Early life and college career

Isiah Thomas was born on April 30, 1961, in Chicago, Illinois. The youngest of nine brothers and sisters, he commuted from the North Lawndale neighborhood on the West Side of Chicago to play high school basketball at St. Joseph High School in Westchester, Illinois. He would wake up at 5 am and commute 90 minutes to attend the prestigious private school. He played for Bob Knight’s Hoosiers at Indiana University. In 1981, Thomas led the Hoosiers to the NCAA Tournament National Championship and earned the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player award. After accomplishing this in his sophomore season, Thomas made himself eligible for the NBA Draft.

NBA playing career

In the 1981 NBA Draft, the Detroit Pistons chose Thomas and signed him to a four-year $1.6 million contract. Thomas made the All-Rookie team and started for the Eastern Conference in the 1982 All-Star Game.

In the opening round of the 1984 NBA Playoffs, Thomas and the Pistons faced off against Bernard King and the New York Knicks. In the pivotal fifth game, Thomas was having a subpar performance, while Bernard King was having an excellent game. However, Thomas scored 16 points in the last 94 seconds to force the game into overtime. King and the Knicks, however, held on to win in overtime.

In the 1985 NBA Playoffs, Thomas and his team went to the conference semi-finals against the 15-time NBA champion Boston Celtics led by Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, Robert Parish, and Dennis Johnson. Detroit couldn’t shake the Celtics in their six-game series, eventually losing.

In the 1987 NBA Playoffs, Thomas and the Pistons went to the Eastern Conference Finals and faced the Boston Celtics. It was the farthest the team had advanced since moving from Fort Wayne when they were the Zollner-Pistons. The Pistons were able to tie the Celtics at two games apiece. Detroit’s hope of winning Game 5 was dashed at the Boston Garden with seconds remaining in a play by Larry Bird: Thomas attempted to quickly inbound the ball, Larry Bird stole the inbound pass and passed it to Dennis Johnson for the game-winning layup.

In 1988 the Pistons’ first trip to the Finals saw them face the Los Angeles Lakers, who were led by Magic Johnson, James Worthy, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Prior to the series, Thomas and Johnson would exchange a courtside kiss on the cheek prior to tip-off as a sign of their deep friendship. After taking a 3-2 series lead back to Los Angeles, Detroit appeared poised to win their first NBA title in Game 6.

One of Thomas’ most inspiring and self-defining moments came in Game 6. Although he had severly sprained his ankle late in the game, Thomas continued to play. While hobbling and in obvious pain, Isiah scored 25 points in a single quarter of the contest, an NBA finals record. However, the Lakers won the game 103-102 on a pair of last-minute free throws by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar following a foul called on Bill Laimbeer. With Isiah Thomas unable to compete at full strength the Lakers were able to take advantage and narrowly clinched their second consecutive title in Game 7, 108-105.

In the 1988-89 season, Thomas, along with fellow teammates Adrian Dantley, Joe Dumars, Rick Mahorn, Vinnie Johnson, Dennis Rodman, James Edwards, John Salley, Bill Laimbeer, and Mark Aguirre, guided his team to a then-franchise record 63-19 record. Detroit played a brash and dominating brand of basketball through the playoffs that led to their nickname “Bad Boys”. With Boston’s injuries persisting, the Pistons defeated Michael Jordan and the up and coming Chicago Bulls in the Conference Finals, to set up an NBA Finals rematch with the Lakers. Thomas and the Pistons then won their first of back-to-back championships when they defeated the Lakers in a 4-game sweep. The following year, Thomas was voted NBA Finals Most Valuable Player of the 1990 NBA Finals after averaging 27.6 points per game, 7.0 assists per game, and 5.2 rebounds per game in the series with Clyde Drexler’s Portland Trail Blazers. The Pistons continued to play well between 1991 and 1993 but were not able to return to the NBA Finals as they were eclipsed by the growing Chicago Bulls dynasty. An aging and ailing Thomas tore his Achilles’ tendon in April 1994 and decided to end his career as a player the following month in May.

Thomas, a 6-1, 185-pound point guard, ranks as one of the best players of all-time. His toughness and competitive fire won many admirers as well as adversaries over the years. He was named to the All-NBA First team three times and is the Pistons’ all-time leader in points, steals, games played and assists. Thomas ranks fourth in NBA history in assists (9,061, 9.3 apg) and ranks ninth in NBA history in steals (1,861). Thomas was known for his dribbling ability as well as his uncanny ability to drive to the basket and score. His number 11 was retired by the Detroit Pistons.

International career

Thomas was selected to the 1980 Olympic team, but like all American athletes he was not able to play in Moscow due to the Olympics boycott. The boycotting countries instead participated in the gold medal series, a series of games against NBA teams, a French team and the 1976 Olympic gold medal team in various U.S. cities, recording a 5-1 record (losing to the Seattle SuperSonics). Isiah shot 22-55 from the field and 14-17 from the line. He led the U.S. in assists with 37 (the next highest total on the team was 17) and averaged 9.7 points per game.

Despite his talent, Thomas was left off the original Olympic Dream Team, possibly as a result of his alleged feud with Michael Jordan. After Tim Hardaway left the team due to injury he was named to Dream Team II for the 1994 World Championship of Basketball, but did not play due to his Achilles tendon injury that caused his retirement. He was replaced by Kevin Johnson.

Post-NBA career

Toronto Raptors

After retiring Thomas became part owner and Executive Vice President for the expansion Toronto Raptors in 1994. In 1998, he left the organization after a dispute with new management over the franchise’s direction and his future responsibilities. During his four-year tenure with the team, the Raptors drafted Damon Stoudamire, Marcus Camby and high-schooler Tracy McGrady.

Broadcasting

After leaving the Raptors, Thomas became a television commentator (first as the lead game analyst with play-by-play man Bob Costas and then as part of the studio team) for NBA on NBC. Thomas also worked a three-man booth with Costas and Doug Collins.

CBA

Thomas became the owner of the Continental Basketball Association (CBA) from 1998 to 2000. After his purchase of the CBA for $5 million, the league was forced into bankruptcy and folded, after Thomas rejected an offer from the NBA for $11 million to make it an official minor league of the NBA. Many CBA managers blamed Thomas for the league’s failure, citing mismanagement and out-of-control spending on his part. Many such managers publicly declared that Thomas ran the league into the ground, possibly on purpose to eliminate the non-NBA-owned minor league in order to make room for the NBA-owned NBDL.

Indiana Pacers

From 2000 to 2003, Thomas coached the Indiana Pacers, succeeding Larry Bird, who previously coached the Pacers to the NBA Eastern Conference title. Thomas attempted to bring up young talents such as Jermaine O’Neal, Jamaal Tinsley, Al Harrington, and Jeff Foster. Unfortunately the Pacers under Thomas were not able to stay at the elite level as they went through the transition from a veteran-dominated, playoff-experienced team. In his first two seasons with the Pacers, the team was eliminated in the first round by the Philadelphia 76ers and the New Jersey Nets who did happen to go to the NBA Finals in those years.

In his last year with the Pacers, Thomas guided the Pacers to a 48-34 record in the regular season and coached the East squad at the 2003 NBA All-Star Game. The game was also Michael Jordan’s final All-Star game. Thomas was criticized for overplaying Jordan during the game as an attempt to make up for their past feud.[citation needed] As the third seed, the Pacers were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs by the sixth-seeded Boston Celtics. With blossoming talents such as Brad Miller, Ron Artest, Al Harrington and Jamaal Tinsley, along with the veteran leadership of Reggie Miller, the perception existed that the Pacers’ unfulfilled potential stemmed from Isiah Thomas’ inexperience as a coach. In the off-season, Larry Bird returned to the Pacers as President of Basketball Operations, and his first act was to replace Thomas with Rick Carlisle.

New York Knicks

On December 22, 2003, the New York Knicks hired Thomas as President of Basketball Operations. Thomas was ultimately unsuccessful with the Knicks roster and fanbase. At the end of the 2005-06 season, the Knicks had the highest payroll in the league and the second-worst record. He traded away several future draft picks to Chicago in a deal for Eddy Curry including what turned out to be two lottery picks in talent-rich drafts.

On June 22, 2006, the Knicks fired coach Larry Brown, and owner James Dolan replaced him with Thomas under the condition that he show “evident progress” or be fired.

During the following season the Knicks became embroiled in a brawl with the Denver Nuggets, which Thomas allegedly instigated by ordering his players to commit a hard foul in the paint. However, he was not fined or suspended. NBA Commissioner David Stern said that he only relied on “definitive information” when handing out punishments. Later in the season, nine months after James Dolan demanded “evident progress”, the Knicks re-signed Thomas to an undisclosed “multi-year” contract. After Thomas was granted the extension, the Knicks abruptly fell from playoff contention with a dismal finish to the season.

During the 2007 Draft, Thomas made another trade by acquiring Zach Randolph, Fred Jones, and Dan Dickau from the Portland Trail Blazers for Steve Francis and Channing Frye.

Thomas also compounded the Knicks’ salary cap problems by signing fringe players such as Jerome James and Jared Jeffries to full mid-level exception contracts. Neither player has seen any significant playing time and both are often injured and when able to play are highly ineffective.

Despite the constant criticism that he received from Knicks fans, Thomas maintained that he had no intention of leaving until he turned the team around and he predicted that he would lead the Knicks to a championship, stating that his goal was to leave behind a “championship legacy” with the Knicks, just as he had done for the Detroit Pistons. This prediction was met with widespread skepticism.

On April 2, 2008, Donnie Walsh was introduced to replace Thomas as President of Basketball Operations for the Knicks. Walsh would not comment definitively on whether or not Thomas would be retained in any capacity at the time of his hiring.

One night after the Knicks tied a franchise record of 59 losses and ended their season, news broke that in talks with Walsh the week before, Isiah had been told he would not return as Knicks head coach the following season. He was officially ‘reassigned’ on April 18 “after a season of listless and dreadful basketball, a tawdry lawsuit and unending chants from fans demanding his dismissal.” As part of the reassignment agreement Thomas was banned from having contact with any Knicks’ players under the rationale that he could willingly or unwillingly undermine Donnie Walsh and the new head coach.

