45 Yrs, Earvin (“Magic”) 42 And “Silk” (Wilkes) 37

I could post regarding that, at least yesterday, the new Pope ( a Chi-sox rooter) could not overcome the slump (I am being kind and not sure why, regarding both quantity and quality even /morality in this assessment) of someone named, “Arthur Ralph” on his “free picks” or some incredible “down (3-2) Celtics history,” however, choose to recall a better time, that of Earvin’s 42 and Silk’s 37, when the Lakers sans the great Kareem, went to Philadelphia and won at the time, just their second L.A. title. That occurred 45 years ago tonight.

Earvin is the certainly well known Earvin “Magic” Johnson, who scored 42 points that night and his overall performance remains minimum one of, arguably the greatest big game, certainly title clinching upset win of all-time, in any sports situation.

“Silk” is the great player, Jamaal Wilkes, whose 37 (points) that night is often forgotten.

Not by me, as to see it live (remember the first two years of Earvin “Magic” and Larry (Bird) with each of their teams winning crowns, but not vs the other–that would manifest down the road — the title clinching games were TV’d on delayed tape save in the finalist’s cities) I was alone in room 302 of an L.A. Howard Johnson’s and fondly remember, legendary L.A. broadcaster “Chick” Hearn calling Jamaal’s 20 foot shots, “the layup,” as they were launched in his unique shooting style and that night more profoundly than others for “Silk,” they went in.

Included in the above video, the fine broadcaster Buddy Blattner interviews the great player Bob Pettit after his, a la above cited Magic 22 years later, all-time type performance in an NBA title clinching game, that in ’58 #6/final round vs the Celtics.

Boston has won some road 6th games down (3-2) and lost some. Tonight they are slight underdogs in another, 52 years after another at New York vs the Knicks.

Then Boston won #6 but lost #7 at home to the Knicks, who went on to win their last crown to date. Boston “reg’d” (68-14), the Knicks (51-31) this season were (57-25).

(68-14) “Ok” City now faces a 7th, albeit at home, vs Denver Sunday afternoon as I add to the nostalgia with updates from the “3” ridden modern NBA.