But in ‘82, Cureton played a big reserve role, matching up against Abdul-Jabbar, even stripping the ball from the All-Star several times. You’ve got to be in the ballgame when sitting on the bench.”Ĭureton’s team went to the NBA finals in back-to-back seasons thanks to a combination of big names like Dr J, Malone, Darryl Dawkins and Andrew Toney, and backup players like Bobby Jones and Clint Richardson. “I’d watch for how I could have an advantage against him. “I watched Moses to see how he was guarding Kareem ,” says Cureton. But the next year, Philadelphia, led by Erving and the newly acquired Moses Malone swept Los Angeles, earning Cureton his first ring. In 1982, his 76ers eventually lost to the Lakers in the finals. And when the games began, he dutifully watched from the bench, noticing what the starters did in order to discern what he could emulate and what he could do differently. The same research on opposing players and team strategies. The same pregame routine, the same warmups. But Cureton says he approached NBA finals games like any other. During the regular season, Cureton started 137 games and played in a total of 674 on rosters with the likes of Michael Jordan, Isiah Thomas and Muggsy Bogues.
You have to prepare yourself like you’re going to be out there every single game.”ĭuring the course of his career, the Detroit-born Cureton played in 54 playoff games (he started in four) with three different teams. And you never know what’s going to happen – foul trouble, injuries. “With my situation, I never knew when I was going in. “Your mental focus is the most important thing you have to sharpen when it comes to the playoffs,” Cureton tells the Guardian.
But what exactly does it take to excel as a backup in the league – especially in June? Indeed, in this year’s NBA finals, players like Denver’s Bruce Brown Jr and Miami’s Duncan Robinson will undertake crucial roles coming off the bench for their squads. Though this all swirled in Cureton’s mind some 40 years ago, the task remains the same for players today. The playoffs are a different animal compared to the regular season and the NBA finals are even more pressurized. Still, the experience was jarring his first time in the league’s final series. It doesn’t matter that you’re a reserve on the sidelines, Cureton told himself. Don’t lose sight of how to help, even in small doses. But instead of focusing on what he didn’t know, the backup forward-center for the Julius Erving-led Philadelphia 76ers focused on what he could. B efore the 1982 NBA finals against the Los Angeles Lakers, Earl Cureton had no idea when he might play in the series.
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