Hal Greer

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Harold Everett Greer (born June 26, 1936, in Huntington, West Virginia) is a former professional basketball player.

He played college basketball at Marshall University and was drafted by the Syracuse Nationals of the NBA in 1958. Greer played for Syracuse for five seasons, raising his scoring average to 22.8 points a game in 1961. He was selected for the NBA All-Star team that year. In 1963, the Syracuse Nationals moved to Philadelphia to become the Philadelphia 76'ers. There, Greer became well-known as a teammate of Wilt Chamberlain, and starred on the powerful 1966-67 team that ended the eight-year championship reign of the Boston Celtics). In the 76ers' 15 playoff games that season, Greer averaged a team-best 27.7 points. Greer had an unusual but highly effective free-throw technique, shooting a jump shot from the charity stripe. He is usually considered the third-best guard of the 1960s, behind Oscar Robertson and Jerry West.

Greer played in 10 NBA All-Star Games and was the MVP of the 1968 game when he went 8-for-8 from the field and scored 21 points, a record-breaking 19 in one quarter. He also was chosen to the All-NBA Second Team seven times, and scored more than 20,000 points during his NBA career. His hometown has honored his success by renaming 16th Street, which carries West Virginia Route 10 as the main artery between the campus/downtown area and Interstate 64, as "Hal Greer Boulevard." Hal Greer is recognized as the only African-American athlete enshrined in a major sports hall of fame from West Virginia.

Greer is sometimes confused with Hal Lear, another star guard who played alongside Guy Rodgers for Temple University in the mid-1950s.

[edit] College Accomplishments

Two-time All-Conference (1957, 1958)
Team high scorer and Conference MVP (1958)
AP All-America Honorable Mention (1958)
Led Marshall in 71 games as its first black scholarship athlete
Averaged 19.4 ppg and 10.8 rpg
At the time of graduation, held the school's career record for field goal percentage (54.6 percent), hitting 531 of 974 attempts

[edit] Accolades

Averaged 22 ppg to lead 76ers to NBA Championship (1967)
Played in 10 consecutive NBA All-Star Games (1961-70)
NBA All-Star Game MVP (1968)
Set record for most points scored in a quarter (19) during an All-Star Game (1968)
Seven-time All-NBA Second Team (1963-69)
Scored 21,586 career points, including 50 in one game vs. Boston Celtics
Scored 1,876 points in 92 playoff games and 120 points in 10 All-Star Games
NBA 50th Anniversary Team (1996)
His jerseys were retired by Marshall University (#16) and the Philadelphia 76ers (#15)
A one-and-one-half-mile stretch of road in Huntington, W.Va., was renamed "Hal Greer Boulevard"