On All-Star gameday, the NBA honors its 75th anniversary team.

On All-Star gameday, the NBA honors its 75th anniversary team.

Cleveland — The NBA is celebrating its 75th anniversary squad on Sunday (Monday, Manila time) at the All-Star Game, but it’s unlikely that the league will be able to recreate the magic of 25 years ago when it returns to Cleveland.

In 1997, Michael Jordan climbed up first, the game’s reigning superstar a fitting leadoff to the 50th anniversary team celebration.

George Mikan was last, the player considered the NBA’s first superstar getting a helping hand onto the platform in front of him from Bill Russell.

The golden anniversary ceremony was simple yet stirring.

Celebrating the 75th anniversary team is anything but simple. Some players have died and others are unwilling — or unable — to travel amid the coronavirus pandemic. Back in 1997, all but one of those 50 greats were still alive and 47 of the 50 were in attendance.

The players who will be in Cleveland are cherishing another chance to remember the past and celebrate the present.

Hall of Famer Bob Pettit remarked on Friday, “It’s just nice to be here, to be remembered, and to have the chance to see and visit with some of the old guys that I remember and watch the new ones.” “And that’s special good.”

The 89-year-old former star of the St. Louis Hawks in the 1950s and 1960s uses a cane to aid in his balance. When players from the past get together, he claimed to still see a few, if not many, of his former teammates.

Elvin Hayes, the Hall of Famer, ran into his former Baltimore Bullets colleague Archie Clark, who advised him to give the ball to the big man more often. Nearly 50 years later, that doesn’t seem like much of an acknowledgement.

“He didn’t give it to me when he was playing with us,” Hayes chuckled before becoming more serious about these get-togethers.

“But I think that it also gives you an opportunity to miss people,” he continued. “Wes Unseld’s absence is missed. It’s one of those situations where you appreciate the guys who are here a lot, but you also miss the guys who are not here, like in the case of Nate Thurman.