was the one who scouted, acquired and signed almost everyone on the roster. The championship came about largely because of his vision and handiwork.

“Until you finally win it all, you can never gain the respect of everybody that you know what you’re doing,” Ferry said. “After we won it all, I became a little smarter.”

The franchise (now known as the Wizards) had experienced its share of playoff frustration. The Bullets won more games than any other team during the 1970s. But the team — first in Baltimore, then in Washington — got swept in the NBA Finals in 1971 and 1975.

Early playoff exits in 1976 and ’77 had some wondering if the team’s core of Wes Unseld and Elvin Hayes might be getting too old. Some in the organization thought about making radical changes.

But Ferry saw the situation as needing a tweak, not a rebuild. he tried to figure out what the team might need to break through. Back then, getting to the NBA Finals out of the Eastern Conference meant beating the Philadelphia 76ers — a squad that boasted stars like Doug Collins, Lloyd Free and Julius “Dr. J”

Erving, the most popular player in the league and its biggest drawing card.

Ferry kept abreast of the league by reading every out-of-town newspaper he could find. That’s how he kept tabs on who was hurt, who was unhappy, who might be acquired on the cheap.

His scouting methods might seem quaint or old-fashioned now. But this was a time before cable television and ESPN. The internet was still decades away.

Thanks to his old-school sleuthing, Ferry knew that Milwaukee small forward Bobby Dandridge played Erving as tough as anybody. The “Dr.” had said so himself.

When Dandridge became a free agent before the 1977-78 season, Ferry snapped him up, figuring it would pay off in the playoffs. If Dandridge could combat Erving, it might make a difference, he thought.

Dandridge was just what the Bullets needed. He had already won a title in Milwaukee with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and was supremely confident in his abilities; he always wanted to take the big shot.

“He was exactly what I’d hoped,” Ferry recalled. “He was a very good defender and he could score. ... He was one of the most complete, skilled players that we had on that team. In some ways, he had a little arrogance. He really thought he was good and he had been starved for recognition about how good he was.”

Even with Dandridge, the team struggled during the regular season because of injuries. In one January game, the team was so depleted it dressed just seven players.

Ferry struck again. His familiarity with the league led him to sign Charles Johnson, a diminutive, sharpshooting guard who’d been cut by Golden State in mid-season.

Johnson had helped the Warriors beat the Bullets for the crown in 1975.

Johnson initially was signed to a 10-game contract, but he won everyone over with his easygoing personality and his ability to get hot from the outside coming off the bench.

“CJ was kind of the X-factor that put us over the hump,” Ferry said.

It took time for the Bullets to gel; they finished just 44-38 in the regular season.

But Johnson came up big in the six-game upset of San Antonio in the conference semifinals, averaging 13.2 points off the bench.

In the conference finals against Philadelphia, Dandridge stunned everyone — everyone but Ferry — by outplaying Erving in another six-game upset. During that series, Dandridge averaged 22.8 points, 6.3 rebounds and 4.2 assists, while Erving produced 21.5 points, 9.3 rebounds and 3.3 assists.

“We just happened to pick up the right two guys who gave us something extra,”

Ferry said. “That was Charles Johnson and Dandridge. ”They didn’t carry the baggage of never having been there [the Finals] before. They were terrific and they knew what it was to win.”

Dandridge got the Bullets back on track after they lost Game 1 in the finals, scoring 34 points to ensure a win in Game 2. He and Johnson led the way in Game 7, scoring 19 points apiece as the Bullets finally claimed the title they’d chased so long.

“When a championship happens, there’s always all these positive reasons why it happened,” Ferry said. “When you get enough of those going for you, you’ve got it.”

Ferry was one of those reasons. He put all the pieces together.

He was reminded of that once again in March, when the members of the team gathered for a special ceremony at Capital One Arena downtown to commemorate the title-winning team.

“I looked around at everyone sitting there,” Ferry said. “And I thought to myself, ‘Gee whiz, I’m responsible for all these guys being here — every one of them.’ It just gave me a feeling of pride.” jmcnamara@capgaznews.com