1980 NBA Finals

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The 1980 NBA Finals was the championship round of the 1979-80 NBA season.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was the most valuable player on the Los Angeles Lakers team -- indeed he was named MVP of the entire NBA that year. But in a Game 5 victory, the Laker center suffered a severely sprained ankle. Proud to lead the best-of-seven series three-games-to-two, the Lakers still had to travel to Philadelphia for a huge Game 6 -- without Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Enter Magic Johnson, whose may have played the greatest game of his career. On May 16, 1980, in Game 6 of the NBA Finals, playing on the road, in Philadelphia, Magic (a 6'9" point guard) started the game at center and eventually played every position on the floor in a dominating performance. Scoring a game-high 42 points and grabbing a game-high 15 rebounds -- and handing out 7 assists -- Magic Johnson led the Lakers to the NBA crown, stunning Julius Erving, the Philadelphia 76ers, and a national television audience who came to understand the moniker "Magic."

Magic Johnson was named the 1980 NBA Finals Most Valuable Player. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, though he appreciated Magic Johnson's play as much as anyone, expressed disappointment that he, Kareem, had not received the Finals MVP award.

What made Magic Johnson's performance even more remarkable was that he was an NBA rookie -- and, indeed, one who had left college after only two years. Thus, he was only 20 years old.

On a side note, here, in Game 4 of the 1980 Finals, Julius Erving executed the legendary Baseline Move, an incredible, behind-the-board reverse layup that seemed to defy gravity. Play-by-play announcer Bob Costas has noted that Erving made such moves almost routinely in his ABA days -- but the ABA had no national TV contract in those days. This Game 4 move, played to a national audience in a title game, has probably become Julius Erving's most famous move.

Los Angeles 4, Philadelphia 2

Game	Date	Home Team	Result	Road Team
Game 1	May 4	Los Angeles	109-102	Philadelphia
Game 2	May 7	Los Angeles	104-107	Philadelphia
Game 3	May 10	Philadelphia	101-111	Los Angeles
Game 4	May 11	Philadelphia	105-102	Los Angeles'
Game 5	May 14	Los Angeles	108-103	Philadelphia
Game 6	May 16	Philadelphia	107-123	Los Angeles