Satch Sanders

{{Short description|American basketball player and coach (born 1938)}}

{{Infobox basketball biography

| name = Satch Sanders

| image = Thomas Satch Sanders at NEBBHOF.jpg

| width =

| caption = Sanders in 2013

| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1938|11|08}}

| birth_place = New York City, New York, U.S.

| height_ft = 6

| height_in = 6

| weight_lb = 210

| high_school = Seward Park
(New York City, New York)

| college = NYU (1957–1960)

| draft_year = 1960

| draft_round = 1

| draft_pick = 8

| draft_team = Boston Celtics

| career_position = Power forward

| career_number = 16

| career_start = 1960

| career_end = 1973

| years1 = {{nbay|1960|start}}–{{nbay|1972|end}}

| team1 = Boston Celtics

| coach_start = 1973

| coach_end = 1978

| cyears1 = 1973–1977

| cteam1 = Harvard

| cyears2 = {{nbay|1977|full=y}}

| cteam2 = Boston Celtics (assistant)

| cyears3 = 1978

| cteam3 = Boston Celtics

| highlights =

8× NBA champion ({{nbafy|1961}}–{{nbafy|1966}}, {{nbafy|1968}}, {{nbafy|1969}})
NBA All-Defensive Second Team (1969)
No. 16 retired by Boston Celtics
Third-team All-American – UPI (1960)
Haggerty Award (1960)

| stat1label = Points

| stat1value = 8,766 (9.6 ppg)

| stat2label = Rebounds

| stat2value = 5,798 (6.3 rpg)

| stat3label = Assists

| stat3value = 1,026 (1.1 apg)

| cstats_league1 = NBA

| cwin1 = 23

| closs1 = 39

| cstats_league2 = College

| cwin2 = 40

| closs2 = 60

| HOF = satch-sanders

}}

Thomas Ernest "Satch" Sanders (born November 8, 1938) is an American former professional basketball player and coach. He played his entire professional career as a power forward for the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Sanders won eight NBA championships and is tied for third for the most NBA championships. He is also one of three NBA players with an unsurpassed 8–0 record in NBA Finals series.{{citation |last=Berkman |first=Seth |title=N.B.A. Finals Legend or Loser? Luck Is Often the Difference | newspaper=The New York Times |date=June 19, 2016 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/20/sports/basketball/lebron-james-nba-finals-legend-or-loser-luck-is-often-the-difference.html}} After his playing retirement, he served as a head coach for the Harvard Crimson men's basketball team and the Boston Celtics. Sanders was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame as a contributor in 2011.

Career

File:Satch Sander with Boston mayor John F. Collins.jpg in the 1960s]]

File:Tom sanders celtics.jpg

After playing at New York University as a stand out collegian, he spent all of his 13 years in the National Basketball Association (NBA) with the Boston Celtics. He scored a career-high 30 points to go along with 26 rebounds in a 142–110 win over the Syracuse Nationals on March 13, 1962.{{cite web|url=https://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/196203130BOS.html|title=Syracuse Nationals at Boston Celtics Box Score, March 13, 1962|publisher=Basketball-Reference|access-date=February 17, 2020}} He was part of the eight championship teams in 1961–66, 1968 and 1969. In NBA history, only teammates Bill Russell and Sam Jones have won more championship rings during their playing careers (three other teammates, John Havlicek, Tom Heinsohn and K. C. Jones, also won eight championship rings).

Sanders underwent knee surgery in 1970 after he injured his left knee during the last Celtics game for the regular season.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/111877928/the-north-jersey-record-23-march-1970/|title=The North Jersey Record 23 March 1970|newspaper=The Record |date=23 March 1970 |page=28 |access-date=October 23, 2022}} This immensely affected his ability to play afterwards. He announced he was ending his playing career in 1973. On March 20, 1968, a housing development group formed by Sanders (called the Sanders Associates) received a $996,000 FHA commitment through the Boston Rehabilitation Program (BURP) for the rehabilitation of 83 units in Roxbury, Massachusetts after local community activists (including Mel King) criticized BURP for a lack of sufficient community control and racial equity.{{cite book|last1=Levine|first1=Hillel|last2=Harmon|first2=Lawrence|title=The Death of an American Jewish Community: A Tragedy of Good Intentions|year=1992|place=New York|publisher=Free Press|pages=120–121|isbn=978-0029138656}}

Following his playing career Sanders became the basketball coach at Harvard University, a position he held until 1977. Sanders became the first African-American to serve as a head coach of any sport in the Ivy League.{{cite web |url=http://www.ivyleaguesports.com/history/blackhistory/2011-12/tom_satch_sanders |title=The Ivy Influence: Tom "Satch" Sanders |access-date=2013-06-05 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140810015203/http://www.ivyleaguesports.com/history/blackhistory/2011-12/tom_satch_sanders |archive-date=2014-08-10 }} In 1978, Sanders became the head coach of the Boston Celtics, taking over for former teammate Tommy Heinsohn. Sanders returned the following season; however after a 2–12 record he was replaced by Dave Cowens, who took on the role as a player-coach. In 1986, Sanders founded the Rookie Transition Program - the first such program in any major American sport.{{cite web|url=https://www.nba.com/celtics/081411-satch-hall-of-fame.html|title=Satch Sanders Enters Basketball Hall of Fame|work=NBA.com|access-date=October 23, 2022}}

NBA career statistics

= Regular season =

class="wikitable sortable" style="font-size:95%; text-align:right;"

