YouTube Gold: The Brilliant 1983 Philadelphia 76ers

This team was as good as any team you’ve ever seen.

When the ABA and NBA merged, a number of great stars joined the senior league, including David Thompson, George Gervin and Dan Issel.

Three of the best ended up starting for the Philadelphia 76ers great 1983 championship team: Bobby Jones, Moses Malone and Julius Erving.

Erving got there first when the Nets realized they could not afford to keep him. Jones and Malone followed in 1978 and 1982 respectively.

The Sixers had drafted Maurice Cheeks in 1978 and Andrew Toney in 1980 and those five were the basis of one of the greatest NBA lineups of all time.

In 1983, they were just tremendous.

Magic Johnson and Larry Bird dominated the 1980’s, along with Michael Jordan, but the great Philadelphia team of 1983 was as good as any team in NBA history. Philly near fulfilled Malone’s famous prediction of winning “four, four, four,” in the playoffs, losing just once, to Milwaukee, in the Eastern Conference Finals.

Here are highlights of that brilliant team as they crushed Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and the Los Angeles Lakers in four games.