J-Speaks: Looking Back at The 1987 NBA All-Star Game

On Feb. 8, 1987, the 37^th Annual NBA All-Star Game took place at the Kingdome in Seattle, WA. The game had star power across the board and many of those players would eventually become members of the Naismith Hall of Fame. The MVP of that unofficial mid-season classic was a player who was replacement for someone who was injured and could not participate. The game though will be remembered for a Dallas Maverick who authored a classic moment in All-Star history.

In a game that featured the likes of Earvin “Magic” Johnson, Larry Bird, Robert Parrish, Charles Barkley, Michael Jordan, Dominque Wilkins, Moses Malone to name a few of the best to ever play on the NBA hardwood, it was four-time All-Star guard Rolando Blackman of the Dallas Mavericks whose two late free throws in the closing moments of the fourth quarter that tied the game and the West went on to beat the Eastern Conference All-Stars 154-149 in overtime.

Tom Chambers, who was selected to play because Houston Rockets forward Ralph Sampson was injured and could not play scored 34 points on 13 for 25 from the field and took home MVP honors.

What separated this game from All-Star games played today is right from the jump, guys were getting after each other and never letting up. Everybody was out there to win.

“We were getting inside of everyone’s jock and making sure that you earned your All-Star spot,” Blackman said to NBATV’s “The Starters,” Leigh Ellis. “It was a game and it was a tough game to play with real defense.”

Chambers, who is the pregame and postgame analyst for the Phoenix Suns on FOX Sports Arizona echoed those same thoughts to Ellis when he said, “Back then, they played hard and they wanted to win the basketball games. It was really, really competitive between the East and the West.”

Hall of Famer, back-to-back champion with the Detroit Pistons, 12-time All-Star and NBATV analyst Isiah Thomas also said to Ellis that while the game was an exhibition that everyone came into the game with the competitive fire burning and it was on full display.

The East managed to get the lead up to 12 with about five minutes remaining and the West head coach of that game in Hall of Famer and current President of the Miami Heat Pat Riley puts Chambers back into the game and the West made a major comeback thanks to Johnson, Chambers, and Blackman, who increased the tempo of the game and ran the East up and down the court.

The East reclaimed the lead when Malone tipped in a missed fade away jumper by current NBATV/NBA on TNT analyst Kevin McHale.

The West called a time out and in the huddle, Riley diagramed a play where Blackman said to Ellis that it gave the ability for whoever received the ball from out of bounds could catch pivot and drive the ball to the whole. Blackman was the final option to come to the ball from the left side and that is what happen. Blackman caught the pass, drove hard to the basket, and drew the foul from Thomas with time having expired.

“I thought he was going to pump and then take it back, but he didn’t take it back. I was trying to go behind and smack it, but I think I smacked him in the head,” Thomas said to Ellis laughing.

When Blackman heard the buzzer sound and the foul was called simultaneously, he said that he went into a cocoon and brought himself to a place where he could go to the charity stripe and make the two foul shots.

Thomas knowing that Blackman was a guy who was as meticulous as they come trashed talked him as much as possible while his good friend “Magic” Johnson was doing his best of keep Thomas from distracting Blackman like covering his mouth and pushing him away from Blackman.

“When no one’s on the court, it’s a little of a different feel,” Blackman said. “So, you’re just trying to concentrate on the rim. Put the basketball up to the circle that I see. Making sure that it is in arc form and that I can get to the point that. Release the basketball up and over and it hit the front. Hit the back and jumped in.”

The second free throw would usher in a phrase that would go down as one of the best moments in NBA and All-Star Game history.

When Blackman released the second free throw, he yelled, “Confidence baby!!! Confidence!!!” That free throw, which tied the game at 140 was nothing but net and brought a loud roar from the 34,275 in attendance.

When Blackman went back to the sidelines, he was received high fives and congrats from some of the guys that would end up in Springfield, MA like “Magic” Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

“For me it was just a special time, simply because when you get into that moment and your able to come through it just galvanizes everything. It puts a stamp on the person that you are and the player that you are in that instance.”

One person who had a chance to see that moment was Ellis, who at age 11 got a hold of a VHS cassette of the 1987 NBA All-Star Game and watched that tape of the game from his home in Australia. It was the first NBA game Ellis said and he became hooked on the game and now host NBATV’s “The Starters,” which airs weekdays on NBATV with Tas Melas, J.E. Skeets and Trey Kerby.

That game Ellis saw featured 14 players that are now as mentioned earlier in the Hall of Fame. It was also the 11^th and final All-Star Game for Julius “Dr. J.” Erving, one of the players in Springfield and it was the first of 11 All-Star game appearances for Hall of Famer and NBA on TNT studio analyst Charles Barkley.

Blackman had a chance to re-create that classic moment with Ellis when they went onto the court of the American Airlines Center, home of the Dallas Mavericks and like he did 30 years and 11 days ago, Blackman in a dress shirt, dress pants and dress shoes nailed the free throw.

Ellis had a chance to be in the same moment and nailed the free throw and screamed those same words that Blackman did back then, “Confidence baby!!! Confidence!!!”

What that 1987 unofficial mid-season classic displayed more than anything is that 24 of the best in the world came into the game with an opportunity to show that they belonged and they lived up to moment, especially Blackman.

He went from a solid player that not well known to the public, to a player that authored a timeless moment in NBA All-Star Game history.

Chambers was given a chance to play with some of the very best in the game then and some of the best in NBA history and showed he belonged on the floor as much as them.

That is one comparison to what might happen in the 66^th Annual NBA All-Star Game at the Smoothie King Center tonight on TNT at 8:30 p.m. because New York Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony has that same opportunity. The East must win for a chance of that happening and going up against a high-powered offensive group in the West, which features four-time All-Star Anthony Davis of the hometown New Orleans Pelicans, those chances seem small.

One similarity with that contest and this one tonight is that there will be some showmanship. The hope is that is throughout the game like it was 30 years back. We will just have to wait and see.

Information and quotations are courtesy of 2/19/17 NBATV’s “The Starters,” with Tas Melas, J.E. Skeets, Leigh Ellis and Trey Kerby; www.basketball-reference.com/allstar/NBA_1987.html; http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1987_NBA_All-Star_Game and http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolando_Blackman.