1981 NBA Finals - Celtics Defeat Rockets

The 1981 NBA World Championship Series was the championship round of the 1980-81 NBA season, pitting the Boston Celtics against the Houston Rockets.

For the 1980-81 season Houston Rockets (head coached by Del Harris), Moses Malone practically carried the Rockets to the NBA finals. Meanwhile, Calvin Murphy, the shortest player in the league, set two NBA records, sinking 78 consecutive free throws to break Rick Barry's mark of 60 set in 1976 and achieving a free-throw percentage of .958, breaking Rick Barry's record set with the Rockets in 1979. Other members of the 80-81 team were Rudy Tomjanovich, Robert Reid, Mike Dunleavy, Sr., Allen Leavell, Billy Paultz, Bill Willoughby, Calvin Garrett, Tom Henderson, and Major Jones. Houston tied with Kansas City for second place in the Midwest behind San Antonio with a regular season record of 40-42.
Houston's playoff run began by drawing the defending NBA-champion Los Angeles Lakers and Magic Johnson in the first round. The Rockets upset Los Angeles, two games to one, then got past the San Antonio Spurs and George Gervin, four games to three, in the Western Conference Semifinals. This set up an unlikely Conference Finals matchup with Kansas City. The Kings, led by Otis Birdsong, Scott Wedman, and Phil Ford fell to the Rockets in five games.

1981 NBA Finals: Boston 4, Houston 2
Celtics Return to Glory

The loss to Philadelphia in the 1980 playoffs had taught the Boston Celtics one clear lesson: They had to get bigger.
So Red Auerbach went shopping in the spring of 1980. In 1979, Auerbach had been eager to get rid of Bob McAdoo, the prolific scorer who hadn't fit into the Celtics' system. Detroit's Dick Vitale was just as eager to get such a player, so the Pistons agreed to make a deal.

Earlier, the Celtics had signed Detroit's M.L. Carr as a restricted free agent, and as a result they owed the Pistons compensation. Accordingly, Auerbach offered to "give up" McAdoo for Detroit's two first-round draft picks in 1980. Detroit agreed.

Then the Pistons sweetened the deal by finishing last in the NBA for the 1979-80 season, meaning the Celtics had the top pick to go with the 13th selection. Auerbach wanted Kevin McHale, a smooth power forward out of the University of Minnesota, but he and coach Bill Fitch also wanted veteran center Robert Parish, whom the Golden State Warriors were shopping around the league.

The Warriors, who picked third, wanted to draft Joe Barry Carroll out of Purdue and figured they would need the top pick to get him. So Auerbach traded Boston's two picks to Golden State for Parish and the third pick in the draft. As a result, Auerbach and Fitch got the frontcourt of the '80s: Parish at center and McHale at power forward, joining Larry Bird at the other forward spot.

The Warriors, meanwhile, drafted Carroll first and Rickey Brown 13th. The deal was branded the most lopsided trade ever by 19 NBA general managers in a 1989 poll conducted by The Sporting News.

Fitch decided to start backup point guard Gerald Henderson, a minor league refugee, and Carr in the backcourt to open the season. The starting guards from the previous year, Nate Archibald and Chris Ford, came off the bench. This helped build Henderson's confidence, but the arrangement only lasted a few games. Wit...

The Boston Celtics defeated the Houston Rockets four games to two in the best-of-seven NBA Finals series to conclude the 1980-81 NBA season. The victory gave the Celtics their first NBA championship since 1976 and their 14th in franchise history.

The Rockets were making their first Finals appearance and had finished below .500 during the regular season (40-42). It was the first time a team that went below .500 in the regular season reached the Finals since 1959, when the Minneapolis Lakers reached the Finals despite going 33-39 in the regular season.

Cedric Maxwell won NBA Finals MVP honors, becoming the third different Celtics player to win the award, joining Jo Jo White and John Havlicek. The Finals MVP award was not given out until 1969, meaning there was no MVP named for the Celtics first 10 championships.

The Celtics had home-court advantage for the Finals, which were played under the 2-2-1-1-1 format and televised partially on tape delay for the final time. The Celtics swept the two regular-season meetings in 1980-81.