Final
Houston Rockets at Dallas Mavericks
135 – 117
2026-27 · Preseason · Preseason
Game state source: whynba · Retrieved Oct 9, 7:43 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.
Jerry Lucas
Career at a glance
Jerry Lucas played 11 NBA regular seasons between 1963 and 1974, appearing in 829 games and averaging 17.0 points, 15.6 rebounds and 3.3 assists per game. He played for 3 teams: Cincinnati (1963–70, 465 games), San Francisco (1969–71, 143 games), New York (1971–74, 221 games). His best scoring season was 1965–66 with Cincinnati: 21.5 points per game over 79 games.
He rebounded best in 1965–66 at 21.1 per game. The season table marks him as the league leader in field-goal percentage once. Championship season: 1972–73 (New York).
In the playoffs he appeared in 8 postseason runs (72 games, 12.4 points per game). Multiplying each season’s games by its scoring average gives roughly 14,100 regular-season points (an estimate from per-game figures, not an official total). Among the 404 players with at least 200 NBA games profiled on whynba, Lucas ranks No. 4 in rebounds per game.
whynba analysis of the season-by-season statistics below (Wikipedia revision, CC BY-SA 4.0). Totals are estimates from per-game averages.
About Jerry Lucas
Jerry Ray Lucas (born March 30, 1940) is an American former basketball player. He was a nationally awarded high school player, national college star at Ohio State University, and 1960 gold medal Olympian and international player before later starring as a professional player in the National Basketball Association (NBA).
As a collegian, Lucas led the Ohio State Buckeyes to three straight NCAA finals (1960–1962), winning the national championship in 1960, and finishing as runner-up in 1961 and 1962. He is the only three-time Big Ten Basketball Player of the Year and was named the NCAA Player of the Year in 1961 and 1962 by the United States Basketball Writers Association (now Oscar Robertson Award), the Associated Press, and the Sporting News. He was also named Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year in 1961.
As a professional, Lucas was named All-NBA First Team three times,All-NBA Second Team twice, an NBA All-Star seven times (including six years in a row), was the 1964 NBA Rookie of the Year, and was named Most Valuable Player of the 1965 NBA All-Star Game among other honors and awards. He is one of eight players to ever achieve the basketball Triple Crown, and was inducted to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1980.
- Born
- March 30, 1940 (age 86) Middletown, Ohio, U.S.
- Listed height
- 6 ft 8 in (2.03 m)
- Listed weight
- 230 lb (104 kg)
- Position
- Power forward
- High school
- Middletown (Middletown, Ohio)
- College
- Ohio State (1959–1962)
- NBA draft
- 1962: territorial pick
- Playing career
- 1962–1974
Career highlights and awards
- NBA champion (1973)
- 7× NBA All-Star (1964–1969, 1971)
- NBA All-Star Game MVP (1965)
- 3× All-NBA First Team (1965, 1966, 1968)
- 2× All-NBA Second Team (1964, 1967)
- NBA Rookie of the Year (1964)
- NBA All-Rookie First Team (1964)
- NBA anniversary team (50th, 75th)
- NCAA champion (1960)
- 2× NCAA Final Four MOP (1960, 1961)
- 2× Consensus national college player of the year (1961, 1962)
- 3× Consensus first-team All-American (1960–1962)
- 2× NCAA rebounding leader (1961, 1962)
- 3× First-team All-Big Ten (1960–1962)
- No. 11 retired by Ohio State Buckeyes
- 2× Mr. Basketball USA (1957, 1958)
- 2× First-team Parade All-American (1957, 1958)
Career statistics
| Year | Team | GP | GS | MPG | FG% | 3P% | FT% | RPG | APG | SPG | BPG | PPG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1963–64 | Cincinnati | 79 | — | 41.4 | .527* | — | .779 | 17.4 | 2.6 | — | — | 17.7 |
| 1964–65 | Cincinnati | 66 | — | 43.4 | .498 | — | .814 | 20.0 | 2.4 | — | — | 21.4 |
| 1965–66 | Cincinnati | 79 | — | 44.5 | .453 | — | .787 | 21.1 | 2.7 | — | — | 21.5 |
| 1966–67 | Cincinnati | 81* | — | 43.9 | .459 | — | .791 | 19.1 | 3.3 | — | — | 17.8 |
| 1967–68 | Cincinnati | 82 | — | 44.1 | .519 | — | .778 | 19.0 | 3.3 | — | — | 21.5 |
| 1968–69 | Cincinnati | 74 | — | 41.6 | .551 | — | .755 | 18.4 | 4.1 | — | — | 18.3 |
| 1969–70 | Cincinnati | 4 | — | 29.5 | .514 | — | .714 | 11.3 | 2.3 | — | — | 10.3 |
| 1969–70 | San Francisco | 63 | — | 36.5 | .507 | — | .786 | 14.4 | 2.6 | — | — | 15.4 |
| 1970–71 | San Francisco | 80 | — | 40.6 | .498 | — | .787 | 15.8 | 3.7 | — | — | 19.2 |
| 1971–72 | New York | 77 | — | 38.0 | .512 | — | .791 | 13.1 | 4.1 | — | — | 16.7 |
| 1972–73† | New York | 71 | — | 28.2 | .513 | — | .800 | 7.2 | 4.5 | — | — | 9.9 |
| 1973–74 | New York | 73 | — | 22.3 | .462 | — | .698 | 5.1 | 3.2 | .4 | .3 | 6.2 |
| Career | 829 | — | 38.8 | .499 | — | .783 | 15.6 | 3.3 | .4 | .3 | 17.0 | |
| All-Star | 7 | 6 | 26.1 | .547 | — | .905 | 9.1 | 1.7 | — | — | 12.7 |
| Year | Team | GP | GS | MPG | FG% | 3P% | FT% | RPG | APG | SPG | BPG | PPG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1964 | Cincinnati | 10 | — | 37.0 | .390 | — | .703 | 12.5 | 3.4 | — | — | 12.2 |
| 1965 | Cincinnati | 4 | — | 48.8 | .507 | — | .773 | 21.0 | 2.3 | — | — | 23.3 |
| 1966 | Cincinnati | 5 | — | 46.2 | .471 | — | .771 | 20.2 | 2.8 | — | — | 21.4 |
| 1967 | Cincinnati | 4 | — | 45.8 | .436 | — | 1.000 | 19.3 | 2.0 | — | — | 12.5 |
| 1971 | San Francisco | 5 | — | 34.2 | .506 | — | .688 | 10.0 | 3.2 | — | — | 17.8 |
| 1972 | New York | 16 | — | 46.1 | .500 | — | .831 | 10.8 | 5.3 | — | — | 18.6 |
| 1973† | New York | 17 | — | 21.6 | .482 | — | .870 | 5.0 | 2.3 | — | — | 7.5 |
| 1974 | New York | 11 | — | 10.5 | .238 | — | — | 2.0 | .8 | .4 | .0 | .9 |
| Career | 72 | — | 32.9 | .467 | — | .786 | 10.0 | 3.0 | .4 | .0 | 12.4 |
Per-game averages. † won an NBA championship · * led the league · ‡ NBA record (as marked).
Profile observation date unavailable.
- Height
- 6′ 8″
- Weight
- 230 lb
- Position
- Power forward
- Jersey
- Not listed
- Country
- USA
- School / last affiliation
- Not listed
- Draft year
- Not listed
- Draft pick
- Undrafted / not listed
Height, Weight, Position, Country: 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 ↗