George McGinnis, who starred for the Indiana Pacers, Philadelphia 76ers and Denver Nuggets within the Nineteen Seventies and was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Corridor of Fame in 2017, died Thursday morning on the age of 73.
McGinnis suffered a cardiac arrest at his dwelling final week and was taken to Group North Hospital in Indianapolis, the place, according to the Pacers, “household, pals and former teammates maintained a vigil of help till his passing.”
Born in Indianapolis in 1950, McGinnis was named Mr. Basketball USA (and Indiana Mr. Basketball) in 1969, having led Indianapolis Washington Excessive College to a 31-0 document and a state title. He performed one season at Indiana College, the place he led the Massive Ten in scoring and rebounding. This September, he was inducted into the Indiana College Corridor of Fame.
McGinnis discovered rapid success as a professional, successful an ABA championship along with his hometown Pacers as a rookie and making the primary of his six profession All-Star appearances (three ABA, three NBA) in 1972-73, his second season. Indiana repeated as champions, with McGinnis scoring 27.6 factors per recreation within the common season and incomes All-ABA Second Crew and Playoffs MVP honors.
“Once I got here into the ABA, I used to be like a god,” McGinnis once said. “I felt there was nobody who was ever going to cease me, that I used to be going to be a dominant pressure each time I took the courtroom. That is how supreme I felt and that is how supreme I performed.”
In 1973-74 and 1974-75, McGinnis made the All-ABA First Crew. He averaged a career-high (and league-high) 29.8 factors, a career-high 6.3 assists and 14.3 rebounds in 1974-75 and, alongside, with Julius Erving, was named co-MVP. In 1975, he grew to become the primary participant in ABA/NBA historical past to document a 50-point triple-double within the playoffs, with a 51-point, 17-rebound, 10-assist efficiency in opposition to the San Antonio Spurs.
“McGinnis is so sturdy you’d swear he weighs 300 kilos,” former Virginia Squires ahead Willie Sensible told Sports Illustrated in 1975. “When he posts inside on you, there’s nothing you are able to do. He will the basket.”
That very same Sports activities Illustrated story famous that McGinnis had dunked so onerous in Denver that the rim wanted to get replaced and had gone by means of two dozen pairs of footwear in his remaining ABA season as a result of he ran with such pressure that the seams saved bursting.
“Rims bend, bones break,” McGinnis mentioned after doing that harm in Denver, shrugging off the third damaged rim of his profession, per Sports Illustrated.
In 1975-76, McGinnis’ first yr within the NBA, he was named to the All-NBA First Crew as a member of the 76ers. He made the All-NBA Second Crew the next season and, together with Erving and Doug Collins, led the Sixers to the NBA Finals, the place they misplaced to the Portland Path Blazers.
McGinnis made his remaining All-Star look in 1979 as a member of the Nuggets, who acquired him in a commerce involving Bobby Jones. Indiana reacquired McGinnis in 1980, buying and selling a younger Alex English to Denver, and McGinnis retired a Pacer in 1982, after an 11-year profession. McGinnis is one among 4 Pacers to have his jersey (No. 30) retired. (Reggie Miller, Mel Daniels and Roger Brown, all Corridor of Famers, are the others.)
“He was clearly an incredible participant within the ABA and the NBA,” Indiana coach Rick Carlisle mentioned Wednesday. “There weren’t a whole lot of guys that crossed over to being ABA All-Stars and NBA All-Stars, and I imagine he was one of many few.”
McGinnis was in actual fact one among solely 20 gamers to be named an All-Star in each leagues, and one among solely 9 to make a number of All-Star appearances in each leagues. Erving, George Gervin, Rick Barry and Artis Gilmore are the one different gamers to have made three ABA All-Star groups and three NBA All-Star groups.
“From his all-state highschool days to his time as an IU All-American and, in fact, to his legendary ABA championship runs with the Pacers, George McGinnis formed so lots of the fondest basketball recollections for generations of Hoosiers,” the Simon household and Pacers Sports activities & Leisure wrote in a statement. “He was the very definition of an Indiana basketball legend, a champion, and Corridor of Fame athlete. However he was greater than that. George was household. A passionate advocate for his fellow ABA gamers and a gift, smiling face across the franchise, George has been as synonymous with our Pacers franchise as anybody. He can be drastically missed, and all of us at Pacers Sports activities & Leisure will maintain George and his household in our prayers.”
Carlisle described McGinnis as “past legendary on the earth of the Pacers” and a “fantastic man,” including that McGinnis was one of many causes that Philadelphia was his favourite crew for a time in highschool.
“He was the final word mixture of brute bodily energy and superb ability,” Carlisle mentioned. “He had arms that have been most likely as huge… as I’ve ever seen a participant have. I do know Julius Erving has huge arms, too, however George used to take the ball off the dribble in a single hand and put it up and simply shoot it, and it was extraordinarily distinctive. It was one of many signature issues that he did.”
“Till LeBron [James] got here alongside, I by no means noticed one other man that had George’s bodily skills on a basketball courtroom,” Erving once said. Erving additionally mentioned McGinnis was “constructed like Superman.”
McGinnis, additionally an All-American football player in high school, was troublesome to emulate due to his bodily items. Whereas Carlisle described himself as “heartbroken” by Philadelphia’s defeat within the 1977 Finals, he was not out on the playground taking one-handed double-pump pictures, McGinnis-style.
“No person has arms that huge,” Carlisle mentioned. “How do you attempt to copy it? Until you are doing it with a nerf ball at dwelling. That is how I did it. And I’ve huge arms. However he was a really, very distinctive participant.”
Carlisle mentioned that his spouse, Donna Nobile, had hosted a get-together for Pacers important others on Tuesday, throughout which the 91-year-old Nancy Leonard — a former Pacers assistant common supervisor and the spouse of the late Corridor of Fame coach Bobby “Slick” Leonard — “gave a really passionate tribute” to McGinnis.
“We see his identify daily within the follow facility, it is up on a banner,” Carlisle mentioned. “We see it at Gainbridge [Fieldhouse], it is up within the rafters: ‘George McGinnis, Corridor of Fame.’ And so our hearts are heavy proper now and we want the very best for the household.”
Throughout his Corridor of Fame induction speech in 2017, McGinnis mentioned that his story begins along with his mother and father, Burnie and Willie McGinnis, transferring to Indiana from Harpersville, Alabama. “That turned out to be probably the greatest issues that ever occurred to me as a result of it is onerous rising up in Indiana and never falling in love with the sport of basketball,” he mentioned. At 6 years previous in 1956, his life modified eternally when, on his household’s first tv, he watched Oscar Robertson lead Crispus Attucks Excessive College to its second state championship.
“The subsequent day was a Sunday, and it appeared as if each boy in our neighborhood was out taking pictures buckets,” McGinnis mentioned. “All of us needed to be like The Massive O.”
The earlier yr, Crispus Attucks Excessive had turn into the primary all-Black college in the US to win a state title; this time, it was the primary crew to go undefeated and win the Indiana state title. 13 years later, McGinnis broke Robertson’s state information for scoring and rebounding as Indianapolis Washington Excessive grew to become the second crew to win the Indiana state title and not using a loss.
In 2000, McGinnis told Sports Illustrated that he was “too awestruck to speak” when, as a highschool senior, he met Robertson. He additionally mentioned that he was moved to tears the primary time he watched “Hoosiers.”
“One of many nice issues about being in Indiana is that if in case you have any stage of basketball success right here, the folks always remember you,” McGinnis mentioned.
