Christopher Joseph Ford was an American professional basketball player and head coach in the National Basketball Association.
17 Facts About Chris Ford
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Chris Ford won an NBA championship with the Celtics in 1981.
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Between 1990 and 1995, Chris Ford was the head coach of the Celtics, and proceeded to coach for three other NBA franchises for various stints until 2004.
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Chris Ford averaged a Cape-Atlantic League record 33 ppg as a senior, and finished with 1,507 career points, which as of 2021, was still a school record.
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Chris Ford was drafted to the Detroit Pistons in the 1972 NBA draft.
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Chris Ford established himself as a defensive oriented regular for Detroit, helping lead the team to four straight post-season berths.
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Chris Ford appeared as a member of the Detroit team in the fictional basketball comedy film The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh in 1979 alongside the Pistons teammates Bob Lanier, Eric Money, John Shumate, Kevin Porter, and Leon Douglas.
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Chris Ford served as an assistant at Boston College before doing some radio work.
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Chris Ford became an assistant coach with Boston, first under KC Jones and then Jimmy Rodgers, helping the Celtics to NBA championships in 1984 and 1986.
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On June 12,1990, Chris Ford was promoted to head coach for the Celtics.
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Chris Ford eventually left the game with dizziness and shortness of breath, having scored 17 points in the only Celtic win of the postseason.
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Chris Ford was replaced by M L Carr, who had been named general manager of the Celtics the previous year.
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On February 3,2000, he was fired by the Clippers, who had lost sixteen of their last eighteen games; he was replaced on an interim basis by Jim Todd, who previously had coached two games in December when Chris Ford had back spasms.
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In October 2001, Chris Ford was named head coach at Brandeis University, a Division III school in Waltham, Massachusetts.
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Chris Ford then became a scout for the 76ers and was a coaching consultant for the New York Knicks.
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On January 17,2023, Chris Ford died at a hospital in Philadelphia from complications of a heart attack he had earlier in the month.
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Chris Ford was survived by his wife Kathy, three children and seven grandchildren.