You can erase one of the sports world's favorite clichés. Just wipe it right out. At least one record is not meant to be broken.
What's more, no one has even come close.
On Nov. 5, 1971, the Lakers began a winning streak that didn't end until 65 days later, on Jan. 9, 1972. They won 33 straight games. The average margin of victory was 17 points.
Bill Sharman's plaid jacket never looked so good as during the Lakers' unfathomable 33-game winning streak.
As unrepeatable as the streak was, it somehow remains vastly undersold.
The record is immune to wear and tear, time and circumstance, skill and will. It's like some cathedral in London that stands more impressively than when you first laid eyes on it decades ago. When the run was over, Lakers forward Jim McMillian waxed prophetic.
"We just finished a streak that I don't believe any other team is going to break," McMillian told the Los Angeles Times after the run ended in Milwaukee.
If prescience is the ability to tell the future, McMillian's gentle boast was doubly prescient. Since January 1972, only two teams have gotten halfway to 33. The Celtics won 18 straight in 1982, and Chicago ran off 18 during its rush to 72 wins and a title in 1996.
Read Full Article »