Willie Naulls
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William Dean Naulls (October 7, 1934 – November 22, 2018) 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 10 years in the
National Basketball Association 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 S ...
(NBA). He was a four-time
NBA All-Star The National Basketball Association (NBA) All-Star Game is an annual exhibition basketball game. It is the main event of the NBA All-Star Weekend. Originally, the All-Star Game featured a conference-based format, featuring a team composed of ...
with the
New York Knicks The New York Knickerbockers, shortened and more commonly referred to as the New York Knicks, are an American professional basketball team based in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The Knicks compete in the National Basketball Associat ...
and won three
NBA championships 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 aw ...
with the
Boston Celtics The Boston Celtics ( ) are an American professional basketball team based in Boston. The Celtics compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Atlantic Division. Founded in 1946 as one of t ...
. Naulls grew up in California, where he was named the state's Mr. Basketball in high school. He 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 ...
with the
UCLA Bruins The UCLA Bruins are the athletic teams that represent the University of California, Los Angeles. The Bruin men's and women's teams participate in NCAA Division I as part of the Pac-12 Conference and the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) ...
, and earned All-American honors as a senior in 1956. Naulls was selected by the
St. Louis Hawks The Atlanta Hawks are an American professional basketball team based in Atlanta. The Hawks compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Southeast Division. The team plays its home games at ...
(known now as the Atlanta Hawks) with the ninth overall pick of the 1956 NBA draft. He played briefly with St. Louis before being traded to New York, where he spent most of his career. With the Knicks, he became the first
African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
to be named a
captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...
of a professional team in a major American sport. After a brief stint with the
San Francisco Warriors The Golden State Warriors are an American professional basketball team based in San Francisco. The Warriors compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA), as a member of the league's Western Conference Pacific Division. Founded in 1 ...
(now the Golden State Warriors), Naulls finished his career with
Boston Celtics The Boston Celtics ( ) are an American professional basketball team based in Boston. The Celtics compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Atlantic Division. Founded in 1946 as one of t ...
. In December 1964, he was part of a Celtics unit that became the first all-black
starting lineup In sports, a starting lineup is an official list of the set of players who will participate in the event when the game begins. The players in the starting lineup are commonly referred to as ''starters'', whereas the others are ''substitutes'' o ...
in the NBA history.


Early life

Naulls was born in
Dallas, Texas Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County w ...
, to Daily and Bettie (Artis) Naulls. During
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, the family moved to Los Angeles when he was nine to escape
racial segregation Racial segregation is the systematic separation of people into race (human classification), racial or other Ethnicity, ethnic groups in daily life. Racial segregation can amount to the international crime of apartheid and a crimes against hum ...
. His father worked at
shipyard A shipyard, also called a dockyard or boatyard, is a place where ships are built and repaired. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Dockyards are sometimes more associated with maintenance a ...
s in San Pedro, and his mother was a
domestic worker A domestic worker or domestic servant is a person who works within the scope of a residence. The term "domestic service" applies to the equivalent occupational category. In traditional English contexts, such a person was said to be "in service ...
. Naulls was a basketball star at San Pedro High, where he was named
California Mr. Basketball Each year the California Mr. Basketball award is given to the person chosen as the best high school boys basketball player in the U.S. state of California. Many have gone on to play in the NBA. Voting is done in a points system. Each voter selects ...
in 1952.


College career

Naulls attended the
University of California, Los Angeles 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 ...
(UCLA), where he played for the Bruins under future
Basketball Hall of Fame The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame is an American history museum and hall of fame, located at 1000 Hall of Fame Avenue in Springfield, Massachusetts. It serves as basketball's most complete library, in addition to promoting and pre ...
coach John Wooden. In December 1954 during his junior year, UCLA won 47–40 over
San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
, who were led by Naulls' future Boston teammates
Bill Russell William Felton Russell (February 12, 1934 – July 31, 2022) was an American professional basketball player who played as a center for the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1956 to 1969. A five-time NBA Most Va ...
and
K. C. Jones K. C. Jones (May 25, 1932 – December 25, 2020) was an American professional basketball player and coach. He is best known for his association with the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association (NBA), with whom he won 11 of his 12 ...
. Naulls outplayed Russell in the Dons' lone defeat of the season en route to their first of two consecutive national championships. As a senior in 1955–56, Naulls set the Bruins single-game rebounding record with 28 against
Arizona State Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public research university in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, ASU is one of the largest public universities by enrollment in the ...
, and he finished the season with 582
field goal A field goal (FG) is a means of scoring in gridiron football. To score a field goal, the team in possession of the ball must place kick, or drop kick, the ball through the goal, i.e., between the uprights and over the crossbar. The entire ba ...
attempts to set the school's single-season record. UCLA won the Pacific Coast Conference championship and advanced to the NCAA tournament that season, while Naulls was named a consensus second-team All-American. In his three seasons at UCLA, Naulls averaged 15.5 points and 11.4 rebounds per game. At the time his career ended, he was the Bruins' career leader in both points (1,225) and rebounds (900). He was inducted into the
UCLA Athletics Hall of Fame The UCLA Bruins are the athletic teams that represent the University of California, Los Angeles. The Bruin men's and women's teams participate in NCAA Division I as part of the Pac-12 Conference and the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPS ...
in 1986.


