McAdoo, "Bob" (Robert A.)
Basketball
b. Sept. 25, 1951, Greensboro, NC
McAdoo spent two years playing junior college basketball in Indiana before entering North Carolina University in 1971. He averaged 19.5 points a game and was a consensus All-American center in his only season before entering the 1972 NBA draft as a so-called hardship case.
The Buffalo Braves chose him in the first round and the 6-foot-9, 225-pounder led the league in scoring his first three seasons with averages of 30.6 in 1972-73, 34.5 in 1974-75, and 31.1 in 1975-76. He also led the NBA with 1,155 rebounds in 1974-75, when he was named the league's most valuable player.
Although he usually played center, with occasional stints at power forward, McAdoo got most of his points from outside, hitting a soft, accurate jump shot from 15 to 18 feet away, and driving to the basket only to keep defenders honest.
Buffalo traded him to the New York Knicks during the 1976-77 season and the Knicks sent him to the Boston during the 1977-78 season. He went from Boston to the Detroit Pistons in 1978.
A knee injury limited McAdoo to only 16 games in 1980-81, when he was with Detroit and the New York Nets, and it forced him to become a part-time player for the rest of his career.
McAdoo was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers in 1981 and he spent four seasons with them. He retired after playing in only 29 games with the Philadelphia 76ers in 1985-86.
In 852 regular season games, McAdoo scored 18,787 points, a 22.1 average, and had 8,048 rebounds. He added 1,718 points and 711 rebounds in 94 playoff games.