LEAD: Don Nelson, the Milwaukee Bucks' coach, described today's 3-hour-7-minute double overtime game against the Celtics as ''a big one for the stars and the average players.''
This article brought back so many memories.
I was born in 1977 and I became aware of the NBA sometime in the mid-80′s. I definitely remember bits and pieces like the Memorial Day Massacre of 1985 and Ralph Sampson crushing my dreams of Lakers back-to-back Championships in 1986 (I, like many of the youths, started off by bandwagon-hopping a team that I found cool, and in the mid-80′s that was most definitely the Lakers), but I think that the 1987 season was when I really began to retain what I was seeing.
I wasn’t a big Bucks fan during the 1987 season (I adopted the Bucks during the 1991 season after attending that incredible game vs. the Blazers on December 30, 1990), but I definitely hated the Celtics. And as was custom during the mid-80′s, the Bucks met the Celtics in the Playoffs.
I don’t remember most of the Bucks vs. Celtics game on May 10, 1987, but I remember a few things. I remember John Lucas playing great, but missing a shot that could have won it in OT. I remember Larry Bird being unstoppable. And I remember feeling that, with a 3-1 deficit in the series, it was over. (Of course, twenty seven years later my favorite hockey team, the LA Kings, would come back down 0-3 in a Playoff series where I never for a second doubted that the Kings could do it. Age wisens a person.)
The article above is also notable for revealing the Don Nelson-Herb Kohl feud to a wider audience. What a shame that was, in hindsight. Nelly is the best coach the Bucks ever had and it would have been great for him to coach another twenty or so years in Milwaukee. I am sure he would’ve had success, and kept the Bucks from being the laughingstock they became.