Dick Gibbs (basketball)

Dick Gibbs (born December 20, 1948) is an American retired professional basketball player. A small forward, he played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for five teams from 1971 to 1976, posting career averages of 5.2 points per game and 1.9 rebounds per game.[1]

Dick Gibbs
Personal information
Born (1948-12-20) December 20, 1948
Ames, Iowa, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Listed height6 ft 5 in (1.96 m)
Listed weight210 lb (95 kg)
Career information
High schoolAmes (Ames, Iowa)
College
  • Burlington CC (1967–1969)
  • UTEP (1969–1971)
NBA draft1971: 3rd round, 49th overall pick
Selected by the Chicago Bulls
Playing career1971–1976
PositionSmall forward
Number40, 31, 21
Career history
1971–1972Houston Rockets
1973Kansas City–Omaha Kings
1973–1974Seattle SuperSonics
1974–1975Washington Bullets
1975–1976Buffalo Braves
Career highlights and awards
  • First-team All-WAC (1971)
Career NBA statistics
Points1,739 (5.2 ppg)
Rebounds624 (1.9 rpg)
Assists260 (0.8 apg)
Stats  at NBA.com
Stats at Basketball-Reference.com

Born in Ames, Iowa,[1] Gibbs attended Ames High School and played on their basketball team in 1967, helping them reach the state championship game.[2] Following a period at Burlington Junior College, he played college basketball for the University of Texas at El Paso Miners from 1969 to 1971.[3] Gibbs scored 10.5 points per game in the 1969–70 season, when the Miners won the Western Athletic Conference championship in their first season in the league. In the last game of the regular season, Gibbs sustained an injury and was unable to play in the NCAA Tournament; the Miners lost in the first round. Their coach, Don Haskins, later said, "Without him, we had no chance to go very far in the tournament."[4]

Gibbs improved his scoring average to 17.4 points per game in 1970–71, and his 10.6 rebounds per game were up from the 8.5 he had averaged the previous season. Both totals were team highs. At the end of the season, he was named to the All-Western Athletic Conference team. As of 2012, he was fourth in Miners history with 9.7 rebounds per game for his career.[3]

In the third round of the 1971 NBA draft, Gibbs was selected by the Chicago Bulls with the 49th overall pick. He was traded to the Houston Rockets in June 1971, the first of five trades he was involved in during his career. After playing the 1971–72 season with the Rockets, Gibbs was on four other teams over the next four seasons—the Kansas City–Omaha Kings, Seattle SuperSonics, Washington Bullets, and Buffalo Braves. With the SuperSonics in 1973–74, he posted a career-high of 10.8 points per game.[1] He was dealt along with a 1975 third-round selection from the SuperSonics to the Bullets for Archie Clark on August 19, 1974.[5] The next season, he was a member of the Bullets team that reached the 1975 NBA Finals.[6] Following his playing career, Gibbs ran a drug treatment facility in Newport Beach, California.[2]

References
  1. "Dick Gibbs". Basketball-Reference. Retrieved April 8, 2010.
  2. "Iowan, Former Basketball Pro Tells Of Struggle". KCCI. February 17, 2006. Archived from the original on June 5, 2011. Retrieved January 1, 2014.
  3. "UTEP to Tangle With UAB in "Noche Latina" Game Saturday". University of Texas at El Paso. January 30, 2012. Retrieved October 21, 2014.
  4. Knight, Bill (October 28, 2015). "Gibbs, Archibald led small team to big time". El Paso Times. Retrieved December 21, 2016.
  5. "People in Sports". The New York Times. August 20, 1974. Retrieved November 30, 2020.
  6. Cannon, John (June 4, 2015). "1975 NBA Finals: The Warriors turn the NBA upside-down". Fox Sports. Retrieved October 21, 2019.
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