1974-75 NBA Finals

Result

Games

Finals MVP

Rick Barry. Barry was named Finals MVP for the champion Warriors, averaging around 30 points per game across the sweep.

Series context

The 1974-75 Finals is remembered as one of the greatest upsets in NBA history. The Washington Bullets (recently renamed from the Capital Bullets, itself the renamed Baltimore Bullets franchise) entered as heavy favorites, having posted the league's best regular-season record behind Elvin Hayes and Wes Unseld under coach K.C. Jones. The Golden State Warriors, led by star forward Rick Barry and coached by Al Attles, had a strong season of their own but were widely expected to lose to the more physically imposing Bullets. Instead, Golden State swept the series 4-0. In Game 1 at Washington, the Bullets led by 14 at halftime, but the Warriors stormed back behind big bench scoring to steal the opener, 101-95. Game 2 at the Cow Palace was even tighter: despite an early Washington lead, Barry's 36 points carried Golden State to a one-point, 92-91 win. Game 3 saw Barry score 38 as Golden State's bench outplayed Washington's reserves, resulting in a 109-101 win. Game 4, back in Washington, was the closest call: the Bullets led for most of the game and were up late, but the Warriors rallied, and after coach Attles was ejected for arguing a call, Golden State's bench players delivered the clutch plays needed to close out a 96-95 win and complete the sweep. This series marked the first Finals sweep by a team lacking home-court advantage, underscoring just how unexpected the outcome was. It was also historically significant off the court: it was the first NBA Finals in which both head coaches, Attles for Golden State and Jones for Washington, were Black, reflecting a broader shift in coaching opportunities across the league during this era. Barry's all-around scoring and playmaking cemented his status as one of the sport's premier forwards, while for Washington the loss began a pattern of Finals heartbreak that the franchise would not erase until 1978. The series is frequently cited alongside other historic upsets as a reminder that regular-season dominance does not guarantee postseason success. Washington had finished the regular season 60-22, then needed seven games to get past Buffalo in the first round before defeating the defending-champion Boston Celtics in six games in the Eastern Conference Finals, a result that made the Bullets' subsequent Finals collapse all the more stunning. Golden State went 48-34 in the regular season and reached the Finals by beating Seattle in six games and then Chicago in a full seven-game Western Conference Finals. Golden State's bench play was a decisive factor throughout: Warriors reserves outscored Washington's bench 115-53 across the first three games alone, a gap that repeatedly turned close contests in Golden State's favor. Barry, who averaged roughly 35 points per game for the series, was named Finals MVP. Attendance reflected the mismatch in market size and the unexpected nature of the series: crowds ran to about 19,000 at Washington's Capital Centre for Games 1 and 4, compared with roughly 13,200 at Golden State's Cow Palace for Games 2 and 3. The Attles-Jones matchup as the first all-Black head-coaching pairing in a major U.S. professional sports championship would not be repeated in another major American league until Super Bowl XLI in 2007, when Tony Dungy and Lovie Smith met as opposing NFL head coaches, underscoring how far ahead of its time the 1975 Finals was on that front.

Sources

• Wikipedia - 1975 NBA Finals
• Basketball-Reference - Finals MVP Award
• Basketball-Reference - 1975 NBA Finals