Happy 93rd Birthday, Richie Guerin

Photo credit: Caleb Gomez, 2014.

An NBA legend celebrates a birthday on May 29 as Richie Guerin turns 93. 

Guerin, a 6 foot, 4 inch guard who was one of the original New York Knicks, is a New York City native who attended high school at the Bronx’s Mount Saint Michael Academy. Guerin is one of a few famous athletic alumni of the school. Former Baltimore Colts Defensive Tackle Art Donovan, who was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1968, attended, as did another Colts-affiliated NFL figure - former Colts President and General Manager Bill Polian, who served in that capacity with the team from 1998-2009. 

For college, Guerin attended Iona, where he went on to score 1,375 career points (19.6 points per game) from 1951-1954 in 67 games. As a senior, he averaged 24.7 points and 10.9 rebounds. He was two-time All-Metropolitan and in a game against John Carroll University as a senior scored 40 points. In 1983, Guerin was inducted into the college’s Arrigoni Hall of Fame.

Guerin was taken 17th overall by the Knicks in the 1954 Draft, the same draft as Bob Pettit, Johnny “Red” Kerr, Larry Costello, and Slick Leonard. 

From 1954-1956, Guerin did not play in the NBA, serving on active duty for two years in the Marine Corps Reserves. 

Making his debut for the 1956-57 season, Guerin played 72 games and averaged 9.7 points. In his second season, Guerin was an all-star for the first time (he made six consecutive from 1957-1963), putting up 16.5 points, 7.0 rebounds, and 5.0 assists. Over the next two seasons, with averages of 18.2 points per game (71 games) and 21.8 points per game (74 games), Guerin made the All-NBA 2nd team. 

In 1960-61, Guerin averaged 21.8 points per game once again, along with 7.9 rebounds and 6.4 assists, in 79 games. Guerin enjoyed his best NBA season in 1961-62 when he averaged 29.5 points, 6.9 assists, and 6.4 rebounds in 78 games on 44% shooting in a career-high 42.9 minutes per game. 

That season, he eclipsed 30 or more points in 36 games, including a game of 51 points, 10 rebounds, and 6 assists on 23-of-36 shooting in a 125-112 victory over the Boston Celtics on February 14, 1962. Eleven days later in a 149-135 victory over the Philadelphia Warriors, Guerin scored 50 points (13 assists, 11 rebounds) on 17-of-28 shooting from the field and 16-of-19 from the line. He made the All-NBA 2nd team once again, and finished seventh in Most Valuable Player voting. The numbers one to six finishes that season were Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Oscar Robertson, Elgin Baylor, Jerry West, and Pettit. 

Guerin’s final all-star campaign came in 1962-63, when he averaged 21.5 points, 4.4 assists, and 4.2 rebounds on 43% shooting in 79 games. 

On October 20, 1963, Guerin was traded to the St. Louis Hawks, joining Pettit, a third-year point guard named Lenny Wilkens, and first-year player and Hall of Fame center Zelmo Beaty. In 78 games with the Hawks in 1963-64, Guerin averaged 13.1 points on 11 shots and 4.8 assists per game in 30 minutes per game. That season, the Hawks led by Pettit’s 27.4 points and 15.3 rebounds per game won 46 games and made the Western Division Finals before losing to Wilt and the San Francisco Warriors. 

Over his final three seasons in St. Louis, Guerin averaged 14.4 points, 14.9 points, and 13.7 points in 117 games, including 80 games in his final two seasons there. In 1964-65, Guerin shot a career best 45% from the field. The 1964-65 Hawks made the Western Division Semifinals, in 1965-66 made the Western Division Finals, and in Guerin’s final St. Louis season made the Western Division Finals. 

After being selected by the Seattle SuperSonics in the 1967 Expansion Draft, Guerin retired following 11 NBA seasons and for the 1967-68 season assumed full-time the role of player-coach. He guided the Hawks to 56 wins and a Western Division Semifinals appearance. 

The following season, at age 36, he returned to the Hawks’ franchise, now in Atlanta, for two more seasons. From 1965-66 through to 1969-70, Guerin served as player-coach, winning 36, 39, 56, 48, and 48 games. In both seasons in Atlanta, he led the Hawks to the Western Division Finals, losing to West, Chamberlain, and the Lakers. 

In 848 games over 13 seasons, Guerin averaged 15 shots in 32.4 minutes per game. He finished his career with a points-per-game average of 17.3 and assist average of 5.0. As a Knick, he played 518 games (35.2 minutes) and averaged 20.1 points, 6.4 rebounds, and 5.1 assists on 41% shooting and led the team in points and assists four consecutive seasons. Guerin’s lone playoff appearance with the Knicks was in 1959, when the team faced the Syracuse Nationals in the Eastern Division Semifinals, losing in two games. He scored 24 points in Game 1 of that series. 

As a Hawk, Guerin averaged 13.0 points and 4.5 assists in 330 games, averaging 27.9 minutes per game and 11 shots.

On December 11, 1959 in a game against the Syracuse Nationals, Guerin in 38 minutes shot 18-of-31 from the field made 21 of his 26 free-throw attempts for a career-high 57 points. He also had 12 rebounds and 8 assists in the game. Almost one year earlier to the date, on December 12, 1958, Guerin totaled 21 assists in a game against the Hawks. His franchise record of 57 points stood for 35 years, broken by Bernard King (60 points) on Christmas Day 1984 in a game against the New Jersey Nets. His record of 21 assists in a game stood for nearly 50 years, broken by Chris Duhon (22 assists) on November 29, 2008 in a game against the Golden State Warriors.

Guerin was the first Knicks’ player to score over 2,000 points in a season, in 1961-62. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2013. 

Happy 93rd, Richie Guerin.