Tag Archives: Washington Bullets

ProHoopsHistory HOF: Wes Unseld

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(nba.com)

(nba.com)

The outlet pass and Wes Unseld go together like peanut butter and jelly, like Peaches & Herb.

The moment Wes captured a rebound, wheeled his mammoth body around, instantly surveyed the court, and caught a teammate speeding down court, was the moment the opponent was practically doomed to ceding 2 points.

That moment happened often in Unseld’s career. With an average of 14 rebounds per game, Unseld ruled the glass. He also ruled several other facets of the game. He stood only 6’7″ and his blocks per game are paltry, but Unseld was a stern defender on bigger centers who had trouble maneuvering around and moving the stout Wes.

With four assists dished out nightly, Unseld didn’t just throw a good outlet pass, he was great passing in the half court. Bruising opponents with picks was another Unseld claim to fame. In fact just bruising opponents in the course of natural events was Unseld’s way. The man just physically wore you out with his strength and being.

For the Bullets franchise (in all its various incarnations), though, Unseld is really the only bright moment in their long history.

Prior to Unseld (1962 – 1968): 205 – 358 (.364 win percentage)
With Unseld (1969 – 1981): 618 – 448 (.580 win percentage)
After Unseld (1982 – 2013): 1050 – 1526 (.408 win percentage)

The franchise had 10 winning seasons in Unseld’s 13 years and have had eight in the other 39 seasons. There’s a reason why the NBA went positively insane back in 1969 when Unseld lifted the moribund franchise to a league-best 57 wins. He was not only Rookie of the Year, but also MVP that season. The Bullets made the NBA Finals four times in his tenure and won the title in 1978.

He was one of the best leaders in NBA history and despite claims to his lack of talent and athleticism, the man was filled with plenty of both. His career stacks up favorably with just about any great center you can think of.

Seasons Played: 1969 – 1981

Accolades

NBA -
Champion (1978)
MVP (1969)
Finals MVP (1978)
All-NBA 1st Team (1969)
5x All-Star (1969, 1971-’73, 1975)
Rookie of the Year (1969), All-Rookie 1st Team (1969)

Statistics

NBA - 984 Games
10.8 PPG, 14.0 RPG, 3.9 APG, 1.1 SPG, 50.9% FG, 63.3% FT
FG% Leader (1976), RPG Leader (1975)
11th All-Time Rebounds, 6th All-Time RPG

ProHoopsHistory HOF: Bob Dandridge

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Bob Dandridge (Virginia Sports Hall of Fame)

Bob Dandridge (Virginia Sports Hall of Fame)

Bob Dandridge was a paragon of how swingmen should play basketball. He brought swiftness and hustle on both sides of the court. He guarded some of the 1970s best ballplayers night in and night out to wonderful results. Julius Erving, George Gervin, Jerry West, John Havlicek and others felt the lithe wrath of Dandridge’s defense. Of course, one never shuts down players of that caliber, but Dandridge more often than not held them in relative check.

On offense Dandridge was nicknamed “The Greyhound” for his superb ability to leak out on fastbreaks and finish with effortless layups. If the break happened to be stymied, or never existed, Dandridge possessed a sweet midrange jump shot to wreck opposing defenses. He also utilized controlled bursts of his lightning speed by making great baseline cuts and curls to strike at the basket.

Dandridge played on two of the best teams of the 1970s: the Milwaukee Bucks and Washington Bullets.

His Bucks heyday was during the first half of the decade where made a surprising appearance on the All-Rookie 1st Team after being taken 45th overall in the 1969 draft. A mere afterthought, basically. He would help guide the Bucks to the title in 1971 and another Finals appearance in 1974. Joining the Bullets for the 1977-78 season, Dandridge repeated his Milwaukee success with a title in 1978 and another Finals appearance in 1979. His veteran savvy was the final missing piece for a Bullets team that routinely flamed out in the postseason before his arrival.

He’s one of the few players in NBA history to average 20 or more points per game in 3 or more NBA Finals series. That illustrates that when the going got tough, Dandridge raised his level of play. He remains supremely under-appreciated even by the Bucks who have yet to retire his jersey number even though Dandridge litters their all-time records and has played more minutes than any person in Bucks history.

