Bob McAdoo

Robert Allen McAdoo, born September 25, 1951, in Greensboro, North Carolina, is the greatest player in the history of the franchise that became the Los Angeles Clippers — a transcendent 6'9" center-forward who won three consecutive NBA scoring titles, the 1975 NBA MVP Award, and two NBA Championships, establishing himself as one of the most skilled big men of his generation. McAdoo played college basketball at the University of North Carolina, where he developed under Dean Smith into a refined offensive player whose combination of shooting, scoring, and athletic ability defied the norms of his position. He entered the 1972 draft and was selected 29th overall by the Buffalo Braves — the expansion franchise that would eventually become the Los Angeles Clippers — and immediately proved that pick woefully undervalued him. In four seasons with the Braves (1972-1976), McAdoo was the best player on the team and one of the five best players in the NBA. He won the Rookie of the Year Award in 1973, then proceeded to lead the league in scoring for three consecutive seasons (1974-1976). His 34.5 PPG in 1974-75 — combined with 14.1 rebounds and the MVP Award — announced him as a player capable of carrying an entire franchise on his shoulders. McAdoo's offensive game was decades ahead of its time. A 6'9" center who could step outside and shoot threes — before the three-point line existed — his shooting range and footwork foreshadowed the stretch-big revolution by forty years. His career took him to New York, Boston, Detroit, New Jersey, and Los Angeles before his most celebrated postseason success arrived with the back-to-back championship Lakers teams of 1982 and 1985. He also won a championship with Miami in 2006 as a coach. For the franchise now known as the Clippers, McAdoo's Buffalo years remain the peak of everything that preceded the modern era — a player who deserved so much more than history has given him credit for, simply because his prime years were spent on a team that never quite surrounded him with enough talent to compete for a championship.