SPRINGFIELD, Mass. -- For Nate Thurmond, a wrong has been righted at long last. Finally, the late Gus Johnson -- Thurmond's friend, teammate and mentor at Akron Central-Hower High School -- will join Thurmond in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. "To me, an injustice has been corrected," Thurmond said from his home in San Francisco. "Gus was...
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. -- For Nate Thurmond, a wrong has been righted at long last.
Finally, the late Gus Johnson -- Thurmond's friend, teammate and mentor at Akron Central-Hower High School -- will join Thurmond in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
"To me, an injustice has been corrected," Thurmond said from his home in San Francisco. "Gus was one of the best basketball players ever to play in the NBA.
"Gus was a better all-around basketball player than I, and I'm in the Hall of Fame. I always felt a little squeamish about that because, knowing his talents . . . Sometimes people get left behind. Gus only played [10] years. My stats look great because I played 14. But you have to remember the guys who don't play as long.
"Gus should be in the first room of the Hall of Fame. There's no doubt about it."
View full sizeAkron native Gus Johnson averaged 17.1 points and 12.7 rebounds per game in 9 1/2 NBA seasons. Johnson is being inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on Friday.
The Gus Johnson file
Born: Dec. 13, 1938, in Akron.
Died: April 29, 1987, at age 48 of an inoperable brain tumor.
Height, weight: 6-6, 235.
College: University of Idaho, one season (enrolled at the University of Akron but left before 1959-60 season).
Drafted by: Baltimore Bullets, 1963.
Nickname: Honeycomb.
Highlights: Five-time NBA All-Star, four-time All-NBA Second Team, two-time All-Defensive First Team, 1964 NBA All-Rookie Team. . . . Washington retired his No. 25 jersey in 1986. . . . Averaged 17.1 points and 12.7 rebounds in 9 1/2 NBA seasons, nine of them with Baltimore before closing out his NBA career with Phoenix in 1972-73. . . . Helped the Bullets make the playoffs six times, advancing to the 1971 NBA Finals, where they lost to the Milwaukee Bucks. . . . Helped the Indiana Pacers win the ABA title in 1973.
-- Mary Schmitt Boyer
Thurmond is recovering at his home after a right knee replacement and will be unable to attend today's induction ceremonies. But he's videotaping a message to play during the evening's activities.
What will he say about Johnson, who passed away April 29, 1987, at age 48 after being diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor?
"Gus was ahead of his time," said Thurmond, who is 2 1/2 years younger than Johnson. "He was ambidextrous. Most guys didn't handle with two hands. His jumping ability is legendary.
"He was my mentor. He was older than I was. He was a better basketball player. He ended up being a better basketball player all around. No question about that.
"I looked up to Gus. Gus was the kind of guy everybody liked. He could get along with the guy who lived in the street or the pool hall or he could sit down in the minister's house. He was that versatile as a person.
"We had so much fun once we got to the NBA, reminiscing. Here were two guys from a small school in Akron who made the pros. There was a sense of pride in us."
After starring at Central-Hower, Johnson -- whose nickname was "Honeycomb" because his game was so sweet -- enrolled at the University of Akron, but he left before the start of the 1959-60 season. He transferred to Idaho, where he averaged 19 points and 20.3 rebounds in one season before being drafted by the then-Baltimore Bullets in the second round of the 1963 NBA Draft. He was the 11th player taken overall.
The 6-6, 235-pound power forward with the gold star incised on his front tooth became a five-time All-Star in Baltimore and a two-time member of the NBA's All-Defensive team. He helped lead the Bullets to five playoff appearances in nine seasons, including the 1971 NBA Finals, where they lost to the Milwaukee Bucks. He played 10 years in the NBA, averaging 17.1 points and 12.7 rebounds per game. He finished his NBA career with the Phoenix Suns in 1972-73 and was a member of the 1973 ABA champion Indiana Pacers.
Like Thurmond, many thought Johnson's selection to the Hall of Fame was long overdue.
"Gus Johnson was one of the greatest players I ever played with or against," former Bullets star Wes Unseld said at the time of Johnson's selection. "He was a ferocious defender and rebounder, and as a young player, I was completely in awe of his ability. He was truly a star ahead of his time."
Johnson's No. 25 was retired by the franchise in 1986 and hangs in the Verizon Center rafters in Washington alongside Unseld's No. 41, Elvin Hayes' No. 11 and Earl Monroe's No. 10, all of whom are in the Hall of Fame.
Added Monroe: "Gus was ahead of his time, flying through the air for slam dunks, breaking backboards and throwing full-court passes behind his back. He was spectacular, but he also did the nitty-gritty jobs, defense and rebounding. With all the guys in the Hall of Game, Gus deserves to be there already."
That he made it this time after being a finalist several times is a tribute to some of his former teammates as well as his brother Perry, daughter Raegan and best friend Charlie Ezrine, who compiled articles, testimonials and references into a packet for the nominating committee.
"Mostly, I tried to keep his name alive," Ezrine said.
He and Johnson hit it off as soon as Johnson arrived in Baltimore -- and the former Akron star soon became a household name.
"Gus was loved in Baltimore," Ezrine said. "Baltimore had Johnny Unitas in football and Brooks Robinson in baseball, and Gus was pretty close to them as a basketball hero. He and Connie Hawkins were the first players to develop the dunk you see in the NBA now. He was before Dr. J. He was flamboyant, but he was a strong and steady ballplayer. He was there for eight or nine years when the team went from terrible to good. Everybody in Baltimore loved him."
Raegan Johnson can understand that.
The former star at St. Vincent-St. Mary and the University of Akron was only 7 when her dad passed away. As the only one of his four daughters to play basketball, she was always proud to hear that her heart and passion reminded folks of her dad's.
But her favorite memory of her father had nothing to do with basketball.
"I remember his smile driving around town [in his gold-trimmed Cadillac]," she said in a telephone interview from Tampa, Fla., where she's raising her two children and helping her uncle Perry, who had a heart transplant in 2006. "I was his shadow. We'd ride around the city, and he'd have to honk the horn and throw his hand up around every corner because everyone knew who it was and respected him."
Perry Johnson, 64, almost eight years younger than Gus, was an All-American at Robert Morris College in Pittsburgh and was inducted into that school's Hall of Fame. He will speak for his brother at today's induction ceremonies.
"He raised me," Perry said. "Everything I learned, I learned from him.
"I know he's just beaming. He worked so hard, and he loved the game so much. If it wasn't for him, I probably wouldn't have picked up a basketball."
He admitted when the Hall of Fame spokesman called with the news of his brother's selection, he had to sit down.
Not long after, he got another call that meant almost as much. It was from Thurmond, who told him:
"Now it's really a Hall of Fame."