October 14, 2020 • 41 mins
We talk about 'bests' all the time. But how about what was probably the worst defense in a single season in NFL history? The numbers you will hear are absolutely stunning. Almost as stunning as the fact that things got so bad for the 1981 Baltimore Colts, the owner got so fed up he went to the booth to call plays during one game. Yep. It happened. From there we jump to the NBA, where the 1981 Western Conference Finals took place between the two teams who were not only the lowest seeds in the conference, but both had losing records overall - the Kansas City Kings & Houston Rockets. The playoffs involved two huge upsets, one Magic Johnson airball, and one future Hall of Famer who, in the end, probably shouldn't have said what he did. It's Special Teams 1981: Losers, and Winning Losers.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Special Teams, a production of my Heart Radio
Greetings and Welcome inside Special Teams with Jason Smith and
Mike Harmon, a podcast in which we look back in
(00:21):
a specific year and a very special team or teams
in the world of sports and what made them stand
out in a bit of a nineteen eighties run right now,
because it's been a very popular decade for that, you've
wanted us to break down some teams and games and
things going on for so we're gonna continue that on
and take a look at what some of the worst
(00:41):
of the year one was. But here's a twist. We
have a really bad worst worst, but then we have
worst that turned out to be almost best. If that
makes sense, my Carmen, I don't know if it does,
but I think it does. Well. You know what, you've
got to talking out sometimes, you know, best laid plans,
all of those kind of things, but the the idea
being that, yeah, you sometimes you gotta hit absolute depths
(01:04):
before you know you can rise like the Phoenix at Arizona.
To steal from the late Jerry Steeler, I mean, there's
gotta be in that rock bottom. I mean, as a
Mets fan, you know, that. No, no, no, there's no
rock bottom. You you hit the bottom and you keep
digging going. Nope, I am going through this and I'm
gonna get through to the floor. There's gotta be a
level of magma, and then under that there's got to
(01:24):
be some kind of moving tectonic plates, and then under
that maybe then I get to the bottom. But no, no, no,
I'm gonna keep digging through the mud and the sludge
and go all the way through the center of the Earth. Wow,
straight to the Earth's crust. It makes me want to
eat a pizza Earth's crust. Yeah, alcome, no one's ever
done that, had a pizza and called it Earth's crust?
(01:46):
Or is there a there's somebody out there? Is there
a place that's called Earth's Crust pizza? Crust pizza? Hey? Yeah, listen,
can I get double anchovies and one with pepperoni? Yeah?
You gotta get it out there in a half hour.
How hot is your pizza? You know what? I looked
at her hand out. It's really fair earth crust pizza.
(02:08):
Let's see there there is an Earth's crust pizza in Montana.
Who knew? Seems like we're gonna have to get it said, oh,
you can eat pizza buffet, buddy, Yes it is. Well, well,
so maybe not anymore than well, but maybe you just
have to go sit in the yeah, and I don't
think anything in the lot, and then you go walk
back in and say more so what we mean? The
(02:30):
New Scientist magazine said that the Earth's crust is just
like a pizza dough. So there you go. No, I
mean there's like a big level of layer of cheese
on it. Cheese. Boy, if I could walk through cheese
and just pick up cheese and put in my mouth.
It's like Homer in the Land of Chocolate piece up
the dog and takes a bite out of it as
it runs by it. Chocolate half price, like everything's made
(02:53):
of chocolate. It's free eat anything. Uh, the Simpsons. But
that's what we have going on today. We have a
worst of the worst in one and then we have
the worst of the worst that actually becomes nearly the
best of the best. So we'll save that for later on. Uh,
let's get into what was possibly and probably the worst
(03:18):
single season defense in the history of the National Football League. Now,
immediately people want to jump back and go, oh, look
at the Saints in two thousand and twelve. I think
it over seven thousand yards. It was a horrendous season,
but this is an age in the National Football League
where everybody is throwing the football and you have inflated
passing statistics. So seven thousand yards, even though it's really really,
(03:40):
really really bad, it doesn't compare to this team that
gave up sixty hundred yards when teams threw the football
about four times a game, so it's not like you
were facing all these big offensive juggernauts. We put it
into the late two thousands. Everybody's throwing the football, quarterbacks
throwing for three no, no, no, this is seven thousand yards.
(04:01):
That stinks. This was undred yards back in in one
three yards and a cloud of dust. And even the
passes that were thrown up, let's face, and completion percentages
were trash. Yeah if you were because you were a
good quarterback, right, Because interceptions were not looked at the
same way at all, and ball possession, which is kind
(04:24):
of funny. Did they just not have the computers to
run the stats. It's like the entire room is one computer. Yeah, no,
it's It's amazing though that people didn't catch onto this sooner.
You know if we go to the shortened intermediate game,
we will be more effective and keep moving the ball.
(04:44):
Throw for the downs the night one. Then Baltimore cults
worst NFL defense in history. Here's the evidence. Now. First
of all, actually they had pretty decent expectations in one.
They still led Burt Jones at quarterback, Roger Carr was
(05:04):
a pretty good wide receiver. Curtis Dickey was projecting to
be a pretty good running back. These are names would
probably remember from the Colts teams. David Schula, former Bengals
head coach, was a wide receiver on this team. But
things just went absolutely terrible from the jump. They went
to out one good name though, you an all name
team guy, Okay, go on, what do you got linebacker
(05:25):
Joe Federspiel. Yeah, Federspiel is pretty good. It's a tough
name to say in the heat of battle. Good play Feederspiel.
I can see you messing that up a lot day.
And maybe you call him glock in Spiel at some
point that was probably his nickname was Yeah. He eventually
became an SEC referee, by the way, Oh and they
probably called him the glock I metued. I was, Hey,
(05:45):
what's up block, but it's okay, I get it. Glocklock
to see that as other connotations and now you've gone
into a deep dark place. So it's just a nickname
like Clock, except it's glock, except it's for glock and spiel. Anyway,
uh so the Colts team just to give you the
framework before you give you with some stats that you're
gonna go there's no way this happened. They actually went
(06:06):
too and fourteen. They won their first game against New England. Hey, congratulations, back,
this is when Baltimore is in the a f C East.
They then lost fourteen games in a row, and then
they beat New England the final week of the regular seat.
Hey did. New England also finished two and fourteen in
the A f C East, so these were the only
wins Baltimore had. They beat New England opened the season, Hey,
we're feeling great. Then they lost fourteen in a row,
(06:28):
and then they beat New England to end the season.
So at least you can say, well, we started strong,
we finished strong, and if we played New England every week,
maybe they're sixteen and oh, but they don't, so this
is what they wind up. Well. What's funny, though, is
just the when you think about, all right, how bad
does this team have to be? Right, you hit the
bookends where you have these wins, go to tie breakers,
(06:49):
all of that kind of fun stuff. But looking at
the Patriots schedule, they had their moments of uh, wealth dominance.
They held six opponents to nineteen points or fewer during
the season, so uh put themselves in position. But and
absolutely anemic offense leads you to the woeful two and
(07:09):
four record, fourteen record, I should say, uh, including two
losses to these historic Baltimore Colts. Here's how bad the
Colts were. Okay, here here's some numbers that it just
blow you away. They allowed five hundred and thirty three
points on the season. All right, that's an average of
thirty three a game. They scored two hundred and fifty nine. Okay,
(07:32):
so they gave up twice as many points as they scored.
This isn't a one hundred point differential like you see
the worst teams in the NFL. Boy, we got outscored
by hundred points. They scored to fifty nine. They gave
up five thirty three. They literally gave up twice as
many points as they scored. That's how bad of a
(07:52):
defense this was. I mean, it wasn't a great offense,
but boy, that's how bad a defense this was. Well,
if if you laid some money down on them against
the number and you took the over, you really did hardly. Yeah, no, exactly.
They took the over every week. How far can we stretching? Guys?
Just keep going. Uh, you know, it's just that curiosity,
(08:16):
right at some point you would think there'd be some
consistency and something would click. But as you mentioned, it's
not like you're walking around with a bunch of household
names that even went somewhere else and became pivotal cogs
in some other machine. Uh. This is just, you know,
not good for anybody. As you're rolling through five hundred
(08:37):
thirty three points. They gave up four hundred twenty five
yards per game, four football fields per game. Just staggering.
This is a season in which the Colts gave up
thirty five points or more in nine games. Nine games
(08:57):
they allowed thirty five points and more. They allowed three
seven points in the first half of games. That means
teams were averaging twenty points in the first half against them.
So whatever you have, you're allowing twenty a team is
walking in a half time going, boy, we feel great.
We scored twenty points. This is this is terrific um.
All those early adopter fantasy leagues were having a blast.
(09:20):
I mean this, Look, this Colts defense still had a
couple of good players on it, right you know, you
had John Dutton who wound up getting traded during the season.
