Richard Samuel Nemelka (October 1, 1943 – September 19, 2020) was an American professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

player for the

American Basketball Association The American Basketball Association (ABA) was a major men's professional basketball league from 1967 to 1976. The ABA ceased to exist with the ABA–NBA merger, American Basketball Association–National Basketball Association merger in 1976, ...

(ABA). As a college player, he earned All-American recognition at

Brigham Young University Brigham Young University (BYU, sometimes referred to colloquially as The Y) is a private research university in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day ...

(BYU).

Early life and high school

Nemelka was born in

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

. He played basketball at

's West High School where he was an all-state selection. He also played shortstop on the varsity baseball team.

College career

Nemelka played in thirteen games for the

BYU Cougars The BYU Cougars are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Brigham Young University (BYU), located in Provo, Utah. BYU fields 21 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) varsity athletic teams. They are a member of the West ...

freshman team, averaging 16.2 points per game. Nemelka started every game for BYU his sophomore season, averaging 10.8 points per game. In his junior season at BYU, Nemelka averaged 15.4 points per game as BYU finished 21-7 and won the

Western Athletic Conference The Western Athletic Conference (WAC) is an NCAA Division I conference. The WAC covers a broad expanse of the western United States with member institutions located in Arizona, California, New Mexico, Utah, Washington (state), Washington, and Texa ...

championship. He was also named to the All-WAC second team and was an Academic All-WAC selection. As a junior at BYU, Nemelka averaged 24.0 points per game as BYU won the 1966 NIT. Nemelka was named as a first team All-American by the

USBWA The United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) was founded in 1956 by National Collegiate Athletic Association director Walter Byers to serve the interests of journalists who cover college basketball. Scholarships The USBWA annually awar ...

and a third team All-American by the NABC. He was also named to the All-WAC first-team and to the Academic All-Wac team.

Professional career

Nemelka was drafted with the fourth pick in the fifth round of the 1966 NBA draft by the St. Louis Hawks (now based in

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

). However, he never played in the

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...

. Nemelka played one season in the ABA for the

Utah Stars The Utah Stars were an American Basketball Association (ABA) team based in Salt Lake City, Utah. Under head coach Bill Sharman the Stars were the first major professional basketball team to use a pre-game shootaround. History prior to moving to ...

, and averaged 5.5 points, 1.5 assists, and 1.5 rebounds per game. He played in nine playoff games for the Stars in the

1971 ABA playoffs The 1971 ABA Playoffs was the postseason tournament of the American Basketball Association's 1970-71 ABA season, 1970-1971 season. The tournament concluded with the Western Division (ABA), Western Division champion Utah Stars defeating the Eastern D ...

, on the way to the Stars winning the 1971 ABA championship.

Post-Playing career

Following his professional basketball career, Nemelka worked as an attorney in

. On May 13, 2008 the Chair of the Ethics and Discipline Committee of the Utah Supreme Court entered a public reprimand against Nemelka for the violation of three rules. Nemelka died on September 19, 2020 at age 76 after a battle with cancer.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nemelka, Dick 1943 births 2020 deaths All-American college men's basketball players American men's basketball players Basketball players from Salt Lake City BYU Cougars men's basketball players Lawyers from Salt Lake City Shooting guards St. Louis Hawks draft picks Utah Stars players Western Basketball Association coaches