And I'm sorry but when 2 teams play in like 65% of a league's final series(boston and la over the history of the NBA), and have half of the titles, the league just isn't doing a good job making things fair for the other 28 teams but that's a different topic I guess. Just another reason I really like the NFL a whole lot better than the NBA, despite loving to play basketball a whole lot more than football.
Auerbach, Sharman/West, Buss. That's the bottom line difference between those teams and the rest: refs, market size, weather, nightlife, soul food restaurants, etc etc are less significant. Knowledge, talent, expertise and
connections in the FOs of Boston and LA have stockpiled over their long histories while most other teams struggle to gain them on the fly. It's like poor people having no clue what rich people know about making money. Name any HOFer either team has had and the way they landed them will come down to shrewdness, duping those "other" franchises, or blind luck. Magic, Worthy, Bird, and McHale (w/ Parish as a throw in) were all gotten by other teams giving up unprotected 1st rounders that they had no idea would turn into what they did. It's amazing when you go over each of those deals how the chips invariably fell in Boston's and LA's favor, truly "truth stranger than fiction" odds.
This sport is not like the others, only 12 players, superstars dominate by the nature of the game itself, individual talent gap has a bigger effect here than it does in football or baseball. Barry Bonds vs his counterpart compared to MJ vs Ehlo.
hoops, you and VF would remember this better than me, but GS, Indy, and Clev all had gold home jerseys for a time in the 70s and early 80s. I think all the gold jerseys were ditched by around 84-85. I think GS was wearing gold back when the Lakers were still wearing white, aamof.