Lawrence Joseph Staverman (October 11, 1936 – July 12, 2007) 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 court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

player and coach. A 6' 7" forward from

Villa Madonna College Thomas More University is a private Roman Catholic university in Crestview Hills, Kentucky. It serves about 2,000 full and part-time students. The university was founded in 1921 by the local Benedictine Sisters as Villa Madonna College. Histor ...

(now known as Thomas More College), Staverman was drafted in the 9th round of the

1958 NBA draft The 1958 NBA draft was the 12th annual draft of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The draft was held on April 22, 1958, before the 1958–59 season. In this draft, eight NBA teams took turns selecting amateur U.S. college basketball play ...

by the

Cincinnati Royals The Sacramento Kings are an American professional basketball team based in Sacramento, California. The Kings compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Western Conference Pacific Division. The Kings are the oldest ...

. He had a five-year career as a player in the NBA, with the Royals, the Chicago Zephyrs/Baltimore Bullets, and the

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 ...

. Staverman was the first coach of the American Basketball Association's Indiana Pacers. He coached the team for its first season (where they went 38–40 and lost in a three game sweep in the playoffs) and the first nine games of the next season before being replaced by

Bobby Leonard William Robert "Slick" Leonard (July 17, 1932April 13, 2021) was an American professional basketball player, coach and color commentator. He played college basketball for the Indiana Hoosiers, where he was a two-time All-American and a member ...

. He later served as an interim coach for the

Kansas City Kings The Sacramento Kings are an American professional basketball team based in Sacramento, California. The Kings compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Western Conference (NBA), Western Conference Pacific Division ( ...

in the 1977–78 season after they had won just thirteen of 37 games to start the year. He went 18–27 as the Kings finished dead last in the Western Conference. He was replaced by

Cotton Fitzsimmons Lowell Gibbs "Cotton" Fitzsimmons (October 7, 1931 – July 24, 2004) was an American college and NBA basketball coach. A native of Bowling Green, Missouri, he attended and played basketball at Hannibal-LaGrange Junior College in Hannibal, M ...

as head coach for the next season, although he stayed with the Kings until May 1981, when he resigned organization to join the

Cleveland Browns The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland. Named after original coach and co-founder Paul Brown, they compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (A ...

as an assistant to the team president.

References

External links

Larry Staverman – National Basketball Association official website

1936 births 2007 deaths American men's basketball coaches American men's basketball players Baltimore Bullets (1963–1973) players Basketball coaches from Kentucky Basketball players from Kentucky Cincinnati Royals draft picks Cincinnati Royals players Chicago Zephyrs players Indiana Pacers head coaches Kansas City Kings head coaches Kansas City Steers players Newport Central Catholic High School alumni People from Newport, Kentucky Power forwards (basketball) Thomas More Saints men's basketball players {{1930s-US-basketball-bio-stub