Slater Martin

{{Infobox basketball biography

| name = Slater Martin

| image = Slater Martin (1).jpeg

| width =

| caption =

| height_ft = 5

| height_in = 10

| weight_lb = 170

| birth_date = {{birth date|1925|10|22}}

| birth_place = Elmina, Texas, U.S.

| death_date = {{death date and age|2012|10|18|1925|10|22}}

| death_place = Houston, Texas, U.S.

| high_school = Jefferson Davis (Houston, Texas)

| college = Texas (1943–1944, 1946–1949)

| draft_year = 1949

| draft_league = BAA

| draft_round = 3

| draft_pick =

| draft_team = Minneapolis Lakers

| career_position = Point guard

| career_number = 22, 7

| career_start = 1949

| career_end = 1960

| years1 = {{nbay|1949|start}}–{{nbay|1955|end}}

| team1 = Minneapolis Lakers

| years2 = {{nbay|1956|start}}

| team2 = New York Knicks

| years3 = {{nbay|1956|start}}–{{nbay|1959|end}}

| team3 = St. Louis Hawks

| cyears1 = 1957

| cteam1 = St. Louis Hawks

| cyears2 = 1967–1969

| cteam2 = Houston Mavericks

| highlights =

5× NBA champion (1950, 1952–1954, 1958)
7× NBA All-Star (1953–1959)
5× All-NBA Second Team (1955–1959)
No. 22 honored by Los Angeles Lakers
Second-team All-American – Look (1949)
Third-team All-American – Helms (1948)
No. 15 retired by Texas Longhorns

| stat1label = Points

| stat1value = 7,337 (9.8 ppg)

| stat2label = Rebounds

| stat2value = 2,302 (3.4 rpg)

| stat3label = Assists

| stat3value = 3,160 (4.2 apg)

| bbr = martisl01

| HOF_player = slater-martin

| CBBASKHOF_year = 2006

}}

Slater Nelson "Dugie" Martin Jr.[https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/m/martisl01.html Slater Martin Player Statistics] (October 22, 1925 – October 18, 2012) was an American professional basketball player and coach who was a playmaking guard for 11 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA). A seven-time NBA All-Star, he won five championships.

Early life

He was born in Elmina, Walker County, Texas. Martin was an alumnus of Jefferson Davis High School in Houston, where he led his school to two state basketball championships in 1942 and 1943.^{[http://www.washingtonwatchdog.org/environmental_justice/documents/cr/02/oc/21/cr21oc02-9.html]} He is also a graduate of University of Texas at Austin, where he set a scoring record in 1949 with 49 points in a game for the Longhorns against Texas Christian University (or TCU). Throughout his career with the Longhorns, he averaged 12.7 points per game.{{cite web | title = SR / College Basketball: Slater Martin | url = https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/players/slater-martin-1.html | access-date = October 19, 2012 | publisher = Sports Reference LLC.}} His former high school now holds an annual fund raiser in his name, the "Slater Martin Golf Tournament", which successfully raises tens of thousands of dollars each year for high school student clubs and athletic teams.

Playing career

Martin was one of the NBA's best defensive players in the 1950s, playing for the George Mikan-led Minneapolis Lakers that won four NBA championships between 1950 and 1954.{{citation |title=Passings: Slater Martin | newspaper=Los Angeles Times |date=October 19, 2012 |url=http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-passings-20121020,0,2777848.story}} In 1956, he joined Bob Pettit's St. Louis Hawks and won another NBA title in 1958.{{citation |last=Goldstein |first=Richard |title=Slater Martin, Hall of Fame Lakers Guard, Dies at 86 | newspaper=The New York Times |date=October 20, 2012 | url = https://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/19/sports/basketball/slater-martin-hall-of-fame-lakers-guard-dies-at-86.html}}

He was head coach of the Houston Mavericks of the American Basketball Association in the 1967–68 season and part of 1968–69, and led the Mavericks into the 1968 ABA Playoffs.

Martin was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on May 3, 1982, in Springfield, Massachusetts. He is the only Longhorn to be so honored. His jersey number 15 was retired by the University of Texas on January 31, 2009, making him only the second Longhorn basketball player to have his number retired.