You know, uh, you had a couple of Bruce Laird,
who was a pretty good strong safety. Nesby Glasgow was
a pretty decent cornerback turned into You had a couple
of decent players on this team. But this defense was
just so bad. And maybe the best most damning statistic
(09:44):
is what I'm gonna give you right now. This is
how bad. Okay, they only returned twelve punts all season
punt so nobody punted. They returned twelve punts. That's less
than one punt return a game you could have gotten
by without a punt returner. I can just let the
ball at the ground right now, Okay, we'll take over
wherever it is. They returned twelve punts, and they had
(10:08):
thirteen sacks on the seat in and if full see
and sixteen games they had thirteen sacks, So every game
they basically were good for almost one punt return and
almost one sack. That's how mad it was for the cults.
Think about that, because we we had a good laugh
at it here in When a team goes through and
(10:31):
dozen't punt, it's like, all right, that guy gotta check
and just got to hang out and do his weird
ball tricks like he's in the middle of training camp. Uh,
and you go through. I mean that that's just amazing.
I'm looking at the totals from last year and it's
just staggering. Thinking thirteen for an entire year, you're low
(10:57):
in nineteen was the doll for with twenty three only
three more teams finished with fewer than thirty, and then
your league leaders Steelers, Panthers, Saints and RAN's all finished
with at least fifty. Just by way of contrast. I mean,
that's that's just pathetic for a bass rush. That's that's
(11:19):
almost like you're not trying. Uh. Mike McCormick was the
head coach and he only made it through this year
and then he got fired. Uh. And and as if
all those stats all remember how bad this defense was
losing games the way they did. Look, they beat the Patriots.
Then they lost thirty five, three, thirty seventeen, No, then
(11:41):
forty one, nineteen. Then they give up forty three, then
forty two, then twenty seven, then forty one, then thirty eight,
then thirty five. It was just a pummeling all season long. Right,
But this is okay, it's historically bad. They got a
really bad Dave and maybe one of the worst defenses ever.
They couldn't stop anybody. But this story about the Colts
season may give you everything you need to know outside
(12:04):
of the fact that, boy, this defense was bad. All right,
check this out. So I told you you know, Burt
Jones was still a pretty decent quarterback and things got
so bad at one point. This is then Colts owner
Bob er Say, who players hated. Right. John Dutton, who
got traded in the middle of the season, said I'll
do anything Dallas wants me to do right now except
shoot someone. He was so happy to get off the
Baltimore Colts. That was his That was his big quote
(12:26):
after he got traded, right, all of these things. They
couldn't stand back Burt Jones, Oh it was, it was.
It was just one of those seasons where you couldn't
believe what the owner did. Bob Er say. At one point,
during a loss to Philadelphia in November, they lost, the
owner got so mad he jumped into the booth and
started calling plays from the coaches booth. He started calling
(12:50):
offensive plays from the booth. So Burt Jones said he
just ignored them. Like every time the play call came
in to go left, he would go right. If it
was a run, he would call a pass. But Bob
ar say calling plays from the coaches booth. In fact,
he says that he called one of Burt Jones's touchdown
passes in this game. Burt Jones says, no, I just
(13:11):
went and did my own thing. The players couldn't stand
or say. But not even Jerry Jones, Mike and I,
I know he's probably been tempted to. I could just
get the headphones off of Jason and uh just start
calling plays because I know the names of some of them.
You know there's that red ride eighty eight or did
I see that on the NFL films? Uh? What about
(13:31):
that sixty five toss power trap Let's run? Now, No,
that's NFL films. Not even Jerry Jones on his worst
day says, you know sorry, slide over, I'm gonna start
calling plays. But this was the NFL where the owner
comes in and starts calling plays in How fantastic would
that be? Though? Jerry Jones finally, just you know, before
Jason Garrett was dismissed, saying, you know what I got,
(13:54):
I got something for Dak. I got I got something
special I cooked up on this here napkin, and he's
got some weird ass alignment still legal, uh in terms
of formations, but just crazy town. I mean there's several
owners that you know, you would not be surprised if
they actually did it. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if er, say,
(14:16):
Jim Ursay would do while playing guitar. I always wanted
to do that, you know that. I was always jealous
that he did that. I really would like to death
He's playing Jimmy Hendricks's guitar while calling plays and sending
it down to Philip Rivers. Maybe you just have to wait.
That's why Andrew Luck retired. I couldn't. I couldn't take
(14:36):
it because you know, all the year says they all
want to call plays that I just had to walk out.
It was just too much for me. I was done
absolutely amazing. This was the season that was for the
one Waltimore Colts looking at being the worst defense in
NFL history. Coming up next, Uh, two things that were
really bad and then they met together and things got
(14:59):
really it. I'll explait trust me, I'll explain it all.
Coming up next right here on special teams from the
worst of the NFL. And boy, the Cults were really
(15:19):
that bad to the NBA and the nineteen eighty one
Western Conference playoffs because in one things really got weird
in something that we have never seen anything even close
to this since this happened. Now, we had the Knicks
make it to the NBA Finals in the in the
lockout year. They were an eight seed and they pulled
(15:42):
a bunch of upsets. We watched the Golden State Wars,
an eight seed, pull a few upsets a few years ago,
knocking out the Mavericks. They were the number one seed.
But normally the bottom seed doesn't make it to the
NBA finals. Also, normally the bottom two seeds don't make
it to the conference finals. But this is what happened
in one. The NBA regular season ended with the Sons
(16:05):
at the top best record in the Western Conference. The
Suns were loaded, followed by the Spurs. The Lakers were third.
Remember this is the early days of Magic Johnson. The
Blazers were fourth and in fifth and sixth place because
it was the top six teams that made the NBA
playoffs back then were the Kings and the Rockets. The
Kansas City Kings, who was before they moved to Sacramento.
(16:26):
The Kansas City Kings and the Houston Rockets, the five
and six seeds, the two lowest seeds, both make the
playoffs with records of forty and forty two. Who do
you think winds up playing in the Western Conference Finals?
The Kings and the Rockets. Again that this is a
journey that no one could. This is never gonna happen
(16:49):
in the NBA. You're never gonna see seven eight seeds
pull these big upsets and saying, hey, we're playing here
in the in the conference finals. But it happened here
in one. Both teams finished seventeen games out of first place.
They were under five hundred on the road. They were
just an average team, couldn't even finish even five. But
the Kings and the Rockets make it to the Western
(17:10):
Conference Finals, bolstered by the fact that the Dallas Mavericks
were an absolute train wreck. The Utah Jazz, with twenty
eight wins, allowed you to get fat a little bit
and overcome the other members of the Pacific Division, which
had several teams in the mid thirties in terms of wins, like,
(17:32):
thank you very much, we're under five. Like nowadays, think
about all the ink that gets slung and when it happens.
Remember the Seahawks when they were seven and nine and
you would have thought the world was ending, Like everything
we knew about sports was going into some wormhole. Uh,
and the pundits were out for blood. No, they should
(17:54):
just not be a playoff team. The playoffs should go
a team Short's like, that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard.
But folks advocated for so many random tweaks to playoff rules,
and you know what they're they're an emalies. And this
one sure stands out all these years later. Only time
(18:16):
two teams with losing records met in the conference finals. Right,
So how did they get there? Well, let's do the
Kansas City Kings. First. Kansas City was led by Otis
bird Song, who had a terrific NBA career. The guy
scored twenty five points a game. You know, late seventies,
early eighties. Otis bird Song was fantastic. Phil Ford was
terrific NBA Rookie of the Year in seventy nine. They
both were All Star players alright. Scott Wedman before he
(18:39):
settled into being a rotation piece for the Celtics throughout
most of the mid eighties when everybody watched Lakers Celtics
on TV, he was pretty decent. And so Kansas City
had some time, I mean some talent because they finished
five hundred. They worked really great. Well, there's just just
a game. One game decided it, right sure, uh you
know who. And also but they also missed making the
(19:02):
playoffs by a game because the Warriors almost snuck in
a thirty nine and forty three, so they were that
close to being out to uh now, their first round
they played Portland, who wasn't that much better. They won
two out of three. They won a couple of games
in overtime. But then their rewards they get the Phoenix Suns.
All right, the number one seed in the West. This
is gonna be pretty easy. They knock off the Suns
(19:24):
in seven games. They had a three games to one lead.
Kansas City jumped out and the Sons, who like to
play a lot of players, they were loaded, Dennis Johnson,
Walter Davis, Truck, Robinson, they were all stars. They were
so deep and they just kept running players out there,
you know, their rotations going through. They were so good.
(19:44):
But they couldn't beat the Kings. But they come back
to tie at three three before the Kings win games
seven on the road. But check this out. Not only
do the Kings win game seven in Phoenix, where you think, okay,
there's a lot of silliness here. Now the Suns are
gonna straight and up and win. The King's won without
birds Song and Ford, who were both hurt. Bird Song
(20:05):
played a little bit with a sprained ankle, but but
Ford was out. He got he got hit in the eye,
and somehow they were able to win that game. So
the so the worst team in the West is able
to beat the best team in the East without their
two best players. Okay, so this is like looking at
a team like this is like if if the Portland
(20:26):
Trailblazers beat the Lakers in the first round of the
playoffs this year, and they and they won Game seven
without Lillard and McCollum. I mean, that's that's the equivalent
of what the Kansas City Kings did to beat the
Suns and move on to the Western Conference Finals. I'm
just gonna put it in its most blunt terms, that
would have been. So yes, it would have been, because
(20:50):
it's be something forever that you'd be looking back going
that really can't be right, can it? Can it? No?
