Robert Allen McAdooBorn September 25, 1951. . professional basketball player and coach. Listed as a Power Forward/Center. Drafted 2nd overall in 1972. He played 14 seasons in the National Basketball Association, where he was a five-time NBA All-Star and named the NBA Most Valuable Player in 1975. Held the NBA scoring title for three straight years (1974-1976). He won two NBA championships with the Los Angeles Lakers during their Showtime era in the 1980s. In 2000, McAdoo was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. He went on to star for Italy in the European League, winning back-to-back titles in 1987-1988. He served as an assistant coach for the Miami Heat from 1995 to 2014.
McAdoo was raised in Greensboro, North Carolina. His mother, Vandalia, taught at his grade school, and his father, Robert, was a custodian at North Carolina A&T University. McAdoo attended Ben L. Smith High School, where he not only participated in basketball and track but was also in the marching band as a saxophone player. As a senior, he led Smith to the state basketball semifinals as well as to the state track tournament, where he set a new state high-jump record of 6'7", besting his college roommate Bobby Jones (who would go on to win an NBA championship with the 1983 Philadelphia 76ers). Division I schools denied McAdoo because he "lacked the academic test scores", so he enrolled at Vincennes Junior College in Indiana in 1971, but quickly caught the eye of North Carolina Tarheels coach Dean Smith.
"We didn't really recruit him," Coach Dean Smith of North Carolina said. "His mother called us to start it. She said all the other schools were recruiting him. Why weren't we?"
McAdoo enrolled at the University of North Carolina in 1971, the only junior college player Dean Smith recruited in his entire career. McAdoo, playing alongside Bobby Jones, led the 1971–72 Tar Heels to a 26–5 record and the Final Four of the 1972 NCAA University Division Basketball Tournament. McAdoo averaged 19.5 points and 10.1 rebounds and was named first-team All-American. He also earned MVP honors at the ACC Tournament.
Citing family hardship, McAdoo sought and won early eligibility for the 1972 NBA draft under the "hardship" clause that existed until 1977. McAdoo consulted with Coach Dean Smith, who encouraged him to go to the NBA.
McAdoo said, "When I left, a lot of people were very angry and upset. But Dean gave me his blessing. He told me, ‘If they’re going to offer you this kind of money, I think you should leave to help you and your family.’ I had his blessing. My mother was totally against it,” McAdoo added, “but my father and Dean Smith were the guys who got me to move.”
McAdoo sought and won early eligibility in the 1972 NBA draft, however it was rumored that McAdoo had signed with the Virginia Squires of the rival American Basketball Association after a "secret" ABA draft in which names of those drafted were not made public. Even though no contract was produced and McAdoo denied it, reportedly, NBA Commissioner Walter Kennedy advised NBA teams not to draft McAdoo. Other reports were that a contract was signed and voided, because McAdoo was too young to have signed it and that Buffalo somehow knew this.
Later, McAdoo was indeed noted as the No. 1 pick of the 1972 American Basketball Association Draft.
Buffalo acted anyway, and McAdoo was selected with the No. 2 overall pick by the Buffalo Braves (now the Los Angeles Clippers), after rumors that contract talks between the Portland Trail Blazers and McAdoo didn't come to fruition with the first pick. LaRue Martin was selected by Portland. McAdoo signed with the Braves and quickly became one of the NBA's premier players. He won the 1973 NBA Rookie of the Year Award and was named to the NBA All-Rookie First Team. He earned the first of three consecutive NBA scoring titles in only his second season.
McAdoo was frustrated with Buffalo's losing in his rookie season, saying, "Here I was sitting at Buffalo, we were on the way to losing 61 games and we didn't have any players. My wife could have outrun those people." His second season (1973–74) remains the last time an NBA player has averaged both 30.0 points and 15.0 rebounds per game. McAdoo also led the NBA in field goal percentage in 1973–74, shooting 54.7 percent. That year he enjoyed his first of five All-Star selections.