In his own playing days Dandridge wasn’t lauded all that much. He made a mere three All-Star teams, a single All-NBA team, and only one appearance on the All-Defensive team. Dandridge is an exemplary case of how the accolades and recognition don’t always measure up to the contributions a player actually made and the greatness they actually achieved.

For more on Dandridge’s Hall of Fame worthy career go here.

Seasons Played: 1970 – 1982

Accolades

NBA -
2x Champion (1971, 1978)
All-NBA 2nd Team (1979)
All-Defensive 1st Team (1979)
4x All-Star (1973, 1975-’76, 1979)

Statistics

NBA – 839 Games
18.5 PPG, 6.8 RPG, 3.4 APG, 1.3 SPG, 0.6 BPG, 48.4% FG, 78.0% FT

ProHoopsHistory HOF: Elvin Hayes

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Elvin Hayes (celtic-nation.com)

Elvin Hayes (celtic-nation.com)

The Big E is the only player in NBA history to have played 50,000 minutes.

Oh sure, two other players, well three now after Jason Kidd’s recent minutes played triumph, have played more minutes than that, but none have played exactly 50,000 minutes like Elvin. That kind of monumental memorability was something typical of Hayes’ career.As a college standout at the University of Houston, Hayes helped defeat the juggernaut UCLA Bruins led by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in the Game of the Century played in the Astrodome (which was the world’s 8th Wonder at the time).

As a rookie, Hayes led the NBA in PPG with a sterling 28.4 starring for the San Diego Rockets. The next season he led the league in RPG with a sizzling 16.9 per game. That same year he led the league in minutes played per game with an exhausting 44.7.

However, the Rockets were a dud on the court. A move to Houston in time for the 1971-72 season didn’t help. Hayes was traded to the Bullets in the 1972 off-season and found much greater success. The Big E slid to power forward beside center Wes Unseld. Hayes was the shot-blocking rim protector while Unseld was immovable object that clogged the physical space of the defensive lane. They complemented each other perfectly.

The two stars propelled Washington to three Finals appearances in the decade (1975, 1978, 1979) and captured the 1978 NBA title after the addition of Bobby Dandridge and outstanding coach Dick Motta. All the while, Hayes continued to rack up the prodigious stats thanks to his lathe-like frame, his proficient mid-range jump shot, and his shot-blocking ability.


(more videos from Oakley and Allen)

Upon his retirement in 1984 after a second-stint with the Houston Rockets, the Big E ranked 3rd all-time in points, rebounds and blocks. And of course his minutes played were the most at that time. So were his games played.

These prodigious stats certainly don’t mean Elvin was perfect or without fault. He had a tendency to shrink a little bit in big playoff games. His shooting percentage was a bit low for a power forward. His FT% a tad woeful. But these nitpicks are just that, nitpicks.

He’s one of the handful of truly great power forwards in the game’s history… even if we tend to forget that fact.

Seasons Played: 1969 – 1984

Accolades

NBA -
Champion (1978) 3x All-NBA 1st Team (1975, 1977, 1979), 3x All-NBA 2nd Team (1973-74, 1976)
2x All-Defensive 2nd Team (1974-75), All-Rookie 1st Team (1969)
12x All-Star (1969-80)

Statistics

NBA – 1303 games
21.0 PPG, 12.5 RPG, 2.0 BPG, 1.0 SPG, 45.2% FG, 67.0% FT
PPG Leader (1969), 2x RPG Leader (1970, 1974), 2x MPG Leader (1970, 1974)
4th All-Time in Total Rebounds, 4th All-Time in Minutes Played, 8th All-Time in Points, 13th All-Time in Games Played
14th All-Time in RPG, 21st All-Time in Blocks

The Lowdown: Kevin Porter

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Years Active: 1973 – 1983
Career Stats: 659 games, 29.0 mpg
11.6 ppg, 8.1 apg, 1.8 rpg, 1.4 spg, 48.3%FG, 73.7% FT
Postseason Stats: 33 games, 29.4 mpg
11.0 ppg, 5.8 apg, 2.1 rpg, 1.1 spg, 46.3% FG, 64.9% FT
Accolades: 4x APG Leader (1975, 1978-79, 1981)

Porter dishing it off to teammate Bob Dandridge (#10) / Photo via arhenetwork.com

Kevin Porter tossed in 30 points and dished off 17 assists yesterday to pace the New Jersey Nets to a surprisingly easy, 106-95 victory over the Washington Bulles in National basketball Association action.

