Goodbye to Bird Averitt at the age of 68.
Averitt led college basketball in scoring when he averaged 33.9 points per game in the 1972-73 season for the Pepperdine Waves, but Averitt's best success as a pro came with his second team when he averaged 13 points a game as part of Hubie Brown's guard rotation with the 1974-75 ABA champion Kentucky Colonels.
Averitt would top that the following season when averaging 17 points per game for the Colonels in the final season of the ABA.
Averitt would be drafted by the Buffalo Braves in the dispersal draft in 1975-76, would spend the season with Buffalo before moving to the New York Nets to start the following year.
Averitt split the season between New York and a return to Buffalo for his final year as a player at only 25.
Goodbye to Tom Heinsohn at the age of 86.
Heinsohn did about all that you could do in a career that saw him reach the Hall of Fame.
Heinsohn made six All-Star teams, won eight NBA championships in nine seasons as a player, won the rookie of the year award, coached the Celtics to two more titles in 1973-74 and 1975-76, and after being fired in 1978 as Boston's coach, Heinsohn would spend over three decades announcing Celtics games becoming a franchise icon as arguably the biggest homer in local basketball!
That's one great resume' and I'm not sure anyone in basketball can match that kind of success at all three levels of hoops with only one franchise.
Heinsohn's playing career ended due to a foot injury and had he not been forced into retirement at age 30, Heinsohn would have likely added the other three Celtic titles to his list, which would have been eleven titles in thirteen seasons.
Goodbye to Billy Tubbs at the age of 85.
The fast-talking and fast-break offense-running Tubbs won 641 games with Lamar (in two stints), Oklahoma, and TCU in a head coaching career that stretched over parts of four decades.
Tubbs coached teams that won more than 20 games on sixteen different occasions and his 1987-88 team with Oklahoma finished 31-4 before losing to underdog and fellow conference rival at the time, Kansas in the national championship in the Danny Manning and "the miracles" season for the Jayhawks.
Tubbs took all four universities that he coached to the NCAA tournament with an elite eight and three sweet sixteen trips besides the title game loss.
Goodbye to Jimmy Collins at the age of 74.
Collins was the captain of the 1970 New Mexico State Aggie team that reached the final four under coach Lou Henson and was then selected in the first round by the Chicago Bulls.
After that season, Collins was selected by the Chicago Bulls in the first round of the 1970 draft.
Collins disappointed in his two seasons as a Bull in averaging less than four points a game.
Collins was selected by the Bulls over two future Hall of Famers that were taken in the second round in Nate Archibald and Calvin Murphy.
Collins was selected by the Bulls over two future Hall of Famers that were taken in the second round in Nate Archibald and Calvin Murphy.
Collins returned to the side of Lou Henson, first at New Mexico State and then to Illinois where Collins earned a reputation as one of the nation's top recruiting assistants and it was Collins that was the point man in bringing in the talent that built Henson's 1989 Final Four team.
Collins took over at Illinois-Chicago as head coach and took the Flames to three NCAA appearances in fourteen seasons as head coach.
Goodbye to Rafer Johnson at the age of 88.
Johnson won the 1960 Olympic Gold at the Rome Olympics in the decathlon in the final event of his athletic career.
Johnson also played basketball for UCLA under John Wooden before the Rome games with Wooden stating that the slowdown game that Wooden preferred at that time didn't play to the strengths of Johnson's abilities.
Johnson's brother, Jimmy, spent a long career as a cornerback with the 49ers and is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Johnson, along with Rosey Grier, apprehended Sirhan Sirhan in the Ambassador Hotel following Sirhan's assassination of Robert Kennedy in 1968.
In the film/audio that exists of the assassination, a newsman's voice can clearly be heard "Rafer, hold him down"!.
Johnson also acted in several films that included an Elvis Presley film, "Wild in the Country".
And a sad last-minute addition from Ryan.
Jones is one of seven players to have won a Olympic gold medal, NCAA national championship and an NBA title, won eight championships as a player and two more as the head coach of the Celtics.
Jones could have won even more titles as a coach, but lost one NBA final series with Washington and two others with Boston.
Known for his defense as a player, Jones likely owns the lowest career scoring average for a Hall of Fame inductee as Jones averaged only seven points a game in his career.
Along with the Bullets and Celtics, Jones also served as head coach for the ABA San Diego Conquistadors and the Seattle Super Sonics.
No comments:
Post a Comment