Happy 87th Birthday to Former NBA Forward, First Ever African-American Coach of the Year Ray Scott
- Jake C
- 2 days ago
- 6 min read
Cover photo: Ray Scott in 2021 at his home in Ypsilanti Township, Mich., with his1973-74 Coach of the Year trophy displayed in the foreground. Photo credit: Junfu Han, Detroit Free Press.
Former NBA forward Ray Scott, who played nine seasons in the league and in 1973-74 made history in becoming the first African-American to win the NBA’s Coach of the Year award, celebrates a birthday on July 12 as the NBA trailblazer turns 87 years old.
Scott was born in Philadelphia, PA, a city that at the time and throughout NBA history has churned out basketball talent. The most notable was Overbrook High School’s Wilt Chamberlain, who was two years Scott’s senior and one and a half years ahead of Scott in school. The 14-year-old Scott was at South Catholic High School (he later attended West Philadelphia High School), and he and the 16-year-old Chamberlain were athletic friends and competitors. Guy Rodgers, born in 1935 in Philly, would go on to be an NBA all-star. Hal Lear, also born in ‘35, played at Overbrook with Chamberlain. Wayne Hightower, born in 1940, and Walt Hazzard and Wali Jones, both born in 1942, were also Overbrook products. Jones eventually played with Chamberlain on the Philadelphia 76ers.
Scott first played collegiately at New York City Tech in Brooklyn which was followed by time at the University of Portland in 1957-58. At Portland, he played in thirteen games and averaged 20.3 points and 11.4 rebounds over those games.
From 1958-1961, Scott played for the Allentown Jets of the Eastern Professional Basketball League, which later became the Continental Basketball Association.
In the ‘61 NBA Draft, Scott was selected fourth overall by the Detroit Pistons. Boston Celtic champion Larry Siegfried was drafted third overall (to the Cincinnati Royals) and drafted seventh overall was eventual all-star forward Tom Meschery, who, like Rodgers, would become a teammate of Chamberlain’s on the Philadelphia Warriors. Four-time all-star and Hall of Fame center Walt Bellamy was taken with the first overall selection.
Coming to Detroit, Scott admitted that not many people knew who he was, but that the likes of Chamberlain, Bill Russell, Oscar Robertson and Elgin Baylor played an integral role in growing and popularizing the NBA.
“Wilt, (Bill) Russell, (Elgin) Baylor and Oscar (Robertson), they were such great athletes, great players, that they brought interest to the NBA,” Scott told me in 2024.
Ray Scott’s First Three NBA Seasons
1961-62: 13.3 points, 11.5 rebounds
1962-63: 16.2 points, 10.2 rebounds
1963-64: 17.6 points, 13.5 rebounds
In his fourth and fifth NBA campaigns, Scott averaged 15.5 points and 9.6 rebounds and 17.9 points and 9.6 rebounds. After playing forty-five games for the Pistons in the 1966-67 season - a stretch in which he averaged 14.7 points and 9.0 rebounds - Scott was involved in a trade that sent the 6 foot 9 inch forward to the Baltimore Bullets.
The three-team deal saw Rudy LaRusso traded from the Los Angeles Lakers to the Pistons, Mel Counts go from the Bullets to the Lakers, and Scott from the Pistons to the Bullets. Scott headed from a Piston team that would win 30 games in ‘66-‘67 to a Bullet team that finished 20-61. Scott averaged 19.0 points and 13.2 rebounds for the remaining twenty-seven games of ‘66-‘67. With their 20 wins, the Bullets were slated to select second in the 1967 Draft. With that pick, they took a guard out of Winston-Salem State by the name of Earl Monroe. Better days for the franchise were on the horizon.
Scott played eighty-one games in ‘67-‘68, the most since his third season in the league when he played eighty (he would suit up in eighty-two in ‘68-‘69). With the eighty-one games came 36.1 minutes per night (also his most since year three) and 16.4 points and 13.7 rebounds per game.
The Bullets improved their win total from the previous season by sixteen games to finish 36-46. Monroe averaged 24.3 points per game and was named Rookie of the Year. Hall of Fame forward Gus Johnson was an all-star, averaging 19.1 points and 13.0 rebounds per game. The team had four others - Kevin Loughery, Dan Ohl, Jack Marin, and Leroy Ellis - finish in double figures in scoring.
