Walt Bellamy

Walter Jones "The Big Bell" Bellamy (July 24, 1939 – November 2, 2013) was an American professional basketball player. He played 13 full seasons as a center in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for four different franchises. Bellamy was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame twice: in 1993 for his individual career and again in 2010 as a member of the 1960 United States men's Olympic basketball team.

He was a star player for Indiana University in basketball, where he averaged 20.6 points and 15.5 rebounds per game over a three-year career, with a .517 field goal percentage. Bellamy was named an All-American and first-team All-Big Ten while at Indiana as a junior and senior. After his junior year, Bellamy was invited to join the 1960 United States men's Olympic basketball team. In the Olympic Games that year, the U.S. gold medal team won every game by an average of over 40 points and is considered among the best amateur level basketball teams of all time.

Bellamy was the first overall pick of the 1961 draft, when he was selected by the expansion team Chicago Packers. In his rookie season, he averaged 31.6 points and 19 rebounds per game on his way to winning Rookie of the Year in what has been called one of the best rookie seasons in NBA history. He had a double-double in every game in which he played during his rookie season.

After over four seasons with the franchise (which moved to Baltimore in 1963), Bellamy was traded to the New York Knicks in 1965. He played nearly four seasons with the Knicks before being traded to the Detroit Pistons, whereupon he played parts of two seasons before being traded to the Atlanta Hawks in the close of the 1969-70 season. He played four seasons for the team before playing one game for the New Orleans Jazz to close his career. Bellamy reached the Division finals in 1965 and 1970, but never played in the NBA Finals.

Bellamy was a durable player who played 74 or more games in thirteen consecutive seasons, including a record-setting 88 games in one season. He was an efficient scorer and leading rebounder who averaged over 20 points and 13 rebounds per game for his career. Bellamy ranked third all-time in field goal percentage at the time his career ended, after leading the NBA in field goal percentage as a rookie, being second to Wilt Chamberlain four times, and third in the NBA three times. He is 7th all-time in NBA history in rebounds per game. Bellamy was named an NBA All-Star during the first four seasons of his career. He was the second player (after Wilt Chamberlain) to score 20,000 points and have 14,000 rebounds for a career; only seven other players have achieved the mark since Bellamy.