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Game state source: whynba · Retrieved Oct 9, 5:36 pm EDTNBA legend. Named to the NBA 75th Anniversary Team and inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Biography, honors and career statistics below.
Bill Sharman
Career at a glance
Bill Sharman played 11 NBA regular seasons between 1950 and 1961, appearing in 711 games and averaging 17.8 points, 3.9 rebounds and 3.0 assists per game. He played for 2 teams: Washington (1950–51, 31 games), Boston (1951–61, 680 games). His best scoring season was 1957–58 with Boston: 22.3 points per game over 63 games.
Championship seasons: 1956–57 (Boston), 1958–59 (Boston), 1959–60 (Boston), 1960–61 (Boston). In the playoffs he appeared in 10 postseason runs (78 games, 18.5 points per game). Multiplying each season’s games by its scoring average gives roughly 12,700 regular-season points (an estimate from per-game figures, not an official total).
whynba analysis of the season-by-season statistics below (Wikipedia revision, CC BY-SA 4.0). Totals are estimates from per-game averages.
About Bill Sharman
William Walton Sharman (May 25, 1926– October 25, 2013), also known as "Battling Bill", was an American professional basketball player and coach. Sharman is a two-time Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductee, having been inducted in 1976 as a player, and in 2004 as a coach. Only John Wooden, Lenny Wilkens, Tommy Heinsohn and Bill Russell share this double honor.
Sharman is mostly known for his time with the Boston Celtics in the 1950s as a player in the National Basketball Association (NBA), partnering with fellow Hall of Fame guard Bob Cousy in what was then considered the greatest backcourt duo of all time. As a coach, Sharman won titles in the American Basketball League (ABL), American Basketball Association (ABA), and NBA, and is credited with introducing the now-ubiquitous morning shootaround. He was named Coach of the Year in both the ABA and NBA.
Sharman was the first North American sports figure to win a championship as a player, coach, and executive. He was a 15-time NBA champion (having won four titles as a player with the Celtics, one as head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers, and ten during his time as a Lakers' general manager, president, and special consultant); and a 17-time champion in professional basketball overall counting his ABL and ABA titles. Sharman coached the 1971–72 Los Angeles Lakers to an NBA record 33-game win streak; a then-record regular season 69–13 win–loss mark; and the first Lakers championship in Los Angeles.
- Born
- May 25, 1926 Abilene, Texas, U.S.
- Listed height
- 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)
- Listed weight
- 175 lb (79 kg)
- Position
- Shooting guard
- High school
- Porterville (Porterville, California)
- College
- USC (1946–1950)
- NBA draft
- 1950: 2nd round, 17th overall pick
- Playing career
- 1950–1962
Career highlights and awards
- 4× NBA champion (1957, 1959–1961)
- 8× NBA All-Star (1953–1960)
- NBA All-Star Game MVP (1955)
- 4× All-NBA First Team (1956–1959)
- 3× All-NBA Second Team (1953, 1955, 1960)
- NBA anniversary team (25th, 50th, 75th)
- No. 21 retired by Boston Celtics
- Consensus first-team All-America (1950)
- 2× First-team All-PCC (1949, 1950)
- California Mr. Basketball (1944)
- No. 11 retired by USC Trojans
- NBA champion (1972)
- ABA champion (1971)
- ABL champion (1962)
- NBA Coach of the Year (1972)
- ABA Coach of the Year (1970)
- 3× NBA All-Star Game head coach (1968, 1972, 1973)
- ABA All-Star Game head coach (1971)
- 5× NBA champion (1980, 1982, 1985, 1987, 1988)
Career statistics
| Year | Team | GP | MPG | FG% | FT% | RPG | APG | PPG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1950–51 | Washington | 31 | — | .370 | .889 | 3.5 | 1.3 | 12.2 |
| 1951–52 | Boston | 63 | 22.0 | .389 | .859 | 3.5 | 2.4 | 10.7 |
| 1952–53 | Boston | 71 | 32.9 | .436 | .850* | 4.1 | 2.7 | 16.2 |
| 1953–54 | Boston | 72 | 34.3 | .450 | .844* | 3.5 | 3.2 | 16.0 |
| 1954–55 | Boston | 68 | 36.1 | .427 | .897* | 4.4 | 4.1 | 18.4 |
| 1955–56 | Boston | 72 | 37.5 | .438 | .867* | 3.6 | 4.7 | 19.9 |
| 1956–57† | Boston | 67 | 35.9 | .416 | .905* | 4.3 | 3.5 | 21.1 |
| 1957–58 | Boston | 63 | 35.1 | .424 | .893 | 4.7 | 2.7 | 22.3 |
| 1958–59† | Boston | 72 | 33.1 | .408 | .932* | 4.1 | 2.5 | 20.4 |
| 1959–60† | Boston | 71 | 27.0 | .456 | .866 | 3.7 | 2.0 | 19.3 |
| 1960–61† | Boston | 61 | 25.2 | .422 | .921* | 3.7 | 2.4 | 16.0 |
| Career | 711 | 32.0 | .426 | .883 | 3.9 | 3.0 | 17.8 | |
| All-Star | 8 | 24.3 | .385 | .815 | 3.9 | 2.0 | 12.8 |
| Year | Team | GP | MPG | FG% | FT% | RPG | APG | PPG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1952 | Boston | 1 | 27.0 | .583 | 1.000 | 3.0 | 7.0 | 15.0 |
| 1953 | Boston | 6 | 33.5 | .333 | .938 | 2.5 | 2.5 | 11.7 |
| 1954 | Boston | 6 | 34.3 | .432 | .860 | 4.2 | 1.7 | 18.8 |
| 1955 | Boston | 7 | 41.4 | .500 | .921 | 5.4 | 5.4 | 20.7 |
| 1956 | Boston | 3 | 39.7 | .391 | .941 | 2.3 | 4.0 | 17.3 |
| 1957† | Boston | 10 | 37.7 | .381 | .953 | 3.5 | 2.9 | 21.1 |
| 1958 | Boston | 11 | 36.9 | .407 | .929 | 4.9 | 2.3 | 21.1 |
| 1959† | Boston | 11 | 29.3 | .425 | .966 | 3.3 | 2.5 | 20.1 |
| 1960† | Boston | 13 | 28.0 | .421 | .811 | 3.5 | 1.5 | 16.8 |
| 1961† | Boston | 10 | 26.1 | .511 | .889 | 2.7 | 1.7 | 16.8 |
| Career | 78 | 33.0 | .426 | .911 | 3.7 | 2.6 | 18.5 |
Per-game averages. † won an NBA championship · * led the league · ‡ NBA record (as marked).
Profile observation date unavailable.
- Height
- 6′ 1″
- Weight
- 175 lb
- Position
- Shooting guard
- Jersey
- Not listed
- Country
- USA
- School / last affiliation
- Not listed
- Draft year
- 1950
- Draft pick
- Round 2 · Pick 17
Height, Weight, Position, Country, Draft year, Draft pick: blank in the NBA.com profile, filled from the Wikipedia infobox credited in the About section above.
Roster observations
These dates show when our saved NBA directory observations listed this player with a team. They are not signing, trade or contract dates, and this is not a complete career history.
No roster observations are stored for this player. Historical profile details above do not establish a current team assignment.
Profile source
Biographical fields reflect the saved official profile at the check time shown above. Team assignments use the dated directory evidence in Roster observations. Offseason rosters and jersey numbers can change.
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