Supriya Ghosh (Editor)

1981–82 NBA season

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Sport
  
Basketball

Picked by
  
Dallas Mavericks

Champion
  
Los Angeles Lakers

Number of teams
  
23

TV partner(s)
  
CBS, USA

Top seed
  
Boston Celtics

Start date
  
1981

Top draft pick
  
Mark Aguirre

League
  
National Basketball Association

Duration
  
October 30, 1981 – April 18, 1982 April 20 – May 23, 1982 (Playoffs) May 27 – June 8, 1982 (Finals)

Top scorer
  
George Gervin (San Antonio Spurs)

Season MVP
  
Moses Malone (Houston Rockets)

Similar
  
1976–77 NBA season, 1968–69 NBA season, 1965–66 NBA season

The 1981–82 NBA season was the 36th season of the National Basketball Association. The season ended with the Los Angeles Lakers winning the NBA Championship, beating the Philadelphia 76ers 4 games to 2 in the NBA Finals.

Contents

Notable occurrences

  • The regular-season ran until mid to late-April for the first time.
  • The 1982 NBA All-Star Game was played at the new Brendan Byrne Arena (now the Medowlands Arena ) in East Rutherford, New Jersey, with the East defeating the West 120–118. Larry Bird of the Boston Celtics wins the game's MVP award. This season also marked the New Jersey Nets first season in the new arena.
  • On March 6, 1982, San Antonio beat Milwaukee 171-166 in three overtime periods to set the record for most points by two teams in a game. The record was broken two seasons later.
  • Magic Johnson secures his second NBA Finals MVP award several months before his 23rd birthday.
  • The Los Angeles Lakers begin a string of nine consecutive seasons as the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference.
  • The Denver Nuggets scored at least 100 points in every single game of the season, the only time this has occurred in NBA history.
  • After a few years of success in NCAA basketball, the breakaway rim became standardized equipment in the NBA.


    • Notes

  • z – Clinched home court advantage for the entire playoffs and first round bye
  • c – Clinched home court advantage for the conference playoffs and first round bye
  • y – Clinched division title and first round bye
  • x – Clinched playoff spot

    • Playoffs

    Teams in bold advanced to the next round. The numbers to the left of each team indicate the team's seeding in its conference, and the numbers to the right indicate the number of games the team won in that round. The division champions are marked by an asterisk. Home court advantage does not necessarily belong to the higher-seeded team, but instead the team with the better regular season record; teams enjoying the home advantage are shown in italics.

    NBA awards

  • Most Valuable Player: Moses Malone, Houston Rockets
  • Rookie of the Year: Buck Williams, New Jersey Nets
  • Coach of the Year: Gene Shue, Washington Bullets
  • All-NBA First Team:
  • Larry Bird, Boston Celtics
  • George Gervin, San Antonio Spurs
  • Julius Erving, Philadelphia 76ers
  • Moses Malone, Houston Rockets
  • Gus Williams, Seattle SuperSonics
  • All-NBA Rookie Team:
  • Buck Williams, New Jersey Nets
  • Jay Vincent, Dallas Mavericks
  • Kelly Tripucka, Detroit Pistons
  • Isiah Thomas, Detroit Pistons
  • Jeff Ruland, Washington Bullets

    • Note: All information on this page were obtained on the History section on NBA.com

    References

    1981–82 NBA season Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA