Hi everyone. Happy 2026 to you all. I've been watching some Boston sports championships on YouTube over the past few months, usually in the background while I'm doing some computer work or something. I just finished the Red Sox/Rockies Series from 2007, and last night I started the 1976 NBA Finals (Celtics versus Suns). The link is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbzPDs_XsZc.

Observations so far:

* A young Brent Musburger (mid thirties) is the head announcer.

* If you like 70's fashion as much as I do, you'll love some of the outfits of the announcers and coaches. A CBS guy wearing a white jacket with wide lapels and a loud shirt interviews a Phoenix coach wearing a brown corduroy three piece suit with matching vest. Awesome.

* Coach Heinsohn's tie is fantastic.

* No three point line…it's a completely different game.

* CBS had a disco style NBA theme at the time. It's a far cry from the 1980s theme that I still enjoy.

* I was a toddler when this took place, so I was unaware of the series. It's great to see some of these players from the 70s that I've only heard of (Cowens, White, Hondo, Havlicek) playing on TV.

* This broadcast includes ads, which are fantastic. George Burns advertising cigars, Roger Staubach advertising tires, Datsun and AMC ads, and some ads for the massive gas-guzzling, unreliable (yet pretty cool) Big Three autos of the time. And lots of ads for CB radios, which were a huge fad at the time.

* Funny bit about Dave Cowens…I read something in the Boston Globe this year where he visited the Garden to attend a game, and went to one of the pro shops. He asked the young lady there where the Cowens jerseys were and she had no idea what he was talking about.

* I wouldn't mind watching the famous 1974 Finals against Milwaukee (Kareem and Oscar Robertson), but it appears the whole thing isn't available on YouTube. Maybe that's due to the high cost of videotape at the time.

4 comments

  1. One of my favorite series of all time.

    Poor Alvin Adams admitted in front of reporters that he was having nightmares about Dave Cowens. Big mistake.

    When Gar Heard hit his famous shot to send the game to an overtime, I was so mad I jumped in the air and hit my head on a wooden beam.

  4. I remember that series. It’s what got me into basketball I was so excited and nervous that I got a charlie horse. Those suckers hurt.

    You’re in for a treat.

    FYI I don’t think the three-point line came in until 79 or 80. I do know that a Celtic hit the first 3-point shot. Chris Ford I think it might have been at the garden

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