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The Pivotal Season: How the 1971--72 Los Angeles Lakers Changed the NBA
An in-depth look at the most influential Lakers championship team-the coach, the players, the season that changed the NBA.
The 1971-72 basketball season was one to go down in history. For the Los Angeles Lakers it was a season of records, an incredible championship, and many personal victories-by a team featuring several players bound for the NBA Hall of Fame. For the sport of basketball it was a season of transition, when West Coast style overcame East Coast sophistication. And for the fans, it was simply a season to remember.
Charley Rosen, one of the best sports historians in recent years, brings to life all of the memories, events, and spectacles. Featuring an iconic all-star roster that includes Wilt Chamberlain and Jerry West, The Pivotal Season is an account of some of the greatest names in the game and their contributions to one of the most remarkable seasons in history. This dramatic narrative credits the Lakers coach, Bill Sharman, who, though virtually unknown today, was the best basketball coach of his time.
Photographs and action-packed narrative portray the pivotal 1971-72 season in this memorable book of sports history, which includes a special foreword by Phil Jackson. Basketball fans will be able to relive this amazing story of despair turned to triumph, when the Los Angeles Lakers won a record thirty-three consecutive games, persevered and defeated their archrival, the New York Knicks, won the championship-and in so doing changed the sport of basketball forever.
The 1971-72 basketball season was one to go down in history. For the Los Angeles Lakers it was a season of records, an incredible championship, and many personal victories-by a team featuring several players bound for the NBA Hall of Fame. For the sport of basketball it was a season of transition, when West Coast style overcame East Coast sophistication. And for the fans, it was simply a season to remember.
Charley Rosen, one of the best sports historians in recent years, brings to life all of the memories, events, and spectacles. Featuring an iconic all-star roster that includes Wilt Chamberlain and Jerry West, The Pivotal Season is an account of some of the greatest names in the game and their contributions to one of the most remarkable seasons in history. This dramatic narrative credits the Lakers coach, Bill Sharman, who, though virtually unknown today, was the best basketball coach of his time.
Photographs and action-packed narrative portray the pivotal 1971-72 season in this memorable book of sports history, which includes a special foreword by Phil Jackson. Basketball fans will be able to relive this amazing story of despair turned to triumph, when the Los Angeles Lakers won a record thirty-three consecutive games, persevered and defeated their archrival, the New York Knicks, won the championship-and in so doing changed the sport of basketball forever.
- GenresBasketball
304 pages, Hardcover
First published February 1, 2005
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About the author
Charley Rosen
32 books8 followersCharles Elliot Rosen is an American author and former basketball player and basketball coach. Rosen has been selected for induction into the NYC Basketball Hall of Fame with the Class of 2024.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 6, 2013
This is a story that needs to be told, as this fabulous team is not given enough credit since their single-season victory record has been eclipsed. Unfortunately, the wrong guy is telling it.
Charley Rosen, is simply not a good writer. I had never heard of him until I read this book. Since then, I have read some of his articles on Fox Sports website, and I am more convinced that he is a lazy sportswriter, who won't look up facts and lets no truth stand in the way of his spreading his pompous erroneous ideas. No factoid is too big to ignore nor any truth too difficult to discard in his attempts to spread venom.
It is obvious quickly that Rosen is no fan of Wilt Chamberlain and worships Jerry West and Bill Sharman. Don't get me wrong, Wilt had his faults, and West was phenomenal, and Sharman should be in the hall of fame for his coaching, but I will present four passages to prove how much of a vendetta Rosen has:
Page 14 :
"Indeed, the Lakers were in firm control of the game when Chamberlain committed his fifth personal foul late in the third quarter. Coach Butch van Breda Kolff immediately sent Mel Counts, a lanky seven foot jump shooter, in for Chamberlain.