Controversy

Michael Jordan rivalry

In the 1985 NBA All-Star Game, Thomas was joined on the Eastern Conference squad by star rookie Michael Jordan. Jordan wound up attempting nine shots, a relatively low number for a starting player. Afterward, Thomas and his fellow veteran East players were accused of having planned to “freeze out” Jordan from their offense by not passing him the ball, supposedly out of jealousy over the attention Jordan was receiving. No player involved has ever confirmed that the “freeze-out” occurred, but the story has been long reported, and has never been refuted by Jordan. Thomas has ridiculed the idea of him being the mastermind behind a supposed “freeze-out” as being “ludicrous” citing that he was a relatively young player on a team including Larry Bird, Julius Erving and Moses Malone.

In the Eastern Conference Finals of the 1991 NBA Playoffs, the two-time defending champion Detroit Pistons faced the Jordan-led Chicago Bulls for the fourth consecutive season in the playoffs. The Pistons had defeated the Bulls in each of the first three meetings, but this time they suffered a four-game sweep at the hands of Michael Jordan and his Chicago Bulls. The series was marked by a number of verbal, physical, and match-up problems. With 7.9 seconds remaining in the fourth game, Thomas and eight of his teammates walked off the court, refusing to shake hands with the members of the Bulls.

In 1992 Thomas was passed over by the United States men’s national basketball team (popularly known as the Dream Team). Rumors have swirled that Thomas was left off the team because Jordan did not want him as a teammate on account of their bitter rivalry, which had begun with the alleged “freeze-out” and had continued through their playoff battles. Thomas also believed that his place on the Olympic team had been stolen by Utah Jazz point guard John Stockton. An angered Thomas complained publicly, and later vented his frustration by having a high-scoring game against Stockton. The next game they played, on December 14, 1991, Karl Malone elbowed Thomas in the head as he drove to the basket. Thomas needed 40 stitches above his eye to close the wound. Malone was fined and suspended for the incident.

Sexual harassment lawsuit

In October 2006, Thomas and Madison Square Garden were sued for sexual harassment by Anucha Browne Sanders. The matter came to trial in September 2007 and Thomas was determined to have made demeaning statements to Sanders, as well as making sexual advances and repeatedly telling her that he was in love with her. Madison Square Garden was ordered to pay Browne Sanders $11.6 million, one of the largest sexual harassment judgments in history.

“I’m innocent, I’m very innocent, and I did not do the things she has accused me in this courtroom of doing” Thomas said after the decision. “I’m extremely disappointed that the jury did not see the facts in this case.” Thomas admitted under oath that he did in fact call Sanders a “bitch”. Thomas also deemed it appropriate to exchange hugs and kisses with co-workers in his testimony.

Racism allegations

During Thomas’s sexual harassment trial, Anucha Browne-Sanders testified that Thomas had told her he did not care about these “fucking white people” or these “fucking season ticket holders.” Thomas denied these allegations.

After a heated 1987 playoff game against the Boston Celtics, Dennis Rodman said that Larry Bird was overrated because he was white in a league full of mostly black players. In response, Isiah said, “I think Larry is a very, very good basketball player. He’s an exceptional talent, but I have to agree with Rodman. If he were black, he’d be just another good guy.”

Drug overdose

On October 24, 2008, Thomas was taken to White Plains Hospital Center near his New York City area home after taking an overdose of Lunesta, a form of sleep medication. According to Harrison, New York police, they were called to Thomas’s house, where, finding him unconscious but breathing, they had him transported to the hospital. Police Chief David Hall stated that they “are calling this an accidental overdose of a prescription sleeping pill.” He was released from the hospital later that day.

In the opinion of Harrison Police Chief David Hall, Thomas tried to “cover up” the incident by claiming his 17-year old daughter required medical treatment when in actuality he was the patient. Referring to Thomas’ 17-year-old daughter, Hall said, “And why they’re throwing her under the bus is beyond my ability to understand.”

Credit: Wikipedia

High school and ABA

Right after graduating from Petersburg High School, Malone moved to the ABA, being drafted by the Utah Stars in 1974, after signing a letter of intent to play at the University of Maryland. He was the fifth basketball player to jump straight from high school into the professional leagues.

In two seasons in the ABA, Malone averaged 17.2 points and 12.9 rebounds per game. He played with the Utah Stars and the Spirits of St. Louis.

Beginnings of the NBA career

The ABA dissolved after the 1975-76 season, but the NBA absorbed four of its teams and many of its players. In the ABA Dispersal Draft held on August 5, the NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers selected Malone from the Spirits of St. Louis with the fifth overall pick.

The 21-year-old center never played a regular-season game for the Blazers, however. Prior to the first game of the 1976-77 season Portland traded him to the Buffalo Braves for a 1978 first-round draft choice. Even then, Malone’s travels weren’t over. After only two games with Buffalo he was traded by the Braves to the Houston Rockets for two future first-round draft choices.

Malone found a home in Houston, where he was reunited with Coach Tom Nissalke, who had coached him in his rookie season with the ABA’s Utah Stars. With the Rockets, Malone established himself immediately as one of the NBA’s most ferocious rebounders, particularly on the offensive end. He appeared in 82 games overall for both Buffalo and Houston and finished with averages of 13.2 points and 13.1 rebounds per game. He ranked third in the NBA in rebounding behind Bill Walton and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and established a new NBA record for offensive rebounds in a season, with 437, shattering Paul Silas’s old mark of 365. (Malone would break his own record two years later.) Malone also ranked seventh in the league in blocked shots, with 2.21 per game.

He delivered in the playoffs, helping the Rockets to the Eastern Conference Finals, which they lost to the Philadelphia 76ers in six games. Malone averaged 18.8 points and 16.9 rebounds in 12 playoff games. He set an NBA Playoff record with 15 offensive rebounds in an overtime victory against the Washington Bullets in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals.

Malone’s second NBA season ended prematurely when he suffered a stress fracture in his right foot and missed the Rockets’ final 23 games. Remarkably, he still led the NBA in total offensive rebounds (380) and finished second in rebounding average (15.0 rpg) behind Leonard “Truck” Robinson (15.7).

Malone made the first of what would be 12 consecutive All-Star Game appearances in 1978, the year that would have been his senior season had he chosen to play college basketball. His scoring output surged to 19.4 points per game, third best on the Rockets behind Calvin Murphy’s 25.6 and Rudy Tomjanovich’s 21.5.

Best years with the Rockets

Had Malone chosen to accept a scholarship at the University of Maryland, the 1978-79 season would have been his rookie campaign in the NBA. Instead, it was his fifth professional season (third with the Rockets) and one of the best of his career. Beginning the year at only age 23, Malone went on to win the NBA Most Valuable Player Award after averaging 24.8 points and a career-high 17.6 rebounds. Having gained 15 pounds in the offseason to weigh in at a robust 235, he led the league in rebounding and established the NBA’s all-time record for offensive rebounds in a season, with 587.

Malone also finished fifth in the NBA in scoring and shot a career-best .540 from the field. He was named to the All-NBA First Team and the NBA All-Defensive Second Team and started at center for the East squad in the 1979 NBA All-Star Game.

The 6-foot-10 giant notched the best single-game rebounding performance of his career when he hauled in 37 boards against the New Orleans Jazz on February 9. Houston advanced to the NBA Playoffs but was swept in two opening-round games by the Atlanta Hawks. Malone totaled an impressive 49 points and 41 rebounds in the two games.

Malone continued to dominate the paint in his fourth NBA season. He averaged 25.8 points and 14.5 rebounds, ranking fifth in the league in scoring and second to Swen Nater (15.0 rpg) in rebounding. He made his third straight All-Star appearance-his second straight as a starter-and was named to the All-NBA Second Team at season’s end.

Malone’s indomitable spirit helped the Rockets defeat the San Antonio Spurs in a best-of-three first-round playoff series. He scored 37 points and grabbed 20 rebounds in the third and deciding game, leading Houston to a 141-120 victory. The Rockets were then swept by the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference Semifinals.

Malone returned to the top of the NBA’s rebounding charts, beginning a record string of five consecutive seasons leading the league. He grabbed 14.8 rebounds per game in 80 appearances, earning his second straight berth on the All-NBA Second Team. An All-Star for the fourth consecutive season, Malone (27.8 ppg) also finished runner-up to Adrian Dantley (30.7) for the league’s scoring title. He exploded for 51 points in a March 11 game against the Golden State Warriors, hitting 20 of 28 field goals and 11 of 12 free throws. It was the third-highest single-game effort in Rockets history up to that time, behind Calvin Murphy’s 57 points and Elvin Hayes’s 54.

Now in the Midwest Division, Houston finished tied with the Kansas City Kings for second place with a 40-42 record. The Rockets, energized by Malone’s 26.8 points and 14.5 rebounds per game during the playoffs, advanced all the way to the NBA Finals. They lost in six games to the Boston Celtics, who were led by second-year forward Larry Bird.

Malone had another spectacular season, averaging 31.1 points and 14.7 rebounds and capturing his second of three NBA Most Valuable Player Awards. The perennial All-Star led the league in rebounding for a second straight season and finished runner-up to George Gervin (32.3 ppg) for the league’s scoring title.

The ultimate workhorse, Malone led the NBA in minutes played (3,398, 42.0 per game) and offensive rebounds (558). At season’s end, he was named to the All-NBA First Team for the second time in his six-year career. Malone’s stratospheric scoring average would stand as a career high, as would the 53 points he scored against the San Diego Clippers on February 2. He also broke his own NBA record with 21 offensive rebounds in a game against the Seattle SuperSonics on February 11.

In Malone’s last season in Houston, the Rockets followed an NBA Finals appearance in 1981 with a first-round playoff exit in 1982. Despite 24.0 points and 17.0 rebounds per game from Malone, Houston lost to Seattle in three games.

76ers’ savior

Malone became a restricted free agent after the 1981-82 season, and he signed an offer sheet with the Philadelphia 76ers on September 2. Houston then exercised its right of first refusal and matched the offer, only to trade Malone to the Sixers on September 15 for Caldwell Jones and a 1983 first-round draft choice.

Philadelphia added the 1982 NBA Most Valuable Player to a mix that already included Julius Erving, Andrew Toney, Maurice Cheeks, and Bobby Jones. The result was an NBA Championship-and the second straight MVP Award for Malone (becoming the only NBA player ever to win the MVP award in consecutive seasons with two different teams, a feat only matched by Barry Bonds (1992-93) in the four major sports). Now in his seventh season of professional basketball (fifth in the NBA), Malone led the league in rebounding (15.3 rpg) for a third consecutive year. With Erving (21.4 ppg) and Toney (19.7) making strong scoring contributions, Malone’s average dipped to 24.5 points per game, still good enough for fifth in the NBA.

