Basketball Legend Pete Newell (Aug. 3, 1915 - Nov. 17, 2008)
Pete Newell at the Hall of Fame (photo. NBA.com)After recently dedicating a post to finding who has the best post-move in the NBA, the Dime family is sad to report the death of legendary big-man coach Pete Newell, who passed earlier today. He was 93.
Known around the basketball world for his annual “Big Man Camp,” which he opened in 1976, Newell tutored some of the game’s all-time best and current stars, from Kareem to Hakeem to Shaq to Shawn Kemp to Andrew Bynum. But his list of accomplishments is much longer than that. Inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1979, Newell is one of the greatest college coaches of all-time, leading Cal-Berkeley to a national championship in 1959 and coaching the U.S. Olympic team to gold in the 1960 Games in Rome. Bob Knight self-admittedly adopted a lot of his style and strategy from Newell, who he considers one of his mentors. Newell also worked in the NBA, as GM of the Rockets and later for the Lakers, where he helped orchestrate the Kareem-to-L.A. trade. In 2001 he opened the “Tall Women’s Camp” to compliment his Big Man Camp.
In honor of Pete Newell, who is the greatest big man you’ve ever seen play in person and what made them so great?
November 17th, 2008 at 6:58 pm
vinny says:
KAREEM- the sky hook!
November 17th, 2008 at 7:08 pm
JCARR says:
Damn 93!!!! I want whatever he was taking. Respect to him as a big man legend.
Best person i have seen i person play is Stanley Harris from South Orange, NJ. Idk what school he went to but he had 36 points, 19 boards, 8 blocks, 4 assists and 3 steals. I remember like if it were yesterday. I haven’t seen so many dunks up close and personal in my life. His stat line made him great.
Oh yea and my squad got blown out by 52 haha.
November 17th, 2008 at 7:27 pm
GMuneeKLIK says:
I would have to say 96. Young KG in 96 facing my Raptors squad at the time but man was KG ever incredible, you just saw what he could become and look at him now. Plus how can you not like KG, he’s an exciting player to watch on both ends of the court. I know big man usually means center but I haven’t seen too many live (unless you count ‘Sheed as one even though he truely is a forward) I’m glad KG finally got that ring but now it kind of looks its got to his head after seeing how intense he was with Jose Calderon and Andrew Bogut. KG been startin’ shit.
-GMuneeKLIK
November 17th, 2008 at 8:43 pm
Gerard says:
David Robinson because he was such a great human being. He exuded humanity.
November 17th, 2008 at 8:51 pm
Cellulite says:
RIP - nice ages he gained, may he rest in peace now.
November 17th, 2008 at 8:59 pm
E$ says:
R*I*P….off topic: Did the NBA cancel calling “carry?”
November 17th, 2008 at 10:21 pm
Billy Sunday says:
I know his son Tom Newell great coach as well rip though
November 18th, 2008 at 7:48 am
Amar says:
RIP - pete, let’s not forget that he was the ONLY, ONLY, ONLY guy associated with basketball that would give Kermit Washington a job after the Rudy T punch. He had worked with Kermit before and knew that one incident shouldn’t black ball an otherwise good person, and used to hire him on to help him with his bigman camps.
best bigman of all time, in terms of basketball IQ had to be Sabonis (in my time). best ability was hakeem. 2nd was misses robinson. most dominant in the modern era was shaq.
the omega center (in his prime) was still kareem. i’ll never forget his time machine game in the NBA finals when he was an old man. people remember the old kareem like people now remember the old shaq. let’s not forget that they were absolute beasts when they were young. (i.e. they made guys like dwight and amare looks like role players) when I just started to follow the NBA kareem’s best days were behind him (became a serious fan in ‘84), but never forget that he was a guy who used to give wilt buckets.
kareem make the bucks (as l. alcindor) a champion. the bucks. seriously . . . no other center could have done that, out of all the centers that came after kareem.
November 18th, 2008 at 2:06 pm
Jason says:
sad that we get these knuckle heads posting 100 times on crap and only 8 post on a guy the reinvented the game! RIP
November 18th, 2008 at 4:08 pm
Conor Neu says:
Pete’s passing is very sad to hear. He was a great man and a legend of the sport. George Irvine wrote another great, very personal, tribute on Basketball.org that is also worth the read.