Dave DeBusschere was the final piece of the best team in NBA history.
Not the greatest team. There’s always debate about that. The ’96 Bulls? The ’86 Celtics? The ’67 76ers? The Lakers somewhere in the ’80s? The Celtics throughout the ’60s? Those were great, dominant teams.
DeBusschere completed perhaps the finest five-man NBA team ever when the Knicks acquired him from the Detroit Pistons for Walt Bellamy in 1968. He went on to win two championships with New York.
He collapsed on a Manhattan street Wednesday and died of a heart attack at NYU Downtown Hospital. He was 62.
“Our game has lost an icon and the world has lost a good man,” NBA Commissioner David Stern said.
DeBusschere may have been one of the most accomplished individuals in pro sports history. A $75,000 bonus baby, he was on the way to becoming a successful major league pitcher for the White Sox in the early 1960s. He was also the Pistons’ first-round draft pick in 1962 and tried to play both sports for two years, abandoning baseball in 1964 after a 3-4 record over parts of two seasons with the White Sox.
Basketball, it turned out, was his true calling. He was an All-Star power forward eight times in a 12-year career. He made the NBA’s All-Defensive first team six straight years and averaged a double-double his last 10 NBA seasons. He was the youngest head coach in NBA history when the Pistons tabbed him their player-coach at 24.
He was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame, was named one of the 50 greatest players in NBA history, was the final commissioner of the old American Basketball Association and was general manager of the Knicks when they drafted Patrick Ewing in 1985.
His was certainly one of the most impressive basketball resumes ever.
There was nothing like watching those Knicks team of the early 1970s.
New Yorkers rhapsodize about those teams, and I plead guilty–I was a New Yorker then. But they weren’t close to being one of the greatest teams ever. They might not make a top 10 list. But they were a beautiful team to watch because there were no holes, no role players, no weak spots.
Those Knicks formed the essence of Phil Jackson’s coaching philosophy–and Jackson knows it could have been him instead of his former teammate we’re writing these tributes about had he not had an angioplasty Saturday–and the ideal established with the champion Bulls.
It could not work with the Bulls because Michael Jordan was too good to play on such a team. There was no Knick even close in skill or ability to Jordan–don’t say Walt Frazier. No player on those Knicks was the best ever at his position. Probably no one was in the top five.
But in concert they were a brilliant orchestra, moving in unison at the direction of conductor Red Holzman.
Every player could shoot and pass. Every player rebounded and defended. There was nowhere to double-team, no one to drop off. It was five superbly meshed pieces playing basketball the easy way.
DeBusschere came to the Knicks in December 1968 to break up the original twin towers: Bellamy, who would go on to the Hall of Fame as well, and Willis Reed. The deal enabled Reed to move to center, where his deft shooting touch enabled him to pull bigger centers away from the basket.
There was Bill Bradley, who eventually prevailed over Cazzie Russell and became the small forward. Initially it was Frazier and Dick Barnett in the backcourt, the latter eventually replaced by Earl Monroe, who curtailed his flamboyant game to fit the team’s style.
The rock, however, was DeBusschere. He was the man who stood up to the toughest opponents, the guy who would get the tough rebound or take the clutch shot. It was a small team by today’s standards, DeBusschere the power forward at 6 feet 6 inches and Reed the center at 6-9.
It wasn’t nearly as athletic as today’s teams, but it practiced fundamental, textbook basketball: Move the ball, move the man, whoever was open took the shot. Stay between your man and the basket, get back on defense, run, run, run.
There were few dunks and no three-pointers. Perhaps that’s why the NBA wasn’t as popular as it is today. It was a time for the purist, and DeBusschere and his teammates comprised the purest of teams.
They probably also played the best playoff series ever.
It wasn’t against the Celtics or 76ers or the great teams of the era, but the then-Baltimore Bullets, who had migrated from Chicago. They were mirror teams–small, smart and aggressive. Every position was a classic matchup.
There was Reed and Wes Unseld, Frazier and Monroe, Bradley and Jack Marin, Barnett and Phil Chenier or Kevin Loughery, DuBusschere and Gus Johnson, the model for the great, athletic power forwards of the future. At every position was a battle between elite players, every starter on both teams averaging in double figures. Every possession was like watching the best at their position play one another.
The Knicks were a little more talented, and they won two titles, in 1970 and 1973. The Bullets got to the Finals in 1971, and again in 1975 after the Knicks had begun to fade. Both times the Bullets were swept.
The two teams’ seven-game conference finals series of 1971, decided by a basket in Game 7, was one of the greatest, least-seen series.
Johnson died in 1987, and DeBusschere is the first of that Knicks team to go. It was a special group, and he was a special person and a special player.
Recalling DeBusschere
“As a player, coach, general manager and ABA commissioner, Dave DeBusschere was a winner. He was a hard-nosed, blue-collar hero who gave all of his considerable energy to our game. Our game has lost an icon and the world has lost a good man.”
–Commissioner David Stern
“Dave was a loyal friend, an unselfish teammate and a quality human being. His strength, dedication and modesty lay at the core of our great Knick teams. He was like a brother to me.”
–Knicks teammate and former U.S. Sen. Bill Bradley
“He was an All-Star player who had to coach guys competing for his position, to be the best player on the team and for their livelihood. He wasn’t blessed with blazing speed or jumping ability, but he was one of the toughest guys you ever played with, or against.”
–Pistons teammate Dave Bing
“He was the difference in turning a team that was mediocre around.”
–Knicks teammate Walt Frazier
“He had a profound impact on the landscape of professional basketball, both as a player and an executive. Dave was a great teammate as well as a great friend.”
–Knicks teammate Willis Reed
“He finally made the choice to go to the NBA, but he was a rare two-sport athlete. To be able to do both at the major-league level, I was in awe of that.”
–Sox teammate Tom McCraw
DeBusschere’s career
NBA
SEASON G FG FT REB PPG
’62-63 Det 80 .430 .718 694 12.7
’63-64 Det 15 .391 .581 105 8.6
’64-65 Det 79 .425 .700 874 16.7
’65-66 Det 79 .408 .659 916 16.4
’66-67 Det 78 .416 .705 924 18.2
’67-68 Det 80 .442 .664 1,081 17.9
’68-69 Det-NY 76 .444 .698 888 16.3
’69-70 NY 79 .451 .688 790 14.6
’70-71 NY 81 .421 .696 901 15.6
’71-72 NY 80 .427 .728 901 15.4
’72-73 NY 77 .435 .746 787 16.3
’73-74 NY 71 .461 .756 757 18.1
TOTALS 875 .432 .699 9,618 16.1
PLAYOFFS G FG FT REB PPG
’62-63 Det 4 .424 .682 63 20.0
’67-68 Det 6 .425 .578 97 19.3
’68-69 NY 10 .351 .820 148 16.3
’69-70 NY 19 .421 .662 220 16.1
’70-71 NY 12 .416 .659 156 16.4
’71-72 NY 16 .450 .750 193 16.6
’72-73 NY 17 .442 .775 179 15.6
’73-74 NY 12 .380 .698 99 12.0
TOTALS 96 .416 .718 1,155 16.0
COACHING W L PCT
’64-65 Detroit 29 40 .420
’65-66 Detroit 22 58 .275
’66-67 Detroit 28 45 .384
TOTALS 79 143 .356
MLB
SEASON IP REC BB SO ERA
1962 Sox 18 0-0 23 8 2.00
1963 Sox 84 3-4 34 53 3.11
TOTALS 102 3-4 57 61 2.91
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