Via “Porter Paces Nets’ Victory” by the Associated Press

Kevin Porter was one of the purest passers the NBA has ever seen. The purity of his assists were equally matched by the chaotic turns his career took due to injury and bewildering trades. The winding path his career took conspired to obscure some of the truly masterful accomplishments of Porter. Normally, I like to narrate from start to finish a player’s career, but with Porter that’s simply not possible. Each theme must be teased and explained on its own. A simple, progressive Point A to Point B story just won’t do.

The No-Name Bullets: Disruptive to any sort of continuity is the lack of a stable name. Kevin Porter didn’t go about changing his name every day of the week, but it sure seemed the Bullets franchise was. Kevin spent five full seasons with them and they had 3 different locations: Baltimore, Capital and Washington. So, understandably, Washington Wizards fans of today may have a hard time identifying with Kevin Porter of the Capital Bullets even if he is the best pure point guard the franchise has ever had.

(Arguments for Rod Strickland can be entertained; there’s nothing pure about Gilbert Arenas)

On the move: Further obfuscating the Porter legacy is that he never stayed in one place too long. 8 full seasons and he never played for a singular location for more than 2 years. In his first three seasons, the Bullets did their Baltimore to Capital to Washington dance. Then for two seasons he was with Detroit. Then was traded to New Jersey for a year. New Jersey then traded him back to Detroit for a season. Finally Porter enjoyed free agency and returned to the Bullets. Even vagabonds don’t move around that often.

Hurt: You may have noticed that I mentioned Porter playing in 8 full seasons. Two devastating injuries obliterated an entire season and cut two others much too short. A cartilage tear in his knee derailed his debut season with Detroit in 1975-76 after only 19 games. The following year, the Motor City used Porter for a spare 26 minutes a game instead of the 36 he received before the injury. Debilitating  injury struck again during Bullets training camp in October 1981. Porter snapped his Achilles tendon and missed all of the 1981-82 season and appeared in just 11 games in 1982-83, effectively ending his career.

Dime Machine: Despite the tempest, Kevin Porter remained a top notch passer. Four times he led the league in assists per game. Furthermore, Porter was a stud in assist percentage, which is the estimated number of FGs a player assisted while on the court. 6 different seasons (1975, 1977 – 1981) Porter led the league and his career average of 37.5% is 14th all-time.  Porter is the only PG near the top of the board who played during the 70s. In 1978, his moonlight season with New Jersey, Porter decided to make the experience memorable by breaking the record for assists in a single game:

Porter dished out 29 assists… and most of those handouts went to John Williamson and Bernard King, who scored 39 and 35 points respectively to help New Jersey down the Houston Rockets 126 – 122.

“He was just magnificent,” said New Jersey coach Kevin Loughery. “I’ve never seen anyone do quite as well as he did tonight.”

Scott Skiles has since tallied 30 assists establishing a new high, but I doubt we’re sneezing at Porter’s display. Kevin’s offensive contributions were not merely relegated to dishing the ball, either. He maintained a remarkably high shooting percentage for a point guard (48%) and was known to explode in a timely fashion despite his career average of just 11.6 ppg:

Little Kevin Porter went on a scoring binge in the final quarter Sunday to lead the Washington Bullets to a 98-92 victory over the Boston Celtics, clinching the Eastern Conference championship.

…

Porter, a 5-foot-11 playmaker, scored 13 of his 21 points in the final quarter… Porter also had 11 assists, nine of them in the first half when Washington went ahead, 55-40. “They were gambling quite a bit,” Porter said. “And when they do, you have to take it to the hoop. Hopefully, you draw a foul or they come after you and you can dish it off.”

Knowing when to dish it out, knowing when to take it to the rack to salvage victory for the team. These are the hallmarks of a great point guard. Kevin Porter is assuredly one of those being the first player to record 1000 assists in a single season and is also (as far as my research shows) the only player to record a 25 point-25 assist game. Sadly, sometimes such talent doesn’t get the appropriate stage or setting to illustrate its greatness for all to see and remember.

