Breakthrough Performance

The story of the 1978 Washington Bullets is not a legend of superheroes assembling to form a super team, though there are giants, heroic efforts and championship results.

Rather, this is a tale of resilience of a 1970s franchise continually pushing its team toward greater heights, ultimately taking Washington to a League-best 55 playoff victories during the decade, four Finals appearances and one very special NBA championship.

Led by longtime staples Wes Unseld, Elvin Hayes and Phil Chenier—teammates whose time together dated back to the 1972-73 season when they were the Baltimore Bullets— these 1970s Washington Bullets squads came to symbolize strength and toughness in a decade taken over by flash and flamboyance.

Remember, this was a time following the ABA’s red-whiteand-blue basketball and the NBA’s absorption of four ABA teams thereafter; the time of Dr. J and Iceman joining Kareem and Walton; a time when basketball coaches dressed like they were John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever in styles later emulated by the late, great Craig Sager.

From this setting came forth a cast of DC superheroes cut from blue-collar cloth: Unseld was the anchor—a future Hall of Famer who stood tall among centers, despite his 6-7, 245-pound undersized-for-a-center frame. Ever since Unseld was selected as the No. 2 pick in the 1968 NBA Draft, he was the defensive and rebounding force who eventually led the Baltimore Bullets to the 1971 Finals, where they ultimately were swept by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Oscar Robertson, Bobby Dandridge and the Milwaukee Bucks.

Hayes and Chenier were the 20-plus points-per-game scoring engines—one, a future Hall-of-Fame power forward acquired via trade in 1972; the other, a homegrown All-Star scoring guard drafted by this organization in 1971.

Together as a trio, Unseld, Hayes and Chenier would take these Washington Bullets to the 1975 Finals, where they were swept again, this time by Rick Barry and the Golden State Warriors.

Try as they might, the 1970s Bullets still were missing something to get over that championship hump. And in summer 1977, executive Bob Ferry reached out to Bucks veteran Dandridge to secure the missing cornerstone piece to their puzzle. Today, we would call this merger a super team. But back then, the defending NBA Champion Portland Trail Blazers, led by the flamboyant Bill Walton, and defending East champion Philadelphia 76ers, led by the flashy Julius Erving, were the consensus favorites to win multiple championship trophies for the foreseeable future. Washington was perceived to be on the next tier. “The Bullets were a good team before I got there,” says Dandridge, who ranks second in playoff scoring during the ’70s with 1,967 points in 98 games, trailing only former teammate Abdul-Jabbar. “Washington just needed another go-to scorer and that’s what I gave them.”

As for the notion that Dandridge, Unseld, Hayes and Chenier strategically formed a super team alliance along the likes of today’s standards, the 6-7 small forward simply replied, “Not really.”

Remember, it was a different time then.

“I mainly chose Washington because it was close to home, close to Virginia for me,” says Dandridge, a key figure on four different Finals teams in Milwaukee and Washington.

“Wherever I went, I would have been a complementary scorer competing for a championship, whether it was Washington, New York, Philadelphia or Boston.”

But as a Bullet, Dandridge now gave Washington the League’s best frontline, while he played alongside 12-time All-Star Hayes and five-time All-Star Unseld.

As for Chenier, his 1977-78 campaign was cut short, when the three-time NBA All-Star suffered a career-altering back injury requiring surgery halfway through the season.

In his stead, third-year Bullets backup guard Kevin Grevey stepped up and filled the void as well as possible, elevating his own scoring from 12 points per game before the All-Star break to 20 points per game after it.

Keeping his high-profile teammates happy was 6-3 point guard Tom Henderson, a member of the USA Basketball squad at the 1972 Olympics.

Henderson, his Bullets bench backcourt mates (Charles Johnson, Larry Wright and Phil Walker) and bigs (Mitch Kupchak, Greg Ballard and Joe Pace) came to symbolize the complementary selfless spirit set forth by their team leader Unseld. They all did whatever it took to win. Hayes, Dandridge and Grevey handled most of the scoring, consistently posting 60-65 points between them, while the Washington role players—all acquired in either the 1976-77 or 1977-78 seasons—did the dirty work.

