He played with Nate Thurmond

In the late 1980's I worked for just over a year in the office of a small furniture manufacturer in Greenwood, Arkansas. The gentleman who was the scheduler shared my office. He was tall (probably 6-3 or 6-4), reserved in personality and easy to get along with. I enjoyed working with him.

One day we were visiting about things in general and the conversation somehow drifted to sports. He revealed that in his youth he played basketball, and evidently was pretty good. He said he played frequently in pick-up games in which one of the players was Nate Thurmond. For those of you who are younger, Thurmond was one of the all-time great post players in NBA history. Over a 15-year NBA career he averaged 15 points and 15 rebounds per game. In 1967-68 he averaged 20.5 ppg and 22.0 rpg. He was the first player in NBA history to record a quadruple-double and was recognized as one of the 50 greatest players in the first 50 years of the NBA. LINK You might notice that the video clip shows, among other things, Thurmond blocking the sky hook by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Needless to say, I was impressed with our scheduler if that was the company he kept on the court.