| No. 11 | |
|---|---|
| Small forward / Shooting guard | |
| Personal information | |
| Date of birth | November 20, 1953 |
| Place of birth | Brooklyn, New York |
| Nationality | American |
| High school | Thomas Jefferson (Brooklyn, New York) |
| Listed height | 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) |
| Listed weight | 195 lb (88 kg) |
| Career information | |
| College | Rutgers |
| NBA Draft | 1976 / Round: 3 / Pick: 48th overall |
| Selected by the Detroit Pistons | |
| Pro career | 1976–1979 |
| Career history | |
| 1976–1977 | Detroit Pistons |
| 1978 | Jersey Shore Bullets (CBA) |
| 1978–1979 | Amsterdam Amstel Veen (Netherlands) |
| Career highlights and awards | |
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| Stats at NBA.com | |
| Stats at Basketball-Reference.com | |
Phillip "Phil" Sellers, Jr. (born November 20, 1953, Brooklyn, New York) is an American former professional basketball player for the Detroit Pistons of the NBA.[1]
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A native of New York, Sellers played high school basketball at Thomas Jefferson High School in Brooklyn.[1] He achieved success at the prep level, winning the MVP Award of Pittsburgh's Dapper Dan Tournament at the end of his senior season.[2] He also earned All-America honors at Jefferson and received over 200 scholarship offers from colleges across the country to play basketball.[2] Sellers signed a letter of intent to play at Notre Dame, but worries about managing the tough academics made him reconsider and so he attended Livingston College in New Jersey, a part of Rutgers University specially designed to help students from low-income backgrounds.[2]
At Rutgers, Sellers played under then-assistant coach and future college basketball legend Dick Vitale.[3] His decision to become a Scarlet Knight was initially criticized,[3] but Sellers lead Rutgers to two NIT berths during his freshman and sophomore seasons and then back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances in his final two collegiate seasons.[3]
Rutgers University's best men's basketball season in school history came during 1975–76. Sellers, a senior and Consensus Second Team All-American,[4] led the team to a 31–0 start. The team finished 31–2, and their only two losses occurred in the national semifinals (to Michigan) and the third-place game (to UCLA).[3] Sellers graduated from Rutgers in 1976 and is still the school's all-time leading scorer (2,399) and rebounder (1,115).[3] On January 16, 1988, he had his jersey number (#12) retired, making him one of only three Scarlet Knights players to have ever been so honored.[3]
After graduating, Sellers was picked in the third round (38th overall) of the 1976 NBA Draft by the Detroit Pistons, but lasted only a year with the Pistons before being put on waivers.[3] He then served as an assistant at Rutgers for three years before moving on to a job with a mortgage banking firm in Perth Amboy, New Jersey.[3] Sellers finished his one-year NBA career averaging 4.5 points, 0.9 rebounds and 0.6 assists in 44 games played.[1]
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