too soft on the
players. “[His] gentle, easygoing
ways—and some odd personality
quirks—made some of the players
think he was just a nice, absent-
minded old bumbler,” Chamberlain
wrote in his 1973 autobiography,
Wilt: Just Like Any Other 7-Foot Black
Millionaire Who Lives Next Door.
Enter Bill Sharman. A Hall of
Fame guard for the hated Celtics,
he also had local roots, having been
an All-American at USC. And his
coaching chops were undeniable.
He had just led the Utah Stars to
the ABA title and had taken the
San Francisco Warriors to the
1967 NBA Finals. After Mullaney’s
firing, Sharman quit the Stars, whopromptly obtained a court order to
keep him from taking another job.
The legal wrangling went on for six
weeks—Utah threatened to sue the
Lakers for $5 million—before L.A.
finally introduced him July 12.
At last the Lakers had their man,
but was he the right man? In many
ways Sharman was the opposite of
Mullaney, whose players in Utah
described him as a “cold fish,” a
“tyrant” and a “tactical psycho.”
Among Sharman’s innovations was
the shootaround, a light practice
the morning before a game. (It’s
now an NBA staple.) “When guys
doze off or mope around their room
or the lobby, they get so logy they
may not get sharp until after the
game is lost,” Sharman explained.
“What I want them to do is develop
a game-day routine.”
Chamberlain famously enjoyed
the nightlife. On those rare
occasions he was not entertaining
into the wee hours, he often had
trouble sleeping and was rarely out
of bed before the time Sharman’s
shootarounds ended.
Long before the first practice,
writers had a field day ruminating
on the compatibility of the two men,
and even Schaus got in on it. “As
[team doctor Robert Kerlan] was
telling me,” GM Fred Schaus told
the Los Angeles Times, “wait till Bill
tells Wilt about his schedule for a
10 a.m. workout, 3 p.m. meeting
and 8 p.m. tipoff....You can hear
Wilt right now saying, ‘I’ll be there,
Coach. Name one. The workout, the
meeting or the game.’ ”
Then there was Baylor. Sharman24 SPORTS ILLUSTRATED | SI.COM
HISTORY
BY MARK BECHTELHE
INZ(^) KL
UE
TM
EIE
R
STAR WAR
The game that ended the record
streak featured four legends:
Chamberlain (13), Abdul-Jabbar,
Oscar Robertson (1) and West.