Unfortunately, one of Chamberlain's most cherished personal records was his never having fouled out of a game. So when van Breda Kolff called for Chamberlain to reenter the fray midway through the fourth quarter, the big man refused, mumbling something about an aching knee. Infuriated by Wilt's monumental selfishness, van Breda Kolff vowed to keep Chamberlain on the bench and win the game, and the championship, with Counts.
As the game raced toward the wire with the Celtics relentlessly eating into the Lakers' lead, Chamberlain approached his coach and asked to return to the action. But the always stubborn van Breda Kolff refused, and Chamberlain sat on the bench for the duration."
Now, let's analyze the outright falsehoods of this passage:
#1) Wilt did not leave the game in the 3rd, but rather, there was 5:13 left in the 4th quarter.
#2) The Lakers were not "in firm control of the game" when Chamberlain left. They were down by 9 points.
#3 & 4) Wilt did not leave because he picked up his 5th foul, nor did he refuse to reenter the game when asked. He left because he went up for a rebound and when he came down, he banged his knee. After hobbling around on the court, he went to the bench to get topical spray applied. Wilt said, "They helped me off the court, and i just needed a breather for a second. Butch put in Mel Coutns for me, but after a minute I said I was ready to come back in. Butch ignored me." Van Breda Kolff even said, "Wilt was hurting and you could see him limping. I put in Counts, he hit a couple of shots and we made the comeback...Wilt told me that he was okay, but I said we'd keep things as they were. He told me a second time he wanted to go back in, but I told Wilt the truth. I said, 'We're playing better without you.' Earl Strom, who officiated the game, said, "In a sense, I respect Butch for making one of the dumbest moves any coach has ever made. You just don't try to win a title with Mel Counts when you have Wilt Chamberlain, but...He always was his own man and he would coach his own way." [All quotes taken from Tall Tales, by Terry Pluto.] For the record, Chamberlain played 43 minutes, and shot 7-for-8, scoring 18 points and pulling down 21 rebounds. Counts was 4-for-13 shooting with 5 rebounds.
#5) The Celtics did not relentlessly eat into the Lakers lead with Chamberlain on the bench, rather, L.A. cut Boston's lead to 1 point.
There - five outright errors in one short passage. This is not obscure information. This can be found in many different books and articles. Rosen decided research was not needed, since he found his own brand of fiction is more entertaining, at least to himself.
Here is Rosen's account of the legendary "Willis Reed" game 7 in 1970: "Chamberlain, clearly intimidated by Reed's dramatic display of courage, was rendered passive and impotent." (p.15) Reed had 4 points and 2 rebounds. Chamberlain had 21 points and 24 rebounds. The Knicks' Walt Frazier, a guard mind you, had 39 points and 19 assists. Either West got burned or his coach lacked the faith in him to defend the hot hand. Do you see this mentioned? No. What Rosen also neglected to mention was that when Reed went down in game 5, the Knicks collapsed on Chamberlain and Rosen's idol Jerry West took only 2 shots the 2nd half, missing both, while the Lakers committed 30 turnovers, trying to force the ball into Wilt, rather than taking the open shot.
In another passage (p. 116), Rosen says after the 1970 finals, Chamberlain and Bill Russell never spoke again. Rosen obviously missed the Bob Costas interview with the 2 of them at the 1997 All-Star game, in which Russell made a public apology, and he must have missed the 1999 (2nd) retiring of Russell's number, in which Wilt was invited and attended, despite being in bad health, 5 months away from his death.
In another passage (p.136), Rosen is writing of Coach Sharman's ponderings about his player's ability to handle the pressure of winning the title. He writes, "West would probably be pressure proof...that left El Foldo (Chamberlain) himself.
Let's analyze this joke:
#1) Number of Championships at that point in time: Chamberlain 1, West 0.
#2) West had lost in the finals in 1962, 63, 65, 66, 68, 69, and 70, 4 times losing in game 7. West never defeated Russell in the post-season. Chamberlain had (1967).
#3) West's only championship came after Chamberlain joined the team.
