RIP Bob Lanier

[OrangeXtreme]

 

[OrangeXtreme]

 

[br801]

Terrific player, and by all accounts a great person. RIP, Bob.

 

[OrangeXtreme]

 

[SWC75]

I still have a 1967 copy of the Sporting News which contains their college basketball preview. It says that St. Bonaventure has "a few good boys" but they didn't expect much of them. One of the good boys was Bob Lanier, (another was Jimmy Satalin), and they ran through the regular season 23-0 before losing in the NCAAs. As a senior he led his team to the Final Four but couldn't play there because of an injury against Villanova in the Eastern Regional Final and his team lost to Jacksonville and Artis Gilmore. That was probably, along with Marvin Barnes 1973 providence team, (which suffered the same fate), the two best chances for an eastern team to win the national championship between LaSalle in 1954 and Georgetown in 1983.

 

[br801]

I still have a 1967 copy of the Sporting News which contains their college basketball preview. It says that St. Bonaventure has "a few good boys" but they didn't expect much of them. One of the good boys was Bob Lanier, (another was Jimmy Satalin), and they ran through the regular season 23-0 before losing in the NCAAs. As a senior he led his team to the Final Four but couldn't play there because of an injury against Villanova in the Eastern Regional Final and his team lost to Jacksonville and Artis Gilmore. That was probably, along with Marvin Barnes 1973 providence team, (which suffered the same fate), the two best chances for an eastern team to win the national championship between LaSalle in 1954 and Georgetown in 1983.

Lanier/Gilmore would have been a great match up.

 

[SWC75]

Lanier/Gilmore would have been a great match up.

I did this a few years back:

Bob Lanier was injured late in the 1970 Eastern regional final vs. Villanova and never got a chance to play in the Final Four, where he would have been matched up against Jacksonville’s Artis Gilmore. I always wondered how their confrontations in the pros went. Using ProBasketballreference.com (game logs), I decided to find out. The player’s team that won the game is in bold.

11/13/76 Lanier 8/17 20p 5r 2b 4f Gilmore 12/20 30p 15r 4b 5f
12/8/76 Lanier 9/21 24p 12r 1b 3f Gilmore 7/10 17p 14r 1b 3f
1/29/77 Lanier 9/?? 22p Gilmore 11/?? 23p
12/23/77 Lanier 8/?? 24p Gilmore 5/?? 11p
1/15/78 Lanier 9/?? 24p Gilmore 8/?? 19p
3/19/78 Lanier 6/?? 13p 6f Gilmore 5/?? 13p
11/3/78 Lanier 9??? 22p Gilmore 10/?? 24p
11/10/78 Lanier 11??? 27p Gilmore 14/?? 30p
2/27/79 Lanier DNP Gilmore 12/?? 33p
4/8/79 Lanier DNP Gilmore 8/?? 18p
2/13/80 Lanier 6/?? 15p Gilmore 3/?? 6p
3/25/80 Lanier 4/?? 13p Gilmore 5/?? 15p
10/25/80 Lanier 3/?? 8p Gilmore 5??? 13p
10/28/80 Lanier 5/?? 10p Gilmore 7/?? 19p
11/16/80 Lanier 8?? 17p Gilmore 8/?? 24p
12/27/81 Lanier 2/8 5p 6r 2b 1f Gilmore 4/5 10p 9r 0b 0f
1/2/82 Lanier 5/8 12p 8r 0b 2f Gilmore 7/12 20p 8r 2b 4f
2/3/82 Lanier 5/8 16p 6r 1b 4f Gilmore 5/8 12p 9r 0b 6f
12/19/82 Lanier DNP Gilmore 7/10 22p 7r 2b 3f
2/25/84 Lanier 6/9 17p 7r 1b 2f Gilmore 7/9 25p 10r 2b 2f

With the chaotic NBA schedules, their teams only played 20 times in the 8 years they were both in the NBA. Bob missed three of those games, presumably due to injury. Gilmore missed none, so there were 17 confrontations. Full stats are not available for all those games but I have the points. Bob scored 289 points in those games, an average of 17.0. Artis scored 311, (18.3). For the six games for which complete stats are available, (from late in their careers), Bob had 44 rebounds (7.3) and Artis had 65 (10.8). Bob had 7 blocks and Artis 9 blocks. So Artis seems to have gotten the better of Bob but Bob’s team won 13 of the 17 games, so he went home happy.

