{"id":21018,"date":"2021-06-25T19:38:17","date_gmt":"2021-06-26T00:38:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/myboysay.com\/blog\/?p=21018"},"modified":"2021-06-25T19:38:17","modified_gmt":"2021-06-26T00:38:17","slug":"bob-mcadoo-was-unstoppable-bob-mcadoo-nba-hall-of-famer-greatest-shooting-big-man-of-all-time-small-forward-power-forward-center-in-the-history-of-the-national-b","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/myboysay.com\/blog\/?p=21018","title":{"rendered":"\u201cBob McAdoo was unstoppable.\u201d, Bob McAdoo, NBA HALL OF FAMER, GREATEST SHOOTING big mAn of all time (“SMALL FORWARD”\/ “POWER FORWARD”\/”CENTER”), IN THE HISTORY OF THE NATIONAL BASKETBALL LEAGUE’S EXISTENCE."},"content":{"rendered":"
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Legends “GOAT” profiles: Bob McAdoo, NBA HALL OF FAMER, GREATEST SHOOTING POWER FORWARD\/CENTER IN THE HISTORY OF THE NATIONAL BASKETBALL LEAGUE.<\/h1>\n

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There are no second acts in American lives, F. Scott Fitzgerald once observed. But the novelist couldn\u2019t have anticipated the turbulent NBA career of Bob McAdoo.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The high-scoring, 6-foot-9 forward\u2019s 14-season tenure in the league began brilliantly. He garnered Rookie of the Year honors, three consecutive scoring championships, and an MVP Award, all in his first four years. Then his star slowly faded before unexpectedly reigniting through the first half of the 1980s. Even after that, at age 35, McAdoo wrote an unlikely ending to his career, playing another six years in Italy.<\/strong><\/p>\n

One of the best shooting big men of all time, Robert Allen McAdoo, Jr. won the first of his three scoring championships in only his second year in the NBA, 1973-74, the same year he led the league with a .547 field-goal percentage. Over 14 seasons, McAdoo scored 18,787 points and averaged 22.1 points. A five-time NBA All-Star, he shot .503 from the field and .754 from the line, scoring in double figures in all but one season.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yet, had McAdoo not found a second wind as a reserve for the Los Angeles Lakers in the early 1980s, history might have remembered him only fleetingly as a brilliant young scorer who could not connect with a winner. Instead, McAdoo played a crucial supporting role in four straight NBA Finals, twice emerging with a championship ring.<\/strong><\/p>\n

His second act vindicated a career that had sent him, despite his consistently high scoring, bouncing unhappily from Buffalo to New York and then to Boston, Detroit and New Jersey. Counting an abbreviated farewell year with the Philadelphia 76ers, McAdoo played for seven NBA teams in 14 years.<\/strong><\/p>\n

McAdoo was only 3 years old the first time he shot a basketball in his hometown of Greensboro, North Carolina, where his mother taught at his grade school and his father was a custodian at nearby North Carolina A&T College. In addition to basketball, the younger McAdoo learned to play saxophone; at Smith High School he made the marching band as well as the basketball squad. On the side, he played sax with a local rhythm-and-blues group.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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McAdoo reached high school age just as civil rights laws and judges began to require busing to achieve school integration. He and several friends from his mostly African-American neighborhood chose to be bused to Smith High because, he later conceded, they thought their chances of making the basketball team were better at an integrated school.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In his senior year, McAdoo led Smith to North Carolina\u2019s state basketball semifinals as well as to the state track tournament, at which he set a new record for the high jump. (One of his rivals at the track meet was future NBA forward Bobby Jones, who would later be McAdoo\u2019s teammate at Philadelphia in 1985-86, the final year in the league for both players.).<\/strong><\/p>\n

