Before Game 4 of the NBA Finals tips off tomorrow night and the growing possibility that former Mountaineer guard Deuce McBride is about to become an NBA Champion, as a member of the New York Knicks, I thought it might a good time to take a quick look at the relationship between West Virginia natives, players who attended schools in the Mountain State and the NBA Championship.
Obviously, this list begins and ends with Jerry West, who played in the Finals nine times, starting in 1962 and for the last time in 1973.
Some of West’s NBA Finals records may never be broken; his 1,679 career points in the Finals is a record, along with his career marks for total free throws and free throws attempted in the Finals.
West was just 1-8 in the Finals as a player and his eight losses are also a regrettable record, but he remains the only player in league history to be named as the Finals MVP, after he averaged nearly 38 points a game in a seven-game series defeat at the hands of the Celtics in 1969.
Among the other players with local connections to appear in the NBA Finals; how about Huntington’s Hal Greer with the 1967 Sixers? The former Marshall star averaged nearly 28 points a game in Philly’s run to the title that season, topping the San Francisco Warriors in six games.
Dupont High’s Jason Williams started all 23 playoff games during the Miami Heat’s 2006 title run, that concluded with a win over the Mavs in the Finals.
And for you trivia buffs; WVU’s Jerome Anderson appeared briefly in one Finals game for the Celtics in Boston’s title run in 1975 against Phoenix.
West Virginia State legend Earl Lloyd was a key forward for the Syracuse Nationals’ title run in the 1955 NBA Finals over Fort Wayne. Lloyd and his Nats’ teammate Jim Tucker made history as the first African Americans to play on an NBA championship team.
And there have been a number of players with connections to our state who played in the NBA Finals, but didn’t win titles. Charleston’s Rod Hundley did it twice. Among other memorable Mountaineers on this list; Javon Carter and Fritz Williams, while Beckley’s Tamar Slay from Marshall played on the 2003 New Jersey Nets that lost to the Spurs.
And sometimes you just have you have to be on the right team at the right time. Consider, West Virginia Tech’s Sedate Threatt. He spent 14 years in the NBA and appeared in 89 playoff games, but never got to the Finals. He came very close in 1985 with the Sixers, but Philadelphia was eliminated by Larry Bird and the Celtics in 5 games in the Eastern Conference Finals.
So suffice to say, if and when Deuce McBride gets an NBA Championship Ring in this or any future season, he will be joining some very select company when it comes to Mountain State connections and NBA titles.