Longtime NBA center and Basketball Hall of Fame inductee Walt Bellamy passed away Saturday at the age of 74, the Atlanta Hawks announced.
Hall of Fame center Walt Bellamy passes away at age 74
Bellamy starred for the Bullets, Knicks, Pistons and Hawks during his 14-year career.
Kevin C. Cox
Bellamy spent four-plus years playing for the Hawks, but he began his career with the Chicago Packers after being selected first overall in the 1961 NBA Draft. After two years in Chicago, the team became the Baltimore Bullets, with Bellamy as its star player.
He moved on from the Bullets -- now the Washington Wizards -- after two years, also spending time with the New York Knicks, Detroit Pistons and New Orleans Jazz, though his stint with that team amounts to 14 minutes in one game during the 1974-75 season.
The 1961-62 NBA Rookie of the Year and an all-star in his first four seasons, Bellamy finished his 14-year career with per-game averages of 20.1 points, 13.7 rebounds and 2.4 assists per game. Blocks weren’t officially recorded by the league until his final full season.
While Bellamy never won an NBA title, he spent a few years as one of the league’s elite players and did win an Olympic gold medal as the starting center for Team USA in 1960. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1993.
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