In February of 1974, a high school junior by the name of Bill Cartwright showed up in Sports Illustrated's Faces in the Crowd after the Elk Grove start scored 62 points in a game. A year later, the senior was once again in SI as he was once dominating the high school basketball scene in Northern California. Soon, the hard-working, laid back 7-footer would be headed to San Francisco to play for the Dons... the 2nd Big Bill to dominate at USF.
And dominate is exactly what Cartwright did... a 3-time WCAC player of the year, he would have his #24 retired by his college, and then was drafted two picks back of Magic Johnson as the 3rd choice of the 1979 NBA Draft. And as a rookie he thrived being named an All-Star after scoring almost 22 points a game and pulling down 9 boards as well. And none of this load management for Bill... he played over 38 minutes a game in all 82 games that season. in fact, in his first 5 seasons he missed only 15 games.
But then disaster struck. Injuries to his left foot caused him to miss almost two full seasons of ball. All of a sudden this man who was never hurt, couldn't get on the court. His time in New York was never the same and in 1988 he was traded to the Bulls. This is when we say... and the rest is history.
The dominant big man became the starting center in Chicago and was a key player on the Michael Jordan led teams that won the first of three straight NBA championships from 1991-93. And when his playing days ended, he returned to Chicago under Phil Jackson and won 2-more NBA titles as an assistant coach.
Now over 50 years since the kid out of Sacramento was a face in the crowd, Bill joins us on the Past Our Prime podcast to tell us how his hard-working parents impacted his life... why he chose USF over UCLA and how he went from the frustration of two lost seasons in New York to the ultimate joy of not one, not two, but three NBA Crowns. A star player in high school, college and the NBA, 2-time championship-winning assistant coach, NBA Head Coach and now author of the book Living Life at the Center, Big Bill Cartwright is still the man in the middle...
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