Landsberger forever linked to Finals, Dr. J

It's one of the most famous plays in NBA Finals history, a jaw-dropping moment immortalized in videotape and captured for the ages.

It includes Julius Erving, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Magic Johnson, three of the greatest basketball players of all time.

It also includes a 6-foot-8 kid with Minnesota roots who was still 10 days shy of his 25th birthday at the moment the play transpired.

Mark Landsberger is 60 now, but he still sees that kid often.

"That's me," Landsberger said. "They've played that (on TV) thousands of times over the years.

"I see that to this day, and it brings back memories — that Dr. J move against me, where he scoops it under the basket. He scoops it past me."

It's May 11, 1980, Game 4 of the 1980 NBA Finals: Los Angeles Lakers vs. Philadelphia 76ers at The Spectrum in Philadelphia.

Erving — "Dr. J" — has the ball. He drives from the right wing to the baseline, avoids three defenders as he soars under the basket, and seems to hang in mid-air as he spins the ball off the backboard and into the hoop as he ducks under the rim.

"He drove past me, then Jabbar," Landsberger said. "He went under him and Magic. It's one of the greatest moves ever."

But Landsberger's favorite memory from the 1980 NBA Finals was the last one — the championship he and the Lakers won two games later.

They won another in 1982, and those titles were the pinnacle of his 16-year career in pro basketball.

"Those are good memories, you know? They're gone, but you're always going to have the memories," said Landsberger, who for the last nine years has lived with his aging parents on St. Cloud's southeast side. He works as an oven operator at Pan-O-Gold Baking in St. Cloud.

"Knowing you won the championships — not many players win championships," he said. "It's hard getting there."

But how did he get here? Well, it's been a circuitous path for Landsberger, who might be one of two living Minnesotans (Kevin McHale is the other) who owns more than one NBA Championship ring.

Full circle

After graduating from Mounds View High School in 1973, Landsberger led Allan Hancock College (Santa Monica) to the California junior college title in 1974 before joining the Minnesota Gophers for head coach Bill Musselman's final season (1974-75).

"Musselman — he was like an Army sergeant, really," said Landsberger, who averaged 15.3 points and 7.7 rebounds for the '74-'75 Gophers. "We had four-hour practices every day, 2 to 6.

"That would have been without a doubt the greatest team in Minnesota basketball history if we all would have stayed."

It included 6-10 freshman Mychal Thompson, the first selection in the 1978 NBA Draft ... 6-8 Mark Olberding, the Melrose native who was a first-round pick in 1975 ... and a little point guard named Phil "Flip" Saunders.

"(Flip) was my roommate on the road," Landsberger said. "Not really physically gifted, but a real heady player. Unselfish, didn't make any mistakes — just a perfect point guard, really."

The following year, future first-round pick Ray Williams joined the Gophers. The year after, it was future Hall of Famer McHale.

But Musselman left in 1975, just ahead of NCAA inspectors who uncovered more than 100 violations and put the Gopher program on probation.

Landsberger left, too, sitting out a transfer year before averaging 17.2 points and 14.4 rebounds per game in 1976-77 at Arizona State. That prompted the Chicago Bulls to select him with the 35th pick of the 1977 NBA Draft.

Midway through the 1979-80 season, Landsberger ended up in L.A. at exactly the right time.

"I was lucky to get traded to the Lakers," he said. "They needed a rebounder — that's why they got me."

He filled that role with the Lakers for 31/ 2 seasons, averaging 4.7 points and 5.2 rebounds in 14.3 minutes per game.

"Back in 1980, I played a lot — 18, 20 minutes a game," said Landsberger, who was the Lakers' first "big" off the bench that season. "Michael Cooper was sixth man, I was seventh man back then.

"It was pretty positive going to the Lakers and the really good team they had. I played with some of the greatest players ever."

The Lakers lost Game 4 of the 1980 Finals — the game in which Landsberger was posterized by Erving's spectacular move — but won Games 5 and 6 to take the title.

"I remember the sixth game, how Magic Johnson played center (with Abdul-Jabbar injured), and how he dominated and we won with Kareem not even playing," said Landsberger, who had 10 rebounds in Game 6. "I remember that game especially well."

The championship set off the obligatory celebration, which in Los Angeles entails celebrity sightings.

"Sometimes we'd invite Jack Nicholson to the parties and stuff," Landsberger said. "Even back then there were a lot of movie stars and actors."

Landsberger and the Lakers beat the 76ers in the Finals again in 1982, and lost to the 76ers in the 1983 Finals. By then, power forwards Kurt Rambis and Dwight Jones also were on the roster, squeezing Landsberger's playing time.

He played one more NBA season in Atlanta before heading overseas, where he set rebounding records during nine seasons in Italy, Greece, Spain and Argentina before retiring from basketball at age 38.

"The players back then were much tougher than they are now," Landsberger said. "It was much more physical, and they played with injuries more.

"It's a better game now. You look at the old films, and you see how skinny everybody looks," he said. "When I was playing in the NBA, I was about 235."

Homecoming

After retirement, Landsberger moved to Phoenix, where he owned a night club and a jewelry store/pawn shop. But by 2006, he was needed in St. Cloud.

"My mother (Betty, 84) has had cancer three times. My dad (Gerald) is 89," Landsberger said. "I came back here, helping my parents out."

The last nine years have been considerably more low-key. Some of his co-workers at Pan-O-Gold weren't even aware of Landsberger's basketball background.

"I never really talk about it — it was so long ago. Some of the people know," he said. "They just ask 'Did you ever play basketball?' even if they don't know me, just because of my height."

Landsberger still gets attention from autograph seekers, both at work and via the mail. But it's been five years since he's touched a basketball, although he still watches a lot of it.

"I've got the (NBA) League Pass. I watch a lot of games," said Landsberger, who follows the Timberwolves closely.

"They have a really bright future, I think," he said. "They're a year or two away to be a playoff team. (They have) a lot of good kids."

Landsberger is rooting for the Cavaliers in the current NBA Finals, simply because Cleveland is so overdue.

"They haven't won since Jim Brown and the Cleveland Browns, 1964," he said. "That'd be one of the greatest stories in history if LeBron James came back and won the championship. They're so starved for a winner."

But mostly, Landsberger just wants to see some memorable plays — like, say, the one that involves the skinny 24-year-old.

"You still see that today — before the NBA Finals, you'll see the Doctor," he said.

And, you'll see Mark Landsberger. In the annals of NBA Finals history, they're forever linked.

Contact Times columnist Dave DeLand at 255-8771 or ddeland@stcloudtimes.com. Follow him on Twitter @davedeland and on Facebook at Dave DeLand SC Times.