John Henry Shumate (born April 6, 1952) is an American former 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 and coach. Shumate grew up in

Elizabeth, New Jersey Elizabeth is a city and the county seat of Union County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.New J ...

, and played high school basketball at Thomas Jefferson High School. A 6'9" forward/ center from the

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or ND, is a private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend. French priest Edward Sorin founded the school in 1842. The main c ...

, Shumate played five seasons (1975–1978; 1979–1981) in the NBA as a member of the

Phoenix Suns The Phoenix Suns are an American professional basketball team based in Phoenix, Arizona. They compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA), as a member of the league's Western Conference Pacific Division. The Suns are the only team in t ...

, Buffalo Braves,

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 ...

Houston Rockets The Houston Rockets are an American professional basketball team based in Houston. The Rockets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member team of the league's Western Conference Southwest Division. The team plays its ho ...

San Antonio Spurs The San Antonio Spurs are an American professional basketball team based in San Antonio. The Spurs compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference Southwest Division. The team plays its home ...

and Seattle SuperSonics. He earned

NBA All-Rookie Team The NBA All-Rookie Team is an annual National Basketball Association (NBA) honor given since the 1962–63 NBA season to the top rookies during the regular season. Voting is conducted by the NBA head coaches who are not allowed to vote for player ...

honors in his first season after averaging 11.3

points per game Points per game, often abbreviated PPG, is the average number of points scored by a player per game played in a sport, over the course of a series of games, a whole season, or a career. It is calculated by dividing the total number of points by nu ...

and 5.6

rebounds per game 'Rebound' is a term used in sports to describe the ball (or puck or other object of play) becoming available for possession by either opponent after an attempt to put the ball or puck into the goal has been unsuccessful. Rebounds are generally ...

. Over the course of his career, Shumate averaged 12.3 points and 7.5 rebounds. Shumate also appeared as a member of the Detroit team in the cult classic basketball film The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh in 1979 alongside Pistons teammates

Bob Lanier Robert Jerry Lanier Jr. (September 10, 1948 – May 10, 2022) was an American professional basketball player who was a center for the Detroit Pistons and the Milwaukee Bucks of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Lanier was inducted in ...

Eric Money Eric Money (born February 6, 1955) is a retired American professional basketball player. Amateur career A 6'0" guard out of Kettering High School in Detroit, Michigan, Money played alongside fellow future NBA players Lindsay Hairston and Conie ...

, Chris Ford, Kevin Porter, and

Leon Douglas Leon Douglas (born August 26, 1954) is an American basketball coach and former professional player. He played seven seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA) before transitioning to an extensive professional career overseas in Europe. ...

. Shumate later coached for the

Southern Methodist University , mottoeng = " The truth will make you free" , established = , type = Private research university , accreditation = SACS , academic_affiliations = , religious_affiliation = United Methodist Church , president = R. Gerald Turner , p ...

Mustangs and the

Phoenix Mercury The Phoenix Mercury are an American professional basketball team based in Phoenix, Arizona, playing in the Western Conference in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). The team was founded before the league's inaugural 1997 season ...

of the WNBA. He also appeared in a series of basketball training videos. In the summer of 2009 he was named as an assistant coach of the

. Shumate was the center on the Notre Dame team that ended

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 ...

's NCAA-record 88-game winning streak on January 19, 1974.

Head coaching record

College

WNBA

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shumate, John 1952 births Living people African-American basketball coaches African-American basketball players All-American college men's basketball players American expatriate basketball people in Canada American men's basketball coaches American men's basketball players Basketball coaches from New Jersey Basketball coaches from South Carolina Basketball players from New Jersey Basketball players from South Carolina Buffalo Braves players Centers (basketball) Detroit Pistons players Grand Canyon Antelopes men's basketball coaches Houston Rockets players Notre Dame Fighting Irish men's basketball players Phoenix Mercury coaches Phoenix Suns assistant coaches Phoenix Suns draft picks Phoenix Suns players Phoenix Suns scouts Power forwards (basketball) San Antonio Spurs players Seattle SuperSonics players SMU Mustangs men's basketball coaches Sportspeople from Elizabeth, New Jersey Sportspeople from Greenville, South Carolina Thomas Jefferson High School (New Jersey) alumni Toronto Raptors assistant coaches 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American sportspeople