An All-Star for a sixth straight time, Malone made the All-NBA First Team and the NBA All-Defensive First Team at season’s end. The Sixers lost only one postseason contest en route to the league championship, concluding their title run with a four-game sweep of the Los Angeles Lakers in the 1983 NBA Finals. Malone averaged 26.0 points and 15.8 rebounds in 13 postseason games and was named Most Valuable Player of the Finals.

Said head coach Billy Cunningham, “The difference from last year was Moses” (the Lakers had beaten the Sixers in the 1982 NBA Finals). Before the playoffs began, reporters asked how the playoffs would run. Malone answered “four, four, four” – in other words, predicting that the Sixers would sweep all three rounds to win the title, with the minimum 12 games. Malone’s deep voice made his boast sound like “fo’, fo’, fo’.” However, the Sixers backed up Malone’s boast, losing only one playoff game (game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals to the Milwaukee Bucks) en route to making Malone a world champion for the first time. This led some to rephrase Malone’s prediction as “fo’, fi’, fo’” (four, five, four). Still, the Sixers’ 12-1 record in the playoffs is one of the most dominant playoff runs in NBA history (the Lakers went 15-1 in 2001 in the extended four-round playoff format).

Post-championship years

In the 1983-84 season Malone led the league in rebounding for a fourth straight season and fifth overall, finishing with 13.4 per game. Ankle injuries limited him to 71 games that season, his lowest number of appearances since 1977-78. Still, he posted a 22.7 scoring average in his second season with the Sixers and was named to the All-NBA Second Team at year’s end.

Malone was selected to play in the NBA All-Star Game for a seventh consecutive year but missed the game because of his aching ankle. He averaged 21.4 points and 13.8 rebounds in five postseason games, but Philadelphia suffered a first-round playoff upset at the hands of the New Jersey Nets.

When Malone finished the season with an average of 13.1 rebounds per game he became the first player in NBA history to lead the league in rebounding for five consecutive seasons. Wilt Chamberlain had held the previous record with two separate stretches of four straight titles in the 1960s.

An All-Star for the eighth time, Malone chalked up 24.6 points per game (ninth in the NBA) and earned his fourth selection to the All-NBA First Team. He finished third in the balloting for the league’s Most Valuable Player Award, won this season by Boston’s Larry Bird.

The nine-year NBA veteran scored his 15,000th NBA point on November 28 and grabbed his 10,000th NBA rebound on March 29. He exploded for 51 points against the Detroit Pistons on November 14.

Philadelphia advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals in 1985 but lost to Boston in five games. Malone contributed 20.2 points and 10.6 rebounds per game in the postseason.

Malone’s 10th NBA season and last with Philadelphia came to an abrupt end when on March 28 he suffered a fractured orbit of the right eye against the Milwaukee Bucks. He missed the Sixers’ last eight games and the entire postseason. Without him, Philadelphia lost to the Bucks in a seven-game Eastern Conference Semifinal series.

In 74 appearances Malone averaged 23.8 points and 11.8 rebounds. He ranked seventh in the NBA in scoring but surrendered the league’s rebounding crown for the first time in six seasons, finishing fourth behind the Detroit Pistons’ Bill Laimbeer (13.1 rpg), Philadelphia teammate Charles Barkley (12.8), and the New Jersey Nets’ Buck Williams (12.0).

Malone was an All-Star for the ninth straight season but failed to make an All-NBA Team for the first time since 1978.

Changing teams

Shortly after the 1985-86 season Philadelphia had traded Malone, along with Terry Catledge and two first-round draft choices, to the Washington Bullets for Jeff Ruland and Cliff Robinson.

The 11-year veteran bounced back from an injury-shortened 1985-86 campaign to average 24.1 points and 11.3 rebounds and reclaim a spot on the All-NBA Second Team. An All-Star for the 10th consecutive season, he was the only NBA player to rank among the league’s top 10 in both scoring and rebounding, placing ninth in each category.

Malone scored his 20,000th NBA point on April 12 against the Detroit Pistons. He exploded for 50 points versus the New Jersey Nets on April 8, joining Earl Monroe (56) and Phil Chenier (52) as the only Bullets players ever to score 50 points in a game.

Washington made a brief appearance in the postseason, losing to the Pistons in a first-round sweep. Malone averaged 20.7 points and 12.7 rebounds in three playoff games.

Malone kept plugging away in his 12th NBA season and second with Washington. He averaged 20.3 points and 11.2 rebounds, ranking fourth in the league in rebounding and 19th in scoring. He earned his 11th consecutive All-Star selection and was one of only four players to rank in the top 20 in scoring and the top 10 in rebounding.

Malone scored in double figures in 76 of 79 games and recorded 55 double-doubles for the year. He helped the Bullets to the 1988 NBA Playoffs, where they lost to the Detroit Pistons in a five-game first-round series. Malone contributed 18.6 points and 11.2 rebounds per game in five postseason appearances.

Atlanta Hawks

The Atlanta Hawks signed Malone as a free agent prior to the 1988-89 season, and he went on to have another All-Star campaign. Teaming with Dominique Wilkins in the Hawks’ frontcourt, Malone averaged 20.2 points and 11.8 rebounds. He was selected to start for the East squad in his 12th straight NBA All-Star Game.

The 13-year veteran scored in double figures in 75 of his 81 appearances and rebounded in double figures 55 times. He poured in a season-high 37 points against the Phoenix Suns on February 4.

After nearly toppling the Boston Celtics the year before in a thrilling Eastern Conference Semifinal series, Atlanta didn’t make it out of the first round in 1989. The Hawks lost to the Milwaukee Bucks in five games, despite 21.0 points and 12.0 rebounds per game from their veteran center.

In his second season with Atlanta, Malone failed to average at least 20 points and 10 rebounds for the first time since his second NBA season. He finished at 18.9 points per game and 10.0 rebounds per game, snapping a string of 11 straight 20-10 campaigns. The 14-year veteran led the NBA in offensive rebounds, with 364, and tied for eighth in rebounding average. He led the Hawks in scoring 20 times and in rebounding 41 times.

In Mike Fratello’s final year as head coach, Atlanta struggled to a 41-41 record and missed the playoffs for the first time in five seasons.

Malone started at center for the first 15 games of the 1990-91 season, but then Atlanta’s new coach, Bob Weiss, moved him to the bench and made him Jon Koncak’s backup for the final 67 contests. Although he was the only Hawk to appear in all 82 games, Malone failed to play 2,000 minutes in a season (1,912) for the first time in his 15-year NBA career.

Malone averaged 10.6 points and 8.1 rebounds in 23.3 minutes per game-all career lows up to that point. He nevertheless continued to etch his name in the NBA record books. With career free throw No. 7,695 against the Indiana Pacers on November 3, he became the NBA’s all-time leader in free throws made, surpassing Oscar Robertson. He also scored his 25,000th career point on November 21 versus the Milwaukee Bucks and grabbed his 15,000th rebound against the Dallas Mavericks on March 15. Malone broke Wilt Chamberlain’s record of 1,045 consecutive games without fouling out when he reached No. 1,046 in a game against the Detroit Pistons on March 19.

Atlanta returned to the playoffs but fell to the Pistons in a five-game first-round series. Malone contributed only 4.2 points and 6.2 rebounds per game in the postseason.

Milwaukee Bucks

The Milwaukee Bucks had signed Malone as a free agent shortly after the 1990-91 season and had immediately made him their starting center. The 16-year veteran responded with a resurgent campaign, playing in all 82 games and averaging 15.6 points and 9.1 rebounds.

He ranked second on the Bucks in scoring and first in rebounding, leading the team in boards in 54 of 82 games. He scored a season-high 30 points twice and grabbed 19 rebounds against the Seattle SuperSonics on March 27.

Milwaukee, about to begin a rebuilding process, finished 31-51 and tied with the Charlotte Hornets for last place in the Central Division.

Malone missed most of the 1992-93 season while recovering from back surgery. He finally returned to active duty on March 27 and made 11 appearances for Milwaukee. He played only 104 total minutes and averaged 4.5 points and 4.4 rebounds. On April 12 he registered season highs of 12 points, 9 rebounds, and 18 minutes in a game against the Miami Heat.

Milwaukee continued to struggle while developing young talent. The Bucks finished 28-54 and last in the Central Division.

Many thought Malone would retire after an injury-plagued 1992-93 campaign, but the Philadelphia 76ers convinced him to play another season-his 18th in the NBA and his 20th in professional basketball. Indeed, Malone was the only remaining active player who had played in the ABA.

The Sixers signed him as a free agent in August, primarily to have him tutor 7-foot-6 rookie Shawn Bradley. Malone and Assistant Coach Jeff Ruland worked with Bradley throughout the year and helped him to improve noticeably, before a dislocated left kneecap and a chipped bone in his knee shelved Bradley for the rest of the season.

For his part, Malone appeared in 55 games off the bench and averaged 5.3 points and 4.1 rebounds. At season’s end, he ranked third on the NBA’s all-time scoring list (27,360 points), third in games played (1,312), fifth in rebounds (16,166), first in offensive rebounds (6,711), first in free throws made (8,509), second in free throws attempted (11,058), and first in consecutive games played without a disqualification (1,195).

San Antonio Spurs

In 1994, he was sent to the Spurs, where he played the back-up center role behind superstar David Robinson. 1994-95 was his last season in the NBA. During the final game of his NBA career in a game against the Charlotte Hornets, he hit a buzzer-beating three-point shot from the opposing free throw line, eighty feet away from the goal. It was only the eighth three-pointer of his career. He played just 17 games for the Spurs, all in November and December 1994.

Malone wore several different jersey numbers in his career, among them #2 with the Sixers, Hawks, and Spurs, #4 with the Bullets, #8 with the Bucks, #13 with the Spirits, #22 with the Stars, #20 in his two games with Buffalo Braves and #21 and #24 with the Rockets.