Not an exceptional student, McAdoo lacked the academic test scores required by the Atlantic Coast Conference for admission to the University of North Carolina. He enrolled instead at Vincennes Junior College in Indiana and led the team in scoring for two years. In 1971, after an appearance in the 1971 Pan-American Games, his academic status had improved, so McAdoo returned home to attend North Carolina.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In McAdoo\u2019s first (and only) season at Chapel Hill, the nationally ranked Tar Heels recorded a 29-5 regular-season record and advanced to the 1972 NCAA Final Four. Despite a 24-point, 15-rebound performance from McAdoo, North Carolina was upset by Florida State in the national semifinals. McAdoo earned First Team All-America honors after averaging 19.5 points and 10.1 rebounds. Citing family hardship, he then sought and won early eligibility for the 1972 NBA Draft. The fledgling Buffalo Braves, preparing to enter their third campaign, made McAdoo the second overall pick, behind the Portland Trail Blazers\u2019 selection of LaRue Martin from Loyola of Chicago.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Braves Coach Jack Ramsay initially thought McAdoo was too frail to play the center position, so he tried the rookie at small forward. McAdoo didn\u2019t make the starting lineup until halfway through the 1972-73 campaign, and even then he struggled defensively. The New York Knicks\u2019 Bill Bradley scored a career-best 38 points on a night he was being guarded by rookie McAdoo.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ramsay moved McAdoo back to center for the second half of the season and McAdoo\u2019s performance soared. He finished with overall averages of 18.0 points and 9.1 rebounds and earned the NBA Rookie of the Year Award. The Braves, however, continued to sing the expansion blues, winning only 21 games after winning 22 in each of their first two seasons.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Any doubts about McAdoo vanished in 1973-74. Aided by the Braves\u2019 acquisition of playmaker Ernie DiGregorio and forward Jim McMillian, McAdoo had a sensational sophomore year. An All-Star for the first time, he led the league in both scoring (30.6) and field-goal percentage (.547), helping Buffalo to a 42-40 record and the first playoff berth in franchise history. The Braves faced the Boston Celtics in the conference semifinals and lost in six games.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Both the Braves and their new sensation got even better in 1974-75. Buffalo\u2019s 49-33 record was third best in the entire league, and McAdoo earned the NBA Most Valuable Player Award after a spectacular individual campaign. He led the league in scoring (34.5), total points (2,831), total rebounds (1,155), and minutes played (3,539) while ranking fourth in rebounding (14.1), fifth in field-goal percentage (.512), and sixth in blocks (2.12).<\/strong><\/p>\n

Buffalo met Washington in the Eastern Conference semifinals and stretched the Bullets to the limit in a thrilling seven-game series. Washington won Game 7 and the series, despite a monstrous effort from McAdoo, who averaged 37.4 points and 13.4 rebounds in the postseason.<\/strong><\/p>\n

By the middle of the 1975-76 season, Sports Illustrated<\/em> was calling McAdoo \u201cthe quickest tall man, finest shooter and most astounding outside scoring machine ever to play basketball.\u201d According to the same publication, when told that his coach, Jack Ramsay, had said McAdoo could become the greatest big man to play the game, McAdoo (never noted for his modesty) retorted, \u201cI think I\u2019m the greatest already.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Indeed, McAdoo won a third straight scoring title that season, averaging 31.1 points. The performance prompted Bill Russell, then coach of the Seattle SuperSonics, to tell a Buffalo publication: \u201cHe\u2019s the greatest shooter of all time, period. Forget that bit about the \u2018greatest shooting big man.’\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

McAdoo made his most lasting contribution to the game\u2019s strategic development as the first big man to shoot regularly from the outside. In his first four seasons, nearly half of the shots he took came from outside the lane, a dazzling new strategy for a center. And in half of his 14 NBA seasons, he shot .500 or better from the floor.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Buffalo turned in another strong regular season in 1975-76, finishing second behind Boston in the Atlantic Division, with a 46-36 record. In the postseason, McAdoo led the Braves to their first playoff series victory, a first-round triumph over Philadelphia. Buffalo then lost to the championship-bound Celtics in the conference semifinals.<\/strong><\/p>\n

