That would be Don Chaney (Not to be confused with the former Temple coach). Don was all over the map in significant moments in basketball history. A year before he reached the NBA, Chaney met Kareem. But Kareem Abdul-Jabbar made sure that Chaney never forgot about him.
Chaney was at the University Of Houston in his second year (1966/67), and and a teammate of Elvin Hayes. They went all the way to the final four. But their, Ferdinard Lewis Alcindor, had the answer. He wasn't Kareem yet, but the unstoppable Skyhook proved to be too much. Alcindor's UCLA Bruins took Chaney and Hayes apart, 73-58. Alcindor scored 19. Hayes had 25, but shot only 12/31 from the field. Chaney was only 3-11 himself. The UCLA defense held the whole Houston team to just 26/75 from the field.
The next year saw Houston upset UCLA in "The Game Of The Century", in the first-ever nationally televised college basketball game. Alcindor was hurt, (He'd gotten his eyes gouged and not at his best). The game was played on January 20th, 1968 and Houston prevailed thanks to Hayes big game (Which was 29 by the end of the half!).
Alcindor, however didn't take defeat lightly. When the two teams met again in the Final Four again, it was all UCLA, 101-69 as Lew through down 19 on 7-14 shooting. Hayes was just 3-10 and Chaney 5-13.
But the next season saw Don taste the champagne of and NBA title as a rookie. Being on the Boston Celtics meant playing with Bill Russel. And that meant a lot of NBA rings. Russell won his 11th in 1969 with Chaney along for the ride. But Don only got into two finals game, both losses. It was enough to get him the ring, but he did not play in Boston's 108-106 game seven win over Los Angeles.
Russell retired after the season, but Chaney won another ring against Jabbar's (Name was changed by then) Milwaukee Bucks in 1974. That one was also seven games.
But in 1976/77, Chaney was with Kareem on the Los Angeles Lakers. Here, they both brought success at the NBA level to a team that was looking to start a dynasty of their own. The Lakers played well that season, but injuries prevented them from achieving more. The Lakers made it all the way to the Western Conference Finals, eliminating Rick Barry's Golden Star Warriors in six games along the way.
Against Portland, Kareem (30.3 PPG) completely outplayed another great UCLA centre, Bill Walton in their first playoff head-to-head meeting. However, the Lakers were lacking Kermit Washington and Lucius Allen for all the encounters (Allen came back for games three and four). With those two missing, it was Walton's gang with a sweep. Chaney got 12 points in game three, but averaged just 8 points in the series. The Lakers needed more from Don in that situation.
Kareem and his teammates recovered from this setback to win five NBA championships in the 1980s, but Chaney was not there. Washington and Chaney were shipped to a familiar spot (For Chaney) in a December 1977 deal that saw LA pick up Charlie Scott and a first-round selection in the 1978 draft.
Back in Boston, there was Chaney and Johnny Havlicek from the 1969 win still around. No one else, however, unless you count coach Tom Sanders. Tom coached the team for the last 48 games on the season, going 21-27. The Celtics missed the playoffs. Washington averaged 11.8 PPG game in his 32 contests for Boston that season, but Chaney only 5.1.
Chaney was their for the next two seasons, too. The next year was again not a not good for anyone involved. The Celtics actually had four Hall-Of-Famers (5 if you include the coach for the first fourteen games), and an amazing eight players who averaged at least 11.0 PPG (Chaney not one of them), the team was only 29-53. Although Sanders and Chaney still gave Boston a little big of 1960s nostalgia, the team was trying to recover from the retirement of Johnny Havlicek after 1978. Dave Bing, another Hall Of Famer, had also retired the previous season. The Celtics simply could not replace those two.
But along came Larry Bird the next season!
I guess it was all worth the wait. The Celtics went from 29-53 in 78/79 to 61-21 in 1979/80! The team added still another Hall-Of-Famer in Pete Maravichb during the season. Pete averaged 11.5 PPG despite only playing 17 minutes a night for the Celtics over the 26 games. Don Chaney did not contribute that much. He got into 33 games, in what would be for him (And Maravich, too, as it turned out) his last season, but averaged just 2.8 points per game. Cowens was in his last year as a Celtic. Robert Parish, Kevin McHale and Dennis Johnson were not there, yet. Chaney played an average of less then nine minutes per game.
