The NBA Time Machine: 1964

#	Team	Player
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10	New York Knicks *Baltimore Bullets* *San Francisco Warriors* *Detroit Pistons* *Cincinnati Royals* *St. Louis Hawks* *Philadelphia 76ers* Los Angeles Lakers *Boston Celtics* New York Knicks	Art Heyman *Rod Thorn* *Nate Thurmond* *Eddie Miles* *Tom Thacker Gerry Ward Tom Hoover Roger Strickland Bill Green Jerry Harkness**

Other Personnel

Date	Person	Team	Action	Stats
May 21, 1963	Coach Charles Wolf	*Cincinnati Royals*	*Resigned*	Record: 42-38
May 21, 1963	Coach Charles Wolf	Detroit Pistons	*Hired*	*Record: 23-57***
June 18, 1963	Coach Jack McMahon	Cincinnati Royals	*Hired*	Record: 55-25
*July 15, 1963*	Player-coach Dolph Schayes	Philadelphia 76ers	*Hired*	Record: 34-46
*August 6, 1963*	Coach Alex Hannum	*San Francisco Warriors*	*Hired*	Record: 48-32

Retirements

Player	Team(s)	Notable Accomplishments
Bob Cousy	Boston Celtics	6x Champion 1x MVP 12x All-NBA 13x All-Star 2x All-Star Game MVP 8x Assists Leader
Walter Dukes	New York Knicks Minneapolis Lakers *Detroit Pistons*	2x All-Star
Hot Rod Hundley	Los Angeles Lakers	2x All-Star

League Leaders

If a stat is not listed, it was not recorded at the time. As time goes on, this section will begin to include steals per game, blocks per game, etc.

Key

PPG – points per game
RPG – rebounds per game
APG – assists per game
FG% – field goal percentage (percentage of shots that hit)
FT% – free throw percentage (percentage of foul shots that hit)

Stat	Leaders
*PPG*	Wilt Chamberlain (36.9) Oscar Robertson (31.4) Jerry West (28.7) Bob Pettit (27.4) Walt Bellamy (27)
*RPG*	Bill Russell (24.7) Wilt Chamberlain (22.3) Jerry Lucas (17.4) Walt Bellamy (17) Bob Pettit (15.3)
*APG*	*Oscar Robertson (11)* *Guy Rodgers (7)* Jerry West (5.6) *Johnny Egan (5.4)* *K.C. Jones (5.1)*
*FG%*	*Jerry Lucas (52%)* *Wilt Chamberlain (52%)* *Walt Bellamy (51%)* *Terry Dischinger (49%)* *Bill McGill (48%)*
*FT%*	Oscar Robertson (85%) Jerry West (83%) Hal Greer (82%) Tom Heinsohn (82%) Richie Guerin (81%)

Playoffs

Semifinals

East / Cincinnati Royals beat Philadelphia 76ers, 3-2

The difference between these two crews was immense. Almost twenty regular-season wins separated them, and therefore the Royals were clear favorites. Oscar Robertson backed his place in the M.V.P. discussion by generating half of their points in Game 1, and Jerry Lucas grabbed twenty-five boards.

There was strong potential for a sweep, as the 76ers just looked so much less menacing – however, they won Game 2 due to the Royals playing some uncharacteristically selfish basketball. Close contests between the two eventually resulted in a Game 5 in Cincinnati, which the Ohio club won behind a 32/10/18 stat-line from Robertson.

West / St. Louis Hawks beat Los Angeles Lakers, 3-2

Much like their series last year, home court advantage determined everything. Road wins were avoided like the plague, which resulted in eventual triumph for St. Louis in the comforts of the south.

Every player performed to their relative expectations, but Elgin Baylor in particular scored on very inefficient splits. The L.A. legend managed to impact games in other ways – namely defense and playmaking – but it was not enough to limit a St. Louis core that had the perfect mixture of veterans and young talent.

