Richie Guerin

Richie Guerin
Player information
Full name	Richard Vincent Guerin
birthday	May 29, 1932
place of birth	New York City , United States
size	193 cm
position	Shooting Guard
college	Iona College
NBA draft	1954 , 17th Pick, New York Knicks
league	NBA
Jersey number	0, 15, 18, 19
Clubs as active
1956–1963 New York Knicks 1963–1967 St. Louis Hawks 1968–1970 Atlanta Hawks
Clubs as coaches
1964–1972 St. Louis Hawks / Atlanta Hawks

Richie Guerin (born May 29, 1932 in New York City ) is a retired American basketball player and coach.

After his time at Iona College , Guerin signed up for the 1954 NBA draft . The Shooting Guard was selected in the second round at a total of 17th position by the New York Knicks . He was only able to play his first game for the Knicks in 1956, because he had to do two years of military service with the Marines . In the 1958/59 season Guerin was able to qualify for the playoffs for the only time with the Knicks. There they were defeated by the Syracuse Nationals 0-2. From 1958 to 1963 he was invited to the All-Star Game . In 1959, 1960 and 1962 he was also elected to the All-NBA Second Team . In the four years from the 1959/60 season he scored both the most points and the most assists for the Knicks. In the 1961/62 season he scored an average of 29.5 points per game. With 21 assists in a game in 1958 and 57 points in a game in 1959, he set two more franchise records. The time with Guerin was not very successful for the Knicks. After participating in the playoffs in 1959, only between 26 and 36 percent of the season's games were won in the following four years.

On October 18, 1963, Richie Guerin was transferred to the St. Louis Hawks for a second round draft pick and compensation amount. In his second season he was the player-coach and took over the team from Harry Gallatin .

In the 1965 Expansion Draft , he was selected as a player by the Seattle SuperSonics . He never played for Seattle and continued to train in St. Louis. In the 1967/68 season , the Hawks reached first place in the west with 56 wins. Guerin was voted Coach of the Year .

Before the 1968/69 season , the franchise was relocated from St. Louis to Atlanta . On November 15, 1968, Richie Guerin was transferred back to the Hawks as a player in exchange for Dick Smith and sporadically set himself up again. His last appearance as a player he had in the fourth game of the semi-finals of the 1970 playoffs against the Los Angeles Lakers . At the age of 37, he scored 21 points, 5 rebounds and 3 assists, but still couldn't prevent the Hawks from losing the series 4-0. In his entire NBA career, Guerin scored a total of 14,676 points in 848 games. He had 4,211 assists and 4,278 rebounds .

With the Hawks he trained players like Bob Pettit , Lenny Wilkens or Pete Maravich , who were later inducted into the Hall of Fame or Lou Hudson . In his eight years as coach of the Hawks, the team always reached the playoffs but never qualified for the final. Cotton Fitzsimmons was his successor .

After the end of his coaching career, he worked for a year as an official for the Hawks. He later worked as a sports reporter for his old New York team and as a stockbroker on Wall Street . Guerin is married and has four children.

In 2013, Richie Guerin was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame for his achievements as a player .

See also

• List of members of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame

Web links

• Richie Guerin - player profile on basketball-reference.com
• Biography of Richie Guerin on nba.com ( Memento from February 11, 2001 in the Internet Archive )
• Richie Guerin - Trainer profile on basketball-reference.com (English)
• Looking Back With the "Leatherneck" on nba.com
• Richie Guerin in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame . On: Hoophall website; Springfield, MA, 2018. Retrieved April 20, 2018 (in English).