Bob Lanier was house, for the ultimate time.
He could have been born in Buffalo, blossoming right into a star at Bennett Excessive Faculty after getting minimize from the group as a sophomore. He could have change into an important a part of two totally different NBA franchises, in Detroit and in Milwaukee, each of which retired his No. 16 jersey. He could have earned a bust on the Naismith Corridor of Fame in Springfield, Mass.
And he could have settled into a cheerful civilian life as an assistant coach to Don Nelson with Golden State, after which because the NBA’s international ambassador underneath two commissioners, David Stern and Adam Silver, spreading extra goodwill on the recreation’s grassroots degree than anybody ever has. He did that from the heat of Arizona.
However for Lanier, who died late Tuesday evening at 73 after a brief sickness, house was St. Bonaventure. Residence was the corporate of teammates with whom he led the Bonnies to the brink of immortality. Residence was this small, out-of-the-way nook of the Southern Tier, the place he left behind a classic pair of his size-22 Chuck Taylors and an infinite chunk of his coronary heart.
“I realized to be a person right here, and the right way to deal with individuals the fitting manner,” he stated in a quiet second that December weekend in 2019, when Lanier and the remainder of the 1969-70 Bonnies gathered to be feted on the fiftieth anniversary of the group’s exceptional journey to the Closing 4. “I realized about love and about loss and the right way to deal with them each.”
There was an unstated melancholy surrounding Lanier that weekend. He’d been via some well being points, and simply attending to Olean from Arizona had been a chore. Most of his life, he was a gregarious, outgoing soul, keen to interact on any topic you want. Now, he spoke in quiet, hushed tones.
“It’s good to be right here,” he stated. “It’s good to be with my brothers.”
Lanier’s passing has left a complete sport in mourning. Lanier was an eight-time All-Star, received the 1974 All-Star Recreation MVP, averaged 20.1 factors and 10.1 rebounds in 15 seasons when his nightly opponents included the likes of Wilt Chamberlain and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Willis Reed and Nate Thurmond, Dave Cowens and Wes Unseld. He was legit as a participant, don’t fear about that.
However he was additionally an energetic voice within the Nationwide Basketball Gamers Affiliation. He was one thing of a greeter for younger gamers coming into the league, ceaselessly providing his telephone quantity, telling them to lean on him every time obligatory, beneficiant with recommendation. And he spent a lot time spreading the league’s gospel that, as Kenny Smith famous on TNT, “he wasn’t simply an ‘ambassador.’ He was truly The Ambassador.”
And, after all, there was this everlasting tribute from Kareem, as Roger Murdock, in “Airplane!”: “Inform your outdated man to pull Walton and Lanier up and down the courtroom for 48 minutes!”
It was Lanier’s misfortune to spend 10 years with some terribly pedestrian Pistons groups, then 5 years with the Bucks after they had been excellent — simply by no means adequate to bypass the 76ers or Celtics within the East. That was disappointing.
However the real heartbreak of Lanier’s life got here in March 1970. The Bonnies beat Davidson and N.C. State and had been crushing Villanova halfway via the second half of the East Regional ultimate when Lanier collided with Nova’s Chris Ford — a future Detroit teammate — and tore his medial collateral ligament.
So whereas his teammates performed Jacksonville within the Closing 4 every week later, making an attempt to determine the right way to guard twin 7-footers Artis Gilmore and Pembrook Burrows, Lanier was in a hospital mattress in Buffalo, consuming his coronary heart out.
There have been occasions when he may joke about that. The Bonnies by no means did get a crack at UCLA, which was between the Kareem/Walton eras and had Steve Patterson enjoying middle.
“Steve Patterson!” Lanier exclaimed over the phone one evening in 1990. “You name Steve Patterson, inform him to satisfy me on any courtroom he desires, and I’ll drop 35 on him tonight, at age 42! In my road garments!”
However he additionally felt a nagging sense that he’d let his teammates down. These teammates by no means felt that manner after all. They’d been handled to an up-close view of greatness. And the oldsters who care concerning the Bonnies …
Properly, when Lanier was launched at halftime that weekend, the ovation lasted two minutes — and would’ve stretched additional if Lanier hadn’t pleaded for a second to speak.
“The harm harm my coronary heart,” Lanier stated. “However this college has all the time proven me nothing however love. That is house. And it's so good to be house.”
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