William Walton Sharman (May 25, 1926 – October 25, 2013) was an American professional basketball player and coach. He is mostly known for his time with the Boston Celtics in the 1950s, partnering with Bob Cousy in what was then considered the greatest backcourt duo of all time. As a coach, Sharman won titles in the ABL, ABA, and NBA, and is credited with introducing the now-ubiquitous morning shootaround.
Sharman was the first North American sports figure to win a championship as a player, coach, and executive. He was a 15-time NBA champion (having won four titles as a player with the Celtics, one as head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers, and ten as a Lakers executive), and a 17-time champion in basketball overall counting his ABL and ABA titles.[1][2] Sharman is also a two-time Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductee, having been inducted in 1976 as a player, and in 2004 as a coach.[3] Only John Wooden, Lenny Wilkens, Tommy Heinsohn and Bill Russell share this double honor.
Sharman is also notable for coaching the 1971–72 Los Angeles Lakers to an NBA record 33-game win streak, a then-record regular season 69–13 win–loss mark, and the first Lakers championship in Los Angeles.
Early life
William Walton Sharman was born on May 25, 1926, in Abilene, Texas. The family moved to California when he was a child, and he grew up in Lomita, California.[3][4] He originally attended Narbonne High School where he was on a championship basketball team in ninth grade. As a sophomore, he began attending Porterville High School (PHS), a high school in the Central California city of Porterville, California, after his father obtained a newspaper dealership there. Narbonne's season had ended, and he joined PHS's basketball team and won another championship in the same year. This enabled Sharman to win five high school basketball championships in four years.[5][6][7][8]
He was a 15-letter athlete at PHS, excelling in basketball and baseball, competing in track, and winning the state amateur tennis title. He graduated in 1944, and was named California's Outstanding Athlete. He gave credit to PHS for its contributing to his later success in life.[6][7][4][5]
Sharman died one day before his induction into the inaugural class of the Porterville High Athletic Hall of Fame.[4]
College career
Sharman served during World War II from 1944 to 1946 in the US Navy, and was a graduate of the University of Southern California. He started on both the baseball and basketball teams.[5] USC records describe him as playing on the school’s baseball team for two years, in 1949 and 1950, and not as a member the 1948 USC Trojans baseball team.[9][10]
Sharman played basketball for four years at USC (1946-1950). He averaged 15.9 points per game as a junior (1948-1949), and 18.6 as a senior (1949-1950).[11] Sharman was twice selected All-Pacific Coast Conference and twice as the Conference's MVP.[12] Following his senior year, Sharman was selected as a member of the 1950 NCAA Men's Basketball All-Americans, first team, along with his future Boston Celtic teammate Bob Cousy.[13]
Professional baseball career
In 1950, the Brooklyn Dodgers offered him a contract with a $12,000 signing bonus, at a time when professional baseball was more prestigious than professional basketball.[5] However, Sharman knew he had been taken by the Washington Capitols in the NBA draft, so he got the Dodgers to agree that he not be prevented from playing professional basketball.[8][12]
Minor leagues
From 1950 to 1955, Sharman played professional baseball in the Brooklyn Dodgersminor league system. He played for the Pueblo Dodgers, Elmira Pioneers, Fort Worth Cats, St. Paul Saints, and the Mobile Bears. He had a lifetime .281 batting average in 638 games.[14] He was called up to the Dodgers late in the 1951 season but did not appear in a game. He was part of a September 27 game in which the entire Brooklyn bench was cleared from the dugout for arguing with the home plate umpire over a ruling at the plate. This has led to the legend that Sharman holds the distinction of being the only player in baseball history to have ever been ejected from a major league game without ever appearing in one. However, although Sharman was among the Dodger bench players that had to go to the clubhouse, none of them were actually barred from playing in the game. In fact, in the top of the ninth, one of the other dismissed players, Wayne Terwilliger, was used as a pinch-hitter in the game.[15]
