Nothing encourages NBA passion as much as a powerful display of team work. Of course our usual supernatural basketball stars are used to owning the sport news headlines, but problem is, its nearly impossible to play all the season games and injuries are common even for the greatest of athletes. Sometimes a team can rise up to the occasion and still win without them and even rarely, they can find the way to play even better as a whole.
Inspired by Lakers’ impressive hard-fought win against Miami last night, we decided to prepare a special report on the best NBA memories from teams that when given the chance, they can grow even stronger without their superstars. These are the 10 most espectacular cases we remember:
1. ‘Have no fear, Magic Johnson is here’
It was 1980 and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar dominated the NBA. This Los Angeles Lakers team was up to prove they were building their own dynasty in professional basketball as they confronted the Philadelphia 76ers to the title. By then, 7-foot-2-inch Kareem had guided the Californian team to lead 3-2 in the series, but on game 6 he was reported injured and it was up to 6-foot-9-inch Magic Johnson to fill his shoes against the great Julius Erving from Philly. That special night, Johnson truly became Magic, as he scored 42 points, 15 rebounds and assisted seven times to give the Lakers their much deserved crown.
Working his magic
Stream the first season of #WinningTime on @HBOMax pic.twitter.com/0tJHvtMEqz
— Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty (@winningtimehbo) June 1, 2022
2. Knicks’ famous 1999 title race
It’s still a wonder how the New York Knicks haven’t won an NBA trophy in over 50 years. Many say it didn’t matter how good their team was in the 90s, they simply couldn’t compete against Jordan and the Bulls in the Eastern Conference. So then, when the Chicago dynasty came to an end, the Knicks finally would have their chance. It was 1999 and Patrick Ewing was having a spectacular run and played as a true contender for that year’s MVP. At the beginning and throughout the playoffs, Ewing suffered many injuries. So, of course, New York feared the worst. Exceding all expectations, fresh blood fueled the Knicks all the way to the final without a constant presence of their injured star, Patrick Ewing. It seemed they had everything under control in the last stage against the San Antonio Spurs, who had never won a…