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Walt Bellamy
Walt Bellamy 1972.JPG
Bellamy in 1972
Personal information
Born (1939-07-24)July 24, 1939
New Bern, North Carolina, U.S.
Died November 2, 2013(2013-11-02) (aged 74)
College Park, Georgia, U.S.
High school J.T. Barber
(New Bern, North Carolina)
Listed height 6 ft 11 in (2.11 m)
Listed weight 225 lb (102 kg)
Career information
College Indiana (1958–1961)
NBA Draft 1961 / Round: 1 / Pick: 1st overall
Selected by the Chicago Packers
Pro career 1961–1974
Career history
1961–1965 Chicago Packers / Zephyrs / Baltimore Bullets
1965–1968 New York Knicks
1968–1970 Detroit Pistons
1970–1974 Atlanta Hawks
1974 New Orleans Jazz
Career highlights and awards
  • 4× NBA All-Star (1962–1965)
  • NBA Rookie of the Year (1962)
  • Consensus second-team All-American (1961)
  • First-team All-American – USBWA (1960)
  • Second-team All-American – NEA (1960)
  • Third-team All-American – UPI (1960)
Career statistics
Points 20,941 (20.1 ppg)
Rebounds 14,241 (13.7 rpg)
Assists 2,544 (2.4 apg)
Medals
Men's basketball
Representing  United States
Summer Olympic Games
Gold 1960 Rome Team competition

Walter Jones Bellamy (July 24, 1939 – November 2, 2013) was an American professional basketball player. A four-time NBA All-Star, he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

College career

Bellamy chose to play basketball at Indiana University. About the experience, he recalled: "In the summer after my junior year of high school I played with some guys from Indiana. Indiana at the time was the closest school to the South that would accept African-Americans. It was an easy transition for me to make. Not that I was naive to what was going on in Bloomington in terms of the times, but it didn't translate to the athletic department or the classroom. Every relationship was good."

Bellamy graduated from Indiana University with the most school rebounds in a career with 1,087 in only 70 games, or 15.5 per game. He also averaged 20.6 points per game and shot 51.7 percent from the floor for his college career. As a senior, Bellamy averaged 17.8 rebounds per game (still Indiana's record). He also holds the school records for most rebounds in a season (649) and most double-doubles in a career (59). In 2000, he was selected to Indiana University's All-Century Team.

In his final college game, he set an Indiana and Big Ten Conference record that still stands with 33 rebounds in an 82–67 win over Michigan. Bellamy was named an All-American in both his junior and senior year (1960 and 1961). Bellamy was the first Hoosier taken No. 1 in the 1961 NBA draft and the first Hoosier named NBA Rookie of the Year.

1960 Olympics

Bellamy was the starting center on the gold medal-winning 1960 American basketball team at the 1960 Summer Olympics. 10 of the 12 college players on the undefeated American squad went on to play professionally in the NBA, including fellow Big Ten player Terry Dischinger and fellow future Hall-of-Famers Jerry West, Oscar Robertson, and Jerry Lucas.

NBA career

1961 Chicago Packers vs. Boston Celtics
Bellamy (No. 8) averaged 31.6 points per game and 19.0 rebounds per game during his rookie season.

Bellamy had a stellar 14-year career in the NBA, and was the NBA first overall draft pick in 1961. Bellamy was named the NBA Rookie of the Year in 1962 after having arguably one of the three greatest rookie seasons in NBA history along with Wilt Chamberlain and Oscar Robertson. His 31.6 points per game average that season is second all-time for a rookie to Wilt Chamberlain's 37.6, and the 19 rebounds per game he averaged that season is the third-best all-time rookie mark (to Chamberlain's 27 and Bill Russell's 19.6). No NBA rookie has since surpassed Bellamy's 973 field goals during the 1961–62 season. Bellamy also led the NBA in field goal percentage in his rookie season, and had a 23-point, 17-rebound performance in the 1962 NBA All-Star Game.

Members of the 1963–64 Baltimore Bullets
Members of the 1963–64 Baltimore Bullets, from left to rightː Rod Thorn, Charles Hardnett, Walt Bellamy, Gus Johnson, and Terry Dischinger. Thorn, Bellamy and Johnson were elected to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.

