1963-64 NBA Finals

Result

Games

Finals MVP

The Finals MVP award was not introduced until 1969; no Finals MVP was named for this series.

Series context

The 1963-64 NBA Finals delivered the matchup basketball fans had been waiting for: the first-ever Finals meeting between Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain. Chamberlain's franchise, the former Philadelphia Warriors, had relocated to San Francisco before the 1962-63 season, and the newly christened San Francisco Warriors reached the Finals behind his overwhelming individual dominance, finishing the regular season 48-32. Boston went 59-21 to win the East again. The Celtics took Game 1 comfortably, 108-96, and blew the doors off in Game 2, 124-101, but the Warriors stormed back in Game 3, 115-91. Boston survived a tight Game 4, 98-95, and closed out the title in Game 5, 105-99. Chamberlain was a one-man wrecking crew statistically, leading all 1964 playoff scorers with 416 points and all rebounders with 302 boards; he posted 32 points and 25 rebounds in Game 2, 35 points in Game 3, a monstrous 27-point, 38-rebound effort in Game 4, and 30 points with 27 rebounds in the closeout Game 5. Yet Russell's Boston teammates provided enough scoring balance, and Russell's own defense and rebounding were enough to control the series outcome despite Chamberlain's statistical superiority, a pattern that would recur throughout their rivalry, with team success favoring Russell far more often than individual statistics favored Chamberlain. This was Boston's eighth consecutive Finals appearance and seventh title overall, the sixth of the franchise's eight-year championship run. It also marked the first-ever Finals meeting between the Celtics and the Warriors franchise; the two clubs would not meet again in the Finals until 2022, when the Golden State Warriors turned the tables and beat Boston in six games. Notably, the regular-season MVP that year went not to Russell or Chamberlain but to Oscar Robertson of the Cincinnati Royals, who averaged a staggering 31.4 points per game, underscoring how deep the league's individual talent pool had become even as Boston's collective excellence continued to dominate the postseason. The series was played April 18-26, 1964, and it was the first Finals appearance for the San Francisco Warriors since the franchise's move west from Philadelphia, giving Chamberlain his first crack at a title with his new club after having never won one in Philadelphia. For Boston, this was already the sixth title of what would become an eight-year championship run under Red Auerbach, a stretch of sustained dominance with few parallels in North American professional sports; Boston needed only one win on San Francisco's home floor, taking Game 4 there before wrapping up the clincher back home in Game 5. The Warriors, despite Chamberlain's brilliance, simply lacked the surrounding talent to match Boston's depth, a gap that would only widen the following year when Baylor and West's Lakers, not Chamberlain's Warriors, emerged as the West's stronger threat.

Sources

• Wikipedia - 1964 NBA Finals
• Basketball-Reference - 1964 NBA Finals