Alex Hannum
Alexander Murray Hannum (born July 19, 1923 in Los Angeles , California , † January 18, 2002 in San Diego , California) was an American basketball player and coach. Hannum was twice head coach of the NBA All-Star Games , 1964 Coach of the Year and won two NBA championships. Only Phil Jackson , apart from Hannum, managed to win the NBA title with two different franchises. Hannum was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a coach on October 2, 1998 .
life and career
Hannum played three years for the Trojans of the University of Southern California between 1942 and 1948 , interrupted by his military service during World War II in the US Army , which should bring him the nickname "The Sarge". He was last captain of the Trojans and was named to the Conference selection team in his senior year .
Hannum played one season in Wisconsin for the Oshkosh All-Stars in the National Basketball League (NBL) after college . From 1949 he played exclusively in the National Basketball Association (NBA) and went for two years to the Syracuse Nationals , in the 1951/52 season to the Baltimore Bullets and then for two years to the Rochester Royals .
The league was not particularly professional in the early years and the mediocre basketball player Hannum primarily enjoyed the camaraderie and the foray through the community after the games. The owners of the franchises were similarly unpredictable. Ben Kerner, the owner of the Milwaukee Hawks , acquired the rights to Hannum in the middle of the season and paid him in daily installments. The player who was supposed to replace Hannum gave him his unwashed uniform and informed him that from now on he would have to wash it himself. The next season, Hannum went to the Fort Wayne Pistons , but was released and returned to the Hawks, who had since moved to St. Louis.
Kerner fired coaches annually, had just Red Holzman dismissed and in its place Hall of Famer Slater Martin for player-manager made. However, Martin preferred to play and therefore assigned Hannum, who was already spending most of the time on the bench, with tasks such as taking time outs or making substitutions. In an away game without the absent Kerner, he finally handed over all tasks to Hannum. As it turned out, Hannum was a natural: He had a nose for different levels of play, knew which measures were required in critical situations and was able to motivate and guide players. After he had passed the last pass to Bob Pettit himself in the seventh game of the finals as player-coach in 1957 , he succeeded in 1958 as a full-time coach in beating the Boston Celtics in the final.
After the NBA championship Hannum spent a year in the National Industrial Basketball League for the factory team of Vickers Petroleum Company, the Wichita Vickers, and won the amateur title of the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU). Between 1960 and 1966 he coached the Syracuse Nationals and Eddie Gottlieb's San Francisco Warriors . Here, Hannum, in his (not smooth) collaboration with Wilt Chamberlain as the only serious rival of Celtics coach Red Auerbach and the exceptional player Bill Russell, should have the greatest influence on basketball in the 1960s. After arguments with tough conditions between Coach and Chamberlain, both met again in Philadelphia and should not regret it. Because only through Hannum's championships in 1958 with the Hawks and 1967 with the Philadelphia 76ers , for which he had once played in Syracuse, the series of the Celtics championships between 1957 and 1969 was interrupted. Shortly before his death, Hannum called the team of the 67ers 76ers the best team of all time including the dream teams .
A year after his last NBA championship, Hannum hired the American Basketball Association (ABA) and led the Oakland Oaks to the championship, making him the first coach to win a championship in both leagues. He then coached the NBA expansion team of the San Diego Rockets for two years and then coached the ABA's other Rockets , the Denver Rockets, for three years . Denver took the name of a previous NBA franchise from Denver shortly before the ABA and NBA merged with the Nuggets , while the San Diego Rockets, now based in Houston, kept their name.
Awards
- NBA Coach of the Year Award 1964
- ABA Coach of the Year 1969
See also
Web links
- Alex Hannum in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame . On: Hoophall website; Springfield, MA, 2017. Retrieved October 22, 2017 (in English).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Fernando Dominguez: Alex Hannum, 78; Took 2 NBA Teams to Titles. On: Los Angeles Times website; Los Angeles, CA, January 20, 2002. Retrieved October 22, 2017 (in English).
- ^ John Taylor: The Rivalry: Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, and the Golden Age of Basketball. New York, 2005: Random House, Inc. ISBN 978-1-58836-496-8 (in English).
- ↑ Gerald Eskenazi: Alex Hannum, 78, Won Titles As Coach in Two Pro Leagues. From: New York Times website; New York City, January 22, 2002. Retrieved October 22, 2017 (in English).
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Hannum, Alex |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Hannum, Alexander Murray |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American basketball player and coach |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 19, 1923 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Los Angeles , California |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 18, 2002 |
| Place of death | San Diego , California |