In the 1964–65 season, Bellamy scored 30 points and 37 rebounds in a win against the St. Louis Hawks. His 37 rebounds was his career-high in rebounds. Bellamy played with the Chicago Packers, which became the Baltimore Bullets, for his first four seasons before he was traded to the New York Knicks for Johnny Green, Johnny Egan, Jim Barnes, and cash a few games into the 1965–66 season.

Due to trades to teams with offset game schedules during the 1968–69 season when he was traded (with Howard Komives) from the Knicks to the Detroit Pistons for Dave DeBusschere, Bellamy set a still-standing record for NBA games played in a single season with 88, playing 35 games with the Knicks and 53 with the Pistons. He later played for several seasons with the Atlanta Hawks, and finished his career with the New Orleans Jazz.

Bellamy ended his NBA career with 20,941 points and 14,241 rebounds, and is a two-time Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductee, being inducted in 1993 for his individual career, and in 2010 as a member of the 1960 United States men's Olympic basketball team.

Personal life

After his retirement from the NBA, Bellamy was active with the NAACP, the Urban League and the YMCA in the Atlanta area. He served as a Goodwill Ambassador and member of the Executive Committee of the NAACP's Georgia State Conference.

Bellamy was a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity. His half-brother is professional boxer Ron Bellamy.

Bellamy died on November 2, 2013 at the age of 74. He was survived by his wife of 53 years, Helen Hollie Ragland Bellamy, son Derrin Bellamy, and two grandsons. He was buried at Atlanta's South-View Cemetery.

NBA career statistics

Legend
  GP Games played   GS  Games started  MPG  Minutes per game
 FG%  Field goal percentage  3P%  3-point field goal percentage  FT%  Free throw percentage
 RPG  Rebounds per game  APG  Assists per game  SPG  Steals per game
 BPG  Blocks per game  PPG  Points per game  Bold  Career high

Regular season

Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG
1961–62 Chicago 79 42.3 .519 .644 19.0 2.7 31.6
1962–63 Chicago 80 41.3 .527 .674 16.4 2.9 27.9
1963–64 Baltimore 80 42.4 .513 .651 17.0 1.6 27.0
1964–65 Baltimore 80 41.3 .509 .685 14.6 2.4 24.8
1965–66 Baltimore 8 33.5 .452 .597 12.8 2.3 19.0
1965–66 New York 72 42.8 .512 .627 16.0 3.0 23.2
1966–67 New York 79 38.1 .521 .636 13.5 2.6 19.0
1967–68 New York 82 32.9 .541 .662 11.7 2.0 16.7
1968–69 New York 35 32.5 .507 .619 11.0 2.2 15.2
1968–69 Detroit 53 38.2 .512 .663 13.5 1.9 18.8
1969–70 Detroit 56 20.9 .547 .562 7.1 1.0 10.0
1969–70 Atlanta 23 37.2 .491 .605 13.5 3.8 15.5
1970–71 Atlanta 82 35.5 .493 .604 12.9 2.8 14.7
1971–72 Atlanta 82 38.9 .545 .585 12.8 3.2 18.6
1972–73 Atlanta 74 37.9 .505 .538 13.0 2.4 16.1
1973–74 Atlanta 77 31.7 .486 .608 9.6 2.5 .7 .6 13.1
1974–75 New Orleans 1 14.0 1.000 1.000 5.0 .0 .0 .0 6.0
Career 1,043 37.3 .516 .632 13.7 2.4 .7 .6 20.1
All-Star 4 3 20.8 .500 .526 7.5 1.0 12.0


Playoffs

Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG
1965 Baltimore 10 42.7 .468 .663 15.1 3.4 20.9
1967 New York 4 39.3 .519 .586 16.5 3.0 18.3
1968 New York 6 46.2 .421 .625 16.0 3.5 20.0
1970 Atlanta 9 40.9 .468 .717 15.6 3.9 16.8
1971 Atlanta 5 43.2 .594 .759 14.4 2.0 20.8
1972 Atlanta 6 41.2 .488 .628 13.7 1.8 18.5
1973 Atlanta 6 41.2 .395 .452 12.2 2.2 13.7
Career 46 42.2 .471 .642 14.8 3.0 18.5

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Walt Bellamy para niños

  • List of National Basketball Association career scoring leaders
  • List of National Basketball Association career free throw scoring leaders
  • List of National Basketball Association career rebounding leaders
  • List of National Basketball Association career minutes played leaders
  • List of National Basketball Association top rookie scoring averages
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