Career accomplishments

• Malone helped his high school team to win 50 games in a row, and achieve a number of state championships.
• Malone became the first player in NBA history to earn five consecutive rebounding titles after the 1984-1985 season, when he averaged 13 rebounds per game.
• He did not foul out during his final 1,212 games – the longest streak of games played without a disqualification.
• He is second only to Karl Malone in overall (NBA and ABA) free throws made, with a total of 9,018 and to Wilt Chamberlain in overall (NBA and ABA) free throws attempted, with a total of 11,090.
• Malone was named one of the NBA’s 50 greatest players in 1997. In 2001, he was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.
• Since the NBA started tracking offensive and defensive rebounds separately in 1973-74 Malone has the highest number of offensive rebounds (6,731).
• He has played more seasons (21) in the NBA/ABA than any other player.
• He is eighth all time in games played (1,329) and tenth in minutes played (45,071)
• He is 13th in field goal attempts (19,225) in the NBA
• He was the NBA Most Valuable Player in 1979, 1982 and 1983.
• He was the Sporting News NBA MVP in 1979, 1982, and 1983

• During the latter years of his basketball career he was known for wearing thick sports goggles during games.
• His career was so long that he was able to play on the same team as Rick Barry (Houston in 1979 and 1980) and later played on the same team as Rick’s son, Jon Barry (Milwaukee in 1992 and 1993).
• Moses Malone is one of two players traded after an MVP season (Wilt Chamberlain in 1968 is the other player).
• Malone’s son Michael Malone was signed by the Miami Dolphins for a potential roster spot.
• Tutored Hakeem Olajuwon during off-season pickup games while Olajuwon was still a collegian and is credited with helping the young center to make huge strides in his abilities.
• Has had his number retired by two teams: #24 with the Houston Rockets, and #2 with the Philadelphia 76ers. The 76ers have actually not had an official ceremony to retire Malone’s number, but it has been removed from usage.
• Malone is one of only three players in NBA history to average 20 points and 10 rebounds in a season with three different teams (Wilt Chamberlain and Shaquille O’Neal are the others), and is the only player ever to do it with four teams. George McGinnis also accomplished this feat, but one of the seasons came while playing in the American Basketball Association.
• Malone was one of the several NBA legends mentioned in Kurtis Blow’s hit song Basketball: Just like I’m the king of the microphone, so is Dr. J and Moses Malone

Credit: Wikipedia

Abdul-Jabbar (Alcindor at the time) grew up in the Inwood neighborhood in Manhattan, New York City, the son of Cora Lillian, a department store price checker, and Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor, Sr., a police officer and jazz musician. College took him to Los Angeles, and he returned there for 14 seasons in the NBA after six seasons with the Milwaukee Bucks. In 1971, several years after converting to Islam, he changed his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Arabic: Karim ‘Abd al-Jabar). Since retiring from basketball, he has been known as a successful coach and author, and a sometimes actor.

Biography

Early life

Abdul-Jabbar was born on April 16, 1947, and grew up in the Inwood section of Manhattan, in New York City, the son of Cora Lillian, a department store price checker, and Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor, Sr., a police officer and jazz musician. He was their only child. At birth, he weighed 12 pounds, 10 ounces (5.73 kg), and was twenty-two and a half inches (57.2 cm) long. He was raised as a Roman Catholic and attended St. Jude School in Inwood. From an early age he began his record-breaking basketball accomplishments. In high school, he led Power Memorial Academy to three straight New York City Catholic championships, a 71-game winning streak, and a 96-6 overall record. He scored 2067 points in his high school career.

College

Heavily sought by collegiate basketball programs, he played for the UCLA Bruins from 1966 to 1969 under coach John Wooden, contributing to the team’s three-year record of 88 wins and only two losses, one to Houston (see below) and the other to crosstown rival USC who played a “stall game” (i.e., there was no shot clock, so a team could exploit the rules by, basically, holding the ball as long as it wanted before attempting to score). During his college career he was twice named Player of the Year (1967, 1969), was a three-time First Team All-American (1967-69), played on three NCAA Basketball champion teams (1967, 1968, 1969), was honored as the Most Outstanding Player in the NCAA Tournament (1967, 1968, 1969), and became the first-ever Naismith College Player of the Year in 1969. In 1967, 1968 he also won USBWA College Player of the Year which later became the Oscar Robertson Trophy. Alcindor became the only player to win the Helms Foundation Player of the Year award 3 times. Note: Freshmen were not eligible to play, so Alcindor only had 3 years to play, not four. The 1965-1966 UCLA Bruin team was the preseason #1. But on November 27 1965, the freshmen team led by Alcindor defeated the varsity team 75-60 in the first game in the new Pauley Pavilion. This defeat had no effect on the varsity’s national ranking. It was still number one the following week.

The dunk was banned in college basketball after the 1967 season, primarily because of Alcindor’s dominant use of the shot.

While playing for UCLA, he suffered a scratched left cornea on January 12, 1968 at the Cal game when he got struck by Ted Henderson of Cal in a rebound battle. He would miss the next two games against Stanford and Portland. This happened right before the momentous game against Houston. His cornea later would be scratched again during his pro career and he would then wear goggles for protection.

School records

Karrem had an outstanding career at UCLA. As of the 2007-2008 season, Abdul-Jabbar still holds a number of individual records at UCLA – remarkable, in part, because at the time freshmen were ineligible for varsity basketball:

• Highest career Scoring Average: 26.4
• Most career Field Goals: 943
• Most season Points: 870 (1967)
• Highest season Scoring Average: 29.0 (1967)
• Most season Field Goals: 346 (1967)
• Most season Free Throw Attempts: 274 (1967)
• Most single game Points: 61
• Most single game field goals: 26 (vs. Washington State, 2/25/67)

Milwaukee Bucks

The Harlem Globetrotters offered him $1 million to play for them, but he declined, and was picked first in the 1969 NBA Draft by the Milwaukee Bucks, only in their second season, who won the coin-toss for first pick over the Phoenix Suns. He was also chosen first overall in the 1969 American Basketball Association draft by the New York Nets. The Nets believed that they had the upper hand in receiving Kareem’s services because he was from New York; however, when Kareem told both the Bucks and the Nets that he would accept one offer only from each team, the Nets bid too low. Thus, Kareem chose the NBA over the struggling ABA.

Lew Alcindor’s entry into the NBA was timely, as center Bill Russell had just left the Boston Celtics, and Wilt Chamberlain, though still effective, was then 33 years old. Alcindor’s presence enabled the 1969-70 Bucks to claim second place in the NBA’s Eastern Division with a 56-26 record (up from 27-55 the previous year), and he was an instant star, ranking second in the league in scoring (28.8 ppg) and third in rebounding (14.5 rpg), for which he was awarded the title of NBA Rookie of the Year.

With the addition of Oscar Robertson, Milwaukee went on to record the second best record with 66 victories in 1970-71, including a then-record of 20 straight wins. Alcindor was awarded his first of six NBA Most Valuable Player Awards, along with his first scoring title (31.7 ppg). In the playoffs, the Bucks went 12-2 (including a four-game sweep of the Baltimore Bullets in the NBA Finals), won the championship, and Alcindor was named Finals MVP. On May 1, 1971, the day after the Bucks won the NBA championship, he adopted the Arabic name Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, meaning “noble, servant of the all-powerful [i.e., of Allah].”

Abdul-Jabbar remained a dominant force for Milwaukee, repeating as scoring champion (34.8 ppg) and NBA Most Valuable Player the following year, and helping the Bucks to repeat as division leaders for four straight years. In 1973, Abdul-Jabbar won his third MVP Award in five years and was among the top five NBA players in scoring (27.0 ppg, third), rebounding (14.5 rpg, fourth), blocked shots (283, second), and field goal percentage (.539, second).

While remaining relatively injury-free throughout his NBA career, Abdul-Jabbar twice broke his hand. The first time was during a pre-season game in 1974, when he was bumped hard and got his eye scratched, which angered him enough to punch the basket support stanchion. When he returned, after missing the first 16 games of the season, he started to wear protective goggles. The second time he broke his hand was in the opening game of the 1977-78 season. Two minutes into the game, Abdul-Jabbar punched Milwaukee’s Kent Benson in retaliation for an overly aggressive elbow. He was out for two months.

Although Abdul-Jabbar always spoke well of Milwaukee and its fans, he said that being in the Midwest did not fit his cultural needs and requested a trade to either New York or Los Angeles in October 1974.

Los Angeles Lakers

In 1975, the Lakers acquired Abdul-Jabbar and reserve center Walt Wesley from the Bucks for center Elmore Smith, guard Brian Winters, and rookie “blue chippers” Dave Meyers and Junior Bridgeman. In the 1975-76 season, Jabbar’s first season with Los Angeles, Abdul-Jabbar had a dominating season, averaging 27.7 points per game and leading the league in rebounding, blocked shots, and minutes played. His 1,111 defensive rebounds remains the NBA single-season record (defensive rebounds were not recorded prior to the 1973-74 season). He earned his fourth MVP award, but missed the post-season for the second straight season.

Once he joined the Lakers, Abdul-Jabbar began wearing his trademark goggles. Years of battling under NBA backboards, and being hit and scratched in the face in the process, had taken their toll on his eyes and he developed corneal erosion syndrome, where the eyes begin to dry out easily and cease to produce moisture. He once missed a game in the 1986-87 season due to his eyes drying out and swelling as a result.

In the 1976-77 season, Abdul-Jabbar had another strong season. He led the league in field goal percentage, finished second in rebounds and blocked shots, and third in points per game. He helped lead the Lakers to the best record in the NBA, and he won his record-tying fifth MVP award. In the playoffs, the Lakers beat the Golden State Warriors in the Western Conference semi-finals, setting up a confrontation with the Portland Trail Blazers. The result was a memorable matchup, pitting Abdul-Jabbar against a young, injury-free Bill Walton. Although Abdul-Jabbar dominated the series statistically, Walton and the Trail Blazers (who were experiencing their first-ever run in the playoffs) swept the Lakers, behind Walton’s skillful passing and leadership.

Abdul-Jabbar’s play remained strong during the next two seasons, being named to the All-NBA Second Team twice, the All-Defense First Team once, and the All-Defense Second Team once. The Lakers, however, continued to be stymied in the playoffs, being eliminated by the Seattle SuperSonics in both 1978 and 1979.

In 1979, the Lakers acquired 1st overall draft pick Earvin “Magic” Johnson. The trade and draft paved the way for a second Abdul-Jabbar dynasty as the Lakers went on to become the most dominant team of the 1980s, appearing in the finals eight times and winning five NBA championships. Individually, while Jabbar was not the dominant center he was in the 1970s, he experienced a number of highlight moments. Among them were his record sixth MVP award in 1980, four more All-NBA First Team designations, two more All-Defense First Team designations, the 1985 Finals MVP, and on April 5, 1984 breaking Wilt Chamberlain’s record for career points.

