1975–76 NBA season
The 1975–76 NBA season was the 30th season of the National Basketball Association. The season ended with the Boston Celtics winning the NBA Championship, beating the Phoenix Suns 4 games to 2 in the NBA Finals.
Notable occurrences
- Larry O'Brien begins his tenure as the league's third commissioner.
- The 1976 NBA All-Star Game was played at The Spectrum in Philadelphia, with the Eastern Conference beating the Western Conference 123–109. Dave Bing of the Washington Bullets wins the game's MVP award.
- The Kansas City-Omaha Kings are renamed the Kansas City Kings as they settle into a permanent home in Kansas City, Missouri.
- The New Orleans Jazz moved into the cavernous Louisiana Superdome after splitting their inaugural season between two inadequate facilities, the Loyola University Fieldhouse and New Orleans Municipal Auditorium.
- The Houston Rockets play their inaugural season in The Summit.
- It was the final season for Don Nelson, Pat Riley and Jerry Sloan AS PLAYERS.
- Game 4 of the NBA Finals was first game ever played in the month of June.
- Arguably the greatest NBA game ever played occurred in Game 5 of the NBA Finals when the Celtics and the Suns went into triple-overtime before the Celtics prevailed 128-126. 17 years later, the Suns would be involved in another triple-overtime Finals game.
- This was the final season before the NBA-ABA merger.
- Dick Bavetta began his Hall of Fame officiating career, replacing the retired Mendy Rudolph, who suffered a blood clot in his lung during a 1975 playoff game and became an analyst for CBS Sports. Bavetta went on to set the record for most games officiated with 2,635 by the time he retired in 2014.
- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar won the League MVP with his new team, the Los Angeles Lakers, despite missing the playoffs.
Final standings
By division
By conference
Notes
- z, y – division champions
- x – clinched playoff spot
Playoffs
| First Round | Conference Semifinals | Conference Finals | NBA Finals | |||||||||||||||
| E4 | Philadelphia | 1 | E1 | Boston* | 4 | |||||||||||||
| E5 | Buffalo | 2 | E5 | Buffalo | 2 | |||||||||||||
| E1 | Boston* | 4 | ||||||||||||||||
| Eastern Conference | ||||||||||||||||||
| E2 | Cleveland* | 2 | ||||||||||||||||
| E3 | Washington | 3 | ||||||||||||||||
| E2 | Cleveland* | 4 | ||||||||||||||||
| E1 | Boston* | 4 | ||||||||||||||||
| W3 | Phoenix | 2 | ||||||||||||||||
| W4 | Milwaukee* | 1 | W1 | Golden State* | 4 | |||||||||||||
| W5 | Detroit | 2 | W5 | Detroit | 2 | |||||||||||||
| W1 | Golden State* | 3 | ||||||||||||||||
| Western Conference | ||||||||||||||||||
| W3 | Phoenix | 4 | ||||||||||||||||
| W3 | Phoenix | 4 | ||||||||||||||||
| W2 | Seattle | 2 | ||||||||||||||||
* Division winner
Bold Series winner
Italic Team with home-court advantage
Statistics leaders
NBA awards
- Most Valuable Player: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Los Angeles Lakers
- Rookie of the Year: Alvan Adams, Phoenix Suns
- Coach of the Year: Bill Fitch, Cleveland Cavaliers
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Note: All information on this page were obtained on the History section on NBA.com