NBA Showdown - 1987-1988 Season

 With a current season set on the way, and the original based in the early 2000s, I wanted to include another generation of players. This leads to a better spread of player wealth and the 1987-88 season was a historic one for its time. While the star of Michael Jordan was shining prior, this particular season he made NBA history becoming the first player to win the league MVP, defensive player of the year and the scoring title. Also in this season John Stockton led the league in assists, which we later would find out would be the first on 9 straight years leading the league in assists. Michael Cage of the Clippers won the rebounding title over Charles Oakley by .03, one of the closest statistical margin victories in NBA history. 

This project came along rather quickly and I wasn't even expecting to do something like this but, I was watching some NBA action and got the itch. During this time period there was only 23 teams in the league although 4 more would be coming in the next two seasons as in this season the NBA awarded franchises to Charlotte and Miami who would debut the following season, and Minneapolis and Orlando who would start in the 1989-90 season.

The Los Angeles Lakers won the championship over the Detroit Pistons in a seven game series. There we some iconic performances in this long series as well. Isiah Thomas scored 25 points in the third quarter of game 6, a record that still stands today. While that was impressive as is, he sustained an ankle sprain in the game prior to that, and still managed to have a 43 point effort. In game 7 "Big Game" James Worthy became the first player to record a triple double in game 7 of the NBA Finals with an impressive stat line of 36 points, 16 rebounds and 10 assists.