Thurmond, Nate

Nate Thurmond, byname of Nathaniel Thurmond, also called Nate the Great, (born July 25, 1941, Akron, Ohio, U.S.—died July 16, 2016, San Francisco, California), American basketball player who was one of the greatest centres in National Basketball Association (NBA) history. In the 1960s the NBA was ruled by big men. More specifically, it was two centres—the ultimate team player Bill Russell and the superhuman Wilt Chamberlain—whose rivalry was the axis upon which the league tilted. Yet from 1964 into the next decade, there was another dominant big man who left nearly as pronounced a mark on the league: Nate Thurmond.

Thurmond attended Bowling Green State University, a school with very little history of basketball success. Still, he made enough of an impression to be drafted third overall in 1963 by a San Francisco Warriors team that already had Chamberlain. Thurmond began his professional career backing up Wilt, yet he proved enough in limited minutes to make the NBA’s All-Rookie team. The next season he averaged 16.5 points and 18.1 rebounds per game, enough to make the Warriors comfortable with trading Chamberlain mid-season and installing Thurmond as their star in the post.

Thurmond responded immediately, excelling at rebounding and defense at a time when blocked shots were not even recorded as a statistic. Had they been tracked, Thurmond would have registered some eye-popping totals. Nevertheless, his track record was impressive. In 1966–67 the Warriors reached the NBA finals, where they lost to Chamberlain and the Philadelphia 76ers. The following season Thurmond put up huge numbers: 20.5 points and 22 rebounds per game. He continued to post strong seasons through 1974, when he was dealt to the Chicago Bulls. In his first game with the Bulls, Thurmond made NBA history by accumulating 22 points, 14 rebounds, 13 assists, and 12 blocked shots, becoming the first player to record a quadruple-double. Thurmond spent 13 games of the 1975–76 season with Chicago before landing with the Cleveland Cavaliers, for whom he played until retiring in 1977. He was selected to play in seven All-Star Games in his career and had the third highest rebound total in league history at the time of his retirement.

It might have been Thurmond’s style of play that kept him from enjoying the limelight. Whereas Russell’s defense was gravity-defying, Thurmond, if no less imposing, was a more conventional presence (by the relatively floor-bound standards of the time) down low. For his part Chamberlain was simply a phenomenal scoring machine. Thurmond was more of a blue-collar kind of player: pulling down rebounds, clogging the lane, setting screens to facilitate shots, and passing the ball to create scoring opportunities. Moreover, many of his Warriors teams featured Rick Barry or Jeff Mullins to carry the scoring load. Thurmond was nevertheless voted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1985, and in 1996 he was named one of the 50 best players in NBA history.