While in L.A., Abdul-Jabbar started doing yoga in 1976 to improve his flexibility, and was notable for his physical fitness regimen.

In 1983, Abdul-Jabbar’s house burnt down, incinerating many of his belongings including his beloved jazz LP collection. Many Lakers fans sent and brought him albums, which he found uplifting.

On June 28, 1989, after twenty professional seasons, Abdul-Jabbar announced his retirement. On his “retirement tour” he received standing ovations at all the games, home and away. In his biography My Life, Magic Johnson recalls that in Abdul-Jabbar’s farewell game, many Lakers and Celtics legends participated. Every player wore Abdul-Jabbar’s trademark goggles and had to try a sky hook at least once, which led to comic results. The Lakers made the NBA Finals in each of Abdul-Jabbar’s final three seasons, defeating Boston in 1987, and Detroit in 1988. The Lakers lost, however, to the Pistons in a four-game sweep in his final season. In his final season every NBA team gave him presents ranging from a yacht that said “Captain Skyhook” to framed jerseys from his basketball career to an Afghan rug.

Post-NBA career

Since 2005, Abdul-Jabbar has served as special assistant coach for the Los Angeles Lakers. Abdul-Jabbar had been interested in coaching since his retirement, and given the influence he had on the league, he thought that the opportunity would present itself. However, during his playing years, Abdul-Jabbar had developed a reputation of being introverted and sullen. He did not speak to the press, leading to the impression that he disliked them. In his biography My Life, Magic Johnson recalls instances when Abdul-Jabbar brushed him off when Magic (as a ballboy) asked for his autograph, Abdul-Jabbar froze out reporters who gave him a too enthusiastic handshake or even hugged him, or refused to stop reading the newspaper while giving an interview. Many basketball observers, in addition to Abdul-Jabbar, believe that Kareem’s reticence, whether through disdain for the press corps or simply because of introversion, contributed to the dearth of coaching opportunities offered to Kareem by the NBA. In his words, he said he had a mindset he could not overcome, and proceeded through his career oblivious to the effect his reticence may have had on his coaching prospects in the future. Kareem said: “I didn’t understand that I also had affected people that way and that’s what it was all about. I always saw it like they were trying to pry. I was way too suspicious and I paid a price for it.” Since he began lobbying for a coaching position in 1995, he has managed to obtain only low-level assistant and scouting jobs in the NBA, and a head coaching position only in a minor professional league.

Abdul-Jabbar has worked as an assistant for the Los Angeles Clippers and the Seattle SuperSonics, helping mentor, among others, their young centers, Michael Olowokandi and Jerome James. Abdul-Jabbar was the head coach of the Oklahoma Storm United States Basketball League in 2002, leading the team to the league’s championship that season, but he failed to land the head coaching position at Columbia University a year later. He then worked as a scout for the New York Knicks. Finally, on September 2, 2005, he returned to the Lakers as a special assistant to Phil Jackson to help the Lakers’ centers, and in particular their young draftee Andrew Bynum. Abdul-Jabbar’s influence has been credited with Bynum’s emergence as a top level NBA center. Abdul-Jabbar has also served as a volunteer coach at Alchesay High School on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation in Whiteriver, Arizona since 1998.

Acting career

Playing in Los Angeles facilitated Abdul-Jabbar’s trying his hand at acting. Abdul-Jabbar made his movie debut in Bruce Lee’s posthumous 1978 film Game of Death, in which his character Hakim fought Billy Lo (played by Lee). His character was the last and most dangerous guardian that Bruce Lee’s character had to face. In the extended footage of the final fight scenes of the film (which was shot in 1973), which last about half an hour, Abdul-Jabbar and Lee fight on the highest level of a pagoda in which Lee’s character had to fight his way up. From Lee’s viewpoint, the highest level on the pagoda is where Jeet Kune Do, represented by Abdul-Jabbar himself, is found. Through the entire fight, both men not only fight with an ease hard to obtain, but they both make it known neither of them fear death.

In 1980, he played co-pilot Roger Murdock in Airplane! Abdul-Jabbar has a memorable scene in which a little boy looks at him and remarks that he is in fact Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Staying in character, Abdul-Jabbar states that he is merely Roger Murdock, an airline co-pilot, but the boy continues to insist that he is “the greatest”, but that, according to his father, he doesn’t “work hard on defense” and “never really tries, except during the playoffs”. This causes Abdul-Jabbar’s character to blow a fuse, grab the boy and snarl he has heard “that crap since UCLA”, he “busts his buns every night” and the boy should tell his old man to “drag [Bill] Walton and [Bob] Lanier up and down the court for 48 minutes”. When Murdock passes out later in the film, he is carried out wearing Abdul-Jabbar’s goggles and yellow Lakers’ shorts.

He has had numerous other TV and film appearances, often playing himself, including appearances in the movie Fletch, the sitcoms Full House, Living Single, Amen, Everybody Loves Raymond, Martin, Diff’rent Strokes (his height humorously contrasted with that of diminutive child star Gary Coleman), The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Scrubs, and Emergency!. He also appeared in the telemovie version of Stephen King’s The Stand, played himself in Slam Dunk Ernest, the aforementioned Full House and a brief non-speaking cameo appearance in BASEketball. Kareem was also the co-executive producer of the 1994 TV movie, The Vernon Johns Story. In 2008 Kareem appeared on the Colbert Report as a stage manager who was sent out on a mission to find Nazi Gold. There is also a reference to him in the Anime Cowboy Bebop, the protagonist chases the felon Abdul Hakim, a tall black man who is an expert in martial arts.

Player profile

Abdul-Jabbar played the center position and is regarded as one of the best players of all time. He is the all-time leading NBA scorer with 38,387 points, having collected six titles, six regular season MVP and two Finals MVP awards, fifteen NBA First or Second Teams, a record nineteen NBA All-Star call-ups and averaging 24.6 points, 11.2 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 2.6 blocks per game. He is also the third all-time in registered blocks (3,189), which is even more impressive because this stat had not been recorded until the fourth year of his career (1974).

On offense, Abdul-Jabbar was an unstoppable low-post threat. In contrast to other low-post dominators like Wilt Chamberlain, Artis Gilmore or Shaquille O’Neal, Abdul-Jabbar was a relatively slender player, standing 7-2 but only weighing 225 lbs (though in his latter years the Lakers listed Abdul-Jabbar’s weight as 265). However, he made up for his relative lack of bulk by showing textbook finesse, strength and was famous for his ambidextrous skyhook shot (see below), which defenders found impossible to block. It contributed to his high .559 field goal accuracy, making him the eighth most accurate scorer of all time and a feared clutch shooter. Abdul-Jabbar was also quick enough to run the “Showtime” fast break led by Magic Johnson and was well-conditioned, standing on the hardwood an average 36.8 minutes. In contrast to other big men, Abdul-Jabbar also could reasonably hit his free throws, finishing with a career 72% average.

On defense, Abdul-Jabbar maintained a dominant presence. He was selected to the NBA All-Defensive Team eleven times. He frustrated opponents with his superior shot-blocking ability, denying an average 2.6 shots a game.

As a teammate, Abdul-Jabbar exuded natural leadership and was affectionately called “Cap” or “Captain” by his colleagues. He was also known for his strict fitness regime, which made him one of the most durable players of all time. In the NBA, his 20 seasons and 1,560 games are performances surpassed only by fellow legend Robert Parish.

Abdul-Jabbar made the NBA’s 35th and 50th Anniversary Teams and in 1996 was named one of the 50 Greatest Players of All Time.

Sky hook

Abdul-Jabbar was well known for his trademark “sky hook”, a hook shot in which he bent his entire body (rather than just the arm) like a straw in one fluid motion to raise the ball and then release it at the highest point of his arm’s arcing motion. Combined with his long arms and great height in which he stood 7 feet 2 inches tall, the sky hook was nearly impossible for a defender to block without goaltending. Only a few have blocked his legendary skyhook, including basketball greats Wilt Chamberlain and Hakeem Olajuwon. It was a reliable and feared offensive weapon and contributed to his high lifetime field goal percentage of .559. As a twist, he was adept at shooting the skyhook with either hand, which made him even more difficult to defend. According to Abdul-Jabbar, he learned the move in fifth grade and soon learned to value it, as it was “the only shot I could use that didn’t get smashed back in my face”.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Blog: How to Shoot a Sky Hook: When Kareem Abdul-Jabbar left the game in 1989 at age 42, no NBA player had ever scored more points, blocked more shots, won more Most Valuable Player Awards, played in more All-Star Games or logged more seasons. His list of personal and team accomplishments is perhaps the most awesome in league history: Rookie of the Year, member of six NBA championship teams, six-time NBA MVP, two-time NBA Finals MVP, 19-time All-Star, two-time scoring champion, and a member of the NBA 35th and 50th Anniversary All-Time Teams. He also owned eight playoff records and seven All-Star records. No player achieved as much individual and team success as did Abdul-Jabbar.

Books authored

Abdul-Jabbar is also a bestselling author, the latest of his books being On the Shoulders of Giants: My Journey Through the Harlem Renaissance. His previous book, co-written with Anthony Walton, was Brothers In Arms: The Epic Story of the 761st Tank Battalion, WWII’s Forgotten Heroes (Publisher: Broadway 2004, ISBN 0-385-50338-5), the history of the 761st Battalion, an all-black armored unit that served in Europe in World War Two.

Other books:

• Giant Steps, with Peter Knobler (1987) ISBN 0-553-05044-3 (The book’s title is an homage to jazz great John Coltrane.)
• Kareem (1990) ISBN 0-394-55927-4
• Selected from Giant Steps (Writers’ Voices) (1999) ISBN 0-7857-9912-5
• Black Profiles in Courage: A Legacy of African-American Achievement, with Alan Steinberg (1996) ISBN 0-688-13097-6
• A Season on the Reservation: My Sojourn with the White Mountain Apaches, with Stephen Singular (2000) ISBN 0-688-17077-3
• Brothers in Arms: The Epic Story of the 761st Tank Battalion, WWII’s Forgotten Heroes with Anthony Walton (2005) ISBN 978-0767909136
• On the Shoulders of Giants: My Journey Through the Harlem Renaissance with Raymond Obstfeld (2007) ISBN 978-1416534884

Audio Book:

• On the Shoulders of Giants: An Audio Journey Through the Harlem Renaissance 8 CD Set Vol. 1-4, with Avery Brooks, Jesse L. Martin, Maya Angelou, Herbie Hancock, Billy Crystal, Charles Barkley, James Worthy, Julius Erving, Jerry West, Clyde Drexler, Bill Russell, Coach John Wooden, Stanley Crouch, Quincy Jones and other chart-topping musicians, as well as legendary actors and performers such as Samuel L. Jackson. (2008) ISBN 978-0-615-18301-5

In 2007, Abdul-Jabbar participated in the national UCLA alumni commercial entitled “My Big UCLA Moment.” The UCLA commercial is featured on YouTube.