#4) In the 1972 post-season, West went cold in the conference finals against Milwaukee and in the finals against the Knicks. In the Milwaukee series, West shot 31-for-101 in 4 of the games. In the Finals, West shot 38-for-117, while "El Foldo", the Finals' MVP, averaged 21.6 ppg and 23.2 rpg, playing with a broken arm in a soft cast.
Furthermore, Rosen writes a chapter where he introduces each of the players, and when you read it, you can sense he really loves white basketball players, while taking digs at black players, with the exception being Columbia educated Jim McMillan. He also takes digs at Kareem Abdul-Jabbar throughout the story, while he loves the Knicks, namely Jerry Lucas, Dave DeBuscchere, and his buddy Phil Jackson (whom he co-wrote a book about).
The story of the Lakers is an interesting story, but with so much romanticized fiction tossed in, it detracts from the story and makes you wonder how much is true and how much is made up. The worst part, is it's a darned shame because so few books are written about this team, unlike, say, the 1970 Knicks.
Charley Rosen, is simply not a good writer. I had never heard of him until I read this book. Since then, I have read some of his articles on Fox Sports website, and I am more convinced that he is a lazy sportswriter, who won't look up facts and lets no truth stand in the way of his spreading his pompous erroneous ideas. No factoid is too big to ignore nor any truth too difficult to discard in his attempts to spread venom.
It is obvious quickly that Rosen is no fan of Wilt Chamberlain and worships Jerry West and Bill Sharman. Don't get me wrong, Wilt had his faults, and West was phenomenal, and Sharman should be in the hall of fame for his coaching, but I will present four passages to prove how much of a vendetta Rosen has:
Page 14 :
"Indeed, the Lakers were in firm control of the game when Chamberlain committed his fifth personal foul late in the third quarter. Coach Butch van Breda Kolff immediately sent Mel Counts, a lanky seven foot jump shooter, in for Chamberlain.
Unfortunately, one of Chamberlain's most cherished personal records was his never having fouled out of a game. So when van Breda Kolff called for Chamberlain to reenter the fray midway through the fourth quarter, the big man refused, mumbling something about an aching knee. Infuriated by Wilt's monumental selfishness, van Breda Kolff vowed to keep Chamberlain on the bench and win the game, and the championship, with Counts.
As the game raced toward the wire with the Celtics relentlessly eating into the Lakers' lead, Chamberlain approached his coach and asked to return to the action. But the always stubborn van Breda Kolff refused, and Chamberlain sat on the bench for the duration."
Now, let's analyze the outright falsehoods of this passage:
#1) Wilt did not leave the game in the 3rd, but rather, there was 5:13 left in the 4th quarter.
#2) The Lakers were not "in firm control of the game" when Chamberlain left. They were down by 9 points.
#3 & 4) Wilt did not leave because he picked up his 5th foul, nor did he refuse to reenter the game when asked. He left because he went up for a rebound and when he came down, he banged his knee. After hobbling around on the court, he went to the bench to get topical spray applied. Wilt said, "They helped me off the court, and i just needed a breather for a second. Butch put in Mel Coutns for me, but after a minute I said I was ready to come back in. Butch ignored me." Van Breda Kolff even said, "Wilt was hurting and you could see him limping. I put in Counts, he hit a couple of shots and we made the comeback...Wilt told me that he was okay, but I said we'd keep things as they were. He told me a second time he wanted to go back in, but I told Wilt the truth. I said, 'We're playing better without you.' Earl Strom, who officiated the game, said, "In a sense, I respect Butch for making one of the dumbest moves any coach has ever made. You just don't try to win a title with Mel Counts when you have Wilt Chamberlain, but...He always was his own man and he would coach his own way." [All quotes taken from Tall Tales, by Terry Pluto.] For the record, Chamberlain played 43 minutes, and shot 7-for-8, scoring 18 points and pulling down 21 rebounds. Counts was 4-for-13 shooting with 5 rebounds.