 

[br801]

I did this a few years back:

Bob Lanier was injured late in the 1970 Eastern regional final vs. Villanova and never got a chance to play in the Final Four, where he would have been matched up against Jacksonville’s Artis Gilmore. I always wondered how their confrontations in the pros went. Using ProBasketballreference.com (game logs), I decided to find out. The player’s team that won the game is in bold.

11/13/76 Lanier 8/17 20p 5r 2b 4f Gilmore 12/20 30p 15r 4b 5f
12/8/76 Lanier 9/21 24p 12r 1b 3f Gilmore 7/10 17p 14r 1b 3f
1/29/77 Lanier 9/?? 22p Gilmore 11/?? 23p
12/23/77 Lanier 8/?? 24p Gilmore 5/?? 11p
1/15/78 Lanier 9/?? 24p Gilmore 8/?? 19p
3/19/78 Lanier 6/?? 13p 6f Gilmore 5/?? 13p
11/3/78 Lanier 9??? 22p Gilmore 10/?? 24p
11/10/78 Lanier 11??? 27p Gilmore 14/?? 30p
2/27/79 Lanier DNP Gilmore 12/?? 33p
4/8/79 Lanier DNP Gilmore 8/?? 18p
2/13/80 Lanier 6/?? 15p Gilmore 3/?? 6p
3/25/80 Lanier 4/?? 13p Gilmore 5/?? 15p
10/25/80 Lanier 3/?? 8p Gilmore 5??? 13p
10/28/80 Lanier 5/?? 10p Gilmore 7/?? 19p
11/16/80 Lanier 8?? 17p Gilmore 8/?? 24p
12/27/81 Lanier 2/8 5p 6r 2b 1f Gilmore 4/5 10p 9r 0b 0f
1/2/82 Lanier 5/8 12p 8r 0b 2f Gilmore 7/12 20p 8r 2b 4f
2/3/82 Lanier 5/8 16p 6r 1b 4f Gilmore 5/8 12p 9r 0b 6f
12/19/82 Lanier DNP Gilmore 7/10 22p 7r 2b 3f
2/25/84 Lanier 6/9 17p 7r 1b 2f Gilmore 7/9 25p 10r 2b 2f

With the chaotic NBA schedules, their teams only played 20 times in the 8 years they were both in the NBA. Bob missed three of those games, presumably due to injury. Gilmore missed none, so there were 17 confrontations. Full stats are not available for all those games but I have the points. Bob scored 289 points in those games, an average of 17.0. Artis scored 311, (18.3). For the six games for which complete stats are available, (from late in their careers), Bob had 44 rebounds (7.3) and Artis had 65 (10.8). Bob had 7 blocks and Artis 9 blocks. So Artis seems to have gotten the better of Bob but Bob’s team won 13 of the 17 games, so he went home happy.

Outstanding stuff, thanks. Two fantastic centers. Even though they are both Hall of Famers, their names don't come up often when the great centers are discussed, and that's unfortunate.

 

[kirbivore]

I still have a 1967 copy of the Sporting News which contains their college basketball preview. It says that St. Bonaventure has "a few good boys" but they didn't expect much of them. One of the good boys was Bob Lanier, (another was Jimmy Satalin), and they ran through the regular season 23-0 before losing in the NCAAs. As a senior he led his team to the Final Four but couldn't play there because of an injury against Villanova in the Eastern Regional Final and his team lost to Jacksonville and Artis Gilmore. That was probably, along with Marvin Barnes 1973 providence team, (which suffered the same fate), the two best chances for an eastern team to win the national championship between LaSalle in 1954 and Georgetown in 1983.

Georgetown 1984. 1983 was this

 

[Chip]