But the troubles that would dog McAdoo for the rest of the 1970s were already brewing. Extremely sensitive to criticism, especially about his perceived lack of defensive skills, McAdoo\u2019s withdrawn manner won him few friends in the media or in Buffalo. He complained of getting insufficient national attention in a wintry town where, he once ruefully noted, small children played hockey, not basketball, in the streets.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Midway through the 1975-76 season, McAdoo asked to be excused from a game because of back problems. When Buffalo owner Paul Snyder demanded that his star center see a second doctor, McAdoo refused, causing Snyder to suspend him. Although the suspension only lasted one game, the incident rankled both sides and chilled the relationship.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The following season, McAdoo was in the final year of his contract. Snyder, unwilling to meet McAdoo\u2019s money demands or lose him to free agency after the season, traded him at midyear to the New York Knicks. The Braves, who also threw in Tom McMillen, received John Gianelli and cash in return.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Although McAdoo still finished the 1976-77 season ranked fifth in the league in scoring (25.8), the move to New York was not a happy one. The Knicks were fraught with internal clashes during McAdoo\u2019s tenure. The rivalry between McAdoo and superstar teammate Spencer Haywood was particularly intense. Although McAdoo finished third in the league in scoring in 1977-78 (26.5), the Knicks traded him midway through the following season to Boston for Tom Barker and three first-round draft picks.<\/strong><\/p>\n

McAdoo learned of the trade by reading a newspaper. So did Boston General Manager Red Auerbach and player-coach Dave Cowens, who had not been consulted by Celtics owner John Brown and resented it. McAdoo felt unwelcome and found himself sitting while Cowens played center. He finished the 1978-79 campaign averaging 24.8 points in 60 games. The Celtics then dispatched McAdoo to the Detroit Pistons as compensation for Boston\u2019s free-agent signing of M.L. Carr.<\/strong><\/p>\n

McAdoo\u2019s two years in Detroit proved to be no happier. The Pistons were in turmoil, and McAdoo suffered a string of injuries. In 1980-81, he played in only six games for the Pistons and finally waived him after he filed a grievance with the players\u2019 association. The New Jersey Nets signed him late in the season and he appeared in 10 games. But he and the Nets could not agree on a contract for 1981-82, and amid whispers of \u201cmalingerer\u201d and \u201ctroublemaker,\u201d McAdoo\u2019s once-shining career appeared over.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fate, however, intervened in the form of a surprise Christmas present. A season-ending injury to the Los Angeles Lakers\u2019 Mitch Kupchak midway through 1981-82 had the club scrambling for a second big man. On Christmas Eve, 1981, the Lakers surprised McAdoo and most observers by acquiring his rights from the Nets for cash and a second-round draft pick.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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The move, widely questioned at the time, paid off for both the player and the team. McAdoo discovered he could flourish in the role of substitute, and the Lakers used his contributions off the bench to win the 1982 NBA Championship.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cEvery place I went, I was supposed to be the franchise-saver,\u201d McAdoo recalled of his unhappy wanderings in The Dallas Morning News<\/em> in 1984. \u201cAn awful lot of pressure went with that. I was supposed to do all the scoring and all the rebounding. I was tired of losing and tired of being traded.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

With the spotlight off him, McAdoo blossomed as a Laker. In 1982-83 he averaged 15.0 ppg, although he spent 32 games on the disabled list with a toe injury. The Lakers reached the NBA Finals again, but they were trounced in four straight by a powerful Philadelphia 76ers team.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 1983-84, McAdoo\u2019s 13.1 scoring average led all nonstarters in the NBA, even though he played fewer than 21 minutes per game. The Lakers rolled through the regular season and the playoffs, meeting the Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals. In a classic seven-game series the Celtics prevailed, despite McAdoo\u2019s 14.0-point average in the postseason.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Los Angeles returned to the Finals in 1985 for the fourth time in McAdoo\u2019s four Lakers seasons. This time the club would not be denied, exacting revenge against the Celtics in six games. McAdoo averaged 10.5 points during the regular season and 11.4 in the playoffs.<\/strong><\/p>\n

