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Game state source: whynba · Retrieved Oct 9, 5:36 pm EDTNBA legend. Inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Biography, honors and career statistics below.
George Yardley
Career at a glance
George Yardley played 7 NBA regular seasons between 1953 and 1960, appearing in 472 games and averaging 19.2 points, 8.9 rebounds and 1.7 assists per game. He played for 3 teams: Fort Wayne (1953–57, 266 games), Detroit (1957–59, 118 games), Syracuse (1958–60, 88 games). His best scoring season was 1957–58 with Detroit: 27.8 points per game over 72 games.
He rebounded best in 1957–58 at 10.7 per game. The season table marks him as the league leader in scoring once. In the playoffs he appeared in 7 postseason runs (46 games, 20.3 points per game).
Multiplying each season’s games by its scoring average gives roughly 9,100 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 George Yardley
George Harry Yardley III (November 3, 1928 – August 12, 2004) was an American basketball player. He was the first player in National Basketball Association (NBA) history to score 2,000 points in one season, breaking the 1,932-point record held by George Mikan. Yardley was enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1996.
- Born
- November 3, 1928 Los Angeles, California, U.S.
- Listed height
- 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m)
- Listed weight
- 190 lb (86 kg)
- Position
- Small forward
- High school
- Newport Harbor (Newport Beach, California)
- College
- Stanford (1947–1950)
- NBA draft
- 1950: 1st round, 7th overall pick
- Playing career
- 1953–1962
Career highlights and awards
- 6× NBA All-Star (1955–1960)
- All-NBA First Team (1958)
- All-NBA Second Team (1957)
- NBA scoring champion (1958)
- First-team All-PCC (1950)
Career statistics
| Year | Team | GP | MPG | FG% | FT% | RPG | APG | PPG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1953–54 | Fort Wayne | 63 | 23.6 | .425 | .712 | 6.5 | 1.6 | 9.0 |
| 1954–55 | Fort Wayne | 60 | 35.8 | .418 | .745 | 9.9 | 2.1 | 17.3 |
| 1955–56 | Fort Wayne | 71 | 33.1 | .407 | .742 | 9.7 | 2.2 | 17.4 |
| 1956–57 | Fort Wayne | 72 | 37.4 | .410 | .787 | 10.5 | 2.0 | 21.5 |
| 1957–58 | Detroit | 72 | 39.5 | .414 | .811 | 10.7 | 1.3 | 27.8* |
| 1958–59 | Detroit | 46 | 30.8 | .415 | .816 | 7.1 | 0.9 | 20.8 |
| 1958–59 | Syracuse | 15 | 28.0 | .482 | .648 | 6.9 | 1.7 | 16.7 |
| 1959–60 | Syracuse | 73 | 32.9 | .453 | .816 | 7.9 | 1.7 | 20.2 |
| Career | 472 | 33.4 | .422 | .780 | 8.9 | 1.7 | 19.2 | |
| All-Star | 6 | 21.8 | .433 | .706 | 5.8 | 0.7 | 10.7 |
| Year | Team | GP | MPG | FG% | FT% | RPG | APG | PPG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1954 | Fort Wayne | 4 | 26.8 | .485 | .833 | 6.0 | 0.8 | 10.5 |
| 1955 | Fort Wayne | 11 | 38.2 | .399 | .759 | 9.0 | 3.3 | 15.8 |
| 1956 | Fort Wayne | 10 | 40.6 | .421 | .776 | 13.9 | 2.6 | 23.0 |
| 1957 | Fort Wayne | 2 | 42.5 | .453 | .818 | 9.5 | 4.0 | 28.5 |
| 1958 | Detroit | 7 | 36.3 | .409 | .896 | 10.3 | 2.4 | 23.4 |
| 1959 | Syracuse | 9 | 37.0 | .439 | .857 | 9.7 | 2.3 | 25.1 |
| 1960 | Syracuse | 3 | 29.3 | .385 | .833 | 5.7 | 0.3 | 13.3 |
| Career | 46 | 36.8 | .422 | .817 | 9.9 | 2.4 | 20.3 |
Per-game averages. † won an NBA championship · * led the league · ‡ NBA record (as marked).
Profile observation date unavailable.
- Height
- 6′ 5″
- Weight
- 190 lb
- Position
- Small forward
- Jersey
- Not listed
- Country
- USA
- School / last affiliation
- Not listed
- Draft year
- 1950
- Draft pick
- Round 1 · Pick 7
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.
View the official NBA player profile ↗