If they win Game 7, the Washington Wizards would advance to the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time since 1979. It’s the longest streak in the league and an ironic one when you consider their opponent is the Boston Celtics.
The Wizards are playing in their 1st Game 7 since Jimmy Carter was president
Their opponents, the Celtics, have played 17 Game 7s in that same time span.
The Celtics are historically one of the league’s leading dynasties, and they have been to the NBA Finals seven times since the last time the Wizards made it, winning four times. In fact, the more you look at the stats, the more you realize how wild it is.
This is the Wizards’ first Game 7 in that span. The Celtics have had 17.
Boston somehow attracts Game 7s. In their 2008 championship run, they had two, and of course they lost in Game 7 to the Lakers in the 2010 finals.
Naturally, the playoff games are also dramatically slanted in Boston’s favor, with 115 games played in the conference finals and NBA finals in the past 38 seasons compared to Washington’s zero.
Here are a few things that happened in 1979.
- Voyager 1 passing and photographing Jupiter.
- Kramer vs. Kramer is the highest grossing movie and wins Best Picture.
- McDonald’s introduces the Happy Meal.
- The first Star Trek movie premieres at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C.
- The last total solar eclipse visible from the continental United States until, ironically, 2017.
It’s been a long time for the Wizards, who have had to watch their division rivals Celtics dominate the league during the same period. Now, maybe they can earn a tiny bit of revenge and knock them out of the playoffs in Game 7.
