David Greenwood, former UCLA star who won an NBA | College News

David Greenwood adored basketball so a lot in center college that he would play for three totally different groups in three totally different parks on the identical day, a number of instances a week.

His brother, Al, can be in the car driving around with him between video games while David traded in his sweaty uniform for a recent one, repeating the method over and over.

“He was relentless,” Al stated, “because he loved the game.”

At home, David would get tossed around in driveway video games by the cement contractor father who was twice his measurement, only to keep getting back up for more contact. In practices, he shot blindfolded to excellent his type, his brother having to let him know when he was close to going out of bounds so that he might get his bearings.

Greenwood, the decided Compton child who went from a star high college participant at Verbum Dei to one of the highest scorers in UCLA historical past to an NBA champion with the Detroit Pistons, died Sunday evening at a Riverside hospital from cancer. He was 68.

True to the character of somebody who performed through debilitating foot accidents all through his profession, Greenwood didn’t inform household of his sickness until the tip of his life.

“Everything happened so quickly,” stated Bronson Greenwood, David’s nephew. “It was kind of a shock.”

One of the all-time great high college gamers in Southern California, Greenwood and teammate Roy Hamilton had been among the ultimate gamers recruited by legendary UCLA coach John Wooden. They had been shocked when Wooden retired shortly after their senior season of high college and was changed by Gene Bartow.

But they determined to stick with their commitments, lured in half by the pitch of a coach they might never play for in school.

“He told me if I went to USC or UNLV or Notre Dame, I’d be an All-American,” Greenwood once informed The Times of Wooden’s proposal. “But if I went to UCLA, I’d be able to test myself against 12 other high school All-Americans every single day. … It was kind of like, ‘Come here and test your mettle.’ ”

Greenwood’s work ethic continued to push him as a Bruin. His practices with the staff had been adopted by an hour in one other gymnasium, his brother feeding him passes. Along the best way, he never shortchanged himself or teammates.

College athletes chosen in the NBA draft pose with NBA commissioner Larry O’Brien, heart, at New York’s Plaza Hotel on June 25, 1979. The gamers are, from left: Calvin Natt, Northeast Louisiana, drafted by New Jersey; Sidney Moncrief, Arkansas, drafted by Milwaukee; Bill Cartwright, San Francisco, drafted by New York; O’Brien; Earvin Johnson, Michigan State, drafted by Los Angeles; Greg Kelser, Michigan State, drafted by Detroit; and David Greenwood, UCLA, drafted by Chicago.

(Associated Press)

“If he said he was going to shoot 100 free throws,” Al stated, “it wasn’t 50, it wasn’t 65, it was 100 — and he didn’t stop until he got to 100.”

Having been dubbed “Batman and Robin” in high college, Greenwood and Hamilton remained close at UCLA, rooming collectively and biking to campus from where they lived in the Fairfax District. Hamilton remembered Greenwood as a outstanding rebounder who whipped outlet passes to him to get fast breaks began.

“We would always know how to motivate each other,” Hamilton stated, “and connect with each other on the floor.”

Becoming a star by his sophomore season, Greenwood averaged a double-double in factors and rebounds as a junior and a senior, ending each season as an All-American. The 6-foot-9 ahead’s go-to transfer was beginning with his back about 10 to 12 ft from the basket before faking a technique and unleashing a spin-around jumper.

One of his favourite reminiscences as a Bruin, according to his brother, was a comeback against Washington State toward the tip of his profession in which the Bruins worn out a late double-digit deficit, profitable on Greenwood’s putback dunk only seconds before the buzzer.

The Bulls’ David Greenwood shoots over the Bullets’ Elvin Hayes during a sport in 1981 at the Capital Centre in Landover, Maryland. Greenwood performed for the Bulls from 1979-85.

(Focus On Sport / Getty Images)

UCLA never recaptured the Wooden glory during Greenwood’s 4 seasons, reaching the Final Four his freshman 12 months and a regional remaining his senior 12 months. But Greenwood stays No. 15 on the college’s all-time scoring record, having tallied 1,721 factors.

After the Lakers chosen Magic Johnson with the first decide of the 1979 NBA draft, the Chicago Bulls took Greenwood second as half of their huge rebuilding efforts. (Hamilton was also a lottery decide, going tenth to the Pistons.)

“He wasn’t exciting, he was steady,” Al Greenwood stated of his brother. “You knew you were going to get a double-double every night out of him regardless of what the score was.”

Greenwood began every sport in his first NBA season, averaging 16.3 factors and 9.4 rebounds while making the all-rookie staff. The Bulls went 30-52, their loss whole more than triple the 17 losses that Greenwood’s groups had absorbed in 4 seasons as a Bruin.

But he persevered through the dropping and a collection of foot accidents induced by a operating fashion in which his heels would hit the ground before his toes. Al remembered his brother coming back to Los Angeles to play the Lakers and taking his footwear off at home, saying it felt as if they had been full of damaged glass.

“That was how his feet felt a lot of the time, but he just played even when he shouldn’t have,” Al stated. “I always called him The Thoroughbred.”

Former UCLA standout David Greenwood talks about his profession during a National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame induction occasion on Nov. 21, 2021, in Kansas City, Mo.

(Colin E. Braley / Associated Press)

Greenwood would endure one Achilles’ surgical procedure on one foot and two on the opposite, never lacking a full season in the method.

In October 1985, before the widespread use of cell telephones, Greenwood realized he had been traded to San Antonio for future Hall of Famer George Gervin while listening to the radio. Late in his 12-year NBA profession, he was a shock playoff contributor for the Detroit Pistons when they won the 1990 NBA championship. Hamilton labored for CBS Sports as half of the manufacturing staff broadcasting the Finals that 12 months.

“Having my best friend in the world on the team and winning a title,” Hamilton stated, “that was a joy for me.”

Greenwood went on to own a number of Blockbuster video shops and coached at his alma mater, guiding Verbum Dei to state championships in 1998 and 1999. His nephew recalled a comfortable aspect, his uncle choosing him up and giving him a good tickle.

Greenwood is survived by his brother, Al; sister, Laverne; son, Jemil; and daughter, Tiffany, along with his former spouse, Joyce. Services are pending.