Frank Selvy

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Franklin Delano "Frank" Selvy (born November 9, 1932 in Corbin, Kentucky) is a former basketball player.

[edit] 100-point college game

Nicknamed The Corbin Comet, Selvy is best remembered for scoring 100 points in a college game for South Carolina's Furman University against Newberry College on February 13th, 1954, the only NCAA Division I player ever to do so. The game was played towards the end of Selvy's final collegiate season, and Furman coach Lyles Alley had designated the game "Frank Selvy Night" in order to garner recognition for the player who was already certain to finish the season leading the nation in scoring and earn first-team All-American honors, two accomplishments he had already attained the year before. The game was the first to be broadcast live on television in South Carolina and a large contingent from Selvy's hometown, including his family, had made the six-hour trek just for the occasion. The instructions from Coach Alley were simply to get the ball to Selvy so he can score as much as possible. Selvy obliged, hitting 41 of 66 field goals and 18 of 22 free throws, his last two points coming on a desperate heave near midcourt at the buzzer. (The game was played well before the introduction of the three-point line; Selvy would later estimate that about a dozen of his shots that day would have been three-pointers today.)

[edit] NBA career

Selvy was drafted first overall by the Baltimore Bullets in the 1954 NBA Draft. He went on to play nine seasons in the National Basketball Association during the late '50s and early '60s, interrupted by a three-year stint in the U.S. Army. As a professional, Selvy is mostly known for his time with the Los Angeles Lakers, teaming with Jerry West and Elgin Baylor. He was twice an NBA All-Star.

[edit] 1962 NBA Finals, Game 7

Selvy's best known game in the NBA is probably Game 7 of the 1962 NBA Finals in which Selvy's Lakers faced a four point deficit at the hands of Boston Celtics in the final minute of the game's fourth quarter. Selvy then proceeded to secure two crucial rebounds and score two baskets to tie the game at 100. However, he lost his chance for the ultimate heroic moment as he missed an 8-foot jump shot right before the buzzer that would have secured the championship for the Lakers had it gone in. The miss sent the game to overtime, where the Celtics prevailed in this, the first of six NBA Finals match-ups between Boston and Los Angeles over the course of just eight seasons.

Regrettably for Selvy, his missed shot gained even larger significance as those years went by because the Lakers ultimately lost every one of those championship battles with the Celtics, thus magnifying the pain of Los Angeles having lost a golden opportunity, with Selvy's shot, to end that streak of futility before it had even begun. (The Lakers, while still playing in Minneapolis, had lost to the Celtics in the NBA Finals in 1959, as well.)

The player who initially had the ball on that final play was Rod "Hot Rod" Hundley. And Hundley had in fact dreamt the night before that he would make the championship-winning shot. And further, Hundley was able dribble into the clear on the play and had an open shot himself. But rather than selfishly insisting upon attempting to play out his dream in real life, when Hundley noticed that Selvy was open for an even better shot — a shot that Selvy usually could be counted upon to make — Hundley gave up his own chance for glory and passed the ball. Selvy's miss, however, meant that Hundley's sacrifice had been for naught and that Hundley would never know if indeed he would have won the championship himself, had he taken the shot he had available. Because of this, Hundley has said that to this day, he occasionally calls his friend Selvy and, when Selvy answers the phone, Hundley simply says, "Nice shot!" and then hangs up.

It was a fairly tough shot because I was almost on the baseline. But I would trade all my points for that last basket.

— Frank Selvy as quoted on the nba.com website.

[edit] See also

• History of the Los Angeles Lakers

[edit] External links

• The State - The Night He Scored 100
• USA Today - 50 Years Since Selvy's 100