Hal Greer

Harold Everett Greer, born June 26, 1936, in Huntington, West Virginia — and passed away April 22, 2018 — was one of the most quietly elite players in NBA history, spending his entire fifteen-year professional career with the Syracuse Nationals and Philadelphia 76ers and earning ten All-Star appearances, a championship ring, and the 1968 NBA All-Star Game MVP Award across a career of consistent excellence. Greer attended Marshall University, becoming one of the first Black athletes to play varsity basketball for a West Virginia institution, and was selected by the Syracuse Nationals in the second round of the 1958 NBA Draft. When the Nationals relocated to Philadelphia in 1963 and became the 76ers, Greer made the transition seamlessly and spent the remainder of his career establishing himself as one of the premier shooting guards in the NBA. His signature offensive weapon was his mid-range jump shot deployed off a running start — a unique technical approach he used on free throws as well as in halfcourt offense that made him extraordinarily difficult to defend consistently. The jump-shot free throw was an eccentricity that worked at the highest level for fifteen years. In the 1966-67 season, Greer was a cornerstone of what many historians consider the greatest NBA team assembled to that point. Averaging 22.1 points per game, he was the primary scoring complement to Wilt Chamberlain as the 76ers finished 68-13, swept the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Division Finals — ending Boston's eight consecutive championship runs — and defeated the San Francisco Warriors in six games to claim the title. Greer retired in 1973 as the franchise's all-time leading scorer at the time with 21,586 career points. His jersey number 15 has been retired by the Philadelphia 76ers. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1982 and remains one of the defining players in the long history of the franchise.