Sharman continued to play baseball until breaking his basketball shooting hand while sliding into home plate, after which he decided to focus solely on basketball.[5]
Professional basketball career
During the same time periond he was playing professional baseball, Sharman also played professional basketball for two different teams.[5]
Washington Capitols (1950–1951)
Sharman c. 1960
Sharman was drafted by the Washington Capitols in the second round of the 1950 NBA draft. His future Celtics teammate Bob Cousy was taken in the first round of the same draft.[16] The team offered him $5,000, the most ever paid to a rookie. After refusing the initial offer, and telling the Capitols he wanted to play baseball, the team increased the offer to $8,000 and Sharman joined the Capitols. The team failed financially 35 games into the 1950-1951 season.[5][17]
Earl Lloyd, the African American player who broke the NBA's color barrier was a Capitols' teammate. Lloyd did not have a car, and Sharman would drive over to Lloyd's home in segregated Washington, D.C. to pick Lloyd up, so Lloyd would not have to take long bus rides. Lloyd said of Sharman, "'Bill was a decent guy when it wasn't fashionable...."[18]
Boston Celtics (1951–1961)
Following the disbanding of the Capitols, Sharman was selected by the Fort Wayne Pistons in the dispersal draft and was subsequently traded to the Boston Celtics (possibly with Bob Brannum) for Chuck Share prior to the 1951–52 season.[19][8] Sharman played a total of ten seasons for the Celtics,[3][12] leading the team in scoring between the 1955–56 and 1958–59 seasons, and averaging over 20 points per game during three of them.[20][21][22][23][24]
Sharman was one of the first NBA guards to shoot better than .400 from the field, with a .450 percentage in 1953-1954.[12] He led the NBA in free throw percentage a record seven times (including a record five consecutive seasons),[3] and his mark of 93.2% in the 1958–59 season[23] remained the NBA record until Ernie DiGregorio topped it in 1976–77 (94.5%).[25] His career percentage was .883.[12] Sharman still holds the record for consecutive free throws in the playoffs with 56.[18] Sharman was named to the All-NBA First Team from 1956 through 1959, and was an All-NBA Second Team member in 1953, 1955, and 1960.[19] He won four NBA championships with the Celtics.[5]
Sharman played in eight NBA All-Star games,[12] scoring in double figures in seven of them. He was named the 1955 NBA All-Star Game MVP after scoring ten of his fifteen points in the fourth quarter.[12][26] Sharman still holds the NBA All-Star Game record for field goals attempted in a quarter with 12.
The pairing of Sharman and fellow Celtics guard Bob Cousy, combining a pure shooter with a playmaker, formed the first modern backcourt.[18] In one NBA ranking of the greatest backcourt duos in league history, Sharman and Cousy were ranked ninth out of seventy pairs.[27]
Sharman ended his NBA playing career after 11 seasons in 1961.[12]
Coaching career
Los Angeles Jets and Cleveland Pipers (1961–1962)
After retiring from the NBA in 1961, in the 1961-1962 season, he became a player-coach for the Los Angeles Jets of the American Basketball League, appearing in 19 games; but the franchise folded during the season.[12] He remained in the ABL and coached the Cleveland Pipers to the league championship in 1962.[3][12]
California State-Los Angeles
The ABL folded altogether, and Sharman next became a college coach at Los Angeles State (now California State, Los Angeles) for two seasons.[3] The team went 27-20 during that time, before Sharman left to become a broadcaster for two years.[12]
San Francisco Warriors (1966–1968)
In 1966, Sharman became the coach of the NBA's San Francisco Warriors.[12] In their first season under Sharman, the Warriors won the Western Division and made it to the Finals, where they lost to the Philadelphia 76ers.[28] In his second and final season with the Warriors, the team finished third and lost in the Division Finals to the Lakers.[29]
Los Angeles / Utah Stars (1968–1971)
Sharman as a coach in 1971
