1981 NBA Finals - Aftermath

Aftermath

The Celtics, who suffered through a down period in the late 1970s after winning the 1976 NBA title, reasserted themselves as a powerhouse throughout most of the 1980s. Boston won the NBA championship in 1984 and 1986 and reached the Finals in 1985 and 1987, although Fitch was replaced by K.C. Jones as coach after the Celtics were swept in the 1983 playoffs by the Milwaukee Bucks in the conference semifinals. Bird was named the league's Most Valuable Player three times in the decade, Parish became one of the NBA's most dominant centers and Kevin McHale moved from bench player to All-Star at power forward. Maxwell was the sixth man on the 1984 championship team, but was traded before the 1985-86 season to the Los Angeles Clippers for Bill Walton. Archibald was replaced at point guard in 1983 by Dennis Johnson, who arrived in a trade with the Phoenix Suns. Following the 1981 season, the Celtics drafted Danny Ainge of BYU, who became the team's starting shooting guard after a brief career in baseball with the Toronto Blue Jays.

The Rockets reached the playoffs in the 1981-82 season, but then experienced a precipitous decline which coincided with Malone's trade to Philadelphia, where he joined with Julius Erving to lead the 76ers to the 1982-83 NBA championship. Houston posted the NBA's worst record in the 1982-83 season and the second-worst, three games ahead of the Indiana Pacers, in the 1983-84 season, and earned the number one pick in the draft each time. Those were the last two drafts when the number one pick was determined by a coin flip between the worst team in each conference; the lottery was instituted in 1985 in response to rumors of the Rockets throwing games late in both season in order to secure a higher draft pick.

The Rockets selected Ralph Sampson and Hakeem Olajuwon with those picks and hired Fitch as coach after he was fired by the Celtics following the 1982-83 season. Houston returned to the NBA Finals in 1986, where they would once again lose to Boston in six games. Robert Reid and Allen Leavell were the only remaining members of the 1981 team to play in the 1986 Finals (Reid wore No. 50 in the 1981 Finals, but upon his return in 1983, Sampson already had No. 50, forcing Reid to wear No. 33).