Gene Shue, an All-Star N.B.A. guard of the late Fifties and early ’60s who went on to show losers into winners in 22 seasons as a professional coach, has died. He was 90.
The N.B.A. introduced the loss of life however didn’t say the place or when Shue died.
Shue launched into his professional profession enjoying with the outdated Philadelphia Warriors in 1954, the yr the 24-second shot clock was adopted. He was an N.B.A. presence for seven many years in a journey with second and even third acts.
Long after becoming a member of the Warriors as a first-round draft pick of Maryland, Shue returned to the town twice, as a coach of the 76ers (previously the Syracuse Nationals) and later in front-office roles. He had two stints enjoying for the Knicks. He ended his enjoying profession with the Baltimore Bullets and later coached them in Baltimore and Washington. He coached the Clippers in San Diego and Los Angeles. He was an All-Star for 5 consecutive seasons with the Detroit Pistons, twice averaging greater than 20 factors a recreation. And he was named a first-team all-N.B.A. guard in 1960, together with the Boston Celtics’ Bob Cousy.
Shue was twice N.B.A. coach of the yr, with Baltimore in 1969 and with Washington in 1982, and he coached the Bullets and later the 76ers to the N.B.A. finals.
“I’ve never had a perfect team, and I’ve always settled for something less,” he informed The Boston Globe in 1985. “My whole history involves taking weak teams and turning them around.”
Eugene William Shue was born on Dec. 18, 1931, in Baltimore. When he performed basketball in grammar college, the court docket’s ceiling was barely increased than the hoops, so he developed