Russell, Cazzie L.
Basketball
b. June 7, 1944, Chicago, IL
A 6-foot-5 guard, Russell averaged 24.8 points per game in his sophomore year, 25.7 as a junior, and 30.8 as a senior to lead the University of Michigan to a 65-17 record during his career. He was named an All-American in 1965 and 1966 and was a consensus choice as the 1966 college player of the year.
The first draft choice of the NBA's New York Knicks, Russell signed a three-year contract for a reported $200,000. Used as a forward and guard, he averaged only 11.3 points a game in 1966-67. Russell increased his scoring to 16.9 in 1967-68 and 18.3 in 1968-69, but slipped to 11.5 in 1969-70.
A broken ankle sidelined him for 25 games in 1970-71, when he averaged only 9.2 points, and the Knicks traded him to the Golden State Warriors. He had his best career season with the Warriors in 1971-72, scoring 6,277 points in 423 games, an average of 21.4 per game.
Russell played for the Los Angeles Lakers from 1974-75 through 1976-77 and finished his career with the Chicago Bulls in 1977-78. In 817 regular season NBA games, Russell scored 12,377 points, an average of 15.1 per game. He added 852 points in 72 playoff games.
Since 1996, Russell has coached basketball at Savannah College of Art and Design, a member of the NAIA Division II Florida Sun Conference.