Sharman, "Bill" (William W.)
Basketball
b. May 25, 1926, Abilene, TX
After serving in the Navy during World War II, Sharman enrolled at the University of Southern California in 1946 and played baseball, basketball, and tennis and was also on the college boxing, track and field, and weightlifting teams.
He was named an All-American guard in 1950 after averaging 18.6 points a game. Drafted by the Washington Capitals in the NBA draft, the 6-foot-1, 190-pound Sharman played baseball as an outfielder in the Brooklyn Dodger farm system that summer and averaged 12.2 points a game with Washington.
The Washington franchise folded in 1951 and its players went into a special dispersal draft. Sharman was chosen by the Ft. Wayne Pistons, but he refused to report and was traded to the Boston Celtics. After averaging 10.7 points a game as a backup in 1951-52, Sharman became a starter the following season.
Through 1960-61, Sharman teamed with Bob Cousy to form the best backcourt combination in the league. After Bill Russell arrived during the 1955-56 season, the Celtics got their fast break going effectively and Sharman averaged more than 20 points a game for three seasons. An excellent shooter, he was a pioneer in pulling up to take the undefended jump shot on the fast break rather than automatically going to the basket for a lay-up.
Sharman was also one of the best free throw shooters in history. He led the NBA in free throw percentage seven times and had streaks of 50 and 56 consecutive free throws. His 88.3 percent on 3,143 out of 3,557 attempts was the league record for years.
After playing for NBA championship teams in 1957, 1959, 1960, and 1961, Sharman left the Celtics to become player-coach of the Los Angeles Jets in the American Basketball League. The franchise folded after only 19 games and Sharman took over the Cleveland Pipers, guiding them to the ABL championship.
Sharman coached California State University-Los Angeles to a 27-20 record in two seasons, then went to the NBA's San Francisco Warriors in 1966. He left San Francisco for the Los Angeles franchise in the American Basketball Association in 1968 and shared the ABA's coach of the year honors in 1970.
The team moved to Utah in 1971 and Sharman left after one season there to take over the NBA's Los Angeles Lakers in 1971. He guided the Lakers to a 69-13 record and the league championship in his first season and was named the NBA's coach of the year. The Lakers won Pacific Division titles each of the next two seasons, then slipped to 5th- and 4th-place finishes, and Sharman left coaching to become the team's general manager. He later served as president of the Lakers until retiring in 1988.
Sharman scored 12,665 points in 711 regular season NBA games, an average of 17.8, and had 2,779 rebounds and 2,101 assists. He added 1,446 points, 285 rebounds, and 201 assists in 78 playoff games, averaging 18.5 points a game. As a coach, Sharman had a 43-26 record in the ABL, a 133-113 record in the ABA, and a 333-240 record in the NBA.