Marlbert Pradd Jr. (November 17, 1944 – April 27, 2014) was an American basketball player. After a standout

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 ...

career with

Dillard University Dillard University is a private, historically black university in New Orleans, Louisiana. Founded in 1930 and incorporating earlier institutions founded as early as 1869 after the American Civil War, it is affiliated with the United Church of Ch ...

, he played professionally in 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 member of the

New Orleans Buccaneers The New Orleans Buccaneers were a charter member of the American Basketball Association. After three seasons in New Orleans, Louisiana the franchise moved to Memphis, Tennessee, where it became the Pros, Tams and Sounds for four years before a ...

from 1967 to 1969.

Early life

Pradd was born in

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. He spent his childhood as a resident of Altgeld Garden housing projects. He attended Carver High School.

Basketball career

Pradd attended

where he was a NAIA All-American in from 1965 to 1967 and made the All-

Gulf Coast Conference The Gulf Coast Conference (GCC) was a short-lived NCAA college athletic conference composed of universities in the U.S. state of Texas from 1949 until 1957. The charter members of the conference were University of Houston, Midwestern University ( ...

team from 1964 to 1965. He averaged 34.3 points in 19 games as a freshman and 35.4 points in 27 games during his sophomore season. He led the NAIA in scoring during his junior season, averaging 39.1 points in 20 games. During his senior season, he averaged 42.0 points per game. He finished his career as the leading scorer in Dillard history, with 2,907 points for a 37.5 average. He was subsequently drafted by the

Chicago Bulls The Chicago Bulls are an American professional basketball team based in Chicago. The Bulls compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Central Division. The team was founded on January 1 ...

during the sixth round of the

1967 NBA draft The 1967 NBA draft was the 21st annual draft of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The draft was held on May 3 and 4, 1967 before the 1967–68 season. In this draft, 12 NBA teams took turns selecting amateur U.S. college basketball play ...

. In May 1967, he signed with

of the

. He played two seasons for the Buccaneers before being waived in September 1969. In 2003, he was selected to the Louisiana Basketball Hall of Fame.

References

Notes

External links

1944 births 2014 deaths American men's basketball players Chicago Bulls draft picks Dillard Bleu Devils basketball players Los Angeles Lakers draft picks New Orleans Buccaneers players Shooting guards Basketball players from Chicago {{1940s-US-basketball-bio-stub