More disappointment awaited him, however. Despite his role in two championships, the Lakers opted to move younger players onto the bench for the 1985-86 season and did not exercise a final option year in McAdoo\u2019s contract. He spent the summer and fall of 1985 negotiating a deal with the 76ers, who finally signed him for the second half of the season. He averaged better than 10 points through 29 games, but again found himself without a contract in the offseason.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Unhappy with Philadelphia\u2019s best offer and yet not ready to retire, McAdoo signed to play for Tracer Milan of the Italian League. In Italy, McAdoo added yet another act to his unconventional career. In his first year in Europe, at age 35, he led Milan to the Italian and European Championship, averaging 26.1 points and 10.2 rebounds. In all, he played seven years overseas for Milan, Forli and Fabriano, finishing with career Italian League averages of 26.6 points and 8.7 rebounds. McAdoo retired in 1992 at age 41.<\/strong><\/p>\n

McAdoo was elected to Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2000.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Bob McAdoo, the NBA and European champ<\/strong><\/h2>\n

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Veteran sportswriter and Euroleague.net collaborator Vladimir Stankovic has been following the best basketball on the continent longer than almost anyone journalist, writing for decades about the sport in major publications in both Serbia and Spain. Once again this season, he offers a blog that honors the history of European basketball – even while history keeps being made! <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Until this entry, I have not had any strict order or concrete reason to choose a legendary player and try to tell his story closer to the younger readers who didn’t know about him, or the elder readers who wanted to remember the past. However, this time there is a special reason to write about Bob McAdoo, to me, one of the best three (OK, I will concede five) American players that have ever played European basketball. I just spent a few days in Los Angeles and got to see a game of the L.A. Lakers (against Charlotte) and one of the L.A. Clippers (against Denver), two teams for which, some time ago, the great Robert Allen McAdoo played.<\/strong><\/p>\n

There are players who have won the NCAA and the Euroleague, for instance Jiri Zidek Jr., my fellow writer at Euroleague.net and color commentator in Euroleague TV, or Tyus Edney but I really can’t recall anyone like Bob McAdoo, who first won the NBA and later the Euroleague! The other way around there have been cases like Toni Kukoc, Manu Ginobili and Zan Tabak.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The brilliant career of Bob (born in Greensboro, North Carolina on September 25, 1951) started at Vincennes Junior College of Indiana, where he played from 1969 to 1971. It was then that he moved on to North Carolina University and during the 1971-72 season took his team to third place in the NCAA Final Four. His great season with averages of 19.5 points and 10.5 rebounds per game made McAdoo one of the most desired players around. In the NBA draft, which took place on April 10, 1972, the Buffalo Braves (today’s LA Clippers) chose Bob McAdoo as the second overall pick.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Three-peating as the best scorer <\/strong><\/p>\n

\"AlfonsoMcAdoo won the Rookie of the Year award for the 1972-73 NBA season with averages of 18.0 points and 9.1 rebounds per game. In his sophomore season as a pro, he had an impressive average of double-doubles with 30.6 points and 15.1 rebounds. Since then, no player has averaged 30 and 15 in a single season. His shooting percentage was also great, 54.7% Obviously, he was selected to the All-Star Game, something he would repeat four more times. After the 1974-75, McAdoo was named MVP and finished as the league\u2019s top scorer for the third straight year with an average of 34.5 points in addition to 14.1 rebounds and 2.12 blocks per game. He also shot 51.2% and 80.5% on free throws. That year he was the top vote-getter for the All-Star Game with 98,325 votes.<\/strong><\/p>\n

After the Braves, McAdoo joined the New York Knicks from 1976 to 1979 and later played for the Boston Celtics (1979), Detroit Pistons (1979-1981), New Jersey Nets (1981), Los Angeles Lakers (1981-1985) and Philadelphia 76ers (1986). With the Lakers he was part of the great team formed by Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and James Worthy. Together, they won NBA championships in 1982 and 1985. His brilliant career in the NBA came to an end with 18,887 points (22.1 ppg.), 8,048 rebounds (8.4 rpg.) and 1,147 blocks (1.5 bpg.).<\/strong><\/p>\n

