City’s scott gets hoop Hall call, kidd too
Charlie Scott’s journey into history went down Tobacco Road but it started in Rucker Park.
Scott, the first African-American scholarship athlete in the history of the University of North Carolina, was named to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame 2018 class Saturday at the Final Four in San Antonio. The 13-member class, which also includes Steve Nash, Jason Kidd, Grant Hill, Ray Allen, Maurice Cheeks, Tina Thompson, coach Lefty Driesell, executive Rick Welts, executive Rod Thorn, Katie Smith, Ora Mae Washington and Croatian star Dino Radja, will be inducted in September.
Scott, the 69-year-old Harlem product, won an Olympic gold medal, an NBA title, was a two-time college All-American and a three-time NBA All-Star. Before all that, Scott was a legend at Rucker Park. embraced by the fans here. As far as people in the organization, I don’t have any idea.
“But I think Jeff was always embraced by the fans here, I think they appreciated what he did and appreciated the way his teams played so I don’t think that was ever a problem.”
Van Gundy went on to coach the Houston Rockets to a pair of 50-plus win seasons after leaving New York. He then became a lead analyst for NBA on ESPN.
The Knicks (27-50), meanwhile, turned into one of the worst franchises in the NBA since Van Gundy left, with just six playoff victories over 17 years. Their latest defeat Saturday assured a fourth consecutive season with at least 50 losses.
That hadn’t been done by the
Scott went to Stuyvesant High School before transferring to Laurinburg Institute in North Carolina, the historic African-American prep school where Scott graduated as valedictorian. While Scott would go on to make history with the Tar Heels and coach Dean Smith, the slender 6-6 shooting guard credits another member of the 2018 Hall class, Driesell, with a big assist.
“If people don’t know it, if it wasn’t for Lefty, there would be no Charlie Scott,” Scott said on Saturday. “He was the guy who first recruited me (to Davidson). And I guess he hated it, but he put my name in the newspaper, and that was when Coach (Dean) Smith saw it, and that’s when Coach Smith started recruiting me.”
Driesell laughed that he would have been in the Hall of Fame much earlier if Scott had gone to Davidson. Driesell probably wasn’t laughing in the 1969 NCAA Tournament when Scott scored 32 points, including hitting the game-winning jumper at the buzzer Knicks since the early 1960s.
“I mean, Jeff’s a hell of a coach so that certainly helped (him in New York),” Stan Van Gundy said. “I mean, he’s really, really good. Obviously I’ve got a bias but he’s one of the best in the business. They had a pretty good big guy at that time if I remember who was a pretty good player with experience (Patrick Ewing).
“It’s incredible to me that in two different type of jobs that anybody can rise and be at or near the top of two different professions so I think that’s an incredible achievement in and of itself. He was one of the best coaches in this league and, 10 years later, he’s one of the best broadcasters in the business so that’s not easy to do.” as the Tar Heels beat Davidson to reach the Final Four.
Scott never won ACC Player of the Year as South Carolina’s John Roche, the future Net, won the honor.
“That was about the only time in college that I felt things were done in a prejudicial manner,” Scott told the Greensboro News & Record in 2008. “And what concerned me more was how the media handled it. Nobody ever said anything about it, never challenged what took place. To me, that’s just another form of hypocrisy.”
The Boston Celtics drafted Scott but he signed with the Virginia Squires of the upstart American Basketball Association. He averaged 27.1 points and won Rookie of the Year honors. The next year, the Squires added Julius Erving and appeared headed for the ABA title. But Scott, leading the league in scoring at 34.6 ppg, abruptly left the team on March 10, 1972, claiming the Squires defaulted on his contract. He declared himself a
Jeff Van Gundy was floated as a potential candidate to replace Woodson in 2013, but after Phil Jackson was hired any potential connection to Van Gundy – or his coaching tree – was thrown out a triangular window.
The Knicks will likely have another opening at head coach this summer, but it’s Jeff Van Gundy’s ESPN broadcasting partner – Mark Jackson – who is more likely to land the gig.
“I don’t have any idea (if Jeff is going to coach again),” Stan Van Gundy said. “He thinks about it some and then other times he doesn’t. So I don’t really know what he’ll decide to do. He certainly has had options to get back into it and I’m sure he’ll have more.” free agent and joined the Phoenix Suns, who dealt Paul Silas to Boston for Scott’s draft rights.
Scott and Erving had more success joining forces at Rucker, thrilling crowds in the early ’70s playing for the Westsiders, also known as the Daily News All-Stars.
After three straight All-Star seasons in Phoenix, Scott finally joined the Celtics in a blockbuster swap for Paul Westphal and two draft picks. The two teams met in that season’s NBA Finals, a classic six-game Celtic victory. Scott scored 25 points and grabbed 11 rebounds in the Game 6 clincher.
Scott also played for the Lakers and Nuggets, finishing his 10-year pro career with 14,837 points for a 20.7 ppg average.
After his playing career, Scott became a marketing executive for the sports apparel company Champion and then started his own telemarketing firm.
And now he can be removed from those best-players-not-in-the-Hall lists.