Phillip Sellers, Jr. (born November 20, 1953) is an American former professional basketball player for the Detroit Pistons of 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 ...

Amateur career

Born in

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, Sellers played high school basketball at Thomas Jefferson High School in Brooklyn. He achieved success at the prep level, winning the MVP Award of

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

's Dapper Dan Tournament, a tournament with the nation's top high school players, at the end of his senior season. He also earned Third-Team Parade All-American honors at Jefferson and received over 200 scholarship offers from colleges across the country to play basketball. Sellers signed a letter of intent to play at Notre Dame, but academic concerns made him reconsider and so he attended Livingston College in

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

, a part of

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's ...

specially designed to help students from low-income backgrounds. At Rutgers, Sellers was recruited by and played under then-assistant coach and future college basketball legend Dick Vitale. His decision to become a Scarlet Knight was initially criticized as Rutgers was a small, unheralded and independent program at the time but Sellers found instant success, averaging 19.5 ppg in his freshman, season, helping lead Rutgers to the 1973 NIT and then following that up in his second season with 23.2 ppg and another NIT appearance. Sellers and Rutgers continued their winning ways in 1974-75, finishing with a 22-7 record and the first NCAA Tournament appearance, losing a first round game to Louisville 91-78 with Sellers scoring 29 points. Rutgers took another step in 1975-76. Sellers, a senior and Consensus Second Team All-American, led the team to a 31–0 start, averaging a double-double of 19.2 ppg and 10.2 rpg, the Scarlet Knights advanced to the NCAA Tournament, winning games over

Princeton Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the nine ...

54-53,

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...

93-79, and VMI 91-75 to advance to the Final Four. The team finished 31–2, with their only two losses occurring in the national semifinals, 86-70 to

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

and then the third-place game to

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

106-92. Sellers graduated from Rutgers in 1976 and is still the school's all-time leading scorer (2,399) and rebounder (1,115). On January 16, 1988, he had his jersey number (#12) retired, making him one of only three Scarlet Knights players to have ever been so honored.

Professional career

After graduating from Rutgers, Sellers was picked in the third round (38th overall) of the

1976 NBA Draft The 1976 NBA draft was the 30th annual draft of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The draft was held on June 8, 1976, before the 1976–77 season. In this draft, 18 NBA teams took turns selecting amateur U.S. college basketball players a ...

by the Detroit Pistons. The 6'4" Sellers changed to the guard position, having played forward in college, and strugged with the increased ball-handing responsibilities. Sellers said, "I couldn't play guard. They had doubts. Even me, I had doubts." Sellers spent the year with Detroit, playing the tumultuous 1976-77 Detroit Pistons season with Marvin "Bad News" Barnes, averaging 4.5 ppg in 44 games. He was released prior to the following season. After his release by Detroit, Sellers played for the Jersey Shore Bullets in the

Continental Basketball Association The Continental Basketball Association (CBA) (originally known as the Eastern Pennsylvania Basketball League, and later as the Eastern Professional Basketball League and the Eastern Basketball Association) was a men's professional basketball m ...

and then for

BV Amstelveen Basketbalvereniging Amstelveen was a professional basketball club based in Amstelveen, Netherlands. History BV Amstelveen had to wait until the 1970s to celebrate the first successes in the Dutch league. The club under the sponsorship name of Ki ...

in the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. He tried out for the Pistons again in 1979, under his former assistant coach at Rutgers Dick Vitale, but was cut before the season began.

Personal life

Sellers would return to Rutgers as an assistant coach for four years in the 1980s before moving to work in the private sector. Sellers was inducted into the New York City Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010 and the Rutgers Athletics Hall of Fame in 1993. Former Rutgers President Dr.

Edward J. Bloustein Edward Jerome Bloustein (January 20, 1925 – December 9, 1989) was the 17th President of Rutgers University serving from 1971 to 1989. Biography He was born in New York City, and he graduated from James Monroe High School in the Bronx in 19 ...

, said of Sellers that he "epitomized and symbolized in ways that people who gain the public eye sometimes do, a movement at Rutgers toward quality and self-assurance. He helped instill a sense of confidence in the university that persists today."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sellers, Phil 1953 births Living people African-American basketball players All-American college men's basketball players American expatriate basketball people in the Netherlands American men's basketball players Basketball players from New Jersey Basketball players from New York City Detroit Pistons draft picks Detroit Pistons players Jersey Shore Bullets players Parade High School All-Americans (boys' basketball) Rutgers Scarlet Knights men's basketball coaches Rutgers Scarlet Knights men's basketball players Shooting guards Small forwards Sportspeople from Brooklyn Basketball players from Detroit Sportspeople from Perth Amboy, New Jersey Thomas Jefferson High School (Brooklyn) alumni 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American sportspeople

Amateur career

Professional career

Personal life

See also

References