Happy Birthday Kevin Loughery

M

MarkRedman

Well-known member
Kevin was not only a star at St John's and an NBA player for many years
He was also Michael Jordan's first professional coach with the Bulls in 1984
Happy 77th birthday Kevin!! Many thanks for your contributions to St John's
 
He also coached the two time ABA champion Nets w/Dr.J and, on the first team, Billy Paultz. They were a really fun team to watch
 
happy birthday Kevin . My first SJU game was at Alumni Hall in the fall of 1961 and Kevin was playing in the game .
 
Didn't he do some announcing on CBS NBA years ago?
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Yes, but went back to coaching. I recall that he was a pretty good analyst ... but, oh, that Brooklyn accent!
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"Da Bronx" actually
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Bottom line: he's real bi-lierate New Yawker -- Brooklyn born, Bronx bred, and can say "deez," "dem" and "doze" in either dialect.
 
It's funny, but Chris Mullin and Ron Artest were always readily associated with SJU during NBA telecasts. I don't think it was ever mentioned when the Knicks played the Bullets that Loughery was a NY guy who played for SJU.
 
It's funny, but Chris Mullin and Ron Artest were always readily associated with SJU during NBA telecasts. I don't think it was ever mentioned when the Knicks played the Bullets that Loughery was a NY guy who played for SJU.
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You don't hear that much about Al McGuire having been a player at SJU, either. His entire legacy is what he did at Marquette.

Now granted, he was not a great player for us (by most accounts), but I bet most people, even when Al was coaching, didn't know about his SJU connection.
 
He also coached the two time ABA champion Nets w/Dr.J and, on the first team, Billy Paultz. They were a really fun team to watch
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Watching Kevin coach those teams was special. Thought he was a good coach back then. But other than with the ABA Nets, he never had much success as a HC. Of course having Dr. J, Mr. K, Super John, Brian Taylor, etc didn't hurt his coaching abilities none. Hard to believe that Louie is in the Nets HOF and Kevin isn't.
 
It's funny, but Chris Mullin and Ron Artest were always readily associated with SJU during NBA telecasts. I don't think it was ever mentioned when the Knicks played the Bullets that Loughery was a NY guy who played for SJU.
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You don't hear that much about Al McGuire having been a player at SJU, either. His entire legacy is what he did at Marquette.

Now granted, he was not a great player for us (by most accounts), but I bet most people, even when Al was coaching, didn't know about his SJU connection.
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That's true. Also, even when Mike Riordan played for the Knicks not much was made of the fact that he was a local guy who played at Holy Cross HS. I guess back then so many guys came out of NYC as an overall % of the NBA that you'd basically be saying that about every other player. Cousy was before my time, but hardly mentioned that was a Queens kid who played for Andrew Jackson HS. A ton of players like that.

Back on topic, Loughery was a tough player with very respectable career numbers at 15.3 ppg in the NBA, back when the league was 1/3 the size it is today, meaning that you had to be in the top one of the best 150 players in the world just to make a team.
 
He also coached the two time ABA champion Nets w/Dr.J and, on the first team, Billy Paultz. They were a really fun team to watch
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Of course having Dr. J, Mr. K, Super John, Brian Taylor, et.
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And Bill Melchionni of course, if we're allowed to mention Nova grads.
 
He also coached the two time ABA champion Nets w/Dr.J and, on the first team, Billy Paultz. They were a really fun team to watch
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Watching Kevin coach those teams was special. Thought he was a good coach back then. But other than with the ABA Nets, he never had much success as a HC. Of course having Dr. J, Mr. K, Super John, Brian Taylor, etc didn't hurt his coaching abilities none. Hard to believe that Louie is in the Nets HOF and Kevin isn't.
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His teams missed the playoff seven times, and made them eight times -- only to lose in first round every time.
 
He also coached the two time ABA champion Nets w/Dr.J and, on the first team, Billy Paultz. They were a really fun team to watch
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Watching Kevin coach those teams was special. Thought he was a good coach back then. But other than with the ABA Nets, he never had much success as a HC. Of course having Dr. J, Mr. K, Super John, Brian Taylor, etc didn't hurt his coaching abilities none. Hard to believe that Louie is in the Nets HOF and Kevin isn't.
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His teams missed the playoff seven times, and made them eight times -- only to lose in first round every time.
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I was talking specifically about each of their time with the Nets. Louie was 114-138 in his 3 years with the Nets. And his teams had some talent including Rick Barry, Billy M and Johnny Roche. In his 3 ABA years, Loughery was 168-86 with 2 championships. Not to shabby. Of course then Roy Boe was forced to have a fire sale so that the Nets could join the NBA, resulting in some really bad teams for a number of years afterwards
 
His teams missed the playoff seven times, and made them eight times -- only to lose in first round every time.
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Let's not piss on the guy's birthday candles. :lol:
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Hmm, well let me attempt to re-light those candles by stating that I remember him being an outstanding player at St. John's and an very good pro as well. He and the great Leroy Ellis (where's his honored jersey?) were the first Redmen names to enter my vocabulary. (He was also one of the coolest coiffed/best-dressed NBA coaches ever ... and given that he spent 15 years there as a HC says something about the respect GMs had for him.) Happy birthday, Mr. Loughery!
 
Many years ago Jerry West pointed out at that time no guard who has averaged 20 point per game in a season had not appeared in the NBA all star game with exception of Kevin.
 
Many years ago Jerry West pointed out at that time no guard who has averaged 20 point per game in a season had not appeared in the NBA all star game with exception of Kevin.
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Noticed that while looking up his stats earlier. Was surprised to see he was never an All Star, despite averaging 22 ppg two consecutive years (1968-70) with the Bullets.
 
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