In his final two seasons in the NBA, Scott averaged 11.8 points and 8.8 rebounds and 8.9 points and 6.3 rebounds. The ‘68-‘69 Bullets went 57-25 and were swept by the New York Knicks in the Eastern Division Semifinals. Scott averaged 13.3 points and 8.0 rebounds in the series as he and a new front court mate, rookie Wes Unseld, battled Willis Reed down low (Johnson missed thirty-three games due to injury and did not play beyond February 5).
The ‘69-‘70 Bullets went 50-32, and lost in seven games to the Knicks.
The 1969-70 season was Scott’s last in the NBA, as he spent ‘70-‘71 and ‘71-‘72 in the ABA, with the Virginia Squires.
In seventy-two games with the Squires in ‘70-‘71, Scott averaged 14.3 points and 8.0 rebounds in just 21.6 minutes per game in seventy-two games. In his final season, he played fifty-five games and averaged 7.6 points and 4.6 rebounds per game.
Over nine NBA seasons, Scott averaged 14.9 points and 10.5 rebounds in 684 games (31.2 minutes). As a Piston, he averaged 16.0 points and 10.7 rebounds per game. Overall in his eleven pro seasons, Scott averaged 14.3 points and 9.8 rebounds in 811 professional games, while playing 29.2 minutes per game.
For the 1972-73 Pistons, Scott served as an assistant coach for the first seven games (the team had a 2-5 record), before he took over for Earl Lloyd and guided the team to a 38-37 finish. Dave Bing, six years into his Hall of Fame career, was the team’s star guard. Bob Lanier, two years into his Hall of Fame career, was the star man in the middle.
In 1973-74, Scott coached the Pistons to a 52-30 record. The team scored an average of 104.4 points per game and gave up the fourth fewest points per game across the Association (100.3). In the playoffs, the Pistons lost in seven games in the Western Conference Semifinals to the Chicago Bulls. The Pistons won 40 games under Scott in 1974-75 and sported a record of 17-25 in 1975-76 under Scott.
It was not until 1990-91, when Don Chaney led the Houston Rockets to a 52-30 record, that the NBA saw another African-American Coach of the Year winner.
African-American NBA Coaches of the Year Since Ray Scott (1973-74):
Don Chaney, HOU, 1990-91: 52-30
Lenny Wilkens, ATL, 1993-94: 57-25
Doc Rivers, ORL, 1999-00: 41-41
Avery Johnson, DAL, 2005-06: 60-22
Sam Mitchell, TOR, 2006-07: 47-35
Byron Scott, NOH, 2007-08: 56-26
Mike Brown, CLE, 2008-09: 66-16
Dwane Casey, DET, 2017-18: 59-23
Monty Williams, PHX, 2021-22: 64-18
Mike Brown, SAC, 2022-23: 48-34
In 2007, Scott was inducted into the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame, and in 2017 he was inducted into the Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame. In 2022, he published his memoir The NBA in Black and White: The Memoir of a Trailblazing NBA Player and Coach. Currently, he is working on another book about the great centers in NBA history.
Scott came into the NBA at a pivotal point for African-American players, at a time when Chamberlain, Russell, Baylor, and Robertson had started and were starting to take the game over. Wayne Embry was another star of the time. The likes of Reed and Unseld and Walt Frazier and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar would follow. It was only in 1950, eleven years prior to Scott’s drafting, when Lloyd, Chuck Cooper, and Nat “Sweetwater” Clifton became the first African-American players to play in the NBA. Scott has long been a champion for that trio and the other players like him who drove the sport forward. Trailblazer is an appropriate label for a guy who helped to not just pave the way but made history along the way. A nice man with a thorough knowledge of the game’s history.
“Philadelphia was always and has always been in my heart,” said Scott at his 2017 induction, with former 76ers’ executive Pat Williams seated to his right. “I’m a kid from 16 and South, third floor walk-up,” said Scott before detailing how his mother encouraged him into the sport that led him to great heights. “To stand before a group of Philadelphians, where that journey began to that league, it’s phenomenal.”
Happiest of birthdays to Ray Scott on the day that he turns 87.
Happy birthday Sir