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Center for the Detroit Pistons and Milwaukee Bucks in the 1970s and ’80s, Bob Lanier, who made his Hall of Fame career a dexterous left-handed shot, smooth midrange and solid rebounding skills, died in Phoenix on Tuesday. He was 73 years old.
The NBA said he died after a short illness but gave no further details.
Lanier, who is 1.80 meters tall and weighs about 250 kilograms, is accompanied by Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Nate Thurmond and unsold.
“Men didn’t switch teams so much, so when you faced the Bulls or the Bucks or New York, you had all that rivalry.” He told NBA.com in 2018. “Lanier vs. Jabbar! Jabbar vs. Willis Reed! And then Chamberlain and Artis Gilmore and Bill Walton! You have all these big big guys and the game is played from the inside out.”
“It was a harder game that we played in the ’70s, a much more physical game. You can direct people with your elbows. They began to reduce the number of fights by punishing people more. Oh, it was a hard ‘n’ somersault.”
As a Pistons rookie in the 1970-71 season, Lanier spent time at center with Otto Moore. In his second season, as a full-time starter, He averaged 25.7 points and 14.2 rebounds per game.puts him in the league’s top 10 in both categories.
“He understood the little nuances of the game,” Pistons teammate and Hall of Famer Dave Bing said in a posted video bio of Lanier. Fox Sports Detroit in 2012. “He could hit players 18 to 20 and any guard. He had the hook – no one but Kareem had a hook kick like him. He could do whatever he wanted.”
Lanier wore sneakers believed to be size 22. But in 1989 a representative of Converse objected to the idea, saying they were actually a size 18 ½. Whatever their actual size, a pair of Lanier’s tanned sneakers are in the collection of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass.
During nine full seasons with the Pistons, Lanier played in seven All-Star Games. He was selected as the most valuable player of the 1974 All-Star Game and led all scorers with 24 points.
But the Pistons have only had four winning seasons during his time with the team and have never gone too far in the playoffs. The staff was changing frequently. Coaches have come and gone. Lanier has dealt with knee injuries and other physical setbacks.
“It was like an unfilled life,” he told Fox Sports Detroit.
In early 1980, with the Pistons record 14-40, the team traded Lanier to the Milwaukee Bucks for a younger center, Kent Benson, and a 1980 first-round pick. Frustrated by the Pistons’ failure, Lanier sought to be sent to a playoff contender.
“I’m a little relieved, but also a little sad,” he told the Detroit Free Press. “I have very good memories of Detroit.”
Lanier averaged 22.7 points and 11.8 rebounds for the Pistons.
Robert Jerry Lanier Jr. was born on September 10, 1948, in Buffalo, to Robert and Nannie Lanier. Young Bob was six feet tall when he entered his sophomore year of high school and played there well enough to be seduced by dozens of colleges. St. Allegany, NY. Chose Bonaventure University
There was a sensation, Averaged 27.6 points and 15.7 rebounds for three seasons.
In 1970, the Bonnies defeated Villanova to win the Eastern District finals of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, sending them to the Final Four. However, Lanier injured his knee during the game, forcing the Bonnies to face Jacksonville without him in the national semifinals. st. Bonaventure lost, 91-83.
“I didn’t even know when I broke my knee,” Lanier told The Buffalo News in 2007. “But when I tried to get back onto the field and back, my leg collapsed. I didn’t know when I tore my MCL”
Lanier was still recovering from knee surgery when the Pistons selected him #1 overall in the NBA draft; He was also named #1 by the New York (now Brooklyn) Nets of the American Basketball Association. He quickly signed with Detroit.
Despite having statistically better years with the Pistons, Lanier had more team success with the Bucks (and also played in an All-Star Game). Under coach Don Nelson, the Bucks won 60 games in the 1980-81 season and advanced to the Eastern Conference finals in the 1982-83 and 1983-84 seasons.
Lanier is also a member of the players association, the National Basketball Players Association, and assisted in the negotiation of the collective bargaining agreement He avoided a strike in 1983.
Early in the 1983-84 season, Lanier, who was his last as a player, resented Pistons center Bill Laimbeer for falling under the boards at Mich, Pontiac’s Silverdome. broke his nose.
The action not only earned Lanier a $5,000 fine; He also delayed the retirement of his #16 jersey by the Pistons until 1993. The Bucks retired his number in late 1984.
Inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1992..
He owned a marketing firm in retirement and has worked extensively with the NBA as a global ambassador and special assistant. David Stern, the league’s longtime commissioner and successor, Adam Silver. Lanier also served as an assistant coach under Nelson’s management for the Golden State Warriors during the 1994-95 season, and replaced Nelson in the final 37 games of the season following his resignation.
Information about survivors was not immediately available.
Lanier said he was less likely to be recognized by the public after his retirement than when he was an actor. He told NBA.com in 2018 that after one of the league’s most dominant centers, Shaquille O’Neal, emerged in the early 1990s, people said they thought he should be O’Neal’s father.
“‘You’re wearing big shoes,'” he said, people would tell him. “I’m just going with him. “Yeah, I’m Shaq’s father.”
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