“We had veteran starters blended with youth,” says Dandridge.

With this squadron of selfless players, head coach Dick Motta maximized his Bullets’ defensive and rebounding abilities, taking a team that finished 44-38 in the regular season to even greater postseason heights.

That was best evidenced in the 1978 East Finals when the Bullets started peaking defensively, holding the 76ers well under their customary 115-point average in Games 2 through 6, to 110, 108, 105, 107 and 99 points, respectively.

Meanwhile, the SuperSonics, coming off a 47-35 season themselves, likewise threw a surprising knockout punch at defending champion Portland in the Semifinals when Seattle defeated the Trail Blazers on their own floor in Game 1, 104-95, and then saw the Trail Blazers’ giant, Walton, felled by injury in Game 2.

In retrospect, we should have seen the Portland upset coming, perhaps even without Walton.

After all, these SuperSonics, who were coming off a horrible 5-17 start under head coach Bob Hopkins, had a massive turnaround once they replaced Hopkins with Lenny Wilkens, the club’s director of player personnel, at the end of November 1977.

Wilkens, in his second stint leading the Sonics (he had been player-coach from 1969 to 1972), was guiding a young roster that he had helped construct. He immediately gave Dennis Johnson more playing time, and then turned attention back to the big men once the organization traded guard Slick Watts to New Orleans in January 1978.

When all was said and done, one could make an argument that Wilkens still had the best backcourt in basketball—led by D.J., Gus Williams and Fred Brown—along with one of the best frontlines—led by Marvin Webster, Jack Sikma, John Johnson and Paul Silas.

It was part of the reason why Seattle won 70 percent of its games from that point on, going 42-18.

This backdrop sets up one of the most competitive Finals in playoffs history, with Game 1 at the Seattle Center Coliseum being a prelude of things to come.

It was also an opportunity Hayes vowed to himself that he would not let slip away, not after suffering loss in the 1975 Finals.

“There hadn’t been a lot of teams that had won an NBA Championship at that time,” recalled Hayes at a 35th anniversary press conference with Unseld, celebrating the 1978 championship five years ago. In actuality, only 9 of the League’s 22 organizations at the time had won an NBA Championship.

“You’re talking about the Celtics, the Lakers, the 76ers … I could tell you almost every team,” says Hayes. “So now when you have a chance to be part of a championship team, you have to realize that’s something that sets you apart from every other team. That‘s something no one can ever take away from you.”

In the opener, the Bullets came out swinging like a team playing with a sense of urgency, establishing a 31-25 edge after one quarter, a 58-49 margin at halftime and an 84-65 lead with 2:12 left in the third quarter.

But “Downtown” Freddie Brown had something else in mind, scoring 16 points in the game’s final 9 minutes, keeping every Bullets defender on his heels.

Meanwhile, with Seattle defensive stalwart Silas containing Bullets leading scorer Hayes, who finished with 21 points on 18 shots, the rest of Washington’s frontliners were unable to fill their customary scoring output, with Dandridge posting a playoff-low 6 points on 3-of-12 shooting, and Unseld tallying 10 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists.

Only Grevey played free throughout Game 1 for Washington, ultimately finishing with 27 points, with many of his buckets coming on an assortment of jumpers and drives in that fourth period.

Still, that was not enough for Washington, as Seattle scored 33 final-period points—to the Bullets’ 18—ultimately taking a 106-102 victory and 1-0 series lead.

Game 2 took on a different setting, mainly because of building scheduling conflicts. The home-away-home schedule setup was changed to a 1-2-2-1-1 format to accommodate the Seattle and Washington home arenas (Game 4 was played at the Kingdome in Seattle due to scheduling conflicts at their primary arena, the Seattle Center Coliseum), which meant Game 1 was in Seattle, as were Games 4 and 5, and when necessary, Game 7.

Consequently, the Bullets’ home cooking in Game 2 at Landover, Maryland, could not have come at a better time. In their Capital Centre arena, Washington’s Unseld, Dandridge and Company stormed to a 29-16 first-quarter front, as Unseld put the defensive clamps on Webster this time.

On offense, Big Wes set the bone-crushing perimeter picks that freed up Dandridge, Hayes and Henderson to score at will, with the trio respectively finishing with 34, 25 and 20 points apiece.