It is? It's uh yeah, it's It's strange when you
watch teams that are that are well put together, that
have some depth to them, and guys assuming roles. Right,
(21:13):
we watched it a couple of years ago what the
Celtics were trying to do with all that young nucleus,
and then you you're you're missing Kyrie Irving and Gordon
Hayward and all those guys grew into roles really fast.
So when the veterans came back, it's like, all right, no,
we don't got room for you. We got problems and
what did you have? Dysfunction? And you know, dude had
(21:36):
to leave uh in Kyrie uh and Jayson Tatum and
all the young guys, you know, building off of that,
I guess here you looked at some veteran leadership, not
that he played a ton of games for them, but
I mean you did have Jojo White finishing up his
career there, motivational speaker. Some commercials to Jojoe White if
(21:56):
I remember, sure, I I think I think he did.
He was in a like in the early eighties when
certain guys to do commercials and they were all like
the stars of the seventies and like X A B
A stars and they were the ones that were in
the big commercials in the early eighties, and I'm like,
who's that? I remember? It was just one of those
weird things where certain guys were in commercials and I'm like, well,
(22:18):
I don't know who that is. I don't. I don't know.
I am I supposed to know who that is. I don't.
I don't know who that is. Well, you were trying
to pick out all the characters from the uh what
was it? The Miller light adde right right? Well, because
it's great, less filling, it's like, who's that guy in
the back? Yeah? And also you didn't know who anybody
was because when when did I see the Kansas City
Kings play? In one fair point, I saw the Knicks play. Unfortunately,
(22:39):
I saw the Nicks play on the Knicks. Actually, I
saw the Knicks play and then you saw whatever, like
the game of the week was or what you know,
what you saw on a Saturday or a Sunday, and
you would see those teams once and how many times
for the change with you know, forty wins. They weren't
showing them no there, and you didn't have these packages.
And hell, those finals were on tape delay, so wasn't
(23:01):
like you were seeing it live anyway. Here it is
so well we edited out some parts where it really
didn't matter. But this Son's team that that could have
gone to the NBA finals. Look, they had those three
great player, Alvin Adams had a really good season. I
mean this team was loaded and they wind up going
home and the Kings go to the Western Conference finals. Now,
(23:22):
how did the Rockets get there? Well, the Rockets a
little bit of a different story. It's their first year
in the Western Conference because they've been in the Eastern
Conference for so long. But now the Mavericks were in
the league and and and they put some they reconfigured everything,
and so the Rockets are in the Western Conference. Now.
They're led by Moses Malone who was in his peak
as a dominant player. I mean most of Malone was
(23:43):
average twenty seven and fifteen. I mean he was one
of the greatest centers in NBA history. And this he
let you know it to. Oh yeah, No, he was
never shy about it. Moses Malone would always tell you
how good he was and how bad the players he
was playing against us. He almost was kind of like
and almost as fun Shock, you know, like most of
the Malone was great and he was outspoken, but he
wasn't as much fun as Shock was. Like he would
(24:05):
say things that we'll get this a couple of things
he said that he probably shouldn't have. But he was
always a but he was never the you know, the
fun side that Shack had with him. But he would
always say what was on his mind. He would he
would give bulletin board material to other team. Moses Malone
just didn't care. But then again, when you're that big
and that talented, I I don't I don't think it
mattered to Moses Malone. Well, I mean the fact that
you didn't have any better nickname than Chairman of the boards.
(24:29):
It was it was the early eighties. There weren't that
many nicknames come on that was coming out a disco
and all that nonsense. There should have been some really
creative fools up in there trying to make their ownecial
since everybody was buying posters for four ninety nine to
put on their walls. Oh, I know, they could have
called him Moses because he was good down low. They
could have called him post Malone would have done. I
(24:56):
really thought you were going to go for a dominating
in the low post in the lane, partying like the
Red Sea. Oh, come on, Moses, that's too easy. I
mean that was Charlton Heston right, Moses, he was two,
wee go, You're absolutely right. Let my guards get on
the fast break. So Malone is in his peak as
a dominant player. Calvin Murphy also a terrific year. This
(25:18):
is the year in which he made seventy eight straight
free throws at an NBA record seventy eight straight free
throws Rudy tom Janovic before he became a big time
head coach in the NBA. Don Mike dun Levi Sr.
People think Mike dun Levy Jr. Played back in Yes,
Mike Dunlevy Jr. Was playing back in anyone. Well, he's
he's actually um like Admiral Hucks when he was in
(25:41):
about time and he could time travel. You got an
Admiral Hucks very nice. Well, you know it's you gotta
get Donald Gleason in where he can. So this was
actually a big first round series because the Rockets had
to play the Lakers. Now, the Lakers are coming off
winning the NBA title the year before, but things just
(26:02):
were different for them, you know, seeing what the Lakers
had to say. Magic Johnson was very outspoken about the
Lakers following their loss here. Uh, it was it was
very difficult, difficult here for the Lakers, but they go
down to defeat and this is a Rocket scene that
sometimes played with four big men, and it was, you know,
you think about playing small ball now here the Rockets
(26:24):
they were put four big men out there. They wound
up winning in five games, and it was probably Magic
Johnson's worst playoff game ever. He was two out of
fourteen from the floor, six out of seven from the
free throw line. He missed two free throws that could
have won the game with thirty seconds left. This was
the worst playoff game of Magic Johnson's career. Right game five,
(26:45):
the Lakers were in a series they didn't expect to
be in. He goes two out of four teen from
the floor, six out of eleven from the free throw line. Right,
Magic mss two free throws with thirty seconds left that
could have changed the outcome of the game. Rocket lead
eight s eighty five. This is after Magic shooting terribly
missing the free throws. Magic goes into the lane, kind
(27:06):
of hesitates and puts up an air ball. Magic Johnson
puts up an airball from the middle of the lane.
Malone gets the rebound, hits two free throws. The Rockets
win and they knocked the Lakers out. I actually remember
watching this specific game as a kid because it was
Game five and the Lakers. Look, the Lakers and the
and the Celtics were basketball royalty, right. There was the
(27:28):
rivalry with Burden. Magic was just getting going when the
Lakers and Celtic this is what you watched for. And
I remember in my basement watching this game, going, oh,
Magic Johnson is gonna hit this and he's gonna win.
And he put up an air ball, and the whole
next week, every single kid I knew in school would
like take up like crumple up a piece of paper
and throw it and miss, like throwing in the in
(27:50):
the in the in the garbage, going Magic Johnson, Magic Johnson,
because you know on the East Coast, you if you
even even though you know you grew up a Knicks fan,
you were a Celtics fan when they played the Lakers,
right because you were. It was East Coast versus West Coast,
and everybody just made fun of Matchic. Everybody in school
that week missing stuff. You try to throw something to
somebody and they would miss it and and they all look
(28:10):
at Magic. I mean it was that miss was horrendous
for Magic. I can't believe he actually had a playoff
game that way. And as I mentioned, he got into
after the game was over that it wasn't the best
year for them and maybe there were certain things that
went on that he didn't really go into details on
that shouldn't went on, and maybe they needed to take
things more seriously and clearly losing in the first round
(28:30):
of the Rockets, you can say, Okay, Magic, I get
where you're coming from. Yeah, you look at that game, uh,
in the final, but he goes two of fourteen from
the field, right Uh. And then you get into the
next year and it's eleven games into the season when
pat Riley takes over and the rest of his history. Hey,
guess what, I think we need a new head coach.
(28:51):
Who do we need? Riles me and I'm gonna go
bring We're gonna call it showtime. Oh that's a good idea. Hey,
there go the Lake probably trademarked at too that crafty.
So they beat the Lakers, and they beat the Spurs
in seven games to make it to the Western Conference Finals. Murphy,
who was the shortest player in the league uh scored
(29:14):
forty two points in Game seven. So now you have
the Kansas City Kings and the Houston Rockets in the
Western Conference Finals coming up next. We'll tell you how
it shook out and why Boses Malone really should have
kept his mouth shut. This is special teams. So the series,
(29:41):
everybody thought we were getting the Kansas City Kings and
the Houston Rockets to go to the NBA Finals to
take on the Boston Celtics. Otis bird Song, you know,
the star for the Kancity Kings, didn't play in Game
one and game two. He was still hurt and didn't
play until Game three, and he had limited minutes. And
that was a crusher for the Kings. I mean in
(30:03):
the Western Conference Finals, they just couldn't stop Moses Malone.