When, in the summer of 1986, McAdoo signed for a Tracer Milano, which was then coached by Dan Peterson, he was almost 35 years old and many doubted his ability to play at a high level. The start of the European season confirmed the doubts. On October 30, 1986, Tracer lost in Thessaloniki to Aris by 31 points, 98-67. Nikos Galis destroyed the team with 44 points. Aris already led 60-34 at the halftime break. In the return game, played November 6 in Milan, one of the biggest comebacks in European competition ever took place. Tracer won 83-49. After a quiet first half, McAdoo led his team with 21 points and 9 rebounds. After the game, McAdoo admitted to his coach that it had been the most intense game of his career.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Second youth in Italy <\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Bob After the miracle, Tracer Milano marched towards the European final… and won it! The rival in the final played on April 2, 1987, in Lausanne, Switzerland was Maccabi Tel Aviv. Tracer won 71-69 and McAdoo was the second-best scorer on his team (21 points) after Roberto Premier (23) and the best rebounder with 9 boards. The team from Milan was European champ again after 21 years.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The following year, with Franco Casalini as boss, Tracer repeated the victory in the first Final Four of the modern era (two experimental ones had taken place before in 1966 in Bologna and 1967 in Madrid). After a round-robin phase with eight teams, Partizan of Vlade Divac, Sasha Djordjevic, Zarko Paspalj and Zeljko Obradovic reached the Final Four in Ghent as leader with 10 wins and 4 losses. Galis and Panagiotis Gianakis took Aris to 9-5 to finish second and Tracer Milano – with Mike D’Antoni, Dino Meneghin, Ricky Brown, Premier and McAdoo – was third also at 9-5. Maccabi finished fourth with an 8-6 record led by Miki Berkowitz, Doron Jamchy, Kevin Magee and Ken Barlow. In the semifinals, Maccabi defeated Partizan 97-82 and Tracer defeated Aris by the same score. In the big final, a brilliant McAdoo (25 points, 12 rebounds) led Tracer to another win over Maccabi.<\/strong><\/p>\n

McAdoo played in Milan until 1990. The two following years he played in Forli with averages of 31.7 points and 9.6 rebounds. He put an end to his career in Teamsystem Fabriano in 1992-93 at 42 years old. Over seven seasons in Italy, he played 201 games, scored 5,427 points (27.3 ppg.) and averaged 9.0 boards per game. He won the Italian League twice, the Italian Cup once and one Intercontinental cup \u2013 all with Milano.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bob McAdoo was not very tall. With his 2.06 meters, he was more a power forward than a center, and sometimes he played forward because he had good shooting skills, including from three-point range. He was also a great rebounder, showing skills that nobody had then, but that today we can see in names like Chris Webber, Kevin Garnett and Dirk Nowitzki.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"BobMany think that NBA was not fair when, on the occasion of the league\u2019s 50th anniversary, McAdoo was left out of its list of 50 great players. In 2000 he was inducted to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield. And Euroleague Basketball in 2008, when celebrating the 50th anniversary of European competitions, chose him among the 35 players to have contributed most to the game in the history of the competition. On that occasion, on this very same website, McAdoo said:<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Being here is a fantastic honour. When I heard about it, I jumped off my chair because I remember my time in Italy as fantastic. As a matter of fact, I loved my Italian stay probably better than my NBA stay for 14 years. It is a great honour for me and I am proud to be here. I remember the two European Cup championship games against Maccabi Tel Aviv, they were very tough games. The evolution of European basketball has been tremendous since I last played here. For instance, when you look at the last Olympics, the Italian national team got the silver medal. A lot of European players make major contributions in the NBA these days, too.”<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Today McAdoo works as an assistant coach for the Miami Heat of the NBA, a position he has held for 17 years.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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