Howard K. "Butch" Komives ( ;
May 9, 1941 – March 22, 2009) 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 court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...
player who spent ten seasons in the
National Basketball Association (NBA) with the
New York Knicks,
Detroit Pistons
The Detroit Pistons are an American professional basketball team based in Detroit. The Pistons compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Central Division and play their home games at L ...
,
Buffalo Braves
The Buffalo Braves were an American professional basketball franchise based in Buffalo, New York. The Braves competed in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member club of the league's Eastern Conference Atlantic Division from 1970 ...
and
Kansas City-Omaha Kings
The Sacramento Kings are an American professional basketball team based in Sacramento, California. The Kings compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Western Conference Pacific Division. The Kings are the oldest ...
.
Born in
Toledo, Ohio
Toledo ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Lucas County, Ohio, United States. A major Midwestern United States port city, Toledo is the fourth-most populous city in the state of Ohio, after Columbus, Cleveland, and Cincinnati, and according ...
, he graduated from
Woodward High School (Toledo) in 1960.
College career
Komives played
college basketball
In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...
at
Bowling Green State University (BGSU), where he led the team in scoring in each of his three varsity seasons. As a starting
shooting guard, he teamed with
Nate Thurmond
Nathaniel Thurmond (July 25, 1941 – July 16, 2016) was an American basketball player who spent the majority of his 14-year career in the National Basketball Association (NBA) with the Golden State Warriors franchise. He played the center and p ...
, the school's all-time leading
rebounder, to lead the Falcons to back-to-back
Mid-American Conference (MAC) championships and
NCAA tournament appearances in 1962 and 1963.
Despite Thurmond's
graduation and the team's fall to third place in the conference, Komives led the
National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in scoring during the 1963–64 season with 36.7 points per game, still BGSU and MAC records. Even though he no longer is the school's all-time leading scorer (his 1,834 total points is currently third), his 25.8 scoring average is still a Falcons record. Komives still holds the Bowling Green single game scoring record of sixty six points. In this game, he was guarded by Sumner Goldstein, who would later go on to become an attorney.
He was inducted into the BGSU Athletics Hall of Fame in 1970. His son Shane was a four-year basketball
letterman at the same school from 1993 to 1996.
Professional career
Komives was selected thirteenth overall in the second round by the New York Knicks in the
1964 NBA draft
The 1964 NBA draft was the 18th annual draft of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The draft was held on May 4, 1964, before the 1964–65 season. In this draft, nine NBA teams took turns selecting amateur U.S. college basketball player ...
. He was named to the
All-Rookie Team in
1965, after starting in every regular-season match and averaging 12.2 points per game. After the Knicks acquired
Dick Barnett
Richard Barnett (born October 2, 1936) is an American former basketball player who was a shooting guard in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for the Syracuse Nationals, Los Angeles Lakers and New York Knicks. He won two NBA championshi ...
prior to the
1965–66 season, Komives was shifted to
point guard, a position with which he struggled, drawing the wrath of Knicks fans. The most productive campaign of his professional career was in
1967
Events
January
* January 1 – Canada begins a year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of Confederation, featuring the Expo 67 World's Fair.
* January 5
** Spain and Romania sign an agreement in Paris, establishing full consular and ...
, when his averages per contest were 15.7 points and 6.2 assists.
[
By the time ]Red Holzman
William "Red" Holzman (August 10, 1920 – November 13, 1998) was an American professional basketball player and coach. He is best known as the head coach of the New York Knicks of the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1967 to ...
became the Knicks' coach
Coach may refer to:
Guidance/instruction
* Coach (sport), a director of athletes' training and activities
* Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process
** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers
Transportation
* Co ...
midway through the 1967–68 season, Komives was involved in a personal feud with Cazzie Russell that negatively affected the rest of the team. Russell was an ardent supporter of Richard Nixon in the 1968 Presidential election, while Komives worked for the Hubert Humphrey campaign.[Kalinsky, George. ''The New York Knicks: The Official 50th Anniversary Celebration''. New York: Macmillan, Inc., 1996.] With the emergence of Walt Frazier
Walter "Clyde" Frazier Jr. (born March 29, 1945) is an American former professional basketball player of the National Basketball Association (NBA). As their floor general and top perimeter defender, he led the New York Knicks to the franchise's o ...
as the starting point guard, Komives was traded along with Walt Bellamy
Walter Jones Bellamy (July 24, 1939 – November 2, 2013) was an American professional basketball player. A four-time NBA All-Star, he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
College career
Bellamy chose to play basket ...
to the Pistons for Dave DeBusschere
David Albert DeBusschere (October 16, 1940 – May 14, 2003) was an American professional National Basketball Association (NBA) player and coach and Major League Baseball (MLB) player. He played for the Chicago White Sox of MLB in 1962 and 1963 a ...
on December 19, 1968. DeBusschere would become the last major addition to the Knicks before it won its first NBA Championship
The NBA Finals is the annual championship series of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The Eastern and Western Conference champions play a best-of-seven game series to determine the league champion. The team that wins the series is awa ...
in 1970
Events
January
* January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC.
* January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (''Extreme''). Between 10,000 and ...
.
In 2007, Komives was inducted into the Ohio Basketball Hall of Fame.
Komives died at University of Toledo Medical Center on March 22, 2009 at age 67. His wife Marcia had found him unconscious and unresponsive in their home three days earlier.[Former NBA player 'Butch' Komives dies at 67](_blank)
References
External links
"Howard 'Butch' Komives, 1941–2009: Woodward basketball star excelled for BGSU," ''The Blade'' (Toledo, Ohio), Monday, March 23, 2009.
Hackenberg, Dave. "Komives was Woodward, BGSU basketball legend," ''The Blade'' (Toledo, Ohio), Monday, March 23, 2009.
"Falcon cage standout Komives died in Toledo," ''Sentinel-Tribune'' (Bowling Green, Ohio), Monday, March 23, 2009.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Komives, Howie
1941 births
2009 deaths
All-American college men's basketball players
American men's basketball players
Basketball players from Ohio
Bowling Green Falcons men's basketball players
Buffalo Braves players
Continental Basketball Association coaches
Detroit Pistons players
Kansas City Kings players
New York Knicks draft picks
New York Knicks players
Point guards
Sportspeople from Toledo, Ohio