Malone was twenty nine and twelve in Game one, forty
two and twenty three in Game four, thirty six and
eleven in Game five. I mean, maybe the series is
different if birds Song is healthy and he plays, But
this wasn't even close. Like, you know, Okay, we're gonna
get this seven games of blood on the floor and
(30:25):
hair on the walls, and it was just Houston said,
we have the best player. It's Moses Malone, and they
rode him all the way through, just like the Lakers
or or an Orlando Magic team would do with Shack
when they didn't have a lot or enough behind. It
was okay, this is the guy that's gonna get us through.
And whereas you know, the Lakers were able to figure
out the team around Shack and get it to a championship,
(30:46):
but the Rockets that just weren't able to do it.
And and like I said, this is the best Moses
Malone that you had over the course of his career.
Twenty seven point four points per game in this series.
Uh dominant in low po So I mean, it's just
when the big men reigns supreme. Right, we watched Bullyball
(31:07):
as teams are in you know, two thousand, nineteen, two
thousand and twenty. The game changes, but that's still the
elemental piece. If you've got a guy that can dominate
in the low post and can be remotely functional at
the line. Moses was thirty fifty two in this series.
But if you're remotely functional, you know that you're not
(31:28):
just gonna play the hack a shack game. But even
doing that, I mean, the opportunities are immense to to
rack up points and opportunities filed trouble, all of that things,
you know, changing the rotations, forcing some of the lesser
players in and and Moses, you go back and watch
some of that film. He's a man among boys in
(31:50):
a lot of cases, just in terms of body structure.
He was. He was a guy that I remember because
you know, right around I started watching basketball, right around
Bird Magic, right that that was my exposure to it.
I remember watching the National Championship game. My uncle was
such a big Larry Bird fan, and he was all,
let's watch, and I watched, and that was like my
(32:11):
birth of basketball. So still I'm learning about a lot
of players at this point when I'm this young, and
as remember remember Mos and Malone going, this guy is
so great, this guy is so great. And then you know,
you see Bird and you see magic play. But Malone,
because he's so big and he's so dominant and he
could do whatever he wanted to. It was, I don't
understand why he doesn't win a championship every single year
(32:31):
because he's just that big. But then we watched Malone
really get a little bit too big for himself. See
what I did there. Yeah, so I get paid that
broadcast professional, my friend, I get that. So the Rockets
win and look at like I said, it wasn't a
great or a very close series. The Rockets win this
(32:52):
and clearly they were the better the team. And like
I said, maybe if Otis burn Song played a little
bit more, if he was back to being himself, it
could have gone a little bit further. But the Rockets
go to the finals. They're huge underdogs to the Boston Celtics. Right,
the Celtics are walking in here going, oh my god,
we're gonna crush them and win this year. You had,
you had the bottom seat in the West. Make it all.
We have to worry about the Lakers. The Sun's anybody,
(33:14):
and Moses Malone trash talks Boston, who had a tough
time keeping up with all the bulletin board material they
had to write down all Malone said. He called the
Celtics chumps. He said they ain't that good. At one point,
he said, I could get four guys off the street
in my hometown and we can beat them. I mean
they like it's wrong. Why don't why it? Look if
(33:38):
you're gonna go down, go down. Swinging in with a
good press headline. He he must have had a great hometown.
I mean, that's a great hometown team, I'm telling you.
Is it like was it like space jam? We had
all the other best players and they were Oh, I
got Bernard King, I got a bunch of guys. We're
all gonna come and play. Well, we'll beat you. Guys
will be great. I like the way that I like
the way you talk. Um. So, while from alone, it
(33:58):
probably wasn't the smartest thing to take on the Celtics
and and continue to give them material the way they did,
he wasn't really wrong because the Celtics, look, they should
have won this series going away, but instead the Rockets
gave him a tough time with the series was tied
to two before the Celtics win the last two games.
And one of the reasons why is because this was
(34:18):
not a great NBA Finals for Larry Bird. Larry Bird
really struggled many times throughout this. He wasn't the NBA
Finals m v P. It was Cedric Maxwell, a big
game five he had with eight and fifteen, but Bird
didn't play well. If you had a normal NBA Finals
from Larry Bird, well maybe then this is a sweep
or it's four one. But the Rockets, they hung in
(34:40):
a lot longer than people expected, and it took the
Celtics at the end to put them away. And I
think probably Boston was like, boy, that was tougher than
we thought it was gonna be. But we didn't. We won,
but boy, it was tougher than we thought. Well, I mean,
they did a great job defending on Bird. Shot was
off the entire entire series. The only shot from the
(35:01):
field all right, rounded up to forty two. To make
him feel better, but just I think he needs that.
He needs to feel better. Yeah, well you know what
you got to do that off the bricks across the
beam through the skylight and score, you know when he's
battling Michael Jordan's for fries uh and McDonald's series. But
thirty nine of nine three in the series, only one
(35:25):
of three from three point range. That's fine. It barely
got to the file line. And when you're shooting that poorly, right,
putting pressure on the other guys to step up. And look,
you got a loaded lineup right, all the names, you know,
Cedric Maxwell, Robert Parrish, You've got Kevin McHale, mL car
like all of these guys playing big roles, and of
(35:46):
course Tiny Archibald, everybody's favorite, Chris Ford playing heavy minutes.
Those those are all your principles. And even at this
point Kevin McHale, you know, played only eighty three minutes
in the series, but you're just expecting a walk go over.
And I think we do this every year where there
there's always a team that suddenly either plays defense or
(36:07):
plays defense just enough to kind of mess things up, right,
We've seen that men your Houston Rockets in the season. Well,
but just the idea that at least for Bursts, James
Harden was playing defense. So you're looking around, going what's
(36:30):
going on? Here again bizarro world, But the same thing
here is a guy who is seemingly unstoppable, became mortal
for a series and you know, tied to two and
then eventually to blow out wins to to finish the
finish off the the Houston Rockets. But you look at
(36:52):
Moses Malone did everything he could single handedly to try
to keep them in it and try to will them
towards victory. So he at least backed up the talk.
And you know, you can't fall to good strategy. We
say it on the show on Fox Sports Radio all
the time. You may not agree with it. It may
seem a little wrong headed, poking the bear, but in
the end, you know, and then anytime you can get
(37:15):
a bunch of press off it and it becomes the
stuff of legend where we're talking about it thirty years ago.
Of wow, that was interesting. Imagine that in the social
media air era. Right, Hey, what did he do? He
went on a podcast because he was in the bubble,
he uh started tweeting on it. I mean, what would
(37:35):
Moses Malone's burner accounty? Oh no, you know, hey, how
about this, I'll tell you exactly what will be said
about the Rockets in the Celtics coming off this series
ready ahead, Malone had no help twenty two and fifteen
in the NBA Finals, Robert Reid, Billy Pulse, nobody was
good enough. The guy was trying to do it all
by himself when Robert Reid was too busy with three
(37:56):
young boys of his own. And then for Larry Bird,
they would say, oh, yeah, you look, he had the stats.
You know, it would be like what we would say
about Lebron. He only scored fifteen points. Well, he also
averaged fifteen rebounds and seven assists. So even though Bird
wasn't shooting well, he found other ways to impact the
(38:17):
game because he was the leading rebounder and the leading
assist maker throughout the entire series. But it would be yeah,
but that's not birds supposed to lead the team. And
it was a bad time. Look. He shot horrendously and
it kept it kept the Rockets in in in games
because he didn't score more than more than fifteen in
a game, but he still pulled down fifteen rebounds. I mean,
he had fifteen. This is this is him and Moses Malone.
(38:38):
Fifteen rebounds per game and seven assists for Bird, it
was a great all around, but it would be, oh, yeah, Lebron,
Lebron couldn't win the m v P. Cedric Maxwell won
the m v P. Lebron couldn't win the m v P.
Alex Caruso won the m v P. This is not
a real title for Lebron, That's exact. That's what would
be said about Lebron now. Would be the same thing
being said about the Celtics back then. Larry Bird isn't
(39:01):
that good, He's overrated. He would have done he would
have scored, We should have scored at least twenty five
a game. That's exactly what people would say. System player,
what do you want? Well, I mean, look, as we
go through the annals of NBA history, I mean there
are certain periods where it's like, all right, where was
the competition? And I look squarely at the earlies, earlier Celtics.
(39:24):
No disrespect to the great Bill Russell and his teammates.
You know, they were running circles around the rest of
the league. Uh as you roll through. Likewise, this Celtics
squad was in the midst of another monster run, right,
a huge decade plus run atop the Eastern Conference. So
(39:44):
for Larry Bird, yeah, I mean you want to go
all around? Right? Was he taken the big shot at
the end? Was he and all of the things that
you ascribe to Lebron James or in in certain superstar
here that it'd be just fun to watch how the
series would get broken down as they played out. So
(40:06):
now you see what I mean when I say two
teams that weren't really good, that we're the worst and
turned into potentially the best. This is the upside down
year that was Jason Smith, Mike Harmon. Our show is heard.
