Richie Guerin

Guerin grew up in the Bronx and stayed close to home when he enrolled at Iona College in 1950 where he played center for coach Jim McDermott.[5] New York selected him in the 1954 NBA draft, but Guerin could not join the Knicks until he had completed two years of service in the Marines.[4]

New York was struggling through the mid-1950s at or near the bottom of the Eastern Division. Among the only bright spots during that period were high-scoring guard Carl Braun, point guard Dick McGuire, and center Harry Gallatin. Turnover on the team was high.[4]

Guerin joined the club in 1956 and quickly established himself. In only his second season he made the NBA All-Star Team for the first of six straight years. In his third year Guerin led the Knicks in assists (5.1 apg) and ranked second in scoring (18.2 ppg). He dished out a (then) team-record 21 assists against St. Louis on December 12, 1958. The 21 assists he totaled were also Madison Square Garden high until John Stockton broke the record 41 years later.[6] That year New York made its only postseason appearance with Guerin on the team, losing to the Syracuse Nationals in a first-round sweep.[4]

By Guerin's fourth year in the league he had established himself as a scoring machine. He threw in outside bombs and slashed inside for layups on his way to a team-leading 21.8 points per game in 1959–60. His 57 points against Syracuse on December 11 broke Braun's previous team record of 47.[4]

In 1960–61 Guerin again averaged 21.8 points, adding 7.9 rebounds and 6.4 assists per contest. He then had his finest season in 1961–62, averaging 29.5 points and a career-high 6.9 assists in a remarkable 42.9 minutes per game. Guerin ranked sixth in the league in scoring and fourth in assists, and he became the first Knicks player ever to score 2,000 points in a season (2,303). He ended that season as one of eight NBA players to ever have 2000+ points, 500+ rebounds and 500+ assists in a season.[7] By the end of the campaign Guerin had firmly established himself among the league's backcourt elite. He was named to the All-NBA Second Team for the third time in his first six seasons.[4]

Guerin had another fine season in 1962–63, averaging a team-leading 21.5 points. He ranked seventh in the league in scoring, eighth in assists (4.4 apg), and second in free-throw percentage (.848). But two games into the 1963–64 season the Knicks traded their 31-year-old star to the St. Louis Hawks for cash and a second-round draft choice. When he left the Knicks, Guerin ranked second on the team's all-time scoring list behind Carl Braun. In his first appearance at the Garden in a Hawks uniform, Knicks fans showed their gratitude by giving Guerin a five-minute standing ovation.[4]

Guerin joined a Hawks team loaded with offensive weapons, and his production dropped accordingly to 13.1 points per game in 1963–64. Midway through the 1964–65 campaign, Guerin became the Hawks' 10th coach in nine years, replacing Harry Gallatin as player-coach. St. Louis had gone 17–16 under Gallatin, and the team went 28–19 under Guerin. The Hawks earned a playoff spot but lost to the Baltimore Bullets in a hard-fought division semifinal series. Under Guerin's direction the Hawks reached the playoffs in each of the next seven seasons.[4]

Guerin played two more full seasons, averaging 14.9 points in 1965–66 and 13.8 in 1966–67. After the Seattle expansion team drafted him in 1967, he announced his retirement as a player, preferring to direct all of his energies toward coaching, guiding the Hawks to a 56–26 record and the Western Division championship and being named NBA Coach of the Year for 1967–1968.[8]

The Hawks moved to Atlanta prior to the 1968–69 season, and Seattle traded him back, allowing him to return to playing as a reserve player, guiding the Hawks to a 48–34 record while appearing as a player in 27 games. In the 1969–70 season he guided them to another 48-34 record while appearing as a player in 8 games.

The fourth game of the 1970 Western Division Finals against the Los Angeles Lakers on April 19, 1970 was Guerin's last game as a player, and he managed to coax one more spectacular performance out of his 37-year-old body, contributing 31 points, 5 rebounds, and 3 assists, but it wasn't enough for his team to avoid a four-game sweep.[9]

Guerin stayed on as head coach for two more seasons, and Atlanta went 36–46 each year. He finally left the Hawks after the 1971–72 campaign, having compiled a 327–291 career coaching record.[4] Notably, Guerin was Pete Maravich's first pro head coach during those final two pro seasons.