“Blazers win!!!” screamed the front page of The Oregonian on June 6, 1977, one day after the Portland Trail Blazers won their first and only NBA championship by defeating the Philadelphia 76ers in Game 6 of the NBA Finals.

With Friday marking 43 years since Bill Walton, Maurice Lucas & Co. won that title, we are reprinting reporter Bob Robinson’s story from the front page of that June 6 edition of The Oregonian:

The improbable dream came true Sunday. The Portland Trail Blazers claimed the championship of the pro basketball world.

The Blazers, spurred by a record-shattering and screaming crowd of 12,951 at Memorial Coliseum, edged the Philadelphia 76ers, 109-107, to wrap up the National Basketball Association’s title series, four games to two.

In the process, Portland became only the second team in NBA history to come back from an 0-2 deficit in the Finals to take the crown. The Blazers were the first to win four straight after losing the first two.

“Basically, what went wrong for Philadelphia was that we were a better team,” said Blazer center Bill Walton, who won a new car from Sport Magazine after being voted most valuable player for the series. “I think we worked harder than everyone else and deserved to win.”

It wasn’t easy, though, and the Blazers didn’t clinch the victory until the final seconds when George McGinnis of the Sixers fired a 15-foot jumper from the left side of the key which bounced off the rim.

Walton leaped high, tipped the ball to the side and it was retrieved by Blazer guard Johnny Davis, who dribbled toward center court as time ran out.

“I just felt good all over,” said Walton of his thoughts as he saw Davis running out the clock.

Then pandemonium broke loose. The wildly enthusiastic Portland fans streamed onto the court like a horde of locusts. Nets were stripped from each basket and the rims broken in two. Players were mobbed.

In a spontaneous move, Walton pulled off his jersey and threw it into the crowd.

“It was just something I did,” Walton said in a Blazer dressing room which was full of media people, well-wishers and others who sneaked in just to enjoy the excitement. “I don’t know why I did it.”

The celebrating among the fans continued for hours — outside the Coliseum and all over the city.

“It’s a great feeling,” Walton said of the championship, “the greatest for me. It was nice when we won those (two) national titles at UCLA, but this was nicer because all the best players in the country are involved.”

The game was an extremely well-played one by both teams, the first time in the series that both teams performed so efficiently at the same time.

Even McGinnis, mired in a shooting slump through the first five games, came alive with 12 of 23 shooting from the field and 28 points.

Along with a game-high 40 points from the Doctor, Julius Erving, Philadelphia was an awesome challenge.

However, the Blazers had their own guns and also the poise to handle the crush of the Sixers’ late rally.

Walton, the team-oriented redhead with the massive qualities of leadership, had 20 points, 23 rebounds, seven assists and eight blocked shots. But, he wasn’t alone.

“Nobody on this team is a star,” said forward Maurice Lucas. “Everybody knew their job and did it. We were a team all the way.”

Lucas, who finished with 15 points, had one of his rare cold shooting games, but still made several key plays in the final five minutes when the decision was on the line.

Forward Bob Gross again led the Blazers in scoring with 24 points and sank a torrid 12 of 16 shots from the field. It ended an incredible series for the second-year player from Long Beach State in which he averaged 17.3 points per game and shot an incredible .667 from the field (46-69).

Guard Lionel Hollins may have been the pivotal Blazer Sunday, though. His statistics of 20 points, eight rebounds and four steals only tell part of it.

Casually chewing his bubble gum and occasionally blowing bubbles in the heat of battle, Hollins put a collar on Doug Collins of the Sixers and reduced him to an ordinary-looking player. Collins was able to get off only two shots in the first half and wound up with only six points for the game.

“I adjusted my defense some against Doug as the series went along,” Hollins said. “I found that he plays better, is more of a threat, when he doesn’t have the ball. He sets himself up by moving without the ball. I concentrated on being more aware of him when he was without the ball. It worked out pretty well.”

Hollins admitted he felt relaxed during the game.

“I had a good night’s sleep and came to the arena feeling good,” he said. “I figured it wouldn’t be the end of the world if we lost. We still would have had a chance to win it in the seventh game at Philadelphia.”

Rookie Johnny Davis and reserves Dave Twardzik, Lloyd Neal and Corky Calhoun also made vital contributions.

“Davis deserves a lot of credit,” said Portland coach Jack Ramsay. “He came to us after his junior year of college and he would just be graduating about now (if he had stayed in school). He did a job for us, kept his cool and played well.”

Dripping with champagne, Ramsay said at a special presentation of the championship trophy: “Every player on our team has a piece of this trophy. They all played a part.”

Then Ramsay insisted that all 12 of his players come into the room where NBA Commissioner Larry O’Brien was making the presentation.

“Everybody in here,” Ramsay said, “because you all won this trophy.”

The game was a shootout from the opening tip. However, after falling behind 24-18 when the Sixers put together eight straight points, the Blazers went to work in earnest.

In just over five minutes, they turned that five-point deficit into a 27-26 lead on Hollins’ driving jumper from the key.

It was 27-27 after the first quarter and Philadelphia hung tough and led 38-36 after Erving’s three-point play with 8:50 left in the half.

Then the Blazers put together one of their most ferocious surges of the season, outscoring the Sixers 21-4 over the next five minutes to take a 57-42 lead.

All the starters had a hand in the scoring and Walton blocked one of the Doctor’s driving shots on a play that drew a gigantic roar from the revved-up crowd.

Still, the Sixers wouldn’t fade, as many thought they might. They fought back to within 67-55 at halftime and kept themselves alive despite the Blazers’ best efforts throughout the second half.

Portland had a 91-82 lead heading into the final quarter and then the Sixers, with Erving and McGinnis sparking the charge, made their belated and dangerous bid.

Twice they got within five points — at 91-86 and 93-88 — only to have the Blazers spurt away.

Finally, though, after Portland had used six points by Gross to earn a 102-90 edge, they made their most threatening gesture of all, scoring eight points in a row to close the gap to 102-98.

It was a war after that and Lucas’ two steals and three free throws in the last two minutes were pivotal.

Lucas’ last gift throw with 27 seconds left made it 109-105 before McGinnis’ outside jumper got the Sixers within 109-107 and the Eastern Conference champions got the ball back after a jump ball. But Gross blocked a shot by Lloyd Free and McGinnis missed his 15-footer.

The Blazers were home, champions of the world.

— Bob Robinson, The Oregonian, 1977