January Roundball Coach Birthdays January 13   Tom Gola is 74. Gola is one of the most famous players to come out of Philadelphia. Actually, except for the final four years of his NBA caree, when he played for the New York Knicks, he spent his entire high school, college and most of his pro career playing in his hometown. Gola was a winner. In high school he won a city championship, in college, at LaSalle, he won a NIT championship in 1952 and a NCAA title in 1954 and in his first season in the NBA with the Philadelphia Warriors he won a pro championship. Now that is quite a run. At LaSalle, Gola scored 2,462 points and grabbed 2,201 rebounds-making him one of only two players in NCAA history to achieve those feats. Gola's four-year La Salle record was an impressive 102-19, and he still holds the NCAA career record for rebounds. In the NBA Gola wasn’t a dominant player, but he was an all-around contributor. In his best season he averaged 15 points, 10.4 rebounds and 5.5 assists. Gola also coached 50 games at LaSalle and won 37 of them. January 12 See Nique in action in this You Tube mix. I don't think the music is too offensive. You can always mute it.  Video Dominique Wilkins is 47. As a spectator and sportscaster, I both admired and critiqued the work of the Human Highlight Film (tape?). I liked his hustle, he always played hard. I liked his creativity. But sometimes Wilkins frustrated me as a basketball fan. I would sit in the Omni and ask myself, why did he take that shot? Did he really think he was going to make it? I always thought that Dominique’s big problem was he was too athletic, he could get off any shot he wanted. But the spectacular ones don’t always fall. I always wondered if Mike Fratello ever pointed out to Dominique, with his telestrater, that some of his shots were ridiculous. That’s why Wilkins never shot higher than 48% from the field. Michael Jordan shot over 50% from the field in six different seasons and shot .497 for his career. Julius Erving shot over 50% nine seasons and he shot over 50% for his career. The highest Wilkins ever shot was .484 in 1989-90 and for his career he shot 46%. That doesn’t seem like a big deal. However, when you take 21,589 shots in your career, it is. If Wilkins had made 50% of his shots as opposed to 46%, he would have made 831 extra field goals, that is over 1,600 more points he would have scored in his career. Jordan and Erving, two spectacular type players, learned the difference between a good shot and a bad one. I am not sure Dominique ever got that memo. But enough of the bashing of a Hall of Famer. Wilkins, no question, was, is and may always be the best basketball player to ever play in Georgia for Georgia based teams. His work with the Georgia Bulldogs put him on the roundball map and he was always the best reason to go see the Hawks, when they were good or bad or whatever. January 11   Darryl Dawkins is 50. I used to say this on a sports talk show that I occasionally hosted in Montgomery, Alabama. Darryl Dawkins should have gone to college and not straight to the NBA. Kentucky was his choice I believe. My theory was based on the fact that in college you practice more than you play, while in the NBA, once the season begins, you play more than you practice. I thought Dawkins needed more work on his post game and that he wouldn’t get that in the NBA. Back then NBA teams weren’t used to dealing with underage players like they are now. Was I right? Or was I wrong as usual? His first two seasons in the NBA were spent mostly on the bench. Dawkins didn’t average double digits until his third season and his highest average was 16.8 in his ninth season. The near seven-footer never averaged double-digits in rebounds. But Dawkins did put on a show. I went to a Philadelphia/Atlanta game in the Omni and in warm ups Dawkins wrapped his arm around the ball and jumped up and punched it through the rim with his other hand which was clinched. In 1979-80 Dawkins broke two backboards with two hard jams. The most famous was in Kansas City over Bill Robinzine. Of course Dawkins liked to name his dunks and this was the best, “The Chocolate-Thunder-Flying, Robinzine-Crying, Teeth-Shaking, Glass-Breaking, Rump Roasting, Bun-Toasting, Wham-Bam-I-Am-Jam." Some Dawkins dunks for those too young to remember.  