Our radio show has heard, five nights a week on
Fox Sports Radio, Monday through Friday, ten pm two two
am on the East coast, seven to eleven on the
(40:29):
West coast. Hit us up on Twitter at how about
a fresca at Swollen Dome? Do you have any ideas
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(40:51):
Just tell us you gave us five stars. We'll talk
to you next week with another big episode of Special Teams.
Special Teams is a production of iHeart Radio. For more
podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app,
Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
M HM.
Welcome to Special Teams, a production of my Heart Radio
Greetings and Welcome inside Special Teams with Jason Smith and
Mike Harmon, a podcast in which we look back in
(00:21):
a specific year and a very special team or teams
in the world of sports and what made them stand
out in a bit of a nineteen eighties run right now,
because it's been a very popular decade for that, you've
wanted us to break down some teams and games and
things going on for so we're gonna continue that on
and take a look at what some of the worst
(00:41):
of the year one was. But here's a twist. We
have a really bad worst worst, but then we have
worst that turned out to be almost best. If that
makes sense, my Carmen, I don't know if it does,
but I think it does. Well. You know what, you've
got to talking out sometimes, you know, best laid plans,
all of those kind of things, but the the idea
being that, yeah, you sometimes you gotta hit absolute depths
(01:04):
before you know you can rise like the Phoenix at Arizona.
To steal from the late Jerry Steeler, I mean, there's
gotta be in that rock bottom. I mean, as a
Mets fan, you know, that. No, no, no, there's no
rock bottom. You you hit the bottom and you keep
digging going. Nope, I am going through this and I'm
gonna get through to the floor. There's gotta be a
level of magma, and then under that there's got to
(01:24):
be some kind of moving tectonic plates, and then under
that maybe then I get to the bottom. But no, no, no,
I'm gonna keep digging through the mud and the sludge
and go all the way through the center of the Earth. Wow,
straight to the Earth's crust. It makes me want to
eat a pizza Earth's crust. Yeah, alcome, no one's ever
done that, had a pizza and called it Earth's crust?
(01:46):
Or is there a there's somebody out there? Is there
a place that's called Earth's Crust pizza? Crust pizza? Hey? Yeah, listen,
can I get double anchovies and one with pepperoni? Yeah?
You gotta get it out there in a half hour.
How hot is your pizza? You know what? I looked
at her hand out. It's really fair earth crust pizza.
(02:08):
Let's see there there is an Earth's crust pizza in Montana.
Who knew? Seems like we're gonna have to get it said, oh,
you can eat pizza buffet, buddy, Yes it is. Well, well,
so maybe not anymore than well, but maybe you just
have to go sit in the yeah, and I don't
think anything in the lot, and then you go walk
back in and say more so what we mean? The
(02:30):
New Scientist magazine said that the Earth's crust is just
like a pizza dough. So there you go. No, I
mean there's like a big level of layer of cheese
on it. Cheese. Boy, if I could walk through cheese
and just pick up cheese and put in my mouth.
It's like Homer in the Land of Chocolate piece up
the dog and takes a bite out of it as
it runs by it. Chocolate half price, like everything's made
(02:53):
of chocolate. It's free eat anything. Uh, the Simpsons. But
that's what we have going on today. We have a
worst of the worst in one and then we have
the worst of the worst that actually becomes nearly the
best of the best. So we'll save that for later on. Uh,
let's get into what was possibly and probably the worst
(03:18):
single season defense in the history of the National Football League. Now,
immediately people want to jump back and go, oh, look
at the Saints in two thousand and twelve. I think
it over seven thousand yards. It was a horrendous season,
but this is an age in the National Football League
where everybody is throwing the football and you have inflated
passing statistics. So seven thousand yards, even though it's really really,
(03:40):
really really bad, it doesn't compare to this team that
gave up sixty hundred yards when teams threw the football
about four times a game, so it's not like you
were facing all these big offensive juggernauts. We put it
into the late two thousands. Everybody's throwing the football, quarterbacks
throwing for three no, no, no, this is seven thousand yards.
(04:01):
That stinks. This was undred yards back in in one
three yards and a cloud of dust. And even the
passes that were thrown up, let's face, and completion percentages
were trash. Yeah if you were because you were a
good quarterback, right, Because interceptions were not looked at the
same way at all, and ball possession, which is kind
(04:24):
of funny. Did they just not have the computers to
run the stats. It's like the entire room is one computer. Yeah, no,
it's It's amazing though that people didn't catch onto this sooner.
You know if we go to the shortened intermediate game,
we will be more effective and keep moving the ball.
(04:44):
Throw for the downs the night one. Then Baltimore cults
worst NFL defense in history. Here's the evidence. Now. First
of all, actually they had pretty decent expectations in one.
They still led Burt Jones at quarterback, Roger Carr was
(05:04):
a pretty good wide receiver. Curtis Dickey was projecting to
be a pretty good running back. These are names would
probably remember from the Colts teams. David Schula, former Bengals
head coach, was a wide receiver on this team. But
things just went absolutely terrible from the jump. They went
to out one good name though, you an all name
team guy, Okay, go on, what do you got linebacker
(05:25):
Joe Federspiel. Yeah, Federspiel is pretty good. It's a tough
name to say in the heat of battle. Good play Feederspiel.
I can see you messing that up a lot day.
And maybe you call him glock in Spiel at some
point that was probably his nickname was Yeah. He eventually
became an SEC referee, by the way, Oh and they
probably called him the glock I metued. I was, Hey,
(05:45):
what's up block, but it's okay, I get it. Glocklock
to see that as other connotations and now you've gone
into a deep dark place. So it's just a nickname
like Clock, except it's glock, except it's for glock and spiel. Anyway,
uh so the Colts team just to give you the
framework before you give you with some stats that you're
gonna go there's no way this happened. They actually went
(06:06):
too and fourteen. They won their first game against New England. Hey, congratulations, back,
this is when Baltimore is in the a f C East.
They then lost fourteen games in a row, and then
they beat New England the final week of the regular seat.
Hey did. New England also finished two and fourteen in
the A f C East, so these were the only
wins Baltimore had. They beat New England opened the season, Hey,
we're feeling great. Then they lost fourteen in a row,
(06:28):
and then they beat New England to end the season.
So at least you can say, well, we started strong,
we finished strong, and if we played New England every week,
maybe they're sixteen and oh, but they don't, so this
is what they wind up. Well. What's funny, though, is
just the when you think about, all right, how bad
does this team have to be? Right, you hit the
bookends where you have these wins, go to tie breakers,
(06:49):
all of that kind of fun stuff. But looking at
the Patriots schedule, they had their moments of uh, wealth dominance.
They held six opponents to nineteen points or fewer during
the season, so uh put themselves in position. But and
absolutely anemic offense leads you to the woeful two and
(07:09):
four record, fourteen record, I should say, uh, including two
losses to these historic Baltimore Colts. Here's how bad the
Colts were. Okay, here here's some numbers that it just
blow you away. They allowed five hundred and thirty three
points on the season. All right, that's an average of
thirty three a game. They scored two hundred and fifty nine. Okay,
(07:32):
so they gave up twice as many points as they scored.
This isn't a one hundred point differential like you see
the worst teams in the NFL. Boy, we got outscored
by hundred points. They scored to fifty nine. They gave
up five thirty three. They literally gave up twice as
many points as they scored. That's how bad of a
(07:52):
defense this was. I mean, it wasn't a great offense,
but boy, that's how bad a defense this was. Well,
if if you laid some money down on them against
the number and you took the over, you really did hardly. Yeah, no, exactly.
They took the over every week. How far can we stretching? Guys?
Just keep going. Uh, you know, it's just that curiosity,
(08:16):
right at some point you would think there'd be some
consistency and something would click. But as you mentioned, it's
not like you're walking around with a bunch of household
names that even went somewhere else and became pivotal cogs
in some other machine. Uh. This is just, you know,
not good for anybody. As you're rolling through five hundred
(08:37):
thirty three points. They gave up four hundred twenty five
yards per game, four football fields per game. Just staggering.
This is a season in which the Colts gave up
thirty five points or more in nine games. Nine games
(08:57):
they allowed thirty five points and more. They allowed three
seven points in the first half of games. That means
teams were averaging twenty points in the first half against them.
So whatever you have, you're allowing twenty a team is
walking in a half time going, boy, we feel great.
We scored twenty points. This is this is terrific um.
All those early adopter fantasy leagues were having a blast.
(09:20):
I mean this, Look, this Colts defense still had a
couple of good players on it, right you know, you
had John Dutton who wound up getting traded during the season.
You know, uh, you had a couple of Bruce Laird,
who was a pretty good strong safety. Nesby Glasgow was
a pretty decent cornerback turned into You had a couple
of decent players on this team. But this defense was
just so bad. And maybe the best most damning statistic
(09:44):
is what I'm gonna give you right now. This is
how bad. Okay, they only returned twelve punts all season
punt so nobody punted. They returned twelve punts. That's less
than one punt return a game you could have gotten
by without a punt returner. I can just let the
ball at the ground right now, Okay, we'll take over
wherever it is. They returned twelve punts, and they had
(10:08):
thirteen sacks on the seat in and if full see
and sixteen games they had thirteen sacks, So every game
they basically were good for almost one punt return and
almost one sack. That's how mad it was for the cults.
