The Cavaliers’ “Miracle of Richfield” season never would’ve been possible without Nate Thurmond.
The NBA hall of famer made an immediate impact upon his arrival early in the 1975-76 season. A young team with potential was floundering without him. With him, the Cavs learned how to win, advanced to the Eastern Conference finals and came within a broken foot of perhaps winning a championship.
Thurmond, an Akron native, died Saturday after a short battle with leukemia. He was 74.
Born July 25, 1941, Thurmond grew up just blocks away from where LeBron James spent his childhood. He played 11 of his 14 seasons with the Golden State Warriors and remained in the Bay Area after his retirement, operating a barbecue restaurant in San Francisco for about 20 years before selling it in 2011. Both the Cavs and Warriors previously retired Thurmond’s No. 42 jersey, and he is an iconic figure in both cities.
“R.I.P. Akron’s own Nate Thurmond,” James wrote Saturday on his Twitter account. “Knowing u played in the same rec league as me growing up gave me hope of making it out! Thanks!”
Thurmond was traded from the Chicago Bulls to Cleveland just 17 games into the ’75-76 season. The Cavs were 6-11 at the time of the trade.
“He made us into what we were as far as the Miracle team is concerned. He’s the one who made it all happen,” Austin Carr told the Beacon Journal. Carr was the team’s star shooting guard and is now the radio analyst. “He gave us confidence. After the first three or four games with us, he said, ‘You guys don’t know how good you can be. You just have to believe in yourselves.’ We took off from there.”
Thurmond told the Los Angeles Times in 2009 he felt overlooked and underappreciated by his contemporaries, although the league recognized him as one of the greatest 50 players through the NBA’s first 50 years.
He was a hulking figure at 6-foot-11 and among the most dominating centers in the game, becoming the first player to officially record a quadruple-double. He had 22 points, 14 rebounds, 13 assists and 12 blocked shots as a member of the Bulls in an overtime victory against the Atlanta Hawks in 1974. He is also one of only four players to grab more than 40 rebounds in a game.
“He was the only person I’ve ever seen swat Kareem’s hook shot,” Carr said, referring to hall of famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
For as great as he was on the court, it was the way Thurmond carried himself off it that resonated with his former teammates.
‘The Great One’
Campy Russell last saw his friend about two years ago at a golf outing for Thurmond’s brother. They remained in contact through phone calls, with Thurmond starting every call the same way: “Campanella, Campanella, this is your West Coast connection.”
“He’s a guy I truly love as a man,” Russell told the Beacon Journal. “A guy who had a great impact on my life and on me.”
Russell affectionately called Thurmond “The Great One” because of how he was as a person and a teammate.
“He was always very courteous. I always tell people he carried himself with an air of royalty because that’s how he wanted to be treated. And he treated people the same way,” Russell said. “I have great praise for him because of what he was for my life and the opportunity I had to play with him and be in his presence.”
Thurmond graduated from Akron’s Central High School in 1959. The Warriors drafted him with the third overall pick in the 1963 draft after he graduated from Bowling Green State University. His play and numbers weren’t flashy, but he earned the respect of his peers and knowledgeable basketball fans for his consistency, defense and strength.
Warriors record-holder
Thurmond apprenticed under hall of fame center Wilt Chamberlain until the Warriors traded Chamberlain to the Philadelphia 76ers in the middle of the 1964-65 season. Thurmond went on to average 15 points and 15 rebounds a game during his career and still holds the Warriors’ franchise records for career rebounds and minutes played.
“Without a doubt, he is one of the most beloved figures to ever wear a Warriors uniform,” Golden State owner Joe Lacob said.
The Warriors traded Thurmond to the Bulls before the 1974-75 season. The Bulls traded him early the next season to his hometown Cavaliers, where he closed out his career in style.
The Cavs advanced to the Eastern Conference finals, but the Miracle season ended short of a championship after Jim Chones broke his foot and couldn’t play against the Boston Celtics.
Though he played less than two seasons for the Cavaliers at the end of his career, his jersey number was the first retired by the team.
After the seven-time All-Star selection retired, he worked for the Warriors as a community liaison and broadcast analyst until his illness sidelined him earlier this year.
“He taught us how you’re supposed to handle yourself in this league and how you’re supposed to represent yourself, your team and the family that you came from,” Russell said. “That’s what he meant to me. That’s what he brought to my life.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.