In 1974–75, he was awarded the NBA Most Valuable Player Award, averaging 34.5 points, 14.1 rebounds and 2.12 blocks per game, while shooting 51.2 percent from the field and 80.5 percent from the free throw line. He also led the league in fan voting for the 1975 All-Star Game with 98,325 votes. McAdoo's style was very modern for his time. Although a 'big man' at 6 ft 9, he had no problems taking shots from the perimeter, which, in his prime, made him a nearly unstoppable force on offense.
On December 24, 1981, McAdoo was traded by the New Jersey Nets to the Los Angeles Lakers for a 1983 2nd round draft pick (Kevin Williams was later selected). McAdoo had not played for the Nets in the 1981–82 season and Mitch Kupchak had become injured for the Lakers.
"As the 1981–82 season began, I was in the middle of a contract dispute with the New Jersey Nets. However, I couldn’t even play since I was still recovering from off-season surgery to have bone spurs removed from my foot. There were times, standing around on crutches for months, when I thought my career was over." McAdoo reflected, "But I got a call from the Lakers on Christmas Eve. They had just lost a key player, Mitch Kupchak, who blew out his knee. In the short term, they were hoping I could fill his void coming off the bench. In the long term, I think they were hoping I could help the team get headed in the right direction."
McAdoo had a memorable end to his NBA career, winning two NBA titles with the Los Angeles Lakers in 1982 and 1985 as a key reserve on the Showtime-era teams with Hall of Famers Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and James Worthy. The former MVP was silently frustrated with not starting behind players such as Jim Brewer, Mark Landsberger, and Kurt Rambis, but sacrificed to be part of championship teams.
“That championship is the one thing I don’t have I’ll do whatever I need to get it.” McAdoo said in playing with the Lakers in 1982.
In 1981–82, the Lakers won the 1982 NBA Championship, as Pat Riley had taken over coaching from Paul Westhead. Riley and McAdoo thus began a professional relationship that continued for decades. In 41 games with the Lakers, McAdoo averaged 9.6 points and 3.9 rebounds in 18.2 minutes in the regular season. In the 1982 NBA Finals, McAdoo averaged 16.3 points in 27 minutes as the Lakers defeated the Philadelphia 76ers 4–2. In the entire playoffs, McAdoo averaged 16.7 points and 6.8 rebounds.
McAdoo resigned with the Lakers for the 1982–83 season, declining a more lucrative offer from the Philadelphia 76ers in order to remain with the Lakers.
Averaging 15.0 points in 1982-1983 and 13.1 points in 1983–84 for the Lakers in the next two seasons, the team finished 58–24 and 54–28. McAdoo played with a severely injured hamstring in the 1983 playoffs. "If we could have had Mac (McAdoo) healthy, we might have had a shot," coach Riley said after the 1983 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers in the NBA Finals.
McAdoo averaged 12.5 points and 5.5 rebounds as the Lakers lost 4–3 to the Boston Celtics in the 1984 NBA Finals.
McAdoo helped the Lakers to another NBA Championship in 1984–85, defeating Boston 4–2 in the NBA Finals. McAdoo was the 6th man, averaging 8.2 points and 3.0 rebounds in the 1985 NBA Finals and 11.4 points in the entire playoffs.
After the season, the Lakers did not re-sign McAdoo, instead offering a contract to veteran Maurice Lucas for the 6th man role.
“It was a great opportunity for me to play with Kareem and Magic,” McAdoo said of his tenure with the Lakers. “For the first time in my career, I had a chance to win a championship. But I had no thoughts at all in my mind about coming off the bench. It just happened. To me it was a wrap I would start. They didn’t have anyone who could stick with me at that position, but I dealt with it because I had never been on a championship team. And I’ve never been one to cause disruption or anything like that.”
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. But our main guys got buckets and everybody says they're ready to rock and roll. I wouldn't mind seeing a one-game play-in against the Warriors, that would be epic and I know we would win.
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