#5) The Celtics did not relentlessly eat into the Lakers lead with Chamberlain on the bench, rather, L.A. cut Boston's lead to 1 point.
There - five outright errors in one short passage. This is not obscure information. This can be found in many different books and articles. Rosen decided research was not needed, since he found his own brand of fiction is more entertaining, at least to himself.
Here is Rosen's account of the legendary "Willis Reed" game 7 in 1970: "Chamberlain, clearly intimidated by Reed's dramatic display of courage, was rendered passive and impotent." (p.15) Reed had 4 points and 2 rebounds. Chamberlain had 21 points and 24 rebounds. The Knicks' Walt Frazier, a guard mind you, had 39 points and 19 assists. Either West got burned or his coach lacked the faith in him to defend the hot hand. Do you see this mentioned? No. What Rosen also neglected to mention was that when Reed went down in game 5, the Knicks collapsed on Chamberlain and Rosen's idol Jerry West took only 2 shots the 2nd half, missing both, while the Lakers committed 30 turnovers, trying to force the ball into Wilt, rather than taking the open shot.
In another passage (p. 116), Rosen says after the 1970 finals, Chamberlain and Bill Russell never spoke again. Rosen obviously missed the Bob Costas interview with the 2 of them at the 1997 All-Star game, in which Russell made a public apology, and he must have missed the 1999 (2nd) retiring of Russell's number, in which Wilt was invited and attended, despite being in bad health, 5 months away from his death.
In another passage (p.136), Rosen is writing of Coach Sharman's ponderings about his player's ability to handle the pressure of winning the title. He writes, "West would probably be pressure proof...that left El Foldo (Chamberlain) himself.
Let's analyze this joke:
#1) Number of Championships at that point in time: Chamberlain 1, West 0.
#2) West had lost in the finals in 1962, 63, 65, 66, 68, 69, and 70, 4 times losing in game 7. West never defeated Russell in the post-season. Chamberlain had (1967).
#3) West's only championship came after Chamberlain joined the team.
#4) In the 1972 post-season, West went cold in the conference finals against Milwaukee and in the finals against the Knicks. In the Milwaukee series, West shot 31-for-101 in 4 of the games. In the Finals, West shot 38-for-117, while "El Foldo", the Finals' MVP, averaged 21.6 ppg and 23.2 rpg, playing with a broken arm in a soft cast.
Furthermore, Rosen writes a chapter where he introduces each of the players, and when you read it, you can sense he really loves white basketball players, while taking digs at black players, with the exception being Columbia educated Jim McMillan. He also takes digs at Kareem Abdul-Jabbar throughout the story, while he loves the Knicks, namely Jerry Lucas, Dave DeBuscchere, and his buddy Phil Jackson (whom he co-wrote a book about).
The story of the Lakers is an interesting story, but with so much romanticized fiction tossed in, it detracts from the story and makes you wonder how much is true and how much is made up. The worst part, is it's a darned shame because so few books are written about this team, unlike, say, the 1970 Knicks.
January 16, 2021
Charley Rosen provides a game-by-game account of the Los Angeles Lakers 1971-72 NBA championship season. As a boy I remember watching them play and I idolized the stars on that team: Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West and Gail Goodrich. So I enjoyed reliving the past by reading this book. Rosen does a good job of interspersing stories on the players and their personalities in with summaries of the games. The ‘71-‘72 Lakers team won 33 consecutive games, which Rosen believes is a streak, like DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak, that will never be broken. In reading this book it’s remarkable how this team was the blueprint for the “Showtime” Lakers of the ‘80’s. My only criticism is that it would have been nice to have had the box scores of each game included with the summaries of each contest. Overall I really enjoyed this book and it is a quick read.
February 18, 2015
The topic was fascinating. Unfortunately, Rosen takes a few liberties with memory of the team. West is presented as near God-like, Coach Sharman is a miracle worker, Elgin's a terror, and Wilt is smelly and easily manipulated by Swami Sharman. Despite the obvious bias, there are some terrific stories here.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews