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Willie Naulls

American basketball player (1934–2018)

Summary

American basketball player (1934–2018)

Field	Value
name	Willie Naulls
image	Willie Naulls.jpg
caption	Naulls from 1956 UCLA yearbook
height_ft	6
height_in	6
weight_lb	225
birth_date
birth_place	Dallas, Texas, U.S.
death_date
death_place	Laguna Niguel, California, U.S.
high_school	San Pedro (San Pedro, California)
college	UCLA (1953–1956)
draft_year	1956
draft_round	2
draft_pick	9
draft_team	St. Louis Hawks
career_start	1956
career_end	1966
career_number	33, 6, 71, 12
career_position	Small forward
years1
team1	St. Louis Hawks
years2	–
team2	New York Knicks
years3
team3	San Francisco Warriors
years4	–
team4	Boston Celtics
stats_league	NBA
stat1label	Points
stat1value	11,305 (15.8 ppg)
stat2label	Rebounds
stat2value	6,508 (9.1 rpg)
stat3label	Assists
stat3value	1,114 (1.6 apg)

3× NBA champion (1964–1966)
4× NBA All-Star (, –)
Consensus second-team All-American (1956)
2× First-team All-PCC (1955, 1956)
California Mr. Basketball (1952) William Dean Naulls (October 7, 1934 – November 22, 2018) was an American professional basketball player for 10 years in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He was a four-time NBA All-Star with the New York Knicks and won three NBA championships with the Boston Celtics.

Naulls grew up in California, where he was named the state's Mr. Basketball in high school. He played college basketball with the UCLA Bruins, and earned All-American honors as a senior in 1956. Naulls was selected by the St. Louis Hawks (known now as the Atlanta Hawks) with the ninth overall pick of the 1956 NBA draft. He played briefly with St. Louis before being traded to New York, where he spent most of his career. With the Knicks, he became the first African American to be named a captain of a professional team in a major American sport. After a brief stint with the San Francisco Warriors (now the Golden State Warriors), Naulls finished his career with Boston Celtics. In December 1964, he was part of a Celtics unit that became the first all-black starting lineup in the NBA history.

Early life

Naulls was born in Dallas, Texas, to Daily and Bettie (Artis) Naulls. During World War II, the family moved to Los Angeles when he was nine to escape racial segregation.

College career

Naulls attended the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he played for the Bruins under future Basketball Hall of Fame coach John Wooden.

As a senior in 1955–56, Naulls set the Bruins single-game rebounding record with 28 against Arizona State, and he finished the season with 582 field goal attempts to set the school's single-season record.

In his three seasons at UCLA, Naulls averaged 15.5 points and 11.4 rebounds per game. He was inducted into the UCLA Athletics Hall of Fame in 1986.

NBA career

Naulls was selected by the St. Louis Hawks in the second round of the 1956 NBA draft with the ninth overall pick. He called it a "culture shock" to see the segregation that existed in St. Louis, the likes of which he had not seen since he was eight before moving to Southern California. He spent just 19 games with the Hawks before being traded to the New York Knicks, with whom he would spend most of his career.

Naulls averaged a double-double (19.3 points and 10.7 rebounds per game) during his seven-year tenure with the Knicks, and he appeared as an NBA All-Star four times. The Knicks named him their captain in 1960, making him the first African-American athlete to hold the position for any pro team in a major American sport. In 1960–61, Naulls scored a single-season team record of 1,846 points, averaging 23.4 points per game. On March 2, 1962, Naulls scored 31 points and established another team record with his seventh straight game scoring 30 points or more. In that same game, Philadelphia Warriors center Wilt Chamberlain notched his NBA record 100-point game against the Knicks. Naulls' 30+ streak stood until 2010, when it was broken by Amar'e Stoudemire.

During the 1962–63 NBA season, the Knicks traded Naulls to the San Francisco Warriors, with whom he played briefly before being traded to the Boston Celtics. Naulls spent his last three professional seasons with the Celtics, winning three consecutive NBA championships in the process. That 1964–65 Celtics team was named one of the 10 best teams in NBA history during the league's 50th anniversary. The 6 ft Naulls finished his 10-year NBA career with averages of 15.8 points and 9.1 rebounds per game.

NBA career statistics

Regular season

Year	Team(s)	GP	MPG	FG%	FT%	RPG	APG	PPG
1956–57	St. Louis	19	23.1	.365	.683	8.8	1.2	10.3
1956–57	New York	52	25.8	.355	.504	8.7	1.2	10.1
1957–58	New York	68	34.8	.397	.826	11.8	1.4	18.1
1958–59	New York	68	30.3	.378	.830	10.6	1.5	15.7
1959–60	New York	65	34.6	.428	.836	14.2	2.1	21.4
1960–61	New York	79*	37.7	.428	.816	13.4	2.4	23.4
1961–62	New York	75	39.7	.415	.842	11.6	2.6	25.0
1962–63	New York	23	29.4	.413	.813	8.7	1.9	16.9
1962-63	San Francisco	47	26.1	.420	.793	6.7	1.2	11.0
1963–64†	Boston	78	18.1	.417	.796	4.6	0.8	9.8
1964–65†	Boston	71	20.5	.384	.813	4.7	1.0	10.5
1965–66†	Boston	71	20.2	.402	.794	4.5	1.0	10.7
Career	716	28.8	.406	.812	9.1	1.6	15.8
All-Star	4	19.3	.340	.750	6.5	0.5	10.0

Playoffs

Year	Team	GP	MPG	FG%	FT%	RPG	APG	PPG
1959	New York	2	31.5	.333	.750	10.5	1.5	17.0
1964†	Boston	10	16.7	.389	.739	4.6	0.8	9.1
1965†	Boston	12	15.0	.411	.667	4.3	0.8	7.3
1966†	Boston	11	6.8	.257	.810	1.5	0.1	3.2
Career	35	13.9	.371	.746	3.8	0.6	7.1

Death

Naulls died on November 22, 2018, in Laguna Niguel, California, from respiratory failure due to eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis, which he had been battling for eight years.

References

(August 31, 2016). "1960: Knicks Name Willie Naulls First African-American Captain in a Major Pro Sport".
UCLA won the [[Pacific Coast Conference]] championship and advanced to the [[1956 NCAA basketball tournament. All-American]].[http://web1.ncaa.org/web_files/stats/m_basketball_RB/2009/Award.pdf NCAA Record Book - Award Winners] p.137. Accessed May 5, 2009. [https://web.archive.org/web/20090816065108/http://web1.ncaa.org/web_files/stats/m_basketball_RB/2009/Award.pdf Archived] 2009-05-04.
Kertes, Tom. (March 28, 2005). "Where Are They Now: Willie Naulls, Campy Russell and Kenny Walker".
Davis, Seth. (2014). "Wooden: A Coach's Life". Times Books.
"Top 10 Teams in NBA History". Turner Sports Interactive, Inc.
Goldstein, Richard. (November 25, 2018). "Willie Naulls, Knicks All-Star and Celtics Champion, Dies at 84". [[The New York Times]].
Bolch, Ben. (November 25, 2018). "Former UCLA great and integration pioneer Willie Naulls dies at 84". Los Angeles Times.

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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