Video January 10 George Carter is 63. His nickname was Dirty Dingus, which I presume was taken from the Frank Sinatra movie entitled Dirty Dingus Magee, a western comedy. Carter played at St. Bonaventure on three winning teams from 1964 to 1967. He scored 1,322 points and averaged 19.4 points and 12 rebounds in 68 games. His pro career was quite unique. In 1968 he played just one game, only five minutes in the NBA with the Pistons scoring two points. Then he didn’t play another pro game until the 1970 season when he joined the Rick Barry and the ABA Washington Capitals. This began an unusual pattern as Carter never played for the same ABA team for two straight seasons. Carter bounced from the Capitals, to the Squires, to the Cougars, to the Condors, to the Nets and back to the Squires. He closed out his pro career playing a season with Memphis and then 10 games with the Utah Stars before that franchise folded in 1976. In most situations Carter was a secondary scorer to stars like Barry, Charlie Scott, Joe Caldwell, Johnny Brisker and George Gervin. However, he did lead the Nets Squires and Sounds in scoring in three different seasons. He averaged between 12 and 19 points per season and 15 per game for his career. Carter is also an answer to a very important ABA trivia question. He was traded by the Nets to the Squires for Julius Erving along with the rights to Kermit Washington and $800,000. January 9   Manute Bol and Muggsy Bogues, two NBA players who don't need identification. If you don't know which is which, what are you doing on this website? Muggsy and Manute played one season together with Washington in 1987-88. Muggsy outscored Manute 5.0 to 2.3 and Bol outrebounded Bogues 3.6 to 1.7. Muggsy Bogues is 42. One night, while covering the Atlanta Hawks, I stood next to both Matt Geiger and Bogues. I am a legit 6-foot-5, not a basketball 6-5. Geiger just towered over me, while I had to look way down to see Muggsy. I remember thinking it is hard to believe these two guys play the same sport. But they did. Geiger at 7-feet and Mogues at an estimated 5-foot-3. Muggsy, the shortest player to ever play in the NBA lasted 14 seasons in the NBA and averaged 7.7 points and 7.6 assists. In college, at Wake Forest, Bogues was almost a double-double guy. In his junior season he averaged 11 points and 8.4 assists and he improved those numbers in his senior season to 14.8 and 9.5. Believe it or not, Muggsy also averaged 3.8 rebounds in his senior season. How do you outrebound players who are at least a foot taller. Try hustling. That’s wat Bogues did every single second he was out on the court. And legend has it that in a NBA game in 1993, Muggsy actually blocked a shot taken by 7-footer Patrick Ewing. Prior to starting his college career, Bogues played at Dunbar High School in Baltimore and his teammates included three future NBA players- David Wingate, Reggie Williams and Reggie Lewis. And before he played his first NBA game, he spent a summer with the Rhode Island Gulls of the USBL. His teammate was 7-foot-7 Manute Bol. Those two made quite a picture and many were snapped.   January 6 Dwayne “The Pearl” Washington is 43. He only played three seasons in the NBA and averaged no more than 9.3 points and 4.2 assists. So his pro career was not memorable, but in high school and college he was a must see. The Pearl averaged 16 points and seven assists at Syracuse. That doesn’t sound all that impressive unless you saw Washington do his shake and bake on defenders or make a snazzy pass. The Pearl was a showman and his best stage was the Carrier Dome of Madison Square Garden. In his junior season he had two 35 point games against St. Johns, and led the Orangemen to the Big East finals, with a dramatic 75-73 win over Georgetown in the semis. In the championship game against St. John's, the Pearl scored 20 points and had 14 assists. Washington gave up his senior season for the NBA draft. So Syracuse fans were denied a fourth season of the Pearl’s act. That probably would have been memorable, especially when compared to three uninspiring seasons in the NBA. January 5   Louie before sweaters dominated his gameday attire Lou Carnesecca is 82. Louie, of course was known for his sense of humor, his sweaters, and for winning games. 