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Billy Cunningham

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Nationality
  
American

Name
  
Billy Cunningham

Career end
  
1976

Pro career
  
1965–1976

Career start
  
1965


Listed weight
  
210 lb (95 kg)

Weight
  
95 kg

Listed height
  
6 ft 7 in (2.01 m)

Role
  
Basketball player

Position
  
Small forward, Center

Billy Cunningham Legends profile Billy Cunningham NBAcom

Born
  
June 3, 1943 (age 81) Brooklyn, New York (
1943-06-03
)

College
  
North Carolina (1962–1965)

NBA draft
  
1965 / Round: 1 / Pick: 5th overall

Number
  
32 (Philadelphia 76ers / Small forward)

Education
  
Erasmus Hall High School, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Nba at 50 billy cunningham biography


William John Cunningham (born June 3, 1943) is an American former professional basketball player and coach, who was nicknamed the Kangaroo Kid. He spent a total of 17 seasons with the NBA's Philadelphia 76ers (nine as player, eight as coach), and two seasons as a player with the Carolina Cougars of the ABA.

Contents

Billy Cunningham httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonsthu

Billy cunningham 1969 nba asg full highlights


Early life

Billy Cunningham Lot Detail 196885 Billy Cunningham Philadelphia 76ers

Billy Cunningham was born in Brooklyn, New York. His fame began while he was playing at Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn, where he was the MVP in the Brooklyn League in 1961. That year, he was the First-Team All-New York City, and a member of the Parade Magazine All-America Team.

College career

Billy Cunningham Lot Detail 1972 Billy Cunningham Carolina Cougars ABA

Cunningham then went to the University of North Carolina, where he excelled. He once grabbed a record 27 rebounds in a game vs. Clemson on February 16, 1963. Cunningham also set a single-game North Carolina record with 48 points against Tulane on December 10, 1964. In his UNC career, he scored 1,709 points (24.8 points per game), and grabbed 1,062 rebounds (15.4 rebounds per game). Upon graduation, his 1,062 rebounds were the best in North Carolina history and he held seasonal records for most rebounds (379 in 1964) and rebound average (16.1 in 1963).

Honors and achievements

Billy Cunningham ABA American Basketball Association Players

  • 3-year letter winner (in his day, freshmen were ineligible for varsity athletics)
  • All-Atlantic Coast Conference (1963–65)
  • ACC Player of the Year (1965)
  • All-ACC Tournament Team (1963–64)
  • ACC Academic All-Conference (1965)
  • A USBWA All-America (1964–65)
  • Helms Foundation All-America (1965)
  • Sporting News All-America 2nd team (1965)
  • Team Captain (1965)
  • Played in the East-West Game in 1965
  • Played at the World University Games in 1965
  • Named to the ACC 50th Anniversary men's basketball team, honoring the fifty best players in ACC history (2002)
  • Professional basketball career

    Billy Cunningham Billy Cunningham NBA Basketball Pinterest Billy cunningham

    In 1965, Cunningham joined the Philadelphia 76ers of the National Basketball Association as a sixth man and played well enough to be named to the NBA All-Rookie Team.

    Billy Cunningham Remember the ABA Billy Cunningham

    Cunningham was a member of the powerful 1967 Sixers championship team (featuring Wilt Chamberlain, Hal Greer, Chet Walker, and Luke Jackson). After Chamberlain left the team in 1968, Cunningham became the 76ers' franchise player. He would replace the injured and aging Luke Jackson as the starting power forward of the team, and averaged 24.8 points per game and 12.8 rebounds per game during the 1968–69 season while leading the 76ers to 55 wins. After that season, he earned the first of what would be three straight All-NBA First Team selections.

    Billy Cunningham Basketball legend joins Continental Bank board Philadelphia

    In 1972, he joined the Carolina Cougars of the American Basketball Association. In his first ABA season, Cunningham averaged 24.1 points per game, 12.0 rebounds per game, and led the league in total steals. He led the Cougars to the best record in the league and was selected to the All-ABA First Team and was named the ABA MVP. During the post-season, the Cougars defeated the New York Nets in five games in the Eastern Division Semifinals to advance to the Eastern Division Finals. In the Division Finals the Cougars lost a tight seven game series to the Kentucky Colonels, 4 games to 3. In the 1973–74 season Cunningham and the Cougars finished third in the Eastern Division and lost again to the Kentucky Colonels in the Eastern Division semifinals.

    Billy Cunningham ABA American Basketball Association Players

    After the 1973–74 season, Cunningham returned to the 76ers, where he played until he suffered a career-ending injury early in the 1975–76 season. For his career, Cunningham scored 16,310 points and grabbed 7,981 rebounds in both the NBA and the ABA.

    After his playing days were done, he became the head coach of the 76ers on November 4, 1977, and built a great team featuring the likes of Bobby Jones, Maurice Cheeks, Andrew Toney, Moses Malone, and Julius Erving. He reached the 300, and 400-win milestone faster than any coach in NBA history. He led Philadelphia to the playoffs in every year as coach, and advancing to the NBA Finals 3 times, in 1979–80, 1981–82 and 1982–83, facing the Los Angeles Lakers all 3 times. The 76ers lost to the Lakers in 1980 and 1982, but after acquiring Moses Malone, Cunningham finally got them past the Lakers in 1983, winning the franchise's second (and most recent) NBA Championship as part of a 12-1 playoff run. Upon his retirement, his 454 wins as a head coach were the 12th best in NBA history, he holds the third best regular season winning percentage in league history .698 (only Steve Kerr and Phil Jackson are ahead of him).

    Beyond playing and coaching

    In 1987, Cunningham replaced Tom Heinsohn as the lead color commentator (alongside play-by-play man Dick Stockton) for CBS' NBA telecasts. Cunningham left CBS Sports the following season to join the Miami Heat expansion franchise as a minority owner; he ultimately sold his interest of the Heat on August 12, 1994. Cunningham was subsequently replaced on CBS by Hubie Brown.

    Honors

  • Elected to Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame (1986)
  • All-NBA First Team (1969, 1970, 1971)
  • ABA All Star, First Team (1973)
  • All-NBA Second Team (1972)
  • Four-time NBA All-Star
  • Elected to the ABA's All-Time Team
  • One of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History (1996)
  • His number 32 jersey is retired by the Philadelphia 76ers; however, he allowed it to be worn by Charles Barkley for the 1991–92 NBA season. Barkley normally wore the number 34, but switched to 32 in honor of Magic Johnson, who had announced at the start of the season that he was HIV-positive.
  • References

    Billy Cunningham Wikipedia


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