Wes Unseld

• Born: March 14, 1946
• Birthplace: Louisville, Kentucky
• Died: June 2, 2020
• Place of death: Maryland

Sport: Basketball

Early Life

Westley Sissel Unseld was born on March 14, 1946, in Louisville, Kentucky. His mother Cornelia worked in the cafeteria at Newburg Elementary School in Louisville, and his father Charles worked as an oiler for International Harvester. Wes grew up in an environment infused with great basketball. The rivalry between the University of Louisville and the University of Kentucky was a yearly event that enthralled the population. Unseld honed his basketball skills on the playgrounds of Louisville, dreaming that someday he would be involved in big-time basketball, perhaps even playing for one of the universities in the state.

The Road to Excellence

Unseld emerged as a high-caliber basketball player at Louisville’s Seneca High School. In the 1962–63 and 1963–64 seasons, he led his high school team to the Kentucky state championship.

Unseld's abilities as a player did not go unnoticed by the universities in the state. In 1964, he became the first African American player recruited by the University of Kentucky. Although this was a great opportunity, he ultimately chose to attend the University of Louisville because it was close to home and his father could watch him play.

During his freshman season at Louisville, Unseld immediately assumed a leadership role, scoring 501 points, for a remarkable 35.8 points-per-game average, with 331 rebounds. The scoring and rebounds did not diminish in the next three years of his college athletics career. For the 1965–66 season, he scored 518 points and took 505 rebounds; in 1966–67, 523 points and 533 rebounds; and in 1967–68, 645 points and 513 rebounds. For these performances, he made The Sporting News All-American second team in 1967 and 1968.

Among the Louisville records Unseld set were the all-time scoring average, with 20.6 points per game, and rebounding average, with 18.9 rebounds per game. He also set the Louisville record for most points scored in a game—45 against Georgetown University in 1967—and became one of only a few Louisville players to accumulate more than 1,000 points and 1,000 rebounds.

The Emerging Champion

Unseld had serious career plans to become a schoolteacher. However, when he was the named a top choice in the National Basketball League (NBA) Draft, he reconsidered his career path. He was picked second overall, by the Baltimore Bullets, in 1968 draft.

In his rookie NBA season in 1968–69, Unseld was named both rookie of the year and the league’s most valuable player (MVP). The only other person to be so honored was Wilt Chamberlain. In addition, Unseld made the All-NBA First Team that year. His presence helped the Bullets win the Eastern Division with a 57–25 record, a remarkable turnaround from the team's 36–46 finish the previous season. However, they lost to the New York Knicks in the playoffs.

Over the next twelve seasons Unseld remained a fixture of the Bullets roster. (The team would move to Washington, DC, in 1973, rebranding as the Capital Bullets for one season and then the Washington Bullets). He helped turn the team into a title contender, winning six division titles and four conference titles. They reached the NBA Finals in the 1970–71 and 1974–75 seasons, but lost to the Milwaukee Bucks and the Golden State Warriors, respectively.

The highest point in Unseld's playing career came in the 1977–78 season when he led his team to the NBA Championship over the Seattle SuperSonics and was named the series’ MVP. The statistics behind that achievement were significant: for the 1977–78 playoffs and championship series, Unseld played 677 minutes, made 71 field goals, made 27 free throws, took a total of 216 rebounds, made 79 assists, and scored a total of 169 points. Unseld and the Bullets returned to the championship series the following season, but lost to SuperSonics.

At the time of his retirement in 1981, Unseld stood as the seventh place all-time rebounder in the league’s history, with 13,769 rebounds. He was also one of just four players at the time to score more than 10,000 career points and collect more than 10,000 rebounds. He had been named to the All-Star team five times and set Bullets franchise records for most minutes played and most rebounds.

