1968-69 NBA Finals

Result

Games

Finals MVP

Jerry West. West won Finals MVP while playing for the losing Los Angeles Lakers, the only time in NBA history the award has gone to a player on the losing team.

Series context

The 1968-69 NBA Finals stands as one of the most storied series in league history, both for its dramatic seven-game arc and for marking the final chapter of Bill Russell's playing career. The Celtics entered the playoffs as an aging, fourth-seeded team that many observers had written off after a rare down regular season, while the Lakers were heavily favored, having assembled a superstar trio of Jerry West, Elgin Baylor, and a newly acquired Wilt Chamberlain, obtained in a blockbuster trade before the season. Los Angeles owner Jack Kent Cooke was reportedly so confident of victory that he had celebratory plans prepared for the arena, a detail that would haunt the franchise. The series began disastrously for Boston, as the Lakers won both Game 1 (120-118) and Game 2 (118-112) at home behind West's brilliant scoring. The Celtics rallied to win Games 3 and 4 in Boston, evening the series, with Game 4 a tense 89-88 nailbiter. Los Angeles retook the lead with a Game 5 win, 117-104, but Boston forced a decisive Game 7 by winning Game 6, 99-90. In the winner-take-all finale in Los Angeles on May 5, the Celtics escaped with a narrow 108-106 victory, becoming the first team in NBA Finals history to overcome a 2-0 series deficit and win the championship. Russell, in his final game as player-coach, secured his eleventh championship in thirteen seasons, an unmatched dynastic achievement in North American professional sports. Despite the Lakers' defeat, Jerry West's extraordinary performance throughout the series, averaging close to 38 points a game along with strong rebounding and playmaking, earned him the very first Finals Most Valuable Player award, inaugurated that year. His selection remains unique in NBA history: no other player has ever won Finals MVP while on the losing side, and the trophy itself was later renamed the Bill Russell NBA Finals Most Valuable Player Award decades afterward, a bittersweet irony given that Russell's Celtics were the team that denied West the championship that season. This Finals is widely regarded as the symbolic end of the Russell-era Celtics dynasty and the beginning of a new period in league history. Boston reached the Finals despite finishing the regular season only 48-34, well behind the Lakers' 55-27 mark, having survived the Eastern playoffs by sweeping Wes Unseld and the Baltimore Bullets 4-0 before eliminating Philadelphia 4-1 in the division finals; Los Angeles, meanwhile, beat the San Francisco Warriors 4-2 and the Atlanta Hawks 4-1 to reach the championship round as heavy favorites. The Game 7 defeat was compounded for Los Angeles by a late coaching decision that has followed the franchise ever since: Chamberlain, who had left the game with a knee injury while the Lakers trailed, told coach Butch van Breda Kolff he was ready to return in the closing minutes, but van Breda Kolff refused to put him back in, reportedly telling him: "We don't need you. We're doing well enough without you." Chamberlain later called van Breda Kolff the worst coach he ever played for in his autobiography, and the coach was fired shortly after the series ended, with the decision still debated as one of the most consequential in Finals history.

Sources

• Wikipedia - 1969 NBA Finals
• Basketball-Reference - 1969 NBA Finals
• BasketballNetwork - Lakers head coach's words to Wilt Chamberlain