!Year

!Team

!GP

!MPG

!FG%

!FT%

!RPG

!APG

!PPG

style="text-align:left;background:#afe6ba;" |1960–61†

| style="text-align:left;" |Boston

|68

|15.9

|.420

|.670

|5.7

|0.6

|5.3

style="text-align:left;background:#afe6ba;" |1961–62†

| style="text-align:left;" |Boston

|80

|29.1

|.435

|.749

|9.5

|0.9

|11.2

style="text-align:left;background:#afe6ba;" |1962–63†

| style="text-align:left;" |Boston

|80

|26.9

|.456

|.738

|7.2

|1.2

|10.8

style="text-align:left;background:#afe6ba;" |1963–64†

| style="text-align:left;" |Boston

|80

|29.6

|.417

|.761

|8.3

|1.3

|11.4

style="text-align:left;background:#afe6ba;" |1964–65†

| style="text-align:left;" |Boston

|80

|30.7

|.429

|.745

|8.3

|1.2

|11.8

style="text-align:left;background:#afe6ba;" |1965–66†

| style="text-align:left;" |Boston

|72

|26.3

|.428

|.764

|7.1

|1.3

|12.6

style="text-align:left;" |1966–67

| style="text-align:left;" |Boston

|81

|23.8

|.428

|.817

|5.4

|1.1

|10.2

style="text-align:left;background:#afe6ba;" |1967–68†

| style="text-align:left;" |Boston

|78

|25.4

|.428

|.784

|5.8

|1.3

|10.2

style="text-align:left;background:#afe6ba;" |1968–69†

| style="text-align:left;" |Boston

|82

|26.6

|.430

|.733

|7.0

|1.3

|11.2

style="text-align:left;" |1969–70

| style="text-align:left;" |Boston

|57

|28.4

|.443

|.880

|5.5

|1.6

|11.5

style="text-align:left;" |1970–71

| style="text-align:left;" |Boston

|17

|7.1

|.364

|.875

|1.0

|0.6

|2.3

style="text-align:left;" |1971–72

| style="text-align:left;" |Boston

|82

|19.9

|.410

|.816

|4.3

|1.2

|6.6

style="text-align:left;" |1972–73

| style="text-align:left;" |Boston

|59

|7.2

|.315

|.657

|1.5

|0.5

|2.0

class="sortbottom"

| colspan="2" style="text-align:center;" |Career

|916

|24.2

|.428

|.767

|6.3

|1.1

|9.6

= Playoffs =

class="wikitable sortable" style="font-size:95%; text-align:right;"

!Year

!Team

!GP

!MPG

!FG%

!FT%

!RPG

!APG

!PPG

style="text-align:left;background:#afe6ba;" |1961†

| style="text-align:left;" |Boston

|10

|21.6

|.493

|.625

|8.4

|0.7

|8.9

style="text-align:left;background:#afe6ba;" |1962†

| style="text-align:left;" |Boston

|14

|31.4

|.431

|.806

|8.2

|1.0

|10.1

style="text-align:left;background:#afe6ba;" |1963†

| style="text-align:left;" |Boston

|13

|29.8

|.437

|.774

|7.4

|1.5

|9.8

style="text-align:left;background:#afe6ba;" |1964†

| style="text-align:left;" |Boston

|10

|30.2

|.362

|.676

|6.8

|0.6

|9.1

style="text-align:left;background:#afe6ba;" |1965†

| style="text-align:left;" |Boston

|12

|30.4

|.421

|.721

|8.5

|1.6

|13.3

style="text-align:left;background:#afe6ba;" |1966†

| style="text-align:left;" |Boston

|17

|29.4

|.483

|.750

|6.5

|1.6

|13.5

style="text-align:left;" |1967

| style="text-align:left;" |Boston

|16.0

|.344

|.400

|4.8

|0.6

|4.9

style="text-align:left;background:#afe6ba;" |1968†

| style="text-align:left;" |Boston

|14

|20.6

|.505

|.762

|4.5

|0.9

|8.3

style="text-align:left;background:#afe6ba;" |1969†

| style="text-align:left;" |Boston

|15

|13.1

|.438

|.742

|3.2

|0.5

|5.8

style="text-align:left;" |1972

| style="text-align:left;" |Boston

|11

|16.9

|.321

|.619

|2.4

|0.9

|4.3

style="text-align:left;" |1973

| style="text-align:left;" |Boston

|4.8

|.556

|.000

|1.0

|0.2

|2.0

class="sortbottom"

| colspan="2" style="text-align:center;" |Career

|130

|23.5

|.436

|.716

|5.8

|1.0

|8.8

Gallery

{{Gallery

|title=Photos of Sanders

|width=200 | height=

|align=center

|footer=

|File:Sam Jones of the Boston Celtics (left) and Satch Sanders of the Boston Celtics (right) with group girls holding basketball trophies (12461581385) (1).jpg

| Sanders (far right) and Celtics teammate Sam Jones (far left) pose with youth basketball trophy recipients in the 1960s

|alt1=

|File:President John F. Kennedy with the Boston Celtics (01) (A).jpg

|Sanders (far right) and his Celtics teammates pose with President John F. Kennedy in the Oval Office of the White House in January 1963

|alt2=

|File:Boston Field Office Royal Protective Detail (52553702985) (1).jpg

|Sanders (back center) watching a November 2022 Boston Celtics game. In the front row are Boston Mayor Michelle Wu; Massachusetts Governor–elect Maura Healey; and diplomatic guests William, Prince of Wales and Catherine, Princess of Wales (visiting Boston for the 2022 Earthshot Prize)

}}

References

External links

[https://www.basketball-reference.com/coaches/sandeto01c.html BasketballReference.com: Satch Sanders (as coach)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110225120209/http://www.basketball-reference.com/coaches/sandeto01c.html |date=2011-02-25 }}
[https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/s/sandeto01.html BasketballReference.com: Satch Sanders (as player)]
[https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/coaches/tom-sanders-1.html Sports-Reference.com: Satch Sanders (as college coach)]

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