As Motta himself described to NBA.com years later: “That was our game—Hayes and Dandridge going off tackle.”

But Seattle did not quit, eventually cutting the Bullets’ lead to four points at halftime.

Unseld later would take even greater leadership charge once Hayes picked up his fifth foul in the second half, inspiring the Bullets’ backup bigs on both ends of the court, enabling Washington to hold big-man counterparts Webster and Jack Sikma to a combined 22 points on 8-of-23 shooting in 77 minutes.

Indeed, Washington controlled the paint in Game 2, eventually winning the game 106-98, and tying the series at 1-1.

Unseld finished with 2 points, 15 rebounds, 5 assists and 3 steals in probably the most dominating one-bucket performance in Finals history.

With Hayes out, Unseld made for damn sure they were not about to go through another sweep.

“We had been to the Finals before—Wes had been there twice and I had been there once,” recalled Hayes at the press conference. “We got beat in four in a row both times. We experienced that before. “ It wasn’t happening again. The follow-up Game 3 was a classic Sonics-Bullets tug of war with Silas and Dennis Johnson supplying their SuperSonics brand of All-Defense basketball, with Silas already a five-time honoree and D.J. later becoming a nine-time All-D award-winner.

Washington’s Game 1 high-scorer Grevey was held in check this time on 1-of-14 shooting, with D.J. racking 7 blocked shots in the process.

Meanwhile, Silas came off the bench to tally 10 points on 4 shots and 14 rebounds in 32 minutes, outperforming Washington’s bench (14 points on 23 shots and 6 rebounds in 48 minutes) by himself.

There is just nothing like it. All those years, where everything inside of you was compressed down, now all of a sudden, it was let loose and gone. —Elvin Hayes

For every jab Washington landed, Seattle countered with a counterpunch of its own, with neither team leading by more than 2 points after any of the quarters.

That theme rang true until the end, when Henderson hit Hayes for a transition layup off a made free throw with 12 seconds to go, narrowing the SuperSonics’ lead to 93-90.

There, after a couple of Seattle errant inbounds passes that led nowhere, Washington’s Henderson this time came up with the inbounds steal and transition bucket with 5 seconds remaining, slicing Seattle’s lead to 1 point, 93-92.

Then, Silas mistakenly stepped on the line on the ensuing inbounds toss to Brown, giving the ball back to Washington, down by 1 point, with 2 seconds left on the clock.

However, on Washington’s inbound play underneath its own basket, Henderson passed to Dandridge, who shot a 20-footer from the baseline that rimmed out as the clock struck zero, giving Seattle the win and 2-1 series lead.

The Bullets’ last-second loss set up a pivotal Game 4 for them at Seattle’s Kingdome in front of a record-setting crowd of 39,457.

Indeed, the series was now in danger of slipping away from Washington, with another loss potentially putting the Bullets down, 3-1, with still two more road contests at Seattle left to be played.

In Game 4, however, Motta got an impeccable performance from Henderson, who had an immaculate 11-assist, 1-turnover stat line while Washington committed only 12 turnovers as a team in this raucous environment.

Better still, all Bullets were equally involved in the offense, with Dandridge and Hayes leading the way at 23 and 20 points, respectively, while their team scoring was further fortified by Grevey’s 17 points, Unseld’s 15, Henderson’s 12, not to mention Charles Johnson’s 14 and Kupchak’s 12 off the bench.

Even when the starters or subs were playing subpar, they never dug themselves too big a hole, which theoretically kept the Bullets in contention in every game.

Likewise, the quarterly-distribution of scoring was somewhat even-keeled as well (23, 25 and 30 points), but low in comparison to Seattle in this particular Game 4, who led by as much as 15 points, 85-70, with 2 minutes to go in the third quarter.

That was precisely when Washington’s Henderson plowed into Seattle’s Johnson on a baseline drive, sending the hot SuperSonics guard to the sidelines for 6 minutes to tend to his sore ribs.

With D.J. not returning until the 7:45 mark in the fourth quarter, Washington began a 25-12 run during his absence, as they were led repeatedly by hustle plays and clutch baskets from Hayes, Kupchak, Dandridge and Johnson and Henderson, among others.

