Alex Hannum
Hannum, circa 1947 | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | July 19, 1923 Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Died | January 18, 2002 (aged 78) San Diego, California, U.S. |
| Listed height | 6 ft 7 in (2.01 m) |
| Listed weight | 210 lb (95 kg) |
| Career information | |
| High school | Alexander Hamilton (Los Angeles, California) |
| College | USC (1942–1943; 1946–1948) |
| NBA draft | 1948: – round, – |
| Drafted by | Indianapolis Jets |
| Playing career | 1948–1957 |
| Position | Power forward / center |
| Number | 10, 11, 20, 4, 6, 33, 18 |
| Coaching career | 1956–1974 |
| Career history | |
| As a player: | |
| 1948–1949 | Oshkosh All-Stars |
| 1949–1951 | Syracuse Nationals |
| 1951–1952 | Baltimore Bullets |
| 1952–1954 | Rochester Royals |
| 1954–1956 | Milwaukee / St. Louis Hawks |
| 1956 | Fort Wayne Pistons |
| 1956–1957 | St. Louis Hawks |
| As a coach: | |
| 1956–1958 | St. Louis Hawks |
| 1960–1963 | Syracuse Nationals |
| 1963–1966 | San Francisco Warriors |
| 1966–1968 | Philadelphia 76ers |
| 1968–1969 | Oakland Oaks |
| 1969–1971 | San Diego Rockets |
| 1971–1974 | Denver Rockets |
| Career highlights | |
As player:
As coach: | |
| Career NBA playing statistics | |
| Points | 3,078 (6.0 ppg) |
| Rebound | 2,013 (4.5 rpg) |
| Assists | 857 (1.7 apg) |
| Stats at NBA.com | |
| Stats at Basketball Reference | |
| Career coaching record | |
| ABA & NBA | 649–564 (.535) |
| Record at Basketball Reference | |
| Basketball Hall of Fame | |
Alexander Murray Hannum (July 19, 1923 – January 18, 2002) was an American professional basketball player and coach.
As a player, Hannum played for six different teams, most notably with the Milwaukee (later St. Louis) Hawks, where he played for three seasons. Midway through the 1956–57 season, Hannum was named player-coach of the Hawks with 31 games left in the season; the team reached the NBA Finals and lost in seven games. Hannum retired as a player after the season ended to focus on coaching.
In the 1957–58 season, the Hawks won 41 games and won the Western Division again on their way to another matchup against the Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals, where the Hawks won the championship in Game 6 for the championship—the only one in Hawks history. Hannum left the team in the offseason after a dispute with ownership but returned to the NBA to coach the Syracuse Nationals in 1960. He coached the Nationals for three seasons before resigning in 1962.
Hannum joined the newly christened San Francisco Warriors in 1963 and led the team to the Western Division title in his rookie season. They reached the NBA Finals that year but lost to Boston in a sweep. After two further seasons, Hannum was fired. He coached the Philadelphia 76ers in 1966 and in his first season, the team won a then-record 68 games to win the Eastern Division and then defeated the Celtics on their way to the NBA Finals, which they won in six games over San Francisco to make Hannum the first NBA coach to win championships with multiple teams. His second season in Philadelphia saw them win 62 games and another division title, but Hannum elected to resign after the team lost in the Division Finals.
Hannum coached the Oakland Oaks in the American Basketball Association in 1968, where the team won 60 of 78 games on their way to a dominant postseason run where they went 12–4 to win the ABA Finals, thereby making Hannum the first (and so far only) coach to lead three professional basketball teams to league championships. The Oaks relocated to Washington after the season and Hannum resigned to coach the San Diego Rockets in 1969. His two seasons there was the only time he did not reach the postseason with a team. He finished his coaching tenure with the Denver Rockets, coaching from 1971 to 1974 and reaching the postseason twice.
In his career, Hannum had a combined NBA-ABA record of 649–564 (.535) in the regular season and 61–46 (.570) in the playoffs over 16 seasons while being the first of only two coaches to win NBA and ABA championships. In 1998, he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a coach.