Think about that, because we we had a good laugh
at it here in When a team goes through and
(10:31):
dozen't punt, it's like, all right, that guy gotta check
and just got to hang out and do his weird
ball tricks like he's in the middle of training camp. Uh,
and you go through. I mean that that's just amazing.
I'm looking at the totals from last year and it's
just staggering. Thinking thirteen for an entire year, you're low
(10:57):
in nineteen was the doll for with twenty three only
three more teams finished with fewer than thirty, and then
your league leaders Steelers, Panthers, Saints and RAN's all finished
with at least fifty. Just by way of contrast. I mean,
that's that's just pathetic for a bass rush. That's that's
(11:19):
almost like you're not trying. Uh. Mike McCormick was the
head coach and he only made it through this year
and then he got fired. Uh. And and as if
all those stats all remember how bad this defense was
losing games the way they did. Look, they beat the Patriots.
Then they lost thirty five, three, thirty seventeen, No, then
(11:41):
forty one, nineteen. Then they give up forty three, then
forty two, then twenty seven, then forty one, then thirty eight,
then thirty five. It was just a pummeling all season long. Right,
But this is okay, it's historically bad. They got a
really bad Dave and maybe one of the worst defenses ever.
They couldn't stop anybody. But this story about the Colts
season may give you everything you need to know outside
(12:04):
of the fact that, boy, this defense was bad. All right,
check this out. So I told you you know, Burt
Jones was still a pretty decent quarterback and things got
so bad at one point. This is then Colts owner
Bob er Say, who players hated. Right. John Dutton, who
got traded in the middle of the season, said I'll
do anything Dallas wants me to do right now except
shoot someone. He was so happy to get off the
Baltimore Colts. That was his That was his big quote
(12:26):
after he got traded, right, all of these things. They
couldn't stand back Burt Jones, Oh it was, it was.
It was just one of those seasons where you couldn't
believe what the owner did. Bob Er say. At one point,
during a loss to Philadelphia in November, they lost, the
owner got so mad he jumped into the booth and
started calling plays from the coaches booth. He started calling
(12:50):
offensive plays from the booth. So Burt Jones said he
just ignored them. Like every time the play call came
in to go left, he would go right. If it
was a run, he would call a pass. But Bob
ar say calling plays from the coaches booth. In fact,
he says that he called one of Burt Jones's touchdown
passes in this game. Burt Jones says, no, I just
(13:11):
went and did my own thing. The players couldn't stand
or say. But not even Jerry Jones, Mike and I,
I know he's probably been tempted to. I could just
get the headphones off of Jason and uh just start
calling plays because I know the names of some of them.
You know there's that red ride eighty eight or did
I see that on the NFL films? Uh? What about
(13:31):
that sixty five toss power trap Let's run? Now, No,
that's NFL films. Not even Jerry Jones on his worst
day says, you know sorry, slide over, I'm gonna start
calling plays. But this was the NFL where the owner
comes in and starts calling plays in How fantastic would
that be? Though? Jerry Jones finally, just you know, before
Jason Garrett was dismissed, saying, you know what I got,
(13:54):
I got something for Dak. I got I got something
special I cooked up on this here napkin, and he's
got some weird ass alignment still legal, uh in terms
of formations, but just crazy town. I mean there's several
owners that you know, you would not be surprised if
they actually did it. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if er, say,
(14:16):
Jim Ursay would do while playing guitar. I always wanted
to do that, you know that. I was always jealous
that he did that. I really would like to death
He's playing Jimmy Hendricks's guitar while calling plays and sending
it down to Philip Rivers. Maybe you just have to wait.
That's why Andrew Luck retired. I couldn't. I couldn't take
(14:36):
it because you know, all the year says they all
want to call plays that I just had to walk out.
It was just too much for me. I was done
absolutely amazing. This was the season that was for the
one Waltimore Colts looking at being the worst defense in
NFL history. Coming up next, Uh, two things that were
really bad and then they met together and things got
(14:59):
really it. I'll explait trust me, I'll explain it all.
Coming up next right here on special teams from the
worst of the NFL. And boy, the Cults were really
(15:19):
that bad to the NBA and the nineteen eighty one
Western Conference playoffs because in one things really got weird
in something that we have never seen anything even close
to this since this happened. Now, we had the Knicks
make it to the NBA Finals in the in the
lockout year. They were an eight seed and they pulled
(15:42):
a bunch of upsets. We watched the Golden State Wars,
an eight seed, pull a few upsets a few years ago,
knocking out the Mavericks. They were the number one seed.
But normally the bottom seed doesn't make it to the
NBA finals. Also, normally the bottom two seeds don't make
it to the conference finals. But this is what happened
in one. The NBA regular season ended with the Sons
(16:05):
at the top best record in the Western Conference. The
Suns were loaded, followed by the Spurs. The Lakers were third.
Remember this is the early days of Magic Johnson. The
Blazers were fourth and in fifth and sixth place because
it was the top six teams that made the NBA
playoffs back then were the Kings and the Rockets. The
Kansas City Kings, who was before they moved to Sacramento.
(16:26):
The Kansas City Kings and the Houston Rockets, the five
and six seeds, the two lowest seeds, both make the
playoffs with records of forty and forty two. Who do
you think winds up playing in the Western Conference Finals?
The Kings and the Rockets. Again that this is a
journey that no one could. This is never gonna happen
(16:49):
in the NBA. You're never gonna see seven eight seeds
pull these big upsets and saying, hey, we're playing here
in the in the conference finals. But it happened here
in one. Both teams finished seventeen games out of first place.
They were under five hundred on the road. They were
just an average team, couldn't even finish even five. But
the Kings and the Rockets make it to the Western
(17:10):
Conference Finals, bolstered by the fact that the Dallas Mavericks
were an absolute train wreck. The Utah Jazz, with twenty
eight wins, allowed you to get fat a little bit
and overcome the other members of the Pacific Division, which
had several teams in the mid thirties in terms of wins, like,
(17:32):
thank you very much, we're under five. Like nowadays, think
about all the ink that gets slung and when it happens.
Remember the Seahawks when they were seven and nine and
you would have thought the world was ending, Like everything
we knew about sports was going into some wormhole. Uh,
and the pundits were out for blood. No, they should
(17:54):
just not be a playoff team. The playoffs should go
a team Short's like, that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard.
But folks advocated for so many random tweaks to playoff rules,
and you know what they're they're an emalies. And this
one sure stands out all these years later. Only time
(18:16):
two teams with losing records met in the conference finals. Right,
So how did they get there? Well, let's do the
Kansas City Kings. First. Kansas City was led by Otis
bird Song, who had a terrific NBA career. The guy
scored twenty five points a game. You know, late seventies,
early eighties. Otis bird Song was fantastic. Phil Ford was
terrific NBA Rookie of the Year in seventy nine. They
both were All Star players alright. Scott Wedman before he
(18:39):
settled into being a rotation piece for the Celtics throughout
most of the mid eighties when everybody watched Lakers Celtics
on TV, he was pretty decent. And so Kansas City
had some time, I mean some talent because they finished
five hundred. They worked really great. Well, there's just just
a game. One game decided it, right sure, uh you
know who. And also but they also missed making the
(19:02):
playoffs by a game because the Warriors almost snuck in
a thirty nine and forty three, so they were that
close to being out to uh now, their first round
they played Portland, who wasn't that much better. They won
two out of three. They won a couple of games
in overtime. But then their rewards they get the Phoenix Suns.
All right, the number one seed in the West. This
is gonna be pretty easy. They knock off the Suns
(19:24):
in seven games. They had a three games to one lead.
Kansas City jumped out and the Sons, who like to
play a lot of players, they were loaded, Dennis Johnson,
Walter Davis, Truck, Robinson, they were all stars. They were
so deep and they just kept running players out there,
you know, their rotations going through. They were so good.
(19:44):
But they couldn't beat the Kings. But they come back
to tie at three three before the Kings win games
seven on the road. But check this out. Not only
do the Kings win game seven in Phoenix, where you think, okay,
there's a lot of silliness here. Now the Suns are
gonna straight and up and win. The King's won without
birds Song and Ford, who were both hurt. Bird Song
(20:05):
played a little bit with a sprained ankle, but but
Ford was out. He got he got hit in the eye,
and somehow they were able to win that game. So
the so the worst team in the West is able
to beat the best team in the East without their
two best players. Okay, so this is like looking at
a team like this is like if if the Portland
(20:26):
Trailblazers beat the Lakers in the first round of the
playoffs this year, and they and they won Game seven
without Lillard and McCollum. I mean, that's that's the equivalent
of what the Kansas City Kings did to beat the
Suns and move on to the Western Conference Finals. I'm
just gonna put it in its most blunt terms, that
would have been. So yes, it would have been, because
(20:50):
it's be something forever that you'd be looking back going
that really can't be right, can it? Can it? No?