526 wins and 200 losses at St. John’s. His philosophy was to expect excellence, but always support "the kids who are playing for you." Carnesecca played basketball for three games on St. John's 1946-47 junior varsity team and then switched to baseball and played for Frank McGuire. He was a utility infielder and played on a team that went to College World Series in 1949. After college, Lou coached high school basketball and baseball and won four championships- three for basketball and one in baseball. He returned to St. John's as an assistant basketball coach under Joe Lapchick and eventually replaced him as head coach in 1965. Carnesecca left in 1970 to coach the New York team in the ABA. The Nets with Rick Barry played for the league championship in Carnasecca’s second and last season as a pro coach. They lost to Indiana in six games and Louie returned to St. John’s. He just missed coaching Dr. J, who joined the team the next season. Now about those sweaters. The first one he wore was a gift from an Italian coach. One day Lou had a cold and so his wife suggested that he wear a sweater to the game. On January 14, 1985 Carnesseca wore the sweater and St. John’s beat Pittsburgh on a last second shot. So he was obligated to wear a sweater at games until he retired in 1992. St. John’s basketball hasn’t been the same since. January 4 Sidney Green and Joe Kleine are 45 and 46 years old respectively. What do they have in common? They both played for the Bulls, but not at the same time. No, what they have in common is they were very good college players who had long NBA careers, but they were never stars in their pro careers. Some might call them journeymen. Green played in the league for 10 seasons with six different teams. Kleine was in the NBA for 15 seasons with seven different teams. Both had more than one stint with at least one team. Green played with the Spurs two different times and Kleine played with Phoenix three different times. That usually means you are a good role player and a teammate who doesn’t cause problems. Both players best scoring season was in their third season in the league. Green averaged 13.5 points and Klein 9.8. In college both players were stars. Green is UNLV’s second all-time leading scorer with over 2,000 points. He averaged 17 per game for his career and 22 in his senior season. He is the school’s all-time leading rebounder. Kleine led the Razorbacks in scoring two seasons and is sixth on the school’s all-time list with over 17,000 points. He is fifth on the Razorbacks’ rebounding list.  January 3   Don May (on left) at a ceremony in 2004 that honored 100 years of Dayton University basketball  Don May is 60. May grew up in Dayton, Ohio. He was a paper boy who delivered to the dorms at Dayton University where he would eventually play his college basketball. May grew up to become a 6-foot-4 scorer who could also rebound. His stats in college were mind-boggling considering his size. He averaged 20 points and 11 rebounds as a sophomore, 23 and 16.7 as a junior and 23 and 15 in his senior season. In 1967 May led Dayton to the NCAA Championship game. The Flyers won two overtime games and a one-pointer to make it to the Final Four. In the semi’s Dayton played North Carolina and May hit 13 straight shots and went 16-of-22 from the field in scoring 32 points in the Flyers’ win. In the title game Dayton lost to UCLA. Lew Alcindor had 18 rebounds in the game, May had 17. The next season May averaged 23 points and 15 rebounds in the NIT and led the Flyers to a 61-48 win in the championship game. May played for five teams in his seven year NBA career. His individual highlight was averaging 20 points and 7.5 rebounds for coach Dolph Schayes and the Buffalo Braves. His low had to be joining the 1972-73 Philadelphia 76ers. May played 26 games and averaged 12 points and 5.5 rebounds for the worst NBA team ever. That Philly team went 9-73. January 2   Ed Manning is 63. Ed, of course became better known as Danny Manning’s father when Danny became the famous college basketball player who led Kansas to the surprise NCAA Championship in 1988. But Ed had a long career of his own. He played at Jackson State and then spent nine seasons playing pro ball- his first five in the NBA and his last four in the ABA. Manning was an original Portland Trail Blazer when he averaged a career high 7 points in the NBA. While playing with the Carolina Cougars, Manning was a teammate of Larry Brown’s. That relationship would lead to some controversy a little more than a decade later. Brown was a head coach at Kansas and Ed’s son was a hot high school prospect. Ed was working as an over-the-road trucker when Brown offered him a job as an assistant coach. And the controversy began when both Ed and Danny wound up at Kansas.