The Celtics, though, looked primed for a rematch of 1969. Wouldn't this be a fitting way for Chaney to go out? And Kareem was still there in LA. The Lakers had added a kid named Johnson, who'd beaten Bird's team in the NCAA finals the previous year. And when they met in a January 13, 1980 game, Kareem had 33 to Cowen's 22. Bird had only 14 and Chaney just 2. Still, he got more points than Magic, who had to settle for zero field goals in just one free throw! The Lakers won the game, 100-98. The Celtics record stood at 32-11 and the Lakers were 31-15 after that game. It looked like a collision course in the NBA finals!
But there would be no rematch for Chaney and Bird. Kareem and his teammates marched towards another NBA ring. They did not beat Boston in the finals. The Celtics swept past Houston in the second round after receiving a bye in the first round due to their first place finish. Boston met their match, as Dr J himself awaited them in the conference finals. Julius Irving slightly out-scored his future video game one-on-one counterpart (Bird) 25.0 to 22.2. Maravich, coming off the bench most of the time and not being used enough when the Celtics clearly needed him, averaged 6.2 PPG (Including eight points in Boston's game two win and twelve more in game three). Boston, despite several other fine performances, lost in just five games. Chaney did not play a single game in this series or against Houston. He retired after the season.
But he didn't completely leave the game. He came back to coach the Los Angeles Clippers in 1984/85, seeing his old adversary Walton play. Chaney coached the last 21 games. Walton, despite the injuries, got into a then career high 67 games (But only 37 of them were starts) an averaged 10.1 points and 9.0 rebounds. Walton was down to just 24.6 minutes per game. Chaney went on to coach the Houston Rockets with Hakeem Olajuwon for nearly four seasons in the late 1980s and early 90s. Houston made the playoffs the first three seasons under Chaney. His last NBA coaching gig was with the Knicks from 2000/01 to 2003/04.
References
Sports Reference LLC. Basketball-Reference.com - Basketball Statistics and History. http://www.basketball-reference.com/. Web. 25 Jul. 2015.
Sports Reference LLC. College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com - College Basketball Statistics and History. http://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/. Web. 25 Jul. 2015.
Youtube. Youtube. Web. 25 Jul. 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/>.
Chaney was at the University Of Houston in his second year (1966/67), and and a teammate of Elvin Hayes. They went all the way to the final four. But their, Ferdinard Lewis Alcindor, had the answer. He wasn't Kareem yet, but the unstoppable Skyhook proved to be too much. Alcindor's UCLA Bruins took Chaney and Hayes apart, 73-58. Alcindor scored 19. Hayes had 25, but shot only 12/31 from the field. Chaney was only 3-11 himself. The UCLA defense held the whole Houston team to just 26/75 from the field.
The next year saw Houston upset UCLA in "The Game Of The Century", in the first-ever nationally televised college basketball game. Alcindor was hurt, (He'd gotten his eyes gouged and not at his best). The game was played on January 20th, 1968 and Houston prevailed thanks to Hayes big game (Which was 29 by the end of the half!).
Alcindor, however didn't take defeat lightly. When the two teams met again in the Final Four again, it was all UCLA, 101-69 as Lew through down 19 on 7-14 shooting. Hayes was just 3-10 and Chaney 5-13.
But the next season saw Don taste the champagne of and NBA title as a rookie. Being on the Boston Celtics meant playing with Bill Russel. And that meant a lot of NBA rings. Russell won his 11th in 1969 with Chaney along for the ride. But Don only got into two finals game, both losses. It was enough to get him the ring, but he did not play in Boston's 108-106 game seven win over Los Angeles.
Russell retired after the season, but Chaney won another ring against Jabbar's (Name was changed by then) Milwaukee Bucks in 1974. That one was also seven games.
But in 1976/77, Chaney was with Kareem on the Los Angeles Lakers. Here, they both brought success at the NBA level to a team that was looking to start a dynasty of their own. The Lakers played well that season, but injuries prevented them from achieving more. The Lakers made it all the way to the Western Conference Finals, eliminating Rick Barry's Golden Star Warriors in six games along the way.
