Adrian Dantley guarding Larry Bird

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Wow! That is all you can say about a Hall of Fame class including Hakeem Olajuwon, Patrick Ewing, Pat Riley.

But for me there is a double Wow for Adrian Dantley.

Pat Riley had this story about Adrian Dantley and it says it best.

Dantley was playing for the Los Angeles Lakes in the late ’70s, and Riley was the traveling secretary.

It was Riley’s job to assign seating on planes, and he always sat Dantley next to the reticent Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Dantley always wanted another seat, but Riley kept rejecting his request.

“He was the only guy who wasn’t scared of Kareem,” Riley said.

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Adrian just had a knack for scoring that you can’t teach.

NBA Adrian Dantley factoid - Dantley led Notre Dame in scoring in 1974-75 (30.4 points per game) and 1975-76 (28.6 points per game), while also leading the team in rebounding those two seasons with marks of 10.2 and 10.1 rebounds per game, respectively. He was also the leading scorer on the 1976 US Olympic team that captured the gold medal in Montreal and was drafted sixth overall, by the Buffalo Braves, in the 1976 NBA draft. He became the third Buffalo player in five years to receive the NBA Rookie of the Year Award when he won it after the 1977 season.

Adrian played briefly for my Detroit Pistons (Ok, Bill Davidson is the owner, not me, and he is also going into the Hall of Fame, not me. Go figure, could have been me.).

The Pistons were in their glory years with Isiah Thomas, Bill Laimbeer, and Joe Dumars, but Adrian was so good offensively in the half court that the Pistons would be caught just standing around as Adrian stared his man down and then took off for the hoop with some amazing move that resulted in a basket or foul. The Pistons wanted to run more so Adrian was sent packing and an aging Mark Aguirre was brought in.

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Post from: NBA Obsessed

You know if this news came out years ago, the Knicks fans would be going bonkers.

The news this time is dealing with Patrick Ewing Jr. not Senior.

Ewing Jr. hasn’t shied away from his father’s legacy. He started his collegiate career at Indiana before transferring to Georgetown, where his father led the Hoyas to three Final Fours and the 1984 national championship.

The 24-year-old Ewing averaged 6.1 points and 4.2 rebounds last season, winning the Big East Sixth Man of the Year award.

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Ewing Senior

Patrick Ewing Sr. dominated basketball, first at Georgetown in college and then with the New York Knicks in the NBA.

Ewing joined the Knicks as the No. 1 pick in the 1985 draft, and is the franchise’s career leader in points, rebounds, and blocked shots, among other categories. He was voted one of the league’s 50 greatest players, and will be inducted into basketball’s Hall of Fame next week.

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A lot of people will not give Ewing Sr. his due, because he never won an NBA title in spite of being close several times and having to play during the Michael Jordan era.

Hey, the guy won an NCAA title, was a member of the dream team, and took the Knicks to the Conference finals or title game more than once. Ewing ruled the paint.

As always, any NBA Basketball related comments are welcome.

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Post from: NBA Obsessed