19.2 PPG, 5.0 RPG, 4.0 APG, 45 FG%, 80 FT%
“Consistency,” Hal Greer once told the Philadelphia Daily News. “For me, that was the thing…I would like to be remembered as a great, consistent player.”
Over the course of the 15 NBA seasons turned in by the slight, soft-spoken Hall of Fame guard from West Virginia, consistency was indeed the thing. He turned in quality performances almost every night, scoring 19.2 points per game during his career, playing in 1,122 games, and racking up 21,586 points.
He remained with the same franchise throughout his career, starting with Syracuse in 1958 and then moving with the Nationals when they became the Philadelphia 76ers in 1963. He was an All-Star for 10 straight seasons and a seven-time member of the All-NBA Second Team. He was also the second-leading scorer on Philadelphia’s vaunted championship team of 1966-67.
Harold Everett “Hal” Greer grew up in Huntington, West Virginia, where he starred for Douglass High School. The first African-American to receive a scholarship at Marshall University, he averaged 19.4 ppg in his three varsity seasons. He was an all-conference selection in 1957 and 1958, and an All-America pick in 1958. After being selected by the Syracuse Nationals in the second round of the 1958 NBA Draft, Greer came to his first training camp as a skinny kid who lacked confidence.
“I didn’t think I had a chance at all [to make the NBA],” Greer recalled. “In fact, when I first got there I didn’t even unpack my bag.” [Read]
[Note: RSS readers, there is a video within this blog]
[Sources: NBA.com, Basketball-Reference.com]