Division Finals

East / Boston Celtics beat Cincinnati Royals, 4-1

Since the 1960s begun, the Celtics had been better than every other Eastern Division team by a solid margin. The Royals had closed that gap this year, amassing the most victories in franchise history and only trailing Boston by four wins. For that reason, this matchup was expected to be one of the, if not the most competitive of the entire playoffs.

As always, the Celtics were completely oblivious to outside noise – they tore apart the Royals for three straight games, and none were nail-biters. They feasted on intangibles and strategic offense, limiting Robertson and taking advantage of their opponents’ poor wing defense.

The Royals managed to avoid a sweep thanks to sixty-four combined points from Robertson and Jack Twyman in Game 4. Their exciting season came to an end shortly after, as the Celtics wrapped things up 4-1 behind twenty points and thirty-five rebounds from Bill Russell.

West / San Francisco Warriors beat St. Louis Hawks, 4-3

The battle between these two Western contenders was an exciting one. The Hawks generally looked like the better team – after adding six-time All-Star Richie Guerin to their lineup, their offensive firepower was unmatched. On the contrary, the Warriors’ defensive philosophy won them games, with Wilt Chamberlain and Guy Rodgers being the only star-caliber names.

While the series was close at every corner, San Francisco seemed slightly more in control. Chamberlain averaged well above his regular season average in points, something he had rarely done in past years. St. Louis had to bank on limiting his teammates to beat San Francisco, but that strategy was unstable – in the decisive Game 7, the Warriors shot nearly fifty-percent from the field. Meanwhile, the Hawks’ best performance was twenty-four Pettit points on seven-of-twenty-five shooting.

With this series victory, the Warriors were headed to their first Finals since their 1956 championship season in Philadelphia.

Finals

Boston Celtics *beat San Francisco Warriors, 4-1*
The highest stage of this year’s post-season was a much-awaited battle – the league’s top two physical specimens and former M.V.P.s, Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain, writing stories of their own. Would Russell extend the Celtics dynasty? Or would Chamberlain finally acquire his coveted first chip, defeating his rival in the process? The first two games immediately implied the former was underway, with Chamberlain having a mediocre scoring night in Game 1. Meanwhile, Celtics sophomore John Havlicek had a breakout performance, scoring twenty-eight points and only missing five field goals. The Celtics’ dominance continued, with Chamberlain upping his production in Game 2 but not seeing the same from the Warriors’ supporting cast. San Francisco proceeded to blow Boston out in their first home game, with Chamberlain looking unaltered by Russell’s presence. An upset commenced two days later and sent the Celtics home up 3-1 – Chamberlain had generally been besting his rival and playing out of his mind, but the green team had too many weapons. Game 5 was a relatively anti-climactic outcome, with the Celtics maintaining a lead nearly the whole way. A steady team effort meant six straight World Championships for the Russell-led franchise, becoming the longest such streak in American sports history.
The Boston Celtics win the 1964 NBA championship!

Awards

Notes
Name(s) under the “All-Stars” section with an asterisk (*) were listed as the MVP of the All-Star Game that year. Those with “(IR)” next to their name were chosen to replace an injured star.

Major Awards

Rookie of the Year	MVP	Coach of the Year
*Jerry Lucas*	*Oscar Robertson*	*Alex Hannum*

All-NBA

All-NBA First Team	All-NBA Second Team
*Oscar Robertson* Jerry West Elgin Baylor Bob Pettit *Wilt Chamberlain*	Hal Greer John Havlicek Tom Heinsohn *Jerry Lucas* Bill Russell

All-Stars

Eastern All-Stars	Western All-Stars
*Len Chappell* *Wayne Embry* *Tom Gola* *Hal Greer* *Tom Heinsohn* *Sam Jones* *Jerry Lucas* *Oscar Robertson Bill Russell Chet Walker**	*Elgin Baylor* Walt Bellamy *Wilt Chamberlain* Terry Dischinger *Bailey Howell* *Don Ohl* Bob Pettit *Guy Rodgers* *Jerry West* Lenny Wilkens
*East beats West, 111-107*

All-Rookie

All-Rookie Team
*Art Heyman* Gus Johnson *Jerry Lucas* Rod Thorn *Nate Thurmond*