1. William Walton Sharman was an American professional basketball player and coach.
49 Facts About Bill Sharman
1. 2.
Bill Sharman is mostly known for his time with the Boston Celtics in the 1950s, partnering with Bob Cousy in what was then considered the greatest backcourt duo of all time.
3.
Bill Sharman was the first North American sports figure to win a championship as a player, coach, and executive.
4.
Bill Sharman was a 15-time NBA champion, and a 17-time champion in basketball overall counting his ABL and ABA titles.
5.
Bill Sharman is a two-time Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductee, having been inducted in 1976 as a player, and in 2004 as a coach.
6.
William Walton Bill Sharman was born on May 25,1926, in Abilene, Texas.
7.
Bill Sharman originally attended Narbonne High School where he was on a championship basketball team in ninth grade.
8.
Bill Sharman was a 15-letter athlete at PHS, excelling in basketball and baseball, competing in track, and winning the state amateur tennis title.
9.
Bill Sharman graduated in 1944, and was named California's Outstanding Athlete.
10.
Bill Sharman gave credit to PHS for its contributing to his later success in life.
11.
Bill Sharman died one day before his induction into the inaugural class of the Porterville High Athletic Hall of Fame.
12.
Bill Sharman served during World War II from 1944 to 1946 in the US Navy, and was a graduate of the University of Southern California.
13.
Bill Sharman started on both the baseball and basketball teams.
14.
Bill Sharman averaged 15.9 points per game as a junior, and 18.6 as a senior.
15.
Bill Sharman was twice selected All-Pacific Coast Conference and twice as the Conference's MVP.
16.
Bill Sharman played USC basketball under Hall of Fame head coach Sam Barry.
17.
However, Bill Sharman knew he had been taken by the Washington Capitols in the NBA draft, so he got the Dodgers to agree that he not be prevented from playing professional basketball.
18.
From 1950 to 1955, Bill Sharman played professional baseball in the Brooklyn Dodgers minor league system.
19.
Bill Sharman played for the Pueblo Dodgers, Elmira Pioneers, Fort Worth Cats, St Paul Saints, and the Mobile Bears.
20.
Bill Sharman was called up to the Dodgers late in the 1951 season but did not appear in a game.
21.
However, although Bill Sharman was among the Dodger bench players that had to go to the clubhouse, none of them were actually barred from playing in the game.
22.
Bill Sharman continued to play baseball until breaking his basketball shooting hand while sliding into home plate, after which he decided to focus solely on basketball.
23.
Bill Sharman was drafted by the Washington Capitols in the second round of the 1950 NBA draft.
24.
Lloyd did not have a car, and Bill Sharman would drive over to Lloyd's home in segregated Washington, DC to pick Lloyd up, so Lloyd would not have to take long bus rides.
25.
Bill Sharman was one of the first NBA guards to shoot better than.
26.
Bill Sharman still holds the record for consecutive free throws in the playoffs with 56.
27.
Bill Sharman was named to the All-NBA First Team from 1956 through 1959, and was an All-NBA Second Team member in 1953,1955, and 1960.
28.
Bill Sharman played in eight NBA All-Star games, scoring in double figures in seven of them.
29.
Bill Sharman was named the 1955 NBA All-Star Game MVP after scoring ten of his fifteen points in the fourth quarter.
30.
Bill Sharman still holds the NBA All-Star Game record for field goals attempted in a quarter with 12.
31.
Bill Sharman ended his NBA playing career after 11 seasons in 1961.
32.
Bill Sharman remained in the ABL and coached the Cleveland Pipers to the league championship in 1962.
33.
The ABL folded altogether, and Bill Sharman next became a college coach at Los Angeles State for two seasons.
34.
In 1966, Bill Sharman became the coach of the NBA's San Francisco Warriors.
35.
Bill Sharman was originally ordered to pay $250,000 in damages, but later appealed the trial court decision and the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit reversed the judgement.
36.
That season, Bill Sharman was named NBA Coach of the Year.
37.
Bill Sharman is one of two men to win NBA and ABA championships as a coach; coincidentally, the other, Alex Hannum, coached a Chamberlain-led team to an NBA championship, defeating the Sharman-coached San Francisco Warriors.
38.
Hannum and Bill Sharman had been teammates at USC, under coach Sam Barry.
39.
Bill Sharman invented the morning shootaround as a way to burn off nervous energy on game days.
40.
Bill Sharman took the shootaround with him to his first coaching jobs in the ABL, the ABA, and later, the NBA.
41.
Bill Sharman was enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1976 as a player and again in 2004 as a coach.
42.
Bill Sharman is one of only five people to be enshrined in both categories, the others being John Wooden, Lenny Wilkens, and his former teammates Tom Heinsohn and Bill Russell.
43.
In 1971, Bill Sharman was named to the NBA 25th Anniversary Team.
44.
On October 29,1996, Bill Sharman was named one of the NBA's 50 Greatest Players.
45.
Bill Sharman retired from the Lakers front office in 1991 at age 65.
46.
In 2013, Bill Sharman sold his 2010 NBA championship ring from the Lakers to benefit charity.
47.
Bill Sharman was married to his second wife, Dorothy, from 1969 until her death from cancer in 1975.
48.
Bill Sharman married Joyce McLay in 1981, with whom he remained married until his death.
49.
Bill Sharman died at his home in Redondo Beach, California, on October 25,2013, at the age of 87, after having had a stroke the week prior.