NBA career

Naulls was selected by the
St. Louis Hawks The Atlanta Hawks are an American professional basketball team based in Atlanta. The Hawks compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Southeast Division. The team plays its home games at ...
in the second round of the 1956 NBA draft with the ninth overall pick. He called it a "culture shock" to see the segregation that existed in
St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...
, the likes of which he had not seen since he was eight before moving to Southern California. He spent just 19 games with the Hawks before being traded to the
New York Knicks The New York Knickerbockers, shortened and more commonly referred to as the New York Knicks, are an American professional basketball team based in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The Knicks compete in the National Basketball Associat ...
, with whom he would spend most of his career. Naulls averaged a
double-double In basketball, a double-double is a single-game performance in which a player accumulates ten or more in two of the following five statistical categories: points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocked shots. The first "double" in the term ...
(19.3 points and 10.7 rebounds per game) during his seven-year tenure with the Knicks, and he appeared as an
NBA All-Star The National Basketball Association (NBA) All-Star Game is an annual exhibition basketball game. It is the main event of the NBA All-Star Weekend. Originally, the All-Star Game featured a conference-based format, featuring a team composed of ...
four times. The Knicks named him their
captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...
in 1960, making him the first
African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...
athlete to hold the position for any pro team in a major American sport. In 1960–61, Naulls scored a single-season team record of 1,846 points, averaging 23.4 points per game. The record was broken the following season by teammate
Richie Guerin Richard Vincent Guerin (born May 29, 1932) is an American former professional basketball player and coach. He played with the National Basketball Association's (NBA) New York Knicks from 1956 to 1963 and was a player-coach of the St. Louis/Atla ...
. On March 2, 1962, Naulls scored 31 points and established another team record with his seventh straight game scoring 30 points or more. In that same game, Philadelphia Warriors center
Wilt Chamberlain Wilton Norman Chamberlain (; August 21, 1936 – October 12, 1999) was an American professional basketball player who played as a Center (basketball), center. Standing at tall, he played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for 14 yea ...
notched his NBA record 100-point game against the Knicks. Naulls' 30+ streak stood until
2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...
, when it was broken by
Amar'e Stoudemire Amar'e Carsares Stoudemire ( ; he, אמארה יהושפט סטודמאייר; born November 16, 1982) is an American-Israeli professional basketball coach and former player who most recently served as a player development assistant for the Bro ...
. During the 1962–63 NBA season, the Knicks traded Naulls to the
San Francisco Warriors The Golden State Warriors are an American professional basketball team based in San Francisco. The Warriors compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA), as a member of the league's Western Conference Pacific Division. Founded in 1 ...
, with whom he played briefly before being traded to the
Boston Celtics The Boston Celtics ( ) are an American professional basketball team based in Boston. The Celtics compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Atlantic Division. Founded in 1946 as one of t ...
. Naulls spent his last three professional seasons with the Celtics, winning three consecutive
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 ...
s in the process. In December 1964 against St. Louis, he replaced an injured
Tom Heinsohn Thomas William Heinsohn (August 26, 1934 – November 9, 2020) was an American professional basketball player. He was associated with the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association (NBA) for six decades as a player, coach and broadcast ...
to form NBA's first all-black
starting lineup In sports, a starting lineup is an official list of the set of players who will participate in the event when the game begins. The players in the starting lineup are commonly referred to as ''starters'', whereas the others are ''substitutes'' o ...
along with Russell at
center Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentrici ...
, K. C. and Sam Jones at the guards and
Satch Sanders Thomas Ernest "Satch" Sanders (born November 8, 1938) is an American former professional basketball player and coach. He played his entire professional career as a power forward for the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association (NBA). ...
at forward. That 1964–65 Celtics team was named one of the 10 best teams in NBA history during the league's 50th anniversary. The Naulls finished his 10-year NBA career with averages of 15.8 points and 9.1 rebounds per game.


NBA career statistics


Regular season


Playoffs


Death

Naulls died on November 22, 2018, in
Laguna Niguel, California Laguna Niguel () is a city in Orange County, California, United States. The name Laguna Niguel is derived from the words "Laguna" (Spanish for "lagoon") and "Niguili" (the name of a Native American village once located near Aliso Creek). As of ...
, from respiratory failure due to
Churg–Strauss syndrome Eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis (EGPA), formerly known as allergic granulomatosis, is an extremely rare autoimmune condition that causes inflammation of small and medium-sized blood vessels (vasculitis) in persons with a history of ...
, which he had been battling for eight years.


See also

* Race and ethnicity in the NBA


References


External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Naulls, Willie 1934 births 2018 deaths African-American basketball players All-American college men's basketball players American men's basketball players Basketball players from California Basketball players from Dallas Boston Celtics players National Basketball Association All-Stars New York Knicks players San Francisco Warriors players Small forwards St. Louis Hawks draft picks St. Louis Hawks players UCLA Bruins men's basketball players 20th-century African-American sportspeople 21st-century African-American people