The 1979 NBA World Championship Series at the conclusion of the 1978–79 season were won by the Seattle SuperSonics defeating the Washington Bullets 4 games to 1. The series was a rematch of the 1978 NBA Finals which the Washington Bullets had won 4–3. Due to a better regular season record, the Bullets had home-court advantage.

Dennis Johnson of the SuperSonics was the Finals Most Valuable Player while Gus Williams of the SuperSonics was the top scorer, averaging 28.6 points per game.

Besides the Seattle Metropolitans victory in the Stanley Cup in 1917, this remains Seattle's only men's professional sports championship. The SuperSonics reached the 1996 NBA Finals, but lost to the Chicago Bulls in six games. The Seattle Seahawks did not play for the National Football League championship until Super Bowl XL, losing to the Pittsburgh Steelers, and the Seattle Mariners have never reached Major League Baseball's World Series.

Coincidentally, the series (along with the 1978 NBA Finals) was informally known as the George Washington series, because both teams were playing in places named after the first President of the United States (the SuperSonics were playing in Seattle, the largest city in the State of Washington, and the Bullets were representing Washington, D.C. albeit playing in nearby Landover, Maryland).

The NBA Finals is the championship series of the NBA. The series was named the NBA World Championship Series until 1986.

The series is played between the winners of Western Conference Finals and Eastern Conference Finals. At the conclusion of the championship round, the winners of the NBA Finals are awarded the Larry O'Brien Championship Trophy. (Winners from 1946 to 1977 received the Walter A. Brown Trophy) The NBA Finals has been played at the conclusion of every NBA and BAA season in history, the first being held in 1947.

Since 1985, the winner of the NBA Finals has been determined through a 2–3–2 format. The first two and the last two games of the series are played at the arena of the team who earned home court advantage by having the better record during the regular season.

During the first decade the Minneapolis Lakers had the first NBA dynasty, winning 5 championships in 6 years under Hall of Fame head coach John Kundla. The team also featured George Mikan, one of the greatest players in the history of the NBA. Franchises which had previously been in the National Basketball League tended to dominate, especially the Minneapolis Lakers.

Dennis Wayne Johnson (September 18, 1954 – February 22, 2007) nicknamed "DJ", was an American, professional basketball player for the National Basketball Association's (NBA) Seattle SuperSonics, Phoenix Suns and Boston Celtics and coach of the Los Angeles Clippers. He was an alumnus of Dominguez High School, Los Angeles Harbor College and Pepperdine University.

A prototypical late bloomer, Johnson overcame early struggles and had a successful NBA playing career. Drafted 29th overall in 1976 by the Seattle SuperSonics, Johnson began his professional career as a shooting guard. He eventually led the Sonics to their only NBA championship in 1979, winning the Finals MVP Award. After a short stint with the Phoenix Suns, he became the starting point guard for the Boston Celtics, with whom he won two more championships. Johnson was voted into five All-Star Teams, one All-NBA First and one Second Team, and nine consecutive All-Defensive First and Second Teams. Apart from his reputation as a defensive stopper, Johnson was known as a clutch player who made several decisive plays in NBA playoffs history.

Earvin "Magic" Johnson Jr. (born August 14, 1959) is a retired American professional basketball player who played point guard for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). After winning championships in high school and college, Johnson was selected first overall in the 1979 NBA Draft by the Lakers. He won a championship and an NBA Finals Most Valuable Player Award in his rookie season, and won four more championships with the Lakers during the 1980s. Johnson retired abruptly in 1991 after announcing that he had contracted HIV, but returned to play in the 1992 All-Star Game, winning the All-Star MVP Award. After protests from his fellow players, he retired again for four years, but returned in 1996, at age 36, to play 32 games for the Lakers before retiring for the third and final time.

Johnson's career achievements include three NBA MVP Awards, nine NBA Finals appearances, twelve All-Star games, and ten All-NBA First and Second Team nominations. He led the league in regular-season assists four times, and is the NBA's all-time leader in average assists per game, at 11.2. Johnson was a member of the "Dream Team", the U.S. basketball team that won the Olympic gold medal in 1992.

Larry Joe Bird (born December 7, 1956) is a former American NBA basketball player and coach. Drafted into the NBA sixth overall by the Boston Celtics in 1978, Bird started at small forward and power forward for thirteen seasons, spearheading one of the NBA's most formidable frontcourts that included center Robert Parish and forward Kevin McHale. Due to chronic back problems, he retired as a player in 1992. Bird was voted to the NBA's 50th Anniversary All-Time Team in 1996 and inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1998. He served as head coach of the Indiana Pacers from 1997 to 2000. In 2003, he assumed the role of president of basketball operations for the Pacers, which he currently holds. He is the only person in NBA history to be named Most Valuable Player, Coach of the Year, and Executive of the Year.

Larry Bird was born in West Baden, Indiana, the son of Georgia (née Kerns) and Claude Joseph "Joe" Bird. He grew up in both West Baden and the adjacent town French Lick, which earned him the nickname "the Hick from French Lick" in his professional basketball career. Bird recalled how his mother would make do on the family's meager earnings: "If there was a payment to the bank due, and we needed shoes, she'd get the shoes, and then deal with them guys at the bank. I don't mean she wouldn't pay the bank, but the children always came first." According to Bird, his being poor as a child "motivates me to this day". He sometimes was sent to live with his grandmother due to the family's struggles. The Bird family's struggle with poverty was compounded by the alcoholism and personal difficulties of Joe Bird, who likely suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder from serving in the Korean War. Joe Bird committed suicide on February 3, 1975, when Larry was 18 years old.