1. Cazzie Lee Russell was born on June 7,1944 and is an American former professional basketball player and coach.
36 Facts About Cazzie Russell
1. 2.
Cazzie Russell won an NBA championship with the Knicks in 1970.
3.
Cazzie Russell was an All-State player two years at Chicago's Carver High School.
4.
That same year, Cazzie Russell led Carver to the final game of the Illinois High School Association state championship basketball tournament.
5.
Cazzie Russell scored 24 points in the game, and was the second leading scorer in the tournament.
6.
Cazzie Russell is considered one of Chicago's greatest high school basketball players of all time.
7.
In 1966, Cazzie Russell averaged 30.8 points per game and was named the College Basketball Player of the Year by the Associated Press.
8.
Cazzie Russell was similarly selected the top college player by The Sporting News and UPI, as well as winning the US Basketball Writers Association Oscar Robertson Trophy as best college basketball player.
9.
Cazzie Russell's 30.8 points per game is a Michigan record for scoring in a season.
10.
Cazzie Russell's three year average of 27.1 points per game is a Michigan record for a career scoring average.
11.
Cazzie Russell was initiated into Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity - Sigma chapter in 1964.
12.
Cazzie Russell was drafted by the New York Knicks with the first overall pick of the 1966 NBA draft, playing for them for five seasons.
13.
Cazzie Russell is remembered primarily as the sixth man during his five seasons with the Knicks, where he scored 4,584 points in 344 games, though it was in his final two seasons with the Knicks that he was primarily the sixth man.
14.
Cazzie Russell started only 25 games his rookie season, but 45 in his second season.
15.
Cazzie Russell suffered a season-ending fractured right ankle in a late January 1969 game against the Seattle SuperSonics.
16.
Cazzie Russell's playing time diminished during his last two years in New York as he sustained on separate occasions a fractured ankle and wrist.
17.
Cazzie Russell started only 33 games combined over those two years, playing 20 minutes a game or less, and scoring less than 12 points a game.
18.
Cazzie Russell was 17th in MVP voting and appeared in the 1972 NBA All-Star Game.
19.
Cazzie Russell was the first player in NBA history to leave a team after finishing his option year when he signed with the Los Angeles Lakers on September 6,1974.
20.
Cazzie Russell played three seasons with the Lakers, starting all 82 games in his final season, while averaging 16.4 points a game.
21.
In total, Cazzie Russell spent 12 seasons in the NBA.
22.
Cazzie Russell was named the CBA Coach of the Year in 1982.
23.
Cazzie Russell later coached the Wyoming Wildcatters, Grand Rapids Hoops and Columbus Horizon of the CBA and the Mid-Michigan Great Lakers in the Global Basketball Association.
24.
Cazzie Russell served as assistant coach of the Atlanta Hawks for two seasons.
25.
Cazzie Russell spent several years as head coach at Centennial High School in Columbus, Ohio, during the mid-1990s before taking the job in Georgia.
26.
Cazzie Russell was the head coach of the men's basketball team at the Savannah College of Art and Design for 13 seasons, until the college eliminated the sport in 2009.
27.
Cazzie Russell served as an assistant coach at Armstrong State University until 2017 when it was discontinued.
28.
Cazzie Russell participated in army service during the basketball season, including being recalled to active duty during national emergencies.
29.
Cazzie Russell moved to Savannah, Georgia in 1996 with his wife Myrna White-Cazzie Russell, a former dancer with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, who died in 2014.
30.
In January 1970, Cazzie Russell had been pulled over by police in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and a gun put to his head, while police were seeking an escaped prisoner.
31.
The only things Cazzie Russell actually had in common with the prisoner were that he was African-American and had a moustache.
32.
When he returned to practice with the Knicks immediately after the incident, his anger got the best of him and could have caused a rift in the team, but for the leadership of team captain Willis Reed, whom Cazzie Russell later called an amazing man when discussing the incident.
33.
In 2011, Cazzie Russell was inducted into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame.
34.
In 2006, Cazzie Russell was voted as one of the 100 Legends of the IHSA Boys Basketball Tournament, a group of former players and coaches in honor of the 100 anniversary of the IHSA boys basketball tournament.
35.
Cazzie Russell received the Bobby Jones Award in 2015 at the Athletes in Action All Star Breakfast, which is held each year at the NBA All Star Weekend.
36.
In 2016, Cazzie Russell was the recipient of the Coach Wooden "Keys to Life" Award at the Athletes in Action Legends of the Hardwood Breakfast, which is held each year at the Final Four.