From there, upon Dennis Johnson’s return, the game’s high scorers—D.J. (33 points, 7 rebounds and 3 blocks) and Dandridge (23 points, 5 rebounds and 7 assists) were among the Sonics and Bullets exchanging buckets in regulation that ultimately sent the game into overtime, with the game tied, 106-106.

Then in overtime, it was a different Johnson taking over, as Bullets midseason acquisition Charles Johnson scored three quick buckets in the team’s biggest game yet, sparking the eventual 120-116 Washington victory to tie the series at 2-2.

“We had a team,” says Dandridge. “Elvin could score with anyone and Wes was a great defender and rebounder, but we wouldn’t have won the championship without the

At no time did I know for sure that we were the better team until I dunked that ball at the very end of Game 7. It was only then that I knew we were NBA champions. —Bobby Dandridge

bench that we had.

“Every game we’d have three or four players off the bench who made big contributions. It was just a unique combination of players.”

In Game 5, the SuperSonics again played host, but now they were back in their usual 14,098-seat Seattle Coliseum.

Downtown Brown, who remained hot no matter the venue, scored a game-high 26 points, while D.J. complemented with another 24, as the SuperSonics did a much better job of not letting the Bullets steal another one.

Armed with a 52-41 lead, Seattle was better equipped to hold off these Bullets, who once again made their customary second-half run, winning the third-quarter, 26-24, and fourth-quarter, 27-22.

This time, however, Seattle closed the game out when Washington cut the SuperSonics’ lead to 4 points with less than 2 minutes remaining.

Sikma made three crucial free throws down the stretch, keeping the Bullets at bay, thus ensuring a 98-94 Seattle win as the SuperSonics went up 3-2.

The Game 6 contest back in Landover was the aberration of the series, with the Bullets winning convincingly, 117-82, which in part was sparked when Washington’s Grevey collided with teammates Hayes and opponent D.J. on a screen attempt halfway through the first quarter, aggravating a sprainedwrist injury he was playing through.

The injured Grevey would not play again in Game 6, and would be limited to playing only 10 minutes in Game 7.

Consequently, Motta made two crucial in-game adjustments that paid dividends in both Games 6 and 7. Motta increased combo guard Charles Johnson’s playing time from 20 to 29 minutes per game in the last two contests, while also raising forward Ballard from 5 to 22 minutes per game to fill the Grevey void.

Then, when Ballard played, Motta moved small forward Dandridge to Grevey’s shooting guard spot, and inserted Ballard into Dandridge’s small forward slot.

The move worked wonders as these new-look Bullets proceeded to blow out the SuperSonics like never before, which started with them taking a 47-35 halftime lead in Game 6.

It was as if Seattle was facing a new-look Bullets squad now, with Dandridge successfully defending the Seattle guards, just as he had done against top-notch scorers Julius Erving of Philadelphia and George Gervin of San Antonio in earlier playoff rounds.

On top of being the Bullets’ defensive stopper all season long, Dandridge was also delivering as his team’s offensive go-to guy.

“He was just great,” says Unseld at the aforementioned press conference. “I told people, whoever would listen, there was nobody I would rather see with the ball in a crucial situation than Bobby D.”

As the second half began, that Bullet train quickly got loose on the Seattle D, and it was soon all downhill from there with Washington eventually scoring 70 second-half points.

Dandridge, Hayes, you name it … The scoring was coming from everywhere, with Washington extending its lead, 84-61, after three quarters, ultimately taking Game 6 by an NBA-record 35 points.

Not only did six different Bullets score in double figures, led by starters Hayes (21 points, 15 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals and 5 blocks) and Dandridge (19 points), but four did so off the bench: Kupchak, 19 points; Johnson, 17 points and 9 rebounds; Ballard, 12 points, 12 rebounds, and 6 assists; Larry Wright, 10 points.

This was all the momentum Washington needed to set up a winner-take-all Game 7 in Seattle, in this back-and-forth series that now appeared to be swinging Washington’s way.

Combine that with playoff experience, and it would give Washington the added confidence it needed to take on this younger Seattle team on their home floor in front of their home crowd.

