Bob Dandridge

Early years

Born in Richmond, Virginia, he attended Maggie L. Walker High School in Richmond and Norfolk State University, teaming up with Pee Wee Kirkland. His teams had phenomenal years. The Spartans won the CIAA title in 1968 with a 25–2 record; they lost in the second round of the NCAA Division II Men's Tournament. The next year their record was 21–4 and they lost in the first round of the D-II tournament. He was drafted by the Kentucky Colonels in the 1969 American Basketball Association draft and by the Milwaukee Bucks in the fourth round of the 1969 NBA draft.

Basketball career

Dandridge was named to the NBA All-Rookie Team in 1970. In just his second season, Dandridge played an important part on the Milwaukee Bucks team that won the NBA championship in 1971, averaging 19.2 points, 9.6 rebounds, and 3.4 assists per playoff game, alongside the Hall-of-Fame duo of Lew Alcindor (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) and Oscar Robertson. In Game 3 of that finals series, Dandridge led all scorers with 29 points, while also recording 10 rebounds. On January 23, 1976, Dandridge scored a career high 40 points in a 113–97 win over the Kansas City Kings. He played a total of 13 seasons in the NBA, nine of them with the Bucks as well as four with the Washington Bullets, with whom he won an NBA championship in 1978 during his first season with the team, while forming the frontcourt with another future Hall-of-Fame duo: Elvin Hayes and Wes Unseld. In Game 2 of the 1978 NBA Finals, Dandridge led all scorers with 34 points en route to a Bullets win. His dunk in Game 7 of the 1978 Finals sealed the Bullets championship victory. Dandridge returned to the Bucks for 11 games in 1981, before retiring.

In his career, he averaged 18.5 points per game over 839 regular season games and 20 points per game in 98 playoff games and was a four-time NBA all star. Dandridge is usually mentioned as one of the NBA's best forwards in the 1970s.

Dandridge scored more points in the NBA Finals in the 1970s than any other player, including Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. He scored a total of 450 points in four NBA Finals played, playing a total of 23 games, garnering an average of over 19 points a game, most notably scoring 109 points in the 1979 NBA Finals, which was the most on his Washington Bullets team.

In 1992, Dandridge was inducted into the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame.

In 2021 Dandridge was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

Retirement

After retiring as a player, Dandridge served as an assistant coach at Hampton University from 1987 to 1992. Today, he lives in Norfolk, Virginia and conducts basketball clinics.

NBA career statistics

Regular season

|- | 81 || – || 30.4 || .485 || – || .754 || 7.7 || 3.6 || – || – || 13.2 |- | 79 || – || 36.2 || .509 || – || .702 || 8.0 || 3.5 || – || – || 18.4 |- | 80 || – || 37.0 || .498 || – || .739 || 7.7 || 3.1 || – || – || 18.4 |- | 73 || – || 39.1 || .472 || – || .789 || 8.2 || 2.8 || – || – || 20.2 |- | 71 || – || 35.5 || .503 || – || .818 || 6.7 || 2.8 || 1.6 || 0.6 || 18.9 |- | 80 || – || 37.9 || .473 || – || .805 || 6.9 || 3.0 || 1.5 || 0.6 || 19.9 |- | 73 || – || 37.5 || .502 || – || .824 || 7.4 || 2.8 || 1.5 || 0.5 || 21.5 |- | 70 || – || 35.7 || .467 || – || .771 || 6.3 || 3.8 || 1.4 || 0.4 || 20.8 |- | 75 || – || 37.0 || .471 || – || .788 || 5.9 || 3.8 || 1.3 || 0.6 || 19.3 |- | 78 || – || 33.7 || .499 || – || .825 || 5.7 || 4.7 || 0.9 || 0.7 || 20.4 |- | 45 || – || 32.4 || .451 || .182 || .809 || 5.5 || 4.0 || 0.6 || 0.8 || 17.4 |- | 23 || – || 23.7 || .426 || .000 || .718 || 3.6 || 2.6 || 0.7 || 0.4 || 10.0 |- | 11 || 0 || 15.8 || .382 || – || .588 || 1.5 || 1.2 || 0.5 || 0.2 || 4.7 |- class="sortbottom" | 839 || – || 35.2 || .484 || .167 || .780 || 6.8 || 3.4 || 1.3 || 0.6 || 18.5 |- class="sortbottom" | 4 || 1 || 18.5 || .480 || – || .667 || 3.5 || 0.5 || 1.3 || 0.0 || 6.5

Playoffs

|- |10||–||39.9||.507||–||.655||8.7||5.7||–||–||16.3 |- |14||–||38.2||.463||–||.782||9.6||3.4||–||–||19.2 |- |11||–||40.1||.495||–||.740||8.8||1.9||–||–||21.5 |- |6||–||34.0||.421||–||.704||4.7||1.2||–||–||13.8 |- |16||–||40.5||.493||–||.766||7.6||2.8||1.4||0.6||19.3 |- |3||–||40.7||.490||–||.900||7.7||2.7||1.0||0.0||22.0 |- |19||–||39.3||.479||–||.690||6.5||3.9||1.6||0.7||21.2 |- |19||–||41.4||.473||–||.827||7.4||5.5||0.7||0.8||23.1 |- class="sortbottom" | 98 || – || 39.6 || .480 || – || .761 || 7.7 || 3.7 || 1.2 || 0.7 || 20.1

References

References

1. Jim Owczarski. (May 16, 2021). "Milwaukee Bucks legend Bob Dandridge elected to basketball Hall of Fame". [[Milwaukee Journal Sentinel]].
2. [https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/d/dandrbo01.html BasketballReference.com Bob Dandridge page]
3. "1970-71 Milwaukee Bucks Roster and Stats".
4. [https://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/197104280MIL.html 1971 NBA Finals Game 3: Baltimore Bullets at Milwaukee Bucks Box Score, April 28, 1971]
5. "Bob Dandridge Career High 40 Points".
6. "1978 NBA Finals Game 2: Seattle SuperSonics at Washington Bullets".
7. "Bob Dandridge Transactions".
8. "1979 NBA Finals – SuperSonics vs. Bullets".
9. "Class of 1992: Bobby Dandridge".