Personal life

Abdul-Jabbar was married to Habiba Abdul-Jabbar (née Janice Brown), and together they had three children: daughters Habiba and Sultana and son Kareem Jr., who also played basketball. They were divorced in 1978. He has another son Amir with Cheryl Pistono. Another child was his son Adam, who made an appearance on the TV sitcom Full House with his father. He has also previously dated actress Pam Grier.

Speaking about the thinking behind his change of name when he converted to Islam he said to Playboy magazine that he was “latching on to something that was part of my heritage, because many of the slaves who were brought here were Muslims. My family was brought to America by a French planter named Alcindor, who came here from Trinidad in the 18th Century. My people were Yoruba, and their culture survived slavery (…) My father found out about that when I was a kid, and it gave me all I needed to know that, hey, I was somebody, even if nobody else knew about it. When I was a kid, no one would believe anything positive that you could say about black people. And that’s a terrible burden on black people, because they don’t have an accurate idea of their history, which has been either suppressed or distorted.”

Abdul-Jabbar reached a settlement after suing Miami Dolphins running back Karim Abdul-Jabbar (now Abdul-Karim al-Jabbar, born Sharmon Shah) because he felt Karim was sponging off the name he made famous by having the Abdul-Jabbar moniker and number 33 on Dolphins jerseys, even though names are not protectable under U.S. copyright laws. As a result the younger Abdul-Jabbar had to change his jersey nameplate to simply ‘Abdul’ while playing for the Dolphins. The football player had also been an athlete at UCLA.

Kareem suffers from migraines, and his use of cannabis to reduce the symptoms has caused legal ramifications.

Credit: Wikipedia

Bob Cousy

Robert Joseph “Bob” Cousy (born August 9, 1928) is a retired American professional basketball player. The 6′1″ (1.85 m), 175 pounds (79.4 kg) Cousy played point guard with the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) Boston Celtics from 1951 to 1963 and briefly with the Cincinnati Royals in the 1969-70 season. Cousy first demonstrated his basketball abilities while playing for his high school varsity team in his junior year. He obtained a scholarship to the College of the Holy Cross, where he led the Crusaders to berths in the 1948 and 1950 NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Tournament and was named an NCAA All-American for three seasons. Cousy was initially drafted as the third overall pick in the first round of the 1950 NBA Draft by the Tri-Cities Blackhawks, but after he refused to report with the Blackhawks, he was picked up by the Boston Celtics. Cousy had a highly successful career with the Celtics, winning six championship rings, being voted into 13 All-Star and 12 All-NBA First and Second Teams and winning the NBA Most Valuable Player Award in 1957. In his first 11 seasons in the NBA, Cousy led the league in assists eight consecutive times and introduced a new blend of ball-handling and passing skills, earning him the nicknames “The Cooz,” “Houdini of the Hardwood”, and-as he was regularly introduced at Boston Garden-”Mr. Basketball.” After his player career, he coached the Royals for several years, and even made a short comeback for the Royals at age 41. Afterwards, he became a broadcaster for Celtics games. He was elected into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1971, and in his honor, the Celtics retired his number 14 jersey and hung it into the rafters of the Boston Garden, where it has remained since. Cousy was named to the NBA 25th Anniversary Team in 1971, the NBA 35th Anniversary Team in 1981, and the NBA’s 50th Anniversary All-Time Team in 1996, making him one of only four players that were selected to each of those teams.

Early years

Cousy was born as the only son of poor French immigrants living in New York City. He grew up in the Yorkville neighborhood of Manhattan’s East Side, in the midst of the Great Depression. His father, Joseph, was a taxi driver who earned extra income by moonlighting. The elder Cousy had served in the German Army during World War I. Shortly after the war, his first wife died of pneumonia, leaving behind a young daughter. Cousy remarried Julie Corlet, a secretary and French teacher from Dijon. The younger Cousy spoke French for the first five years of his life, and only started speaking English when he started primary school. He spent his early days playing stickball in a multicultural environment, regularly playing with African Americans, Jews and other children from ethnic minorities. These experiences ingrained him with a strong anti-racist sentiment, an attitude that Cousy prominently featured during his professional career. When he was 12, his family moved to a rented house in St Albans, Queens. That summer, the elder Cousy put a $500 down payment for a $4,500 house four blocks away. He rented the bottom two floors of the three-floor building to tenants, so he could complete his mortgage payments on time.

High school

Cousy took up basketball at the age of 13 and was “immediately hooked”. The following year, he became a student of Andrew Jackson High School in St Albans. His basketball success was not immediate, as he was cut from the school team in his freshman year. Later that year, he joined the St Albans Lindens of the Press League, a basketball league sponsored by the Long Island Press. He developed his basketball skills and gained much-needed experience. The next year, he was again cut during the tryouts for the school basketball team. In that same year, Cousy fell out of a tree and broke his right hand. It forced him to play left-handed until his hand healed, to a point he became effectively ambidextrous. In retrospect, Cousy described this accident as a “fortunate event” and cited it as a factor in him becoming a better player. During a Press League game, the high school basketball coach saw Cousy play. He was impressed by the young man’s ability to play with both hands. He invited Cousy to come to practice the following day to see if he could make the junior varsity team. Cousy performed well, and he became a permanent member of the team. Cousy continued to practice day and night, and by junior year, he was sure he was going to be on the varsity basketball team. However, he failed his citizenship class, and he was ineligible to play during the first semester. Cousy joined the team midway through the year, scoring 28 points in his first game on the varsity squad. He had no intention of attending college, but after he started to make a name for himself on the basketball court, he started to focus on improving his academics and basketball skills to get into college.

In his senior year, Cousy once again excelled on the basketball court. He led his team to the Queens division championship and he became the highest scorer in the city. He was even named captain of the Journal-American All-Scholastic team. Cousy began to think of his plans for college. His family had wanted him to attend a Catholic school, and he wanted to go somewhere outside New York City. Cousy was recruited by Boston College, and he considered attending the university. However, the university did not have any dormitories, and Cousy was not interested in living as a commuter student. Soon after, he received an offer from the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts just 40 miles (64 km) outside of Boston. He was impressed by the school, and he accepted a basketball scholarship to attend the school. Cousy spent the summer before college working at Tamarack Lodge in the Catskills and playing in a local basketball league with a number of college basketball players.

College basketball career

Cousy was one of six freshmen on the Holy Cross Crusaders basketball team in 1947. From the start of the season, coach Alvin “Doggie” Julian chose to play the six freshmen off the bench in a two-team system, so that each player would get some time on the court. As members of the “second team”, they would come off the bench nine and a half minutes into the game, where they would relieve the “first team” starters. They would sometimes get to play between a third or half the game. Cousy was so disappointed with the lack of playing time, that he went to the campus chapel after practice to pray that Julian would give him more of a chance to show off his basketball talents on the court. Early in the season, Cousy got into trouble with Julian, who accused Cousy of being a showboater. In the mid-1940s, basketball was a static game, depending on slow, deliberate player movement and flat-footed shots, different from Cousy’s uptempo, streetball-like game defined by ambidextrous, behind-the-back dribbles, and also by no-look, behind-the-back and half-court passes. Nonetheless, Cousy had enough playing time in games to score 227 points for the season, finishing with the third-highest total on the team. The team, with stars George Kaftan and Joe Mullaney, finished the 1946-47 basketball season with a 24-3 record.

The team entered the NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Tournament as the last seed in the 8-team tournament. In the first match, Holy Cross defeated the United States Naval Academy in front of a sold-out crowd at Madison Square Garden by a score of 55 to 47. Mullaney led the team in scoring with 18 points, mostly in part to Navy coach Ben Carnevale’s decision to have his players back off from Mullaney, who was reputed as being more of a playmaker than a shooter. In the semi-final match, Holy Cross faced the City College of New York (CCNY), coached by Nat Holman, one of the game’s earliest innovators. The Crusaders, led by Kaftan’s 30-point game, easily defeated the Beavers 60-45. In the championship game, Holy Cross faced the University of Oklahoma, behind coach Bruce Drake, in another sold-out game at Madison Square Garden. Kaftan followed up the semi-final match with 18 points in the title game, leading the Crusaders to a 58-47 victory against the Sooners. Cousy played poorly, scoring four points on 2-for-13 shooting from the court. Holy Cross became the first college from the New England area to win a national college basketball title. The team received a hero’s welcome when they arrived to a crowd of 10,000 people at Union Station in Worcester, Massachusetts.

The following season, Julian limited Cousy’s playing time, to the point that the frustrated sophomore contemplated a transfer. Cousy wrote a letter to basketball coach of St. John’s University in New York, Joe Lapchick, informing him that he was considering a transfer to the university. Lapchick replied to Cousy, telling him that Julian was “one of the finest basketball coaches in America,” and that he was not restricting Cousy’s playing time under bad intentions. He told Cousy that Julian would use him more often during his later years with the team. Lapchick wrote that transferring was very risky, and according to NCAA rules, Cousy would have to wait a year before becoming eligible to play on the university basketball team.

Cousy’s fate changed in a match against Loyola of Chicago at the Boston Garden. With five minutes left to play and Holy Cross trailing, the crowd started to chant “We want Cousy! We want Cousy!” until coach Julian relented. In these few minutes, Cousy scored 11 points and hit a game-winning buzzer beater after a behind-the-back dribble. The performance established him on the school team, and he led Holy Cross to 26 consecutive wins and second place in the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) and became a three-time All-American.

Boston Celtics

The first years (1950-56)

Cousy turned professional and made himself available for the 1950 NBA Draft at a time when the local Boston Celtics had just concluded the 1949-50 NBA season with a poor 22-46 win-loss record and had the first draft pick. It was strongly anticipated that they would draft the highly coveted local favorite Cousy. However, coach Red Auerbach snubbed him in favour of center Charlie Share, commenting: “I’m supposed to win, not go after local yokels”. The local press strongly criticised Auerbach, but other scouts were also sceptical about Cousy, viewing him as being flamboyant but ineffective. One scout wrote in his report: “The first time he tries that fancy Dan stuff in this league, they’ll cram the ball down his throat.”

