Erik Brady: Bob McAdoo did something in Buffalo 50 years ago that no one has done since
Bob McAdoo scored 50 points 50 years ago today − and ever since, no NBA player has gone for 50 or more points with 20 or more rebounds in a
Bob McAdoo scored 50 points 50 years ago today − and ever since, no NBA player has gone for 50 or more points with 20 or more rebounds in a playoff game.
The Buffalo Braves beat the Washington Bullets at Memorial Auditorium that night, 108-102, to tie their first-round series at two games apiece. Alas, in the only Game 7 they ever had, the Braves would be overcome by the Bullets, 115-96.
Braves player Bob McAdoo was MVP of the NBA in 1975.
But let's relive McAdoo's nifty 50. You can get a taste of it on YouTube with this 10-minute clip. Savor the atmosphere in the Aud as the crowd offers Buffalo Bob a standing ovation when coach Jack Ramsay takes him out in the closing seconds.
The Buffalo fans had just witnessed history. The only NBA players who had ever gone for 50 and 20 in the playoffs before McAdoo were none other than Elgin Baylor (61 and 22 in 1962) and Wilt Chamberlain (three times, including 56 and 35 in 1962).
McAdoo believed he belonged in such august company. So did Ramsay, who at the time said McAdoo would wind up as the greatest player in NBA history before he was through.
"That would be a nice goal," McAdoo told Sports Illustrated, "but it doesn't matter what any coaches or writers or any damn-body else thinks except me." Pause. "I think I'm the greatest already."
That night he played like it. McAdoo shot 20 of 32 from the field and 10 of 14 from the foul line with two blocks, two steals and one assist to go with 21 rebounds. Public-address announcer Dan Neaverth might well have gotten hoarse from all his calls of: "That's two − for McAdoo!"
Needless to say, McAdoo did not wind up as the greatest of all time, but he was the greatest during that 1974-75 season, when he was named the NBA's Most Valuable Player after leading the league with 34.5 points per game.
This was a golden era of Buffalo sports. The Bills' O.J. Simpson and the Sabres' Gil Perreault joined McAdoo as a trio of national superstars living in our midst. It bothered McAdoo, though, that Perreault's star burned brighter than his own hereabouts.
"Up here the kids be out in the streets playing hockey," he complained to Sports Illustrated. "The French Connection be a big deal. But nobody knows basketball. Nobody cares. O.J. was lost up here. Look what it took him, 2,000 yards, to be recognized. What do I need?"
Well, 50 points in a playoff game was a nice start. McAdoo, at 6-foot-10, was a matchup nightmare: He could beat bigger guys to the basket with his quickness and shoot over smaller guys with his range. The Bullets tried four defenders on him that night, all to no avail.
Imagine how many points McAdoo might have scored in his career if the three-point line had been around during his prime. Heck, he often shot "from the vicinity of Buffalo's Peace Bridge."
That's how Curry Kirkpatrick, who grew up in Niagara Falls, put it in Sports Illustrated the next season when McAdoo's face graced SI's cover under the headline "Hottest Shot in the Game.”
Note to younger readers: Buffalo Bob Smith was emcee of the "Howdy Doody Show," a popular children's TV show of the 1950s. (Howdy was a freckled marionette, and Buffalo Bob really was from Buffalo.) Smith would open every episode with: "Hey, kids, what time is it?" And they would shout out in unison: "It's Howdy Doody time!”
So Kirkpatrick, in the first sentence of his SI story, styled Bob McAdoo as a Buffalo Bob for the modern age:
In one five-year stretch, the Buffalo Braves had three players who were honored as Rookie of the Year. The first was Bob McAdoo (1973). Buffalo News file photo
"One of these crazy nights after Buffalo Bob − Hey, kids, what time is it? It's In Your Face time − McAdoo has scored 92 points, taken down 77 rebounds, blocked 54 shots, handed off 38 assists, made 22 steals, shoveled every snowbank and eaten every beef on kummelweck in Western New York, we may finally believe him when he says, 'It be hard not to get buckets in this league.' "
Harder for some than for others: McAdoo was on his way to a third consecutive NBA scoring title at the time.
Basketball appreciates round numbers. It's played with a round ball, after all. Buffalo Bob had 50 points 50 years ago. Today, let's appreciate the roundness of that.
And wonder when the NBA will ever again see someone go for 50 and 20 in the playoffs.