Against Portland, Kareem (30.3 PPG) completely outplayed another great UCLA centre, Bill Walton in their first playoff head-to-head meeting. However, the Lakers were lacking Kermit Washington and Lucius Allen for all the encounters (Allen came back for games three and four). With those two missing, it was Walton's gang with a sweep. Chaney got 12 points in game three, but averaged just 8 points in the series. The Lakers needed more from Don in that situation.
Kareem and his teammates recovered from this setback to win five NBA championships in the 1980s, but Chaney was not there. Washington and Chaney were shipped to a familiar spot (For Chaney) in a December 1977 deal that saw LA pick up Charlie Scott and a first-round selection in the 1978 draft.
Back in Boston, there was Chaney and Johnny Havlicek from the 1969 win still around. No one else, however, unless you count coach Tom Sanders. Tom coached the team for the last 48 games on the season, going 21-27. The Celtics missed the playoffs. Washington averaged 11.8 PPG game in his 32 contests for Boston that season, but Chaney only 5.1.
Chaney was their for the next two seasons, too. The next year was again not a not good for anyone involved. The Celtics actually had four Hall-Of-Famers (5 if you include the coach for the first fourteen games), and an amazing eight players who averaged at least 11.0 PPG (Chaney not one of them), the team was only 29-53. Although Sanders and Chaney still gave Boston a little big of 1960s nostalgia, the team was trying to recover from the retirement of Johnny Havlicek after 1978. Dave Bing, another Hall Of Famer, had also retired the previous season. The Celtics simply could not replace those two.
But along came Larry Bird the next season!
I guess it was all worth the wait. The Celtics went from 29-53 in 78/79 to 61-21 in 1979/80! The team added still another Hall-Of-Famer in Pete Maravichb during the season. Pete averaged 11.5 PPG despite only playing 17 minutes a night for the Celtics over the 26 games. Don Chaney did not contribute that much. He got into 33 games, in what would be for him (And Maravich, too, as it turned out) his last season, but averaged just 2.8 points per game. Cowens was in his last year as a Celtic. Robert Parish, Kevin McHale and Dennis Johnson were not there, yet. Chaney played an average of less then nine minutes per game.
The Celtics, though, looked primed for a rematch of 1969. Wouldn't this be a fitting way for Chaney to go out? And Kareem was still there in LA. The Lakers had added a kid named Johnson, who'd beaten Bird's team in the NCAA finals the previous year. And when they met in a January 13, 1980 game, Kareem had 33 to Cowen's 22. Bird had only 14 and Chaney just 2. Still, he got more points than Magic, who had to settle for zero field goals in just one free throw! The Lakers won the game, 100-98. The Celtics record stood at 32-11 and the Lakers were 31-15 after that game. It looked like a collision course in the NBA finals!
But there would be no rematch for Chaney and Bird. Kareem and his teammates marched towards another NBA ring. They did not beat Boston in the finals. The Celtics swept past Houston in the second round after receiving a bye in the first round due to their first place finish. Boston met their match, as Dr J himself awaited them in the conference finals. Julius Irving slightly out-scored his future video game one-on-one counterpart (Bird) 25.0 to 22.2. Maravich, coming off the bench most of the time and not being used enough when the Celtics clearly needed him, averaged 6.2 PPG (Including eight points in Boston's game two win and twelve more in game three). Boston, despite several other fine performances, lost in just five games. Chaney did not play a single game in this series or against Houston. He retired after the season.
But he didn't completely leave the game. He came back to coach the Los Angeles Clippers in 1984/85, seeing his old adversary Walton play. Chaney coached the last 21 games. Walton, despite the injuries, got into a then career high 67 games (But only 37 of them were starts) an averaged 10.1 points and 9.0 rebounds. Walton was down to just 24.6 minutes per game. Chaney went on to coach the Houston Rockets with Hakeem Olajuwon for nearly four seasons in the late 1980s and early 90s. Houston made the playoffs the first three seasons under Chaney. His last NBA coaching gig was with the Knicks from 2000/01 to 2003/04.
References
Sports Reference LLC. Basketball-Reference.com - Basketball Statistics and History. http://www.basketball-reference.com/. Web. 25 Jul. 2015.
Sports Reference LLC. College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com - College Basketball Statistics and History. http://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/. Web. 25 Jul. 2015.
Youtube. Youtube. Web. 25 Jul. 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/>.
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