As a result, the Tri-Cities Blackhawks drafted Cousy, but the point guard was unenthusiastic about his new employer. Cousy was trying to establish a driving school in Worcester, Massachusetts and did not want to move into a left field consisting of three small towns of Moline, Rock Island and Davenport. As compensation for having to give up his driving school, Cousy demanded a salary of $10,000 from Blackhawks owner Bob Kerner. When Kerner only offered him $6,000, Cousy refused to report. The latter was then picked up by the Chicago Stags, but when they folded, league Commissioner Maurice Podoloff declared three Stags available for a dispersal draft: Stags scoring champion Max Zaslofsky, Andy Phillip and Cousy. Walter A. Brown, owner of the Boston Celtics, was one of the three club bosses invited. He later made it clear that he was hoping for Zaslofsky, would have tolerated Phillip, and did not want Cousy. When the Celtics drew Cousy, Brown confessed: “I could have fallen to the floor.” Hence, Cousy became a Celtic, with Brown reluctantly giving him a $9,000 salary.

It was not long before both Auerbach and Brown changed their minds. With an average of 15.6 points, 6.9 rebounds and 4.9 assists a game, Cousy received the first of his 13 consecutive All-NBA Team call-ups, and led a Celtics team with future Hall-of-Famer Ed Macauley and Bones McKinney to a 39-30 record in the 1950-51 NBA season. However, in the 1951 NBA Playoffs, the Celtics were beaten by the New York Knicks. The next year, the Celtics added future Hall-of-Fame guard Bill Sharman in the 1951 NBA Draft, and by averaging 21.7 points, 6.4 rebounds and 6.7 assists per game, Cousy earned his first All-NBA First Team nomination. Nonetheless, the Celtics stranded again against the Knicks in the 1952 NBA Playoffs.

In the following season, Cousy made further progress. Averaging 7.7 assists per game, he won the first of his eight consecutive assists titles. These numbers were made despite the fact that the NBA had not yet introduced the shot clock, making the game static and putting prolific assist givers at a disadvantage. Powered by Auerbach’s quick fastbreak-dominated tactics, the Celtics won 46 games and beat the Syracuse Nationals 2-0 in the 1953 NBA Playoffs. The second match ended 111-105 in a quadruple-overtime thriller, in which Cousy had a much-lauded game. Despite nursing an injured leg, he scored 25 points in regulation time, scored 6 of his team’s 9 points in first overtime, hit a clutch free shot in the last seconds, and scored all four Celtics points in the second period of overtime. Cousy scored another 8 in the third, among them a 25-foot (7.6 m) buzzer beater, and in the fourth overtime, he scored 9 of 12 Celtics points. Cousy ended the game playing 66 minutes, and scoring 50 points after making a still-standing record of 30 free throws in 32 attempts. This game is regarded by the NBA as one of the finest scoring feats ever, in line with Wilt Chamberlain’s 100-point game. However, for the third time in a row, the Knicks defeated the Celtics in the next round.

In the next three years, Cousy firmly established himself as one of the best point guards of the league. Leading the league in assists again in all three seasons, and averaging 20 points and 7 rebounds, the versatile Cousy earned himself three further All-NBA First Team and All-Star honors, and was also Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the 1954 NBA All-Star Game. In terms of playing style, Cousy introduced an array of visually attractive street basketball moves, described by the NBA as a mix of ambidextrous, behind-the-back dribbling and “no-look passes, behind-the-back feeds or half-court fastbreak launches”. Cousy’s modus operandi contrasted with the rest of the NBA, which was dominated by muscular low post scorers and deliberate flat-footed set shooters. Soon, he was called “Houdini of the Hardwood” after the magician Harry Houdini. Cousy’s crowd-pleasing and effective play drew the crowd into the Boston Garden and also won over coach Auerbach, who no longer saw him as a liability, but as an essential building block for the future.

The Celtics eventually added two talented forwards, namely future Hall-of-Famer Frank Ramsey and defensive specialist Jim Loscutoff. Along with Celtics colleague Bob Brannum, Loscutoff also became Cousy’s unofficial bodyguard, retaliating against opposing players who would try to hurt him. The Celtics were unable to make their mark in the 1954, 1955 and 1956 NBA Playoffs, where they lost three times in a row against the Nationals of Hall-of-fame forward Dolph Schayes. Cousy attributed the shortcomings to fatigue, stating: “We would get tired in the end and could not get the ball”. As a result, Auerbach sought a defensive center who could both get easy rebounds, initiate fastbreaks and close out games.

Dynasty years (1956-63)

In the 1956 NBA Draft, Auerbach acquired three future Hall-of-Famers: forward Tom Heinsohn, guard K.C. Jones and defensive center Bill Russell. Powered by these new recruits, the Celtics went 44-28 in the regular season, and Cousy averaged 20.6 points, 4.8 rebounds and a league-leading 7.5 assists, earning his first NBA Most Valuable Player Award; he also won his second NBA All-Star Game MVP award. The Celtics reached the 1957 NBA Finals, and powered by Cousy on offense and rugged center Russell on defense, they beat the Hawks 4-3, who were noted for future Hall-of-Fame power forward Bob Pettit and former teammates Macauley and Hagan. Cousy finally won his first title.

In the 1957-58 NBA season, Cousy had yet another highly productive year, with his 20.0 points, 5.5 rebounds and 8.6 assists per game leading to nominations into the All-NBA First Team and the All-Star team. He again led the NBA in assists. The Celtics reached the 1958 NBA Finals against the Hawks, but when Russell succumbed to a foot injury in Game 3, the Celtics faded and bowed out four games to two. This was the last losing NBA playoff series in which Cousy would play.

In the following 1958-59 NBA season, the Celtics took revenge on their opposition, powered by an inspired Cousy, who averaged 20.0 points, 5.5 rebounds and a league-high 8.6 assists a game, won yet another assists title and another pair of All-NBA First Team and All-Star team nominations. Late in the season, Cousy reasserted his playmaking dominance by setting an NBA record with 28 assists in a game against the Minneapolis Lakers. While this record was eventually broken some 19 years later, Cousy’s 19 assists in a single half has never been surpassed. The Celtics stormed through the playoffs and, behind Cousy’s 51 total assists (still a record for a four-game NBA Finals series), defeated the Minneapolis Lakers in the first 4-0 sweep ever in the NBA Finals.

In the 1959-60 NBA season, Cousy was again productive, his 19.4 points, 4.7 rebounds and 9.5 assists per game earning him his eighth consecutive assists title and another joint All-NBA First Team and All-Star team nomination. Again, the Celtics defeated all opposition and won the 1960 NBA Finals 4-3 against the Hawks. A year later, the 32-year-old Cousy scored 18.1 points, 4.4 rebounds and 7.7 assists per game, winning another pair of All-NBA First Team and All-Star nominations, but failing to win the assists crown after eight consecutive seasons. However, the Celtics won the 1961 NBA Finals after convincingly beating the Hawks 4-1.

In the 1961-62 NBA season, the aging Cousy slowly began to fade statistically, averaging 15.7 points, 3.5 rebounds and 7.8 assists, and was voted into the All-NBA Second Team after ten consecutive First Team nominations. Still, he enjoyed a satisfying post-season, winning the 1962 NBA Finals after two closely fought 4-3 battles against two upcoming teams, the Philadelphia Warriors of Wilt Chamberlain and then the Los Angeles Lakers of Hall-of-Famers Elgin Baylor and Jerry West. The Finals series against the Lakers was especially dramatic, because Lakers guard Frank Selvy failed to make a last-second buzzer beater shot in Game 7 which would have won the Los Angeles the title. Finally, in the last season of his career, Cousy averaged 13.2 points, 2.5 rebounds and 6.8 assists, and collected one last All-Star and All-NBA Second Team nomination. In the 1963 NBA Finals, the Celtics again won 4-2 against the Lakers, and Cousy finished his career on a high note: in the fourth quarter of Game 6, Cousy sprained an ankle and had to be helped to the bench. He went back in with the Lakers ahead by a point. Although he did not score again, his was credited with providing an emotional lift that carried the Celtics to victory 112-109. The game ended with Cousy throwing the ball into the rafters.

At age 35, Cousy ended his playing career. The farewell ceremony in a packed Boston Garden became known as the Boston Tear Party, when the veteran point guard was rendered speechless by a 20-minute speech that was only meant to be seven minutes long. Joe Dillon, a water worker from South Boston, Massachusetts and a devoted Celtics fan screamed “We love ya, Cooz”, breaking the tension and the crowd went into cheers. As a testament to Cousy’s legacy, President John F. Kennedy wired to Cousy: “The game bears an indelible stamp of your rare skills and competitive daring.”

Post-player career

After retiring as a player, Cousy published his autobiography Basketball Is My Life in 1963, and in the same year, he became coach at Boston College. In his six seasons there, he had a record of 117 wins and 38 losses and was named New England Coach of the Year for 1968 and 1969. Cousy led the Eagles to three NIT appearances including a berth at the 1969 NIT Championship and two National Collegiate Athletic Association tournaments including a berth at the 1967 Eastern Regional Finals. However, he grew bored wth college basketball and made his return to the NBA as coach of the Cincinnati Royals, team of fellow Hall-of-Fame point guard Oscar Robertson. He later said about this engagement: “I did it for the money. I was made the offer I couldn’t refuse.” In 1970, the 41-year-old Cousy even made a late-season comeback as a player to boost ticket sales. Despite his meager output of a cumulative 5 points in 34 minutes of play time in seven games, ticket sales jumped by 77 percent. However, Cousy stepped down as coach early in the 1973-74 NBA season with a mediocre 141-209 record. In later life, Cousy was Commissioner of the American Soccer League from 1974 to 1979, and he has been a color analyst on Celtics telecasts since the 1980s.” In addition, he had a cameo role in the basketball film Blue Chips in 1993. A memorable scene from the film, in which Cousy played a college athletic director, featured a conversation between Cousy and the team’s head coach, played by Nick Nolte. In one long, unbroken take, Cousy talked with Nolte while sinking foul shot after foul shot, prompting Nolte to say, in an unscripted line, “Don’t you ever miss?” Today, he is a marketing consultant for the Celtics, and occasionally makes broadcast appearances with Mike Gorman and ex-Celtic teammate Tom Heinsohn.

