Bob Lanier, the remaining-handed big man who muscled up beside the likes of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as a single of the NBA’s leading gamers of the 1970s, died Tuesday. He was 73.
The NBA claimed Lanier died right after a shorter disease. The Hall of Famer had worked for the league as a global ambassador. The Athletic documented in 2019 that Lanier was getting dealt with for bladder most cancers.
Lanier performed 14 seasons with the Detroit Pistons and Milwaukee Bucks and averaged 20.1 factors and 10.1 rebounds for his profession. He is 3rd on the Pistons’ profession checklist in both of those points and rebounds. Detroit drafted Lanier with the No. 1 total choose in 1970 following he led St. Bonaventure to the Remaining 4.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said Lanier was amongst the most proficient centers in league historical past, and included that his accomplishments went much beyond what he did on the court.
“For much more than 30 years, Bob served as our world wide ambassador and as a specific assistant to David Stern and then me, traveling the globe to teach the game’s values and make a beneficial impact on youthful folks everywhere,” Silver stated in a assertion. “It was a labor of really like for Bob, who was 1 of the kindest and most real men and women I have ever been all-around.”
Lanier went into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1992. But his boat-dimensions footwear received there ahead of him, with a display screen of his bronzed sneakers in the shrine.
He was regarded for sporting dimension 22 footwear, although that was disputed in 1989 by a Converse consultant, who advised The Atlanta Structure that Lanier wore size 18 1/2.
“The 22 he was reputed to dress in was a Korean dimensions,” shoe rep Gary Stoken mentioned.
Not contested was the abundantly obvious reality that his feet had been huge.
“A whole lot of individuals can place the two feet into a person of my footwear,” Lanier informed HOOP magazine.
Born Sept. 10, 1948, in Buffalo, New York, Lanier starred in college at St. Bonaventure, the place he averaged 27.6 points and 15.7 rebounds in three seasons. The Bonnies designed it all the way to the Closing 4 in 1970, but Lanier had wounded his knee in the regional ultimate, and St. Bonaventure dropped in the national semifinals to Jacksonville.
Lanier overcame a litany of orthopedic injuries, working with shoulder, back, elbow, hand and toe problems in the course of his vocation. But that didn’t prevent him from earning his area among the the best NBA facilities of his period. Immediately after becoming named to the all-rookie staff in 1971, he averaged at the very least 21 factors and 11 rebounds for each of the subsequent 7 seasons. Lanier was an 8-time All-Star and the MVP of the 1974 All-Star Video game.
Lanier could defeat opponents from the inside of and the exterior although ruling the boards. Despite the fact that Abdul-Jabbar had a a lot more popular hook shot, the sky hook, Lanier’s was very substantially a weapon.
“Guys didn’t alter teams as substantially, so when you have been experiencing the Bulls or the Bucks or New York, you experienced all these rivalries,” Lanier informed NBA.com in 2018. “Lanier versus Jabbar! Jabbar versus Willis Reed! And then (Wilt) Chamberlain, and Artis Gilmore, and Bill Walton! You experienced all these fantastic massive guys and the recreation was performed from within out.”
As outstanding as Lanier was, the Pistons received only a single playoff sequence with him. He played 64 games or much less in every single of his final four comprehensive seasons with Detroit. In February 1980, he was traded to Milwaukee.
Lanier averaged much less minutes with the Bucks, but he was section of Milwaukee teams that attained the Jap Meeting finals in 1983 and 1984, the closing two seasons of his profession.
He also served as president of the players’ union through the final decades of his occupation, with Silver saying that he performed “a critical position in the negotiation of a activity-modifying collective bargaining settlement.”
Lanier was Detroit’s job leader in factors and rebounds ahead of he was passed by Isiah Thomas and Monthly bill Laimbeer in people types, and his solitary-match franchise report of 33 rebounds was topped by Dennis Rodman.
In 1995, Lanier was an assistant mentor for the Golden State Warriors, then took around as mentor on an interim basis after Don Nelson resigned. Lanier went 12-25, and the Warriors identified a different mentor just after the season.
Lanier received the NBA’s J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award for the 1977-78 year for outstanding local community support. Adhering to his enjoying occupation, he aided start off the NBA’s Keep in School marketing campaign and participated in other outreach for the league.
“There’s so significantly require out in this article,” Lanier reported. “When you’re traveling close to to distinctive metropolitan areas and unique countries, you see there are so many individuals in dire straits that the NBA can only do so considerably. We make a large, broad variance, but there’s always so a great deal much more to do.”
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