Hall of Fame Snubs: Bernard King

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Bernard King (1978 – 1993)

Regular Season: 874 games, 22.5 PPG, 5.8 RPG, 3.3 APG, 0.3 BPG, 1.0 SPG, 51.8% FG, 73.0% FT
Playoffs: 28 games, 24.5 PPG, 4.3 RPG, 2.3 APG, 0.2 BPG, 0.9 SPG, 55.9% FG, 72.9% FT
Accolades: 2x All-NBA 1st Team (1984-85), All-NBA 2nd Team (1982), All-NBA 3rd Team (1991), All-Rookie 1st Team (1978), 4x All-Star (1982, 1984-85, 1991)

Bernard King is one of the greatest scorers in NBA history. He didn’t do much else extremely well, but when you excel at a singular talent so well, it deserves recognition. And his determination to continue his career in the face of troubling personal failings (a bout with alcoholism and a sexual assault conviction) and hellish injury (destroying his right ACL) add more to his legacy.

The key to King’s scoring acumen was his tremendously quick release on his jump shot that prevented defenders from bothering it. There was also the quirky fact that he shot the ball as he was going up, leaving defenders further bewildered. He also was the master of positioning his body to seal off defenders and to quickly rise up before the opponent could recover. Having a tremendously big butt to maneuver the opposition didn’t hurt either.

King’s basketball journey began on the courts of Brooklyn, New York where he became one of the greatest playground legends the city ever saw.  Moving south to the University of Tennessee for college ball, King instantly made an impact averaging 26 points and 12 rebounds his freshman year (1974-75). Over the next three seasons, the small forward would team with Ernie Grunfeld in the “Bernie and Ernie Show”. King’s time would be marked by on-court showmanship, but also off court issues. During his time in Knoxville, King was arrested for marijuana possession, drunk driving and reckless driving.

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Hall of Fame Snubs: Bobby Dandridge

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Editor’s Note: this article originally appeared April 5, 2011 at Nepean Funk

Bob Dandridge (1970 – 1982)
Regular Season: 18.5 PPG, 6.8 RPG, 3.4 APG, 1.3 SPG, 0.6 BPG, 48.4% FG, 78% FT
Playoffs: 20.1 PPG, 7.7 RPG, 3.7 APG, 1.2 SPG, 0.7 BPG, 48% FG, 76.1% FT
Accolades: 2nd Team All-NBA (1979), 1st Team All-Defensive (1979), 1st Team All-Rookie (1970), 4 ASGs (1973, 1975-76, 1979), 2 NBA Championships (1971, 1978)

Some of Hall of Fame snubs are well-known travesties or controversies, but others are merely swept under the rug and forgotten. Bob Dandridge is a player who definitely falls into the second category as he was one of the best small forwards of the 1970s. It’s understandable that people years removed from Dandridge’s heyday don’t appreciate his game, but even during his prime he wasn’t quite recognized making only one All-NBA and one All-Defensive team, both in 1979 at the tail end of his career. Perhaps they were recognition that Bob “the Greyhound” had been unjustly overlooked his entire career despite his efficient offense and stifling defense.

Born in Richmond, Virginia, Dandridge would attend Norfolk State University for his collegiate basketball career. During his 3 varsity seasons, Dandridge would dramatically increase his scoring average from 17.4 to 25.5 to 32.3 all while shooting a remarkable 57.8% from the field. He also gobbled up 13 rpg for his college career. Despite such breathtaking numbers, Dandridge fell to the 4th Round of the 1969 NBA Draft where the Milwaukee Bucks selected him with the 45th overall pick. The Bucks also commanded the #1 overall pick in that same draft thanks to their league-worst 27 wins in 1969, which was also their inaugural season. They naturally selected Lew Alcindor (a.k.a. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar).

Loaded with two outstanding rookies, the Bucks surged to a 56-26 record during the regular season and in the Eastern Conference Finals lost in 5 games to the eventual champs, the New York Knicks. In the 1970 offseason, Milwaukee pulled off a dramatic trade sending starting PG Flynn Robinson to the Cincinnati Royals for the disgruntled Oscar Robertson. Now with a triumvirate for the ages, Milwaukee promptly responded by winning 66 games in 1971 and demolishing the Warriors, Lakers and Bullets on their way to a 12-2 postseason record and the championship.

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