1978–79 NBA season

Updated on Sep 22, 2024

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Sport Basketball Picked by Portland Trail Blazers Champion Seattle Supersonics Number of games 82 Top draft pick Mychal Thompson		TV partner(s) CBS Eastern champions Washington Bullets Start date 1978 Number of teams 22
League National Basketball Association Duration October 13, 1978 – April 8, 1979 Top scorer George Gervin (San Antonio Spurs) Season MVP Moses Malone (Houston Rockets)

The 1978–79 NBA season was the 33rd season of the National Basketball Association. The season ended with the Seattle SuperSonics winning the NBA Championship, beating the Washington Bullets 4 games to 1 in the NBA Finals, a rematch of the previous year's Finals, but with the opposite result.

Notable occurrences

The Buffalo Braves moved from Buffalo, New York to San Diego, California and became the San Diego Clippers, shifting from the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference to the Pacific Division of the Western Conference.

The Detroit Pistons changed conferences, moving from the Midwest Division of the Western Conference to the Central Division of the Eastern Conference, where they remain today.

The Washington Bullets shifted from the Central Division to the Atlantic Division.

The NBA adopted a three-official system similar to the one used in college basketball on a one-year trial basis. The experiment is scrapped for the 1979–80 season, but returns permanently in 1988–89.

The 1979 NBA All-Star Game was played at the Pontiac Silverdome in Pontiac, Michigan, with the West defeating the East 134–129 in overtime. David Thompson of the Denver Nuggets won the game's MVP award.

The Jazz played their final season in New Orleans, Louisiana, before moving to Salt Lake City. It would be 23 years before New Orleans received another NBA franchise.

The Los Angeles Lakers play their final season under the ownership of Jack Kent Cooke.

Notes

z, y – division champions

x – clinched playoff spot