The NBA Finals have given us countless unforgettable moments, not the least of which came Thursday night when the Celtics put up a historically dominant fourth quarter to stun the Warriors. Giannis’s 50-point closeout. The chase-down block. Ray Allen from the corner. The flu game. Magic’s baby skyhook. Willis Reed on one leg. Dig a little deeper, though, and you’ll find some tales that are equally remarkable but have been forgotten by time. Here are four of those story lines, beginning with, well, the beginning.
1947: The forgotten, tragic superstar
In the Warriors’ long line of gunners, no one—not Purvis Short, not Steph Curry, not even World B. Free—has been as unapologetic as Joe Fulks. Seventy-five years ago Fulks was the hero of the first NBA Finals, which the Philadelphia Warriors won in five games over the Chicago Stags. Actually the league was called the BAA at the time, and the games were most commonly referred to as the “world series” by the very few journalists who took note. The much bigger battle between Philly and Chicago in the spring of 1947 was who would get to host the following year’s Republican National Convention. Philadelphia won that battle on April 21. The Warriors closed out the Stags 4–1 the next night.