He died of a brief illness on October 18, 2012, in Houston, Texas, aged 86.

NBA career statistics

File:Slater Martin (2).jpeg

= 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;" |1949–50†

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

|67

|–

|.351

|.634

|–

|2.2

|4.0

style="text-align:left;" |1950–51

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

|68

|–

|.362

|.684

|3.6

|3.5

|8.5

style="text-align:left;background:#afe6ba;" |1951–52†

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

|66

|37.6

|.375

|.747

|3.5

|3.8

|9.3

style="text-align:left;background:#afe6ba;" |1952–53†

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

|70

|36.5

|.410

|.780

|2.7

|3.6

|10.6

style="text-align:left;background:#afe6ba;" |1953–54†

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

|69

|35.8

|.388

|.724

|2.4

|2.9

|9.9

style="text-align:left;" |1954–55

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

|72

|38.7

|.381

|.769

|3.6

|5.9

|13.6

style="text-align:left;" |1955–56

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

|72

|39.4

|.358

|.833

|3.6

|6.2

|13.2

style="text-align:left;" |1956–57

| style="text-align:left;" |New York

|13

|32.8

|.344

|.830

|3.2

|3.0

|8.5

style="text-align:left;" |1956–57

| style="text-align:left;" |St. Louis

|53

|37.3

|.330

|.782

|4.6

|4.3

|11.5

style="text-align:left;background:#afe6ba;" |1957–58†

| style="text-align:left;" |St. Louis

|60

|35.0

|.336

|.746

|3.8

|3.6

|12.0

style="text-align:left;" |1958–59

| style="text-align:left;" |St. Louis

|71

|35.3

|.347

|.776

|3.6

|4.7

|9.7

style="text-align:left;" |1959–60

| style="text-align:left;" |St. Louis

|64

|27.4

|.371

|.726

|2.9

|5.2

|6.2

class="sortbottom"

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

|745

|35.9

|.364

|.762

|3.4

|4.2

|9.8

= 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;" |1950†

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

|12

|–

|.420

|.583

|–

|2.1

|4.7

style="text-align:left;" |1951

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

|–

|.353

|.519

|6.0

|3.6

|7.1

style="text-align:left;background:#afe6ba;" |1952†

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

|13

|40.2

|.345

|.732

|2.8

|4.3

|9.0

style="text-align:left;background:#afe6ba;" |1953†

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

|12

|37.8

|.398

|.765

|2.6

|3.6

|10.1

style="text-align:left;background:#afe6ba;" |1954†

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

|13

|41.0

|.330

|.743

|2.2

|4.6

|9.7

style="text-align:left;" |1955

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

|45.0

|.298

|.816

|4.0

|4.4

|13.7

style="text-align:left;" |1956

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

|40.3

|.459

|.833

|2.3

|5.0

|18.0

style="text-align:left;" |1957

| style="text-align:left;" |St. Louis

|10

|43.9

|.355

|.757

|4.2

|4.9

|16.6

style="text-align:left;background:#afe6ba;" |1958†

| style="text-align:left;" |St. Louis

|11

|37.8

|.321

|.619

|4.4

|3.6

|11.5

style="text-align:left;" |1959

| style="text-align:left;" |St. Louis

|18.0

|.800

|–

|3.0

|2.0

|8.0

style="text-align:left;" |1960

| style="text-align:left;" |St. Louis

|19.3

|.077

|.250

|1.0

|2.7

|1.0

class="sortbottom"

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

|92

|39.4

|.351

|.715

|3.4

|3.8

|10.0

References

External links

{{Basketballhof|/slater-n-martin}}
[http://www.nba.com/historical/playerfile/index.html?player=slater_martin NBA.com profile]
[https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/m/martisl01.html Slater Martin player statistics] at Basketball-Reference.com
[https://www.basketball-reference.com/coaches/martisl01c.html Slater Martin coach statistics] at Basketball-Reference.com

{{Navboxes

| list1 =

{{succession box | title=Houston Mavericks Head Coach | before=Initial coach | years=1967–1968| after=Jim Weaver}}