One month after the Cleveland Cavaliers defeated the Golden State Warriors to win the first NBA Finals Championship in the team's 46-year history, it was announced that Warriors and Cavs legend Nate Thurmond lost his fight with leukemia on Saturday, July 17. He was 74 years old.
After a 14-year career which he started with Golden State and finished in Cleveland, both organizations would retire his number 42. Those honors were a precursor of the acknowledgement to come for the seven time All-Star Hall of Famer, who would eventually be recognized among the 50 greats selected to the NBA's 50th Anniversary All-Time Team in 1996. While he'd finish his tenure strong, helping lead the Cavs to the team's only pre-Lebron Eastern Conference Championship in 1976, before making his native state his final destination [like Lebron, Thurmond is from Akron, OH], the 6'11 center/power forward had established himself as a Western Conference giant over the course of 11 seasons with the Warriors.
Quite a few of Thurmond's games have gone down in history, with him setting an NBA record when he pulled down 18 rebounds in a quarter against the Baltimore Bullets in 1965; and later becoming the first player to ever record a quadruple-double, scoring 22 points and securing 14 rebounds, while dishing 13 assists and blocking 12 shots on Oct. 18, 1974. But it was his long-term contribution that distinguished him as an elite among the elites, battling the likes of Bill Russell, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Willis Reed and Wilt Chamberlain as a defensive powerhouse in the paint. In what was a single game best for him, Thurmond is in the books as one of only four players to ever grab more than 40 rebounds in a game [42 vs Detroit in 1965]. He is also only one of five players to ever average 20 rebounds per game throughout a season, and one of only five, alongside Wilt Chamberlain, Bill Russell, Bob Pettit and Jerry Lucas, to average 15 rebounds over his career. Thurmond retired after the 1976-77 season having amassed 14,437 points and 14,464 rebounds.
"Nate Thurmond was a giant of his era and one of the greatest players in the history of our game," said NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said in a statement on his passing.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
