On this day in 1966: Dave Bing’s scoreless NBA debut — then Rookie of the Year

Sixty years ago tonight, the No. 2 pick in the draft walked into Cincinnati Gardens and left with a zero next to his name. On October 15, 1966, Dave Bing made his NBA debut for the Detroit Pistons against Oscar Robertson and the Cincinnati Royals. He missed all six of his shots, scored no points, handed out two assists and picked up three fouls. The Royals won 103-99. It was the quietest first line on a résumé that would later include Rookie of the Year, a scoring title, seven All-Star nods and a place on the NBA’s 75th Anniversary Team.

NBA.com’s “This Date in the NBA” archive lists the night as Bing’s debut. The Basketball-Reference box score fills in the hard details: Detroit fell to 0-1 on the road; Cincinnati opened 1-0 behind a full 48 minutes from Robertson, who finished with 37 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists. Bing, a 6-foot-3 guard out of Syracuse taken second overall in 1966, was still learning how the league moved.

The debut box

Bing’s line was brutal and brief in the scoring column: 0-of-6 from the field, no free throws, zero points, zero rebounds, two assists. Around him, the Pistons still put up a fight. Ray Scott led Detroit with 26 points. Eddie Miles added 20. Dave DeBusschere scored 17 with 12 rebounds. Chico Vaughn had 10. It was not enough against Oscar’s triple-double and Adrian Smith’s 22 points on a perfect 10-of-10 night from the line. Jerry Lucas pulled down 15 boards. Cincinnati owned the glass 66-46.

• Result: Royals 103, Pistons 99 — October 15, 1966, Cincinnati Gardens.
• Bing: 0 points (0-of-6 FG), 0 rebounds, 2 assists, 3 fouls.
• Pistons leaders: Ray Scott 26; Eddie Miles 20; Dave DeBusschere 17 points, 12 rebounds.
• Royals leaders: Oscar Robertson 37 points, 10 rebounds, 10 assists (48 minutes); Adrian Smith 22; Jerry Lucas 10 points, 15 rebounds.
• Draft: First round, No. 2 overall, by Detroit in 1966 out of Syracuse.

From a scoreless opener to Rookie of the Year

The zero did not stick. Across 80 games as a rookie, Bing averaged 20.0 points, 4.5 rebounds and 4.1 assists in 34.5 minutes and was named Rookie of the Year for 1966-67. A year later he led the entire league at 27.1 points per game, made All-NBA First Team and finished fourth in MVP voting. Over nine seasons in Detroit he averaged 22.6 points and became the face of a franchise that had rarely had a perimeter star of that caliber.

His career stretched 12 seasons and 901 games: Detroit, then Washington, then a final year in Boston. The totals were 20.3 points, 3.8 rebounds and 6.0 assists per night. He made seven All-Star teams, won All-Star Game MVP in 1976, earned three All-NBA selections and was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1990. Decades later the league put him on its 75th Anniversary Team — the same honor roll that includes Robertson, the man who dropped a triple-double on Bing’s first night.

A stacked October 15

Bing’s debut shared the calendar with several other milestones the same night. Bill Russell opened as the NBA’s first Black player-coach in Boston. Matt Guokas Jr. debuted for Philadelphia and became part of the league’s first father-son pair to both play in the NBA. The Chicago Bulls won their first franchise game in St. Louis. WhyNBA has covered those angles separately in Features & History. Bing’s story from Cincinnati Gardens is the one that starts with a blank scoring line and ends in the Hall of Fame.

Sixty years later, the box score still looks ugly. The career that followed is why the date matters. A scoreless debut against Oscar Robertson was not a verdict. It was the first night of Dave Bing’s long climb into Detroit and NBA lore.