Portal:Basketball/Selected biography/2008
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This is an archive of selected biographies that have appeared or will appear on the front page of Portal:Basketball. To nominate a biography, please see Portal:Basketball/Selected content nominations.
Charles (Charlie) Moir is a former college basketball coach. He was the head coach of the Virginia Tech Hokies men's basketball team from 1976 until his resignation in October, 1987. During his eleven seasons at Tech, Moir compiled a 213-119 record, but was forced to resign after the discovery of severe NCAA violations. Including his time at Tech and coaching stints in high school and at Roanoke College and Tulane University, Moir compiled a career record of 616-238 in his 31 seasons as a high school and college head coach.
Moir was a basketball and baseball athlete at Appalachian State University. Following his college career, Moir played Minor League Baseball with the Cincinnati Reds organization.
After three years in baseball, Moir moved on to coach high school basketball, coaching for eleven years at Stuart, Virginia, Jefferson, North Carolina, and Mt. Airy, North Carolina and finishing with a career record of 224-43.
In 1963, Moir joined the Virginia Tech basketball coaching staff as an assistant. After coaching under Bill Matthews and Howard Shannon for four seasons, Moir moved on to Roanoke College where he compiled a 133-44 record in his six years, winning the NCAA College Division (now called Division II) national championship in 1972.
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James Arthur "Jim" Boeheim is the men's basketball head coach for Syracuse University. On Monday, April 4, 2005 it was announced that Boeheim would be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame; that event occurred in September 2005. Boeheim has guided the Syracuse Orangemen (known as the Orange since 2004) to three NCAA championship game appearances. The Orange defeated Kansas in 2003 for the national title after losing to Indiana in 1987 and Kentucky in 1996.
In 1969, Boeheim decided to coach basketball and was hired as a graduate assistant at Syracuse. Soon thereafter he was promoted to a full-time assistant coach and was a member of the coaching staff that helped guide the Orange to its first Final Four appearance in 1975. Coach Roy Danforth, the head coach at the time, was hired away from Syracuse University. A coaching search then led to naught, and, in 1976, Boeheim was promoted to be the head coach of his alma mater, and to this day, Boeheim is one of the rare individuals to spend his entire college basketball career (player, assistant coach, and head coach) at only one school. In his thirty-one years as head coach at Syracuse, Boeheim has guided the Orange to postseason berths, either in the NCAA or NIT tournaments, in all but one of his seasons (SU Athletics). During his tenure, the Orange have never had a losing season, appeared in three NCAA national championship games (1987, 1996, and 2003) and won the national title in 2003.
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Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is a retired American professional basketball player and current assistant coach. He was born as Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor, Jr before changing his name in the fall of 1971, several years after converting to Islam.
Considered one of the greatest players of all time, the 7ft-2in (2.18 m) Abdul-Jabbar played center for UCLA from 1965–1969. Later, he played professionally for the Milwaukee Bucks (1969–1975) and the Los Angeles Lakers (1975–1989), accumulating 38,387 points, the NBA's highest career total. He was famous for his "Skyhook" shot which was almost impossible to block because Kareem's body was between the basket and his arm, and because of his height. His on-court success was unprecedented; he won a record six Most Valuable Player Awards, played on six championship teams as a professional, and played on three NCAA championship teams under coach John Wooden as a collegian. His high school team won 72 consecutive games and his UCLA teams were an unmatched 88-2. After a then-record 20 professional seasons in the NBA, Abdul-Jabbar retired from the game in 1989. Following his success as a professional athlete, Abdul-Jabbar has become known as a successful basketball coach, author, and part-time actor.
Abdul-Jabbar was born in Harlem, New York City, the son of Cora Lillian, a department store price checker, and Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor, Sr., a police officer and jazz musician. He was their only child. At birth, he weighed 12 pounds, 10 ounces (5730 g), and was twenty-two and a half inches (57.2 cm) long. He was raised as a Roman Catholic and attended St. Jude School in Inwood, New York. From an early age he began his record-breaking basketball accomplishments. In high school, he led Power Memorial High School to three straight New York City Catholic championships, a 72-game winning streak, and a 96–6 overall record. He scored 2067 points in his high school career.
Robert Montgomery (Bob or Bobby) Knight also known as "The General", is an American former college basketball head coach. He was most recently the head men's basketball coach at Texas Tech before announcing his retirement on February 4, 2008. He was previously the head coach at Indiana University and at the United States Military Academy.
Knight has won more NCAA Division I men's basketball games than any other head coach. On January 1, 2007, he achieved his 880th victory, which broke the record previously held by Dean Smith. His 900th victory came just over a year later, on January 16, 2008.
From 1971–2000, Knight coached at Indiana, where he led his teams to three NCAA championships, one National Invitation Tournament (NIT) championship, and eleven Big Ten Conference championships. For his accomplishments, he received the National Coach of the Year honor four times, and the Big Ten Coach of the Year honor six times. In 1984, he coached the Michael Jordan-led U.S. Olympic basketball team to win a gold medal, becoming one of only three coaches to win the "triple crown" with an NCAA title, NIT title, and an Olympic gold medal.
Due to his in-game behavior, Knight is one of NCAA Division I college basketball's most controversial coaches. He has thrown a chair across the court during a game, been arrested for physical assault, and has repeatedly displayed a combative nature during his encounters with members of the press. However, he is simultaneously commended for running clean programs, as none of his teams have ever been sanctioned by the NCAA for recruiting violations, and most of his players have graduated. Furthermore Knight is still highly regarded in the state of Indiana.
It was announced on February 28, 2008, that Knight will be joining ESPN as a men's college basketball studio analyst during Championship Week and for NCAA Tournament coverage.
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Portal:Basketball/Selected biography/May, 2008
Portal:Basketball/Selected biography/June, 2008
Portal:Basketball/Selected biography/July, 2008
Portal:Basketball/Selected biography/August, 2008
Portal:Basketball/Selected biography/September, 2008
Portal:Basketball/Selected biography/October, 2008
Portal:Basketball/Selected biography/November, 2008
Portal:Basketball/Selected biography/December, 2008