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Sharman became coach of the Los Angeles Stars of the American Basketball Association for the 1968-1969 season.[30] He was a co-recipient of the ABA Coach of the Year honors in 1969-1970, with Joe Belmont of the Denver Rockets.[31][3] The Stars moved to Utah for the 1970-71 season, when Sharman coached the Utah Stars to an ABA title.[32] The championship team’s star player was league MVP and future hall of fame center Zelmo Beaty.[33] The Stars defeated the Kentucky Colonels, and their future hall of fame center Dan Issel, four games to three for the championship.[34]
Los Angeles Lakers (1971–1976)
After resigning as coach for the Utah Stars, Sharman signed a contract to coach the Los Angeles Lakers. Controversy later ensued when the owner of the Utah Stars brought suit against Sharman for breach of contract stemming from his resignation, and a tort case against the owner of the Los Angeles Lakers for inducing such breach of contract. Sharman was originally ordered to pay $250,000 in damages, but later appealed the trial court decision and the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit reversed the judgement.[35][36]
The following season, Sharman guided the Wilt Chamberlain and Jerry West-led Los Angeles Lakers to an NBA record 33 game win streak, a then-record 69–13 win–loss mark, the first Lakers championship in Los Angeles and the first for the team in more than a decade.[3] They had been to the finals seven times since moving from Minneapolis, losing each time.[12] That season, Sharman was named NBA Coach of the Year.[3] He is one of two men to win NBA and ABA championships as a coach; coincidentally, the other, Alex Hannum, also coached a Chamberlain-led team (the 1967 Philadelphia 76ers) to an NBA championship, defeating the Sharman-coached San Francisco Warriors.[37][38] Hannum and Sharman had been teammates at USC, under coach Sam Barry.[39] Including the ABL, Sharman is the only coach to win championships in three different professional leagues.[12]
The Lakers went to the 1973 NBA finals, but lost to the Knicks 4-1.[12] By 1974, Chamberlain and West had both retired, but the Lakers had traded for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in 1975.[40] Sharman ending his coaching career after the 1975-1976 season to become the Lakers general manager.[12]
Sharman invented the morning shootaround as a way to burn off nervous energy on game days. He took the shootaround with him to his first coaching jobs in the ABL, the ABA, and later, the NBA. After the Lakers won the championship in 1972, every other team in the league added the shootaround to its game-day regimen.[3][12]
Post-playing career
L-R: Sharman, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Jack Kent Cooke at press conference announcing Lakers' signing Kareem in Los Angeles, 1975
As Lakers general manager, Sharman built the 1980 and 1982 NBA championship teams, and as Lakers president he oversaw the 1985, 1987, and 1988 NBA championship teams. Sharman retired from the Lakers front office in 1991 at age 65.[18]
In the 1971-72 season, Sharman suffered a vocal cord injury while coaching that never fully healed. In 1988, he spent a year in total silence, but a medical procedure that involved crushing a vocal cord left his voice permanently strained, making it an effort for him to speak.[46] The voice problems later limited his ability to function as an executive.[47]
Sharman was the author of two books, Sharman on Basketball Shooting and The Wooden-Sharman Method: A Guide to Winning Basketball with John Wooden and Bob Selzer.
The gymnasium at Porterville High School is named after Sharman.[6] After his former basketball team the Los Angeles Jets dissolved in 1962, he sued to enforce his employment contract with the Jets, culminating in the case Sharman v. Longo (1967) 249 Cal.App.2d 948.
In 2013, Sharman sold his 2010 NBA championship ring from the Lakers to benefit charity.[48]
Personal life
Sharman's marriage to his first wife, Illeana, lasted over 20 years and resulted in four children before their divorce in 1968. He was married to his second wife, Dorothy, from 1969 until her death from cancer in 1975. Sharman married Joyce McLay in 1981, with whom he remained married until his death.[49][50]
† Special voting by the panelists selected Julius Erving as the ABA's all-time most valuable player and Bobby Leonard as the ABA's all-time best head coach
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