Washington’s longtime playoff veterans—Hayes, Unseld, Dandridge, Charles Johnson, even the injured Phil Chenier— all had been through thousands of postseason minutes, some together in Washington and some elsewhere.

Some knew how much it hurt to be eliminated in a Finals, and some also knew what it took to win the big playoff games.

Conversely, the only SuperSonic whose playoffs résumé even compared was Silas, who was the only Seattle player entering the Finals with 1,000-plus playoff minutes, compared to five Bullets (Unseld, Hayes, Dandridge, Charles Johnson and the injured Chenier).

So it was no surprise when Washington again took the early lead in Game 7 and maintained it throughout, pushing a 25-22 first-quarter advantage to a 53-45 halftime edge and a 79-66 third-quarter margin.

Surprisingly, the usually stellar SuperSonics guards—D.J. and Gus Williams—could not buy a basket in this series clincher.

D.J. would finish with 4 points, uncharacteristically missing all 14 of his field goal attempts, while Williams was not much better, going 4-for-12 from the field to finish with 12 points.

Centers Webster and Sikma and backup guard Brown kept Seattle alive as long as they could, ultimately finishing with 27, 21 and 21 points, respectively, while Webster and Sikma also combined on 18 offensive boards to give the SuperSonics more second chances than a cat with nine lives.

And as those boards added up, that was just the opportunity Seattle needed to cut an 11-point deficit to a 6-point margin, 101-95, in the closing minute.

On Seattle’s next possessions, Brown split a double-team and hit a 12-foot bank shot off the glass with 42 seconds left, cutting the Bullets’ lead to 4.

After Unseld was intentionally fouled and missed his two free throw attempts with 26 seconds left, Brown took the pass following a halfcourt inbounds play and rimmed out a 20-foot jumper, only to see SuperSonics teammate Silas follow up with a putback with 18 seconds remaining, narrowing Washington’s lead, 101-99.

Again, the SuperSonics intentionally fouled Unseld, a 54-percent free throw shooter, but by fouling the Bullets center in the backcourt, Unseld was allowed three free throws to make two shots (an NBA rule at the time).

Unseld, missed the first attempt, made the second, and following a timeout, connected on the third to extend Washington’s lead, 103-99, with 12 seconds remaining in the game.

This time, Seattle came up empty on its possession, with Brown missing an 18-foot baseline jumper.

Unseld grabbed the ensuing rebound, and outlet passed to a fast-breaking Dandridge who two-hand jammed the game away with 3 seconds on the clock, posting the final score, 105-99. Washington wins—Game 7 and the series. “Seeing Bobby make that last dunk shot, it seemed like that clock would never run out,” says Hayes.

Six Bullets finished with double-figure scoring in that memorable Game 7, led by Dandridge and Johnson (19 points apiece), Unseld (15 points, 9 rebounds and 6 assists), Henderson (15 points), Kupchak (13 points) and Hayes (12 points before he fouled out).

“There is just nothing like it,” Hayes said at the 35th anniversary press conference. “All those years, where everything inside of you was compressed down, now all of a sudden, it was let loose and gone.”

Unseld remembers little afterward, other than just being totally exhausted from the marathon-like season, when the Bullets played 103 regular-season and postseason games, while he played 98 of those 103.

“I remember all I was thinking was, ‘I want to go back to the hotel and go to bed,’” says Unseld at the press conference. “We played close to 100 games that year, and I never realized how physically tired I was.

“My wife told me I went back to the hotel, and that was it. I don’t remember anything until the next day.”

Forty years later, however, the memories come back with the highlight reels, the anniversary tributes and the love from D.C. fans.

“That series was as competitive and intense as it gets,” says Dandridge. “Washington and Seattle were two teams that were evenly matched. The following year, Seattle beat us in the 1979 Finals, which tells you how even this series truly was.

“They were the dynamic, young, up-and-coming team, while we may have had extra incentive to win it all since we had the aging veterans who had come close on different occasions.

“At no time did I know for sure that we were the better team until I dunked that ball at the very end of Game 7. It was only then that I knew we were NBA champions.”

By Darryl Howerton