Legacy

In his 13-year, 924-game NBA career, Cousy finished with 16,960 points, 4,786 rebounds and 6,955 assists, translating to averages of 18.4 points, 5.2 rebounds and 7.5 assists per game. He was regarded as the first great point guard of the NBA, winning eight of the first 11 assist titles in the league, all of them en bloc, and had a highly successful career, winning six NBA titles, one MVP award, 13 All-Star and 12 All-NBA First and Second Team call-ups and two All-Star MVP awards. With his eye-catching dribbling and unorthodox passing, Cousy popularised modern guard play and raised the profile of the Boston Celtics and the entire NBA. His fast-paced playing style was later emulated by the likes of Pete Maravich and Magic Johnson.

In recognition of his feats, Cousy was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1971 and was honored by the Boston Celtics franchise which retired his number 14 jersey. Celtics owner Walter Brown said: “The Celtics wouldn’t be here without him [Cousy]. He made basketball in this town. If he had played in New York he would have been the biggest thing since [New York Yankees baseball legend] Babe Ruth. I think he is anyway.” In addition, on May 11, 2006, ESPN.com rated Cousy as the fifth greatest point guard of all time, lauding him as “ahead of his time with his ballhandling and passing skills” and pointing out he is only one of four point guards ever to win a NBA Most Valuable Player award.

On November 16, 2008 Cousy’s college number of 17 was hoisted to the Hart Center rafters. During halftime of a game between the Holy Cross Crusaders and St. Joseph’s Hawks, Cousy, George Kaftan, Togo Palazzi, and Tommy Heinsohn’s numbers became the first to hang from the gymnasium’s ceiling.

Personal life

Cousy married his college sweetheart Missie Ritterbusch in December 1950, who has since been his spouse for over 50 years. They live in Worcester, Massachusetts.

Cousy was well-known, both on and off the court, for his anti-racist attitude, a result of his upbringing in a multicultural environment. In 1950, the Celtics played a match in the then-segregated city of Charlotte, North Carolina, and teammate Chuck Cooper – the first African-American in NBA history to be drafted – would have been denied a hotel room. Instead of taking the hotel room, Cousy insisted on travelling with Cooper on an uncomfortable overnight train. He described their visit of a segregated men’s toilet – Cooper was prohibited to use the clean “for whites” bathroom and had to use the shabby “for colored” facility – as one of the most shameful experiences of his life. He also sympathized with the plight of black Celtics star Bill Russell, who was frequently a victim of racism. In addition, Cousy was close friends with his Celtics mentor Red Auerbach and was one of the few people who could call him “Arnold” (his real first name) instead of “Red”.

Elgin Baylor

Elgin Gay Baylor (born September 16, 1934 in Washington, D.C.) is a retired American basketball player who played 13 seasons as a forward for the NBA’s Minneapolis Lakers/Los Angeles Lakers. Baylor was just recently relieved of the General Manager role for the Los Angeles Clippers after 22 years with the team. Baylor was a gifted shooter, a strong rebounder, and an accomplished passer. Renowned for his acrobatic maneuvers on the court, Baylor regularly dazzled Lakers fans with his trademark hanging jump shots. He is regarded as one of the game’s all-time greatest players.

Early life

Elgin Baylor was born in 1934 in Washington, D.C., and was named for his father’s favorite watch. A sports star at Spingarn High School, he did not perform well academically and even dropped out for a while to work in a furniture store and to play basketball in the local recreational leagues.

College career

An inadequate scholastic record kept him out of college until a friend arranged a scholarship at the College of Idaho, where he was expected to play basketball and football. After one season, the school dismissed the head basketball coach and restricted the scholarships. A Seattle car dealer interested Baylor in Seattle University, and Baylor sat out a year to play for Westside Ford, an AAU team in Seattle, while establishing eligibility at Seattle.

Baylor led the Seattle Chieftains (now known as the Redhawks) to the NCAA championship game in 1958 (where they lost to the Kentucky Wildcats). Following his junior season, Baylor joined the Minneapolis Lakers for the 1958-59 season and moved with them to Los Angeles in 1960.

In his three collegiate seasons, one at Idaho and two at Seattle, Baylor averaged 31.3 points per game.

NBA career

Player

The Minneapolis Lakers used the No. 1 overall pick in the 1958 NBA Draft to select Baylor, then convinced him to skip his senior year at SU and instead join the pro ranks. The Lakers, several years removed from the glory days of George Mikan, were in trouble on the court and at the gate. The year prior to Baylor’s arrival the Lakers finished 19-53 with a team that was slow, bulky and aging. Baylor, whom the Lakers signed to play for $20,000 per year (a great amount of money at the time), was the franchise’s last shot at survival.

“If he had turned me down then, I would have been out of business,” Minneapolis Lakers owner Bob Short told the Los Angeles Times in 1971. “The club would have gone bankrupt.” Baylor was seen as the kind of player who could save a franchise. And he did.

As a rookie in 1958-59, Baylor finished fourth in the league in scoring (24.9 points per game), third in rebounding (15.0 rebounds per game), and eighth in assists (4.1 assists per game). He registered 55 points in a single game, then the third-highest mark in league history behind Joe Fulks’s 63 and Mikan’s 61. Baylor won the NBA Rookie of the Year Award and led the Lakers, from last place the previous year, to the NBA finals, where they lost to the Boston Celtics on April 9, 1959, in the first four game sweep in finals history. Thus began the greatest rivalry in the history of the NBA finals between the Celtics and the Lakers. During his career, he helped lead the Lakers to the NBA Finals eight times (although never winning).

From the 1960-61 to the 1962-63 seasons, Baylor averaged 34.8, 38.3 and 34.0 points per game, respectively. His 38.3 point per game season average is the highest for any player other than Wilt Chamberlain. Baylor, a United States Army Reservist, was called to active duty during that season, and being stationed in Washington state, he could play for the Lakers only when on a weekend pass. However, despite playing only 48 games on the season, he still managed to score over 1,800 points.

The 71 points Baylor scored on November 15, 1960 was a record at the time. The 61 points he scored in game 5 of the NBA Finals in 1962 is still an NBA Finals record. An underrated rebounder, Baylor averaged 13.5 rebounds per game during his career, including a remarkable 19.8 rebounds per game during the 1960-61 season – a season average exceeded by only five other players in NBA history. Baylor was a 10-time All-NBA First Team selection and went to the NBA All-Star Game 11 times.

Baylor began to be hampered with knee problems during the 1963-64 season. The problems culminated in a severe knee injury, suffered during the 1965 Western Division playoffs. Baylor, while still a very powerful force, was never quite the same, never again averaging above 30 points per game. During Baylor’s career, the Lakers were a consistently powerful team, but were continuously overshadowed by the Boston Celtics.

Baylor finally retired nine games into the 1971-72 season because of his nagging knee problems. His retirement resulted in two great ironies. First, the Lakers’ next game after his retirement was the first of an NBA record of 33 consecutive wins. Second, the Lakers went on to win the NBA Championship that season, something that Baylor never achieved. He finished his career with 23,149 points, 3,650 assists and 11,463 rebounds over 846 games.

Baylor was the last of the great undersized forwards, in a league where many guards are now his size or bigger. Baylor’s signature shot was a running bank shot, which he was able to release quickly and effectively over taller players.

In 1977, Baylor was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame and in 1980 he was named to the NBA 35th Anniversary All-Time Team and again in 1996, he was named to the NBA 50th Anniversary All-Time Team.

Coach and Executive

In 1974, Baylor was hired to be an assistant coach and later the head coach for the New Orleans Jazz, but had a lackluster 86-135 record and retired following the 1978-79 season. In 1986, Baylor was hired by the Los Angeles Clippers as the team’s vice president of basketball operations. He stayed in that capacity for 22 years before deciding to resign in October 2008 at the age of 74. In 2006, Baylor was selected as the NBA Executive of the Year.

Seattle University lost the NCAA Championship game with him and has never returned to the Final Four (since they dropped from Division I), the Lakers moved out of Minneapolis after drafting him and never won an NBA Championship in Los Angeles until the season he retired, the Jazz moved out of New Orleans after he coached them, and the Clippers have become synonymous with NBA futility while he was their general manager. However, in 2006 he won the NBA Executive of the Year leading the Clippers to the playoffs, and on May 1, 2006, the Clippers won their first playoff series since 1976, when the franchise (then the Buffalo Braves) was located in Buffalo, New York.

NBA highlights

• NBA Rookie of the Year (1959)
• All-NBA First Team 10 times (1959-65, 67-69)
• Eleven-time NBA All-Star (1959-65, 1967-70)
• NBA All-Star Game Co-MVP (1959)
• Holds NBA Finals single-game record for most points (61) on April 24, 1962 against the Boston Celtics
• Scored 71 points (8th highest in history) against the New York Knicks (Nov. 15, 1960)
• Scored 23,149 points in only 846 games (27.4 points per game, fourth best all-time) and averaged 30 points or more three times (1961-63)
• Retired as NBA’s third all-time leading scorer
• Retired as fifth leading scorer in All-Star Game history (19.8 points per game)
• Ranked sixth in NBA Finals all-time scoring (26.4 in 44 games)
• Ranked seventh in NBA playoffs all-time scoring (27.0 in 134 games)
• NBA 35th Anniversary Team (1980)
• NBA 50th Anniversary Teams (1996)
• NBA Executive of the Year (2006)
• 87 Career 40-point games in the regular season (4th All-time behind Wilt Chamberlain, Michael Jordan, and Kobe Bryant)

Quotes

“He was one of the most spectacular shooters the game has ever known”, Baylor’s longtime teammate Jerry West told HOOP magazine in 1992. “I hear people talking about forwards today and I haven’t seen many that can compare with him.”

Bill Sharman played against Baylor and coached him in his final years with the Lakers. “I say without reservation that Elgin Baylor is the greatest cornerman who ever played pro basketball”, he told the Los Angeles Times at Baylor’s retirement in 1971.

Tommy Hawkins, Baylor’s teammate for six seasons and opponent for four (and later a basketball broadcaster) declared to the San Francisco Examiner that “pound for pound, no one was ever as great as Elgin Baylor.” “Elgin certainly didn’t jump as high as Michael Jordan”, Hawkins told the San Francisco Examiner. “But he had the greatest variety of shots of anyone. He would take it in and hang and shoot from all these angles. Put spin on the ball. Elgin had incredible strength. He could post up Bill Russell. He could pass like Magic [Johnson] and dribble with the best guards in the league.”

Credit: Wikipedia