Continuing the Story

While a player, Unseld had always been noted for his generosity off the court. In 1975, he received the first NBA Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award for volunteer work in the neighborhoods of Baltimore, Maryland, and Washington, DC. When he retired as an active player in 1981, he continued to volunteer his time to worthy public service activities.

However, Unseld’s playing career was only part of the story. In 1981 he was hired as vice president of the Capital Center and the Washington Bullets. In 1987, he became an assistant coach for the Bullets, and in January of 1988, he replaced Kevin Loughery as head coach.

In his first season as head coach, Unseld directed the Bullets to a 30–25 record and a postseason berth. In spite of the team’s success that season, the Bullets lost to the Detroit Pistons in the first round of the 1988 playoffs.

During the 1988–89 season, Unseld had to readjust his offense because of the trade of key player Moses Malone. The team went without a center most of the season, so a new motion offense was implemented to bring out the best in the veterans on his squad. Although they struggled at times, the Bullets still managed to post a 40–42 record.

The style of unselfish play that Unseld maintained as a player became the style of play he emphasized as a coach. The number of assists by his top players was in the hundreds each season. What former teammate Mike Riordan said of Unseld as a player, in a Sports Illustrated article by Pat Putnam, could be applied to him as a coach as well: [He’s] totally unselfish. He keeps the ball moving so much everybody gets a piece of the action. Guys love playing with him. He makes everybody else look good… . Most people are impressed by scoring statistics. The players are more impressed by all the other things he does… . And you have to remember—this guy isn’t a superstar just on the court. He’s a superstar in life, too."

Despite Unseld's respected coaching efforts, the Bullets declined further over the next few seasons with a lack of star players. At the end of the 1993–94 season, Unseld stepped down as the Bullets’ coach, having compiled a 202–345 record with a mediocre team. After working as a color analyst on national broadcasts of NBA games during the 1994–95 season, he became the executive vice president and general manager of the Bullets in 1996, a job that he maintained after the team changed their name to the Washington Wizards. He was briefly replaced as general manager by NBA legend Michael Jordan in 2000, but returned to the job from 2001 to 2003. With his various roles with the team over the years, many basketball experts characterized Unseld as the most important person in the history of the Washington Bullets/Wizards franchise.

After retiring from basketball for good, Unseld remained involved with the private elementary school he had founded with his wife, Connie, in 1978. He took up administrative work in addition to odd jobs that he had done for the school for years. Later in life Unseld's health declined, and he battled illnesses including pneumonia. He died at the age of seventy-four on June 2, 2020.

Impact

One of the most exciting players in University of Louisville history, Wes Unseld took his record-breaking potential to the NBA and fulfilled expectations. As a player, he led the Washington Bullets to an NBA championship, and as a coach, he developed an exciting, crowd-pleasing style of play. The five-time NBA All-Star also became an all-star citizen, donating his services and talents to his community.

Having been an incredibly proficient passer, rebounder, and team player, Unseld received the ultimate honor in basketball when he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1988. Former Boston Celtics coach Red Auerbach labeled Wes as the best outlet passer to ever play in the NBA. As part of the celebration of the golden anniversary of the NBA during the 1996–97 season, Wes was named one of the fifty greatest NBA players of all time. In 2006 he was inducted into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame.

Bibliography

Bjarkman, Peter C. The Biographical History of Basketball. Lincolnwood, Ill.: Masters Press, 2000.

Mallozzi, Vincent M. Basketball: The Legends and the Game. Willowdale, Ont.: Firefly Books, 1998.

Monroe, Earl, and Wes Unseld. The Basketball Skill Book. New York: Atheneum, 1973.

Sandomir, Richard. "Wes Unseld, Powerful Hall of Fame NBA Center, Dies at 74." The New York Times, 2 June 2020, www.nytimes.com/2020/06/02/sports/basketball/wes-unseld-dead.html. Accessed 18 Nov. 2020.

Shamsky, Art, and Barry Zeman. The Magnificent Seasons. New York: T. Dunne Books, 2004.