Johnny Egan, who performed for the Baltimore Bullets and 5 different NBA groups and recorded greater than 5,000 factors, 2,000 assists and 1,000 rebounds in his 11-year profession, died Thursday in Houston on the age of 83. He suffered a fall in May, according to former NBA columnist and friend Peter Vecsey.
The information of Mr. Egan’s passing hit a pair of former teammates arduous. Ray Scott and Mr. Egan had identified one another since they had been chosen by the Detroit Pistons within the 1961 NBA draft.
“It shocked me yesterday when I got the news because Johnny is one of those guys that I never think of in ill health,” Mr. Scott, 84, stated Friday. “I know we’re in our 80s and we go through all kinds of stuff, but my thoughts were how he was a constant lover of basketball. My last pictures in my memory of him are of him as an 80-year-old gentleman out shooting baskets with his grandson and showing him all the tricks of the trade and the things he could do because John was probably in America one of the great high school and college players. In the NBA, he was a good player.”
Kevin Loughery, 82, performed three seasons with Mr. Egan on the Bullets and recalled how match Mr. Egan seemed after they, Mr. Scott and Johnny Green had been honored by the Washington Wizards on Nov. 17, 2016.
“Johnny looked fantastic,” Mr. Loughery stated Friday morning. “He was the same as he was physically when he played, and he had the same attitude. So this really surprised me. I know we lost [former Bullets player and coach] Gene Shue and [former Bullets player and general manager] Bobby Ferry and [former Bullets player, coach and general manager] Wes Unseld, but this really surprised me.”
As a younger participant in highschool in Hartford, Connecticut, the place he led Weaver High to a New England championship, Mr. Egan earned the nickname “Space.” According to a biography printed in 2020, the nickname paid homage both to his capacity to remain within the air throughout drives to the basket or to the size of his long-distance pictures.
Mr. Loughery stated Mr. Egan’s nickname was effectively deserved.
“He could really jump,” Mr. Loughery stated. “He would be terrific in today’s game because it’s dominated by point guards. He would be fantastic. He could shoot. He had distance on his shots. He could take it to the hoop.”
At Providence, the place he performed beside Hall of Famer Lenny Wilkens, Mr. Egan scored 1,434 factors in 80 video games from 1959 to 1961 in an period when freshmen weren’t eligible to take part. As a senior, he led the Friars to their first National Invitational Tournament (NIT) championship with a 62-59 win in opposition to Saint Louis by averaging 18.8 factors.
Mr. Scott, who was residence in Philadelphia, took a practice to Madison Square Garden in New York City to look at Mr. Egan and Providence play within the NIT. “He didn’t disappoint,” Mr. Scott recalled. “He was a great player.”
As rookies with the Pistons, Mr. Scott, the fourth general selection within the 1961 NBA draft, and Mr. Egan, a second-round choice, bonded instantly. Mr. Scott, a 6-foot-9 energy ahead/heart, stated Mr. Egan, a 5-11 level guard, had a prankster-like humorousness.
Case in level: During a crew constitution flight that included officers from the earlier evening’s sport, a pilot knowledgeable all passengers to put on oxygen masks. While referee Joe Gushue slept, Mr. Egan unhooked Mr. Gushue’s masks.
“Joe woke up gasping, and we pretended we were asleep, but we kept one eye open watching him struggle,” Mr. Scott stated. “It was funny to us because he was a referee. You had no power over the referees. So this was our chance. And that was one of the biggest laughs we ever had. I think we told that story 100 times, and this is the 101st time I’ve told it.”
Mr. Egan arrived in Baltimore in November 1965 as a part of a commerce that despatched Bullets heart Walt Bellamy to the New York Knicks. Mr. Egan served as a 3rd guard to enrich Don Ohl and Kevin Loughery and acquired a large spark plug as a present from Bullets followers for his function on the crew.
Despite his body that made him one of many shortest gamers within the league, Mr. Egan’s expertise had been plain, Mr. Scott stated.
“He was a little guy, but he could jump in the air, and he had large hands,” he stated. “He had the hands of a big man and long arms, and he was fast.”
Mr. Loughery, a 6-3 taking pictures guard, stated Mr. Egan’s angle was as daring as his drives into the lane.
“Johnny was very confident in his game,” Mr. Loughery stated. “I think the one thing about him was he really believed. At that time, it was a lot of big guards, 6-3, 6-4. But he was very confident and very athletic. If he played today with no big people in the middle with the way they play today, shooting threes in that wide-open game, he’d be fantastic. He’d be an All-Star.”
In the 1968 enlargement draft, Mr. Egan was picked by the Milwaukee Bucks, who then traded him to the Los Angeles Lakers, who reached the NBA Finals within the two seasons Mr. Egan performed for them. After retiring in 1972 and wrapping up a profession that included 5,521 factors, 2,102 assists and 1,284 rebounds, he served as head coach of the Houston Rockets from 1972 to 1976 and led the franchise to its first .500 end and one playoff look in 1975.
Mr. Egan stayed in Houston and based an insurance coverage agency. He banded collectively a gaggle of shoppers on the Starbucks that he frequented to take part in charitable occasions to offer again to the neighborhood. He additionally served as the primary on-air broadcast associate of former Rockets play-by-play announcer Bill Worrell.
Even as an elder statesman, Mr. Egan labored tirelessly to unfold the sport of basketball to youthful generations.
“He’s an ambassador because of his love for the game,” Mr. Scott stated. “He never walked away from the game. He sought to enhance the game and teach kids and do clinics. He was teaching his grandson. … He was far into his 60s, 70s and 80s. Most of us, like me, we’re looking for that recliner, and I never saw Johnny in a recliner. Never.”
Mr. Scott stated he relished the prospect to spend time with Mr. Egan after they honored by the Wizards six years in the past.
“We sat in the hotel lobby with my son, and we talked far into the night,” he stated. “So he was somebody that was in my life from beginning to end, from the time we were drafted. And now he’s gone home to heaven, and I’m going to miss that guy. He was just somebody that was perpetually in my life.”
Mr. Egan is survived by his son, John Jr., daughter, Kim, and 5 grandchildren. His spouse Joan died of ovarian most cancers in 1998.
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Source: www.bostonherald.com