Roderick McDonald (basketball)

Roderick McDonald
Personal information
Born (1945-04-09)April 9, 1945
Jacksonville, Florida
Died January 17, 2015(2015-01-17) (aged 69)
San Jose, California
Nationality American
Listed height 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m)
Listed weight 200 lb (91 kg)
Career information
High school Clover Park (Lakewood, Washington)
College Whitworth (1963–1967)
NBA draft 1967 / Round: 9 / Pick: 101st overall
Selected by the Seattle SuperSonics
Playing career 1970–1973
Position Small forward / Power forward
Number 14
Career history
1970–1973 Utah Stars
Career highlights and awards
Career statistics
Points 282 (3.2 ppg)
Rebounds 197 (2.3 rpg)
Stats at Basketball-Reference.com

Roderick McDonald (April 9, 1945 – January 17, 2015) was an American professional basketball player. McDonald was born in Jacksonville, Florida. He spent his early childhood in Japan, New York and Panama. He graduated from Cloverpark High School in 1963.

College career

McDonald played at Whitworth University, for the Pirates basketball team. He was an NAIA All-American in 1967. Later in life, he would be inducted into the Whitworth University Heritage Hall of Fame.

Professional career

He was drafted in the ninth round (110th overall) by the Seattle SuperSonics in the 1967 NBA Draft, but he never played for them. After a stint in the Army where he earned an honorable discharge, he was drafted by the Utah Stars, starting with the 1970 season. Nicknamed "The Rocket", he played for three years, winning an ABA Championship in 1971. In those playoffs, he played 5 games and averaged 3.6 points and 2.6 rebounds. In his two subsequent playoff experiences, he would score an average of 6.0 and 0.7 points per game, while only playing 1 and 3 games, respectively.

He played 87 games in his career.[1]

After his career ended, he moved to San Jose with his wife, whom he was married to for 43 years. On January 17, 2015, McDonald died. He was survived by his two children and four grandchildren.[2]

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Sunday, August 23, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.