On this day in 1962: Dave DeBusschere’s NBA debut on his 22nd birthday

Sixty-four years ago today, Dave DeBusschere celebrated his 22nd birthday by playing his first NBA game. The Detroit kid, a territorial pick of his hometown Pistons, opened the 1962-63 season against the Los Angeles Lakers at Madison Square Garden in New York and scored 16 points. Detroit lost 122-106, but the night started one of the most unusual careers the league has seen.

DeBusschere made six field goals and went 4-for-5 at the free-throw line. Only Ray Scott scored more for Detroit; Scott had 37 on 13-of-22 shooting and 11-of-12 from the line. Don Ohl added 15 and fellow rookie Kevin Loughery had 13. The problem was at the other end. Elgin Baylor scored 35 points with 17 rebounds, Jerry West added 30, and Rudy LaRusso had 20 as the Lakers took three of the four quarters and led 66-53 at halftime.

• Result: Lakers 122, Pistons 106 — October 16, 1962, Madison Square Garden, New York (Detroit listed as home team).
• By quarter: Lakers 31-35-25-31; Pistons 28-25-27-26.
• DeBusschere’s debut: 6 field goals, 4-5 FT, 16 points, 4 fouls. Minutes, shot attempts and rebounds were not kept in the surviving box score.
• Detroit leaders: Ray Scott 37, DeBusschere 16, Don Ohl 15, Kevin Loughery 13.
• Los Angeles leaders: Elgin Baylor 35 points and 17 rebounds, Jerry West 30, Rudy LaRusso 20, Dick Barnett 16.

A pitcher who also played forward

DeBusschere reached the Garden that night after spending the summer in the major leagues. He made his debut as a pitcher for the Chicago White Sox on April 22, 1962, and threw in 12 games that season with a 2.00 ERA. He went back to the mound in 1963 and finished his baseball career with 36 appearances, a 3-4 record and a 2.90 ERA. His last big-league game was September 2, 1963, about six weeks before his second NBA season began.

The Pistons had taken him fourth overall in the 1962 draft as a territorial selection out of the University of Detroit, after high school at Austin Catholic in the city. As a rookie he played 80 games and averaged 12.7 points and 8.7 rebounds in 29.4 minutes. That earned him a spot on the All-Rookie team.

Coach at 24

DeBusschere played only 15 games in his second season. In 1964-65, at 24, Detroit made him player-coach. He went 29-40 on the bench that season and kept both jobs for parts of three seasons, finishing 79-143 as a coach. Through all of it he kept producing as a player, averaging between 16.4 and 18.2 points and more than 11 rebounds in each of his next four full seasons.

The trade that made the Knicks

On December 19, 1968, Detroit traded DeBusschere to the New York Knicks for Walt Bellamy and Howard Komives. He gave New York a physical forward who defended the other team’s best frontcourt scorer and crashed the glass next to Willis Reed. The Knicks won the NBA title in 1970 and again in 1973. The first one was clinched in Game 7 at Madison Square Garden. It was a newer Garden than the one where he had debuted, but it carried the same name.

He finished with 875 games, 16.1 points and 11.0 rebounds per game, eight All-Star selections, six All-Defensive teams, and an All-NBA nod in 1968-69. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1983 and later named to the NBA 75th Anniversary Team. After his playing days he stayed in the game in the front offices of the Nets and the Knicks. He died in New York on May 14, 2003.

The first box score is incomplete and ends in a loss, but it shows the things that lasted: a two-sport athlete getting to the line, scoring in double figures on his birthday, and doing it at a Garden in New York, the city that would become his basketball home.