Morris "Bucky" Buckwalter (born November 22, 1933) is a former

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 St ...

coach and executive, as well as a former coach in the American Basketball Association. Buckwalter grew up in

La Grande, Oregon La Grande is a city in Union County, Oregon, United States. Originally named "Brownsville," it was forced to change its name because that name was being used for a city in Linn County. Located in the Grande Ronde Valley, the city's name comes ...

, and played high school basketball at

La Grande High School La Grande High School is a public high school in the western United States, located in La Grande, Oregon. Academics In 2008, 81% of the school's seniors received a high school diploma. Of 197 students, 159 graduated, 29 dropped out, and nine wer ...

. Buckwalter played college basketball at

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 ...

, where his team advanced to the quarterfinals of the

1956 NCAA basketball tournament The 1956 NCAA basketball tournament involved 25 schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the national champion of men's NCAA college basketball. It began on March 12, 1956, and ended with the championship game on March 24 on North ...

before losing to the eventual champions, the

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 ...

-led

San Francisco Dons The San Francisco Dons is the nickname of the athletic teams at the University of San Francisco (USF). The Dons compete in NCAA Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) as members of the West Coast Conference (WCC), of ...

. He served briefly as head coach of the

Seattle SuperSonics The Seattle SuperSonics (commonly known as the Seattle Sonics) were an American professional basketball team based in Seattle. The SuperSonics competed in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member club of the league's Western Confe ...

in 1972 (on an interim basis), and later served as the head coach of 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 t ...

of the ABA, replacing Joe Mullaney. While with the Stars, Buckwalter was known for signing

Moses Malone Moses Eugene Malone (March 23, 1955 – September 13, 2015) was an American professional basketball player who played in both the American Basketball Association (ABA) and the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1974 through 1995. A cen ...

out of high school. He was a scout for the

Portland Trail Blazers The Portland Trail Blazers (colloquially known as the Blazers) are an American professional basketball team based in Portland, Oregon. The Trail Blazers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Con ...

when the team passed on Michael Jordan and selected

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia ...

Sam Bowie Samuel Paul Bowie (born March 17, 1961) is an American former professional basketball player. A national sensation in high school and outstanding collegian and Olympic team member, Bowie's professional promise was undermined by repeated injuries ...

as the second pick in the 1984 NBA draft. He served as vice-president of Basketball Operations for the

. In 1991, he won the NBA Executive of the Year Award, as the Blazers posted a league-best 63–19 record. He retired from the Blazers in 1997.

Head coaching record

College

NBA

References

External links

BasketballReference.com: Bucky Buckwalter
1933 births Living people American men's basketball players Basketball coaches from Oregon Basketball players from Oregon College men's basketball head coaches in the United States People from La Grande, Oregon Portland Trail Blazers assistant coaches Portland Trail Blazers executives Seattle Redhawks men's basketball coaches Seattle SuperSonics head coaches Utah Stars coaches Utah Utes men's basketball players Western Basketball Association coaches {{US-basketball-coach-stub