By Chris Stevens
(Source: HBCU Sports)
One of the great HBCU players who made an impact in the NBA has died.
Dick Barnett, who was a critical part of the New York Knicks’ 1970 and 1973 NBA championship teams, died Sunday at 88, six months after he was finally inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
A native of Gary, Indiana, Barnett was recruited to Tennessee A&I – now known as Tennessee State – by legendary coach John McClendon and helped the Tigers win three consecutive NAIA national championships from 1957 to 1959. The Tigers were the first HBCU team to win a national college basketball championship.
After college, Barnett played for the Syracuse Nationals of the NBA and the Cleveland Pipers of the ABL before catching on with the Los Angeles Lakers. He averaged 17 points per game in three seasons with the Lakers before being dealt to the Knicks before the 1965-66 season.
Barnett played the rest of his career with the Knicks as a veteran presence, guiding the team’s nucleus—fellow HBCU legend Willis Reed, Walt “Clyde” Frazier, and Bill Bradley—to great success. He averaged 18 points per game in the 1970 NBA Finals, in which the Knicks defeated the favored Lakers in seven games. He was also a part of the Knicks’ 1973 title team, which beat Los Angeles.
In 14 NBA seasons, Barnett averaged 16 points, three rebounds, and three assists per game. Following his NBA career, he earned a doctorate in education from Fordham University and taught sports management at St. John’s until his 2007 retirement.
Barnett finally received the Hall of Fame call in the spring of 2024, more than 50 years after his final NBA game. He’d previously been inducted as a member of the Tennessee A&I national championship teams, but this time, he was inducted as a player