It is? It's uh yeah, it's It's strange when you
watch teams that are that are well put together, that
have some depth to them, and guys assuming roles. Right,
(21:13):
we watched it a couple of years ago what the
Celtics were trying to do with all that young nucleus,
and then you you're you're missing Kyrie Irving and Gordon
Hayward and all those guys grew into roles really fast.
So when the veterans came back, it's like, all right, no,
we don't got room for you. We got problems and
what did you have? Dysfunction? And you know, dude had
(21:36):
to leave uh in Kyrie uh and Jayson Tatum and
all the young guys, you know, building off of that,
I guess here you looked at some veteran leadership, not
that he played a ton of games for them, but
I mean you did have Jojo White finishing up his
career there, motivational speaker. Some commercials to Jojoe White if
(21:56):
I remember, sure, I I think I think he did.
He was in a like in the early eighties when
certain guys to do commercials and they were all like
the stars of the seventies and like X A B
A stars and they were the ones that were in
the big commercials in the early eighties, and I'm like,
who's that? I remember? It was just one of those
weird things where certain guys were in commercials and I'm like, well,
(22:18):
I don't know who that is. I don't. I don't know.
I am I supposed to know who that is. I don't.
I don't know who that is. Well, you were trying
to pick out all the characters from the uh what
was it? The Miller light adde right right? Well, because
it's great, less filling, it's like, who's that guy in
the back? Yeah? And also you didn't know who anybody
was because when when did I see the Kansas City
Kings play? In one fair point, I saw the Knicks play. Unfortunately,
(22:39):
I saw the Nicks play on the Knicks. Actually, I
saw the Knicks play and then you saw whatever, like
the game of the week was or what you know,
what you saw on a Saturday or a Sunday, and
you would see those teams once and how many times
for the change with you know, forty wins. They weren't
showing them no there, and you didn't have these packages.
And hell, those finals were on tape delay, so wasn't
(23:01):
like you were seeing it live anyway. Here it is
so well we edited out some parts where it really
didn't matter. But this Son's team that that could have
gone to the NBA finals. Look, they had those three
great player, Alvin Adams had a really good season. I
mean this team was loaded and they wind up going
home and the Kings go to the Western Conference finals. Now,
(23:22):
how did the Rockets get there? Well, the Rockets a
little bit of a different story. It's their first year
in the Western Conference because they've been in the Eastern
Conference for so long. But now the Mavericks were in
the league and and and they put some they reconfigured everything,
and so the Rockets are in the Western Conference. Now.
They're led by Moses Malone who was in his peak
as a dominant player. I mean most of Malone was
(23:43):
average twenty seven and fifteen. I mean he was one
of the greatest centers in NBA history. And this he
let you know it to. Oh yeah, No, he was
never shy about it. Moses Malone would always tell you
how good he was and how bad the players he
was playing against us. He almost was kind of like
and almost as fun Shock, you know, like most of
the Malone was great and he was outspoken, but he
wasn't as much fun as Shock was. Like he would
(24:05):
say things that we'll get this a couple of things
he said that he probably shouldn't have. But he was
always a but he was never the you know, the
fun side that Shack had with him. But he would
always say what was on his mind. He would he
would give bulletin board material to other team. Moses Malone
just didn't care. But then again, when you're that big
and that talented, I I don't I don't think it
mattered to Moses Malone. Well, I mean the fact that
you didn't have any better nickname than Chairman of the boards.
(24:29):
It was it was the early eighties. There weren't that
many nicknames come on that was coming out a disco
and all that nonsense. There should have been some really
creative fools up in there trying to make their ownecial
since everybody was buying posters for four ninety nine to
put on their walls. Oh, I know, they could have
called him Moses because he was good down low. They
could have called him post Malone would have done. I
(24:56):
really thought you were going to go for a dominating
in the low post in the lane, partying like the
Red Sea. Oh, come on, Moses, that's too easy. I
mean that was Charlton Heston right, Moses, he was two,
wee go, You're absolutely right. Let my guards get on
the fast break. So Malone is in his peak as
a dominant player. Calvin Murphy also a terrific year. This
(25:18):
is the year in which he made seventy eight straight
free throws at an NBA record seventy eight straight free
throws Rudy tom Janovic before he became a big time
head coach in the NBA. Don Mike dun Levi Sr.
People think Mike dun Levy Jr. Played back in Yes,
Mike Dunlevy Jr. Was playing back in anyone. Well, he's
he's actually um like Admiral Hucks when he was in
(25:41):
about time and he could time travel. You got an
Admiral Hucks very nice. Well, you know it's you gotta
get Donald Gleason in where he can. So this was
actually a big first round series because the Rockets had
to play the Lakers. Now, the Lakers are coming off
winning the NBA title the year before, but things just
(26:02):
were different for them, you know, seeing what the Lakers
had to say. Magic Johnson was very outspoken about the
Lakers following their loss here. Uh, it was it was
very difficult, difficult here for the Lakers, but they go
down to defeat and this is a Rocket scene that
sometimes played with four big men, and it was, you know,
you think about playing small ball now here the Rockets
(26:24):
they were put four big men out there. They wound
up winning in five games, and it was probably Magic
Johnson's worst playoff game ever. He was two out of
fourteen from the floor, six out of seven from the
free throw line. He missed two free throws that could
have won the game with thirty seconds left. This was
the worst playoff game of Magic Johnson's career. Right game five,
(26:45):
the Lakers were in a series they didn't expect to
be in. He goes two out of four teen from
the floor, six out of eleven from the free throw line. Right,
Magic mss two free throws with thirty seconds left that
could have changed the outcome of the game. Rocket lead
eight s eighty five. This is after Magic shooting terribly
missing the free throws. Magic goes into the lane, kind
(27:06):
of hesitates and puts up an air ball. Magic Johnson
puts up an airball from the middle of the lane.
Malone gets the rebound, hits two free throws. The Rockets
win and they knocked the Lakers out. I actually remember
watching this specific game as a kid because it was
Game five and the Lakers. Look, the Lakers and the
and the Celtics were basketball royalty, right. There was the
(27:28):
rivalry with Burden. Magic was just getting going when the
Lakers and Celtic this is what you watched for. And
I remember in my basement watching this game, going, oh,
Magic Johnson is gonna hit this and he's gonna win.
And he put up an air ball, and the whole
next week, every single kid I knew in school would
like take up like crumple up a piece of paper
and throw it and miss, like throwing in the in
(27:50):
the in the in the garbage, going Magic Johnson, Magic Johnson,
because you know on the East Coast, you if you
even even though you know you grew up a Knicks fan,
you were a Celtics fan when they played the Lakers,
right because you were. It was East Coast versus West Coast,
and everybody just made fun of Matchic. Everybody in school
that week missing stuff. You try to throw something to
somebody and they would miss it and and they all look
(28:10):
at Magic. I mean it was that miss was horrendous
for Magic. I can't believe he actually had a playoff
game that way. And as I mentioned, he got into
after the game was over that it wasn't the best
year for them and maybe there were certain things that
went on that he didn't really go into details on
that shouldn't went on, and maybe they needed to take
things more seriously and clearly losing in the first round
(28:30):
of the Rockets, you can say, Okay, Magic, I get
where you're coming from. Yeah, you look at that game, uh,
in the final, but he goes two of fourteen from
the field, right Uh. And then you get into the
next year and it's eleven games into the season when
pat Riley takes over and the rest of his history. Hey,
guess what, I think we need a new head coach.
(28:51):
Who do we need? Riles me and I'm gonna go
bring We're gonna call it showtime. Oh that's a good idea. Hey,
there go the Lake probably trademarked at too that crafty.
So they beat the Lakers, and they beat the Spurs
in seven games to make it to the Western Conference Finals. Murphy,
who was the shortest player in the league uh scored
(29:14):
forty two points in Game seven. So now you have
the Kansas City Kings and the Houston Rockets in the
Western Conference Finals coming up next. We'll tell you how
it shook out and why Boses Malone really should have
kept his mouth shut. This is special teams. So the series,
(29:41):
everybody thought we were getting the Kansas City Kings and
the Houston Rockets to go to the NBA Finals to
take on the Boston Celtics. Otis bird Song, you know,
the star for the Kancity Kings, didn't play in Game
one and game two. He was still hurt and didn't
play until Game three, and he had limited minutes. And
that was a crusher for the Kings. I mean in
(30:03):
the Western Conference Finals, they just couldn't stop Moses Malone.
Malone was twenty nine and twelve in Game one, forty
two and twenty three in Game four, thirty six and
eleven in Game five. I mean, maybe the series is
different if birds Song is healthy and he plays, But
this wasn't even close. Like, you know, Okay, we're gonna
get this seven games of blood on the floor and
(30:25):
hair on the walls, and it was just Houston said,
we have the best player. It's Moses Malone, and they
rode him all the way through, just like the Lakers
or or an Orlando Magic team would do with Shack
when they didn't have a lot or enough behind. It
was okay, this is the guy that's gonna get us through.
And whereas you know, the Lakers were able to figure
out the team around Shack and get it to a championship,
(30:46):
but the Rockets that just weren't able to do it.
And and like I said, this is the best Moses
Malone that you had over the course of his career.
Twenty seven point four points per game in this series.
Uh dominant in low po So I mean, it's just
when the big men reigns supreme. Right, we watched Bullyball
(31:07):
as teams are in you know, two thousand, nineteen, two
thousand and twenty. The game changes, but that's still the
elemental piece. If you've got a guy that can dominate
in the low post and can be remotely functional at
the line. Moses was thirty fifty two in this series.
But if you're remotely functional, you know that you're not
(31:28):
just gonna play the hack a shack game. But even
doing that, I mean, the opportunities are immense to to
rack up points and opportunities filed trouble, all of that things,
you know, changing the rotations, forcing some of the lesser
players in and and Moses, you go back and watch
some of that film. He's a man among boys in
(31:50):
a lot of cases, just in terms of body structure.
He was. He was a guy that I remember because
you know, right around I started watching basketball, right around
Bird Magic, right that that was my exposure to it.
I remember watching the National Championship game. My uncle was
such a big Larry Bird fan, and he was all,
let's watch, and I watched, and that was like my
(32:11):
birth of basketball. So still I'm learning about a lot
of players at this point when I'm this young, and
as remember remember Mos and Malone going, this guy is
so great, this guy is so great. And then you know,
you see Bird and you see magic play. But Malone,
because he's so big and he's so dominant and he
could do whatever he wanted to. It was, I don't
understand why he doesn't win a championship every single year
(32:31):
because he's just that big. But then we watched Malone
really get a little bit too big for himself. See
what I did there. Yeah, so I get paid that
broadcast professional, my friend, I get that. So the Rockets
win and look at like I said, it wasn't a
great or a very close series. The Rockets win this
(32:52):
and clearly they were the better the team. And like
I said, maybe if Otis burn Song played a little
bit more, if he was back to being himself, it
could have gone a little bit further. But the Rockets
go to the finals. They're huge underdogs to the Boston Celtics. Right,
the Celtics are walking in here going, oh my god,
we're gonna crush them and win this year. You had,
you had the bottom seat in the West. Make it all.
We have to worry about the Lakers. The Sun's anybody,
(33:14):
and Moses Malone trash talks Boston, who had a tough
time keeping up with all the bulletin board material they
had to write down all Malone said. He called the
Celtics chumps. He said they ain't that good. At one point,
he said, I could get four guys off the street
in my hometown and we can beat them. I mean
they like it's wrong. Why don't why it? Look if
(33:38):
you're gonna go down, go down. Swinging in with a
good press headline. He he must have had a great hometown.
I mean, that's a great hometown team, I'm telling you.
Is it like was it like space jam? We had
all the other best players and they were Oh, I
got Bernard King, I got a bunch of guys. We're
all gonna come and play. Well, we'll beat you. Guys
will be great. I like the way that I like
the way you talk. Um. So, while from alone, it
(33:58):
probably wasn't the smartest thing to take on the Celtics
and and continue to give them material the way they did,
he wasn't really wrong because the Celtics, look, they should
have won this series going away, but instead the Rockets
gave him a tough time with the series was tied
to two before the Celtics win the last two games.
And one of the reasons why is because this was
(34:18):
not a great NBA Finals for Larry Bird. Larry Bird
really struggled many times throughout this. He wasn't the NBA
Finals m v P. It was Cedric Maxwell, a big
game five he had with eight and fifteen, but Bird
didn't play well. If you had a normal NBA Finals
from Larry Bird, well maybe then this is a sweep
or it's four one. But the Rockets, they hung in
(34:40):
a lot longer than people expected, and it took the
Celtics at the end to put them away. And I
think probably Boston was like, boy, that was tougher than
we thought it was gonna be. But we didn't. We won,
but boy, it was tougher than we thought. Well, I mean,
they did a great job defending on Bird. Shot was
off the entire entire series. The only shot from the
(35:01):
field all right, rounded up to forty two. To make
him feel better, but just I think he needs that.
He needs to feel better. Yeah, well you know what
you got to do that off the bricks across the
beam through the skylight and score, you know when he's
battling Michael Jordan's for fries uh and McDonald's series. But
thirty nine of nine three in the series, only one
(35:25):
of three from three point range. That's fine. It barely
got to the file line. And when you're shooting that poorly, right,
putting pressure on the other guys to step up. And look,
you got a loaded lineup right, all the names, you know,
Cedric Maxwell, Robert Parrish, You've got Kevin McHale, mL car
like all of these guys playing big roles, and of
(35:46):
course Tiny Archibald, everybody's favorite, Chris Ford playing heavy minutes.
Those those are all your principles. And even at this
point Kevin McHale, you know, played only eighty three minutes
in the series, but you're just expecting a walk go over.
And I think we do this every year where there
there's always a team that suddenly either plays defense or
(36:07):
plays defense just enough to kind of mess things up, right,
We've seen that men your Houston Rockets in the season. Well,
but just the idea that at least for Bursts, James
Harden was playing defense. So you're looking around, going what's
(36:30):
going on? Here again bizarro world, But the same thing
here is a guy who is seemingly unstoppable, became mortal
for a series and you know, tied to two and
then eventually to blow out wins to to finish the
finish off the the Houston Rockets. But you look at
(36:52):
Moses Malone did everything he could single handedly to try
to keep them in it and try to will them
towards victory. So he at least backed up the talk.
And you know, you can't fall to good strategy. We
say it on the show on Fox Sports Radio all
the time. You may not agree with it. It may
seem a little wrong headed, poking the bear, but in
the end, you know, and then anytime you can get
(37:15):
a bunch of press off it and it becomes the
stuff of legend where we're talking about it thirty years ago.
Of wow, that was interesting. Imagine that in the social
media air era. Right, Hey, what did he do? He
went on a podcast because he was in the bubble,
he uh started tweeting on it. I mean, what would
(37:35):
Moses Malone's burner accounty? Oh no, you know, hey, how
about this, I'll tell you exactly what will be said
about the Rockets in the Celtics coming off this series
ready ahead, Malone had no help twenty two and fifteen
in the NBA Finals, Robert Reid, Billy Pulse, nobody was
good enough. The guy was trying to do it all
by himself when Robert Reid was too busy with three
(37:56):
young boys of his own. And then for Larry Bird,
they would say, oh, yeah, you look, he had the stats.
You know, it would be like what we would say
about Lebron. He only scored fifteen points. Well, he also
averaged fifteen rebounds and seven assists. So even though Bird
wasn't shooting well, he found other ways to impact the
(38:17):
game because he was the leading rebounder and the leading
assist maker throughout the entire series. But it would be yeah,
but that's not birds supposed to lead the team. And
it was a bad time. Look. He shot horrendously and
it kept it kept the Rockets in in in games
because he didn't score more than more than fifteen in
a game, but he still pulled down fifteen rebounds. I mean,
he had fifteen. This is this is him and Moses Malone.
(38:38):
Fifteen rebounds per game and seven assists for Bird, it
was a great all around, but it would be, oh, yeah, Lebron,
Lebron couldn't win the m v P. Cedric Maxwell won
the m v P. Lebron couldn't win the m v P.
Alex Caruso won the m v P. This is not
a real title for Lebron, That's exact. That's what would
be said about Lebron now. Would be the same thing
being said about the Celtics back then. Larry Bird isn't
(39:01):
that good, He's overrated. He would have done he would
have scored, We should have scored at least twenty five
a game. That's exactly what people would say. System player,
what do you want? Well, I mean, look, as we
go through the annals of NBA history, I mean there
are certain periods where it's like, all right, where was
the competition? And I look squarely at the earlies, earlier Celtics.
(39:24):
No disrespect to the great Bill Russell and his teammates.
You know, they were running circles around the rest of
the league. Uh as you roll through. Likewise, this Celtics
squad was in the midst of another monster run, right,
a huge decade plus run atop the Eastern Conference. So
(39:44):
for Larry Bird, yeah, I mean you want to go
all around? Right? Was he taken the big shot at
the end? Was he and all of the things that
you ascribe to Lebron James or in in certain superstar
here that it'd be just fun to watch how the
series would get broken down as they played out. So
(40:06):
now you see what I mean when I say two
teams that weren't really good, that we're the worst and
turned into potentially the best. This is the upside down
year that was Jason Smith, Mike Harmon. Our show is heard.
Our radio show has heard, five nights a week on
Fox Sports Radio, Monday through Friday, ten pm two two
am on the East coast, seven to eleven on the
(40:29):
West coast. Hit us up on Twitter at how about
a fresca at Swollen Dome? Do you have any ideas
for future episodes of special teams? Hit us up? You
never know when one could wind up hitting the air
that you're listening to. That could be your idea. Also,
don't forget if you listen you like the show, rate us,
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(40:51):
Just tell us you gave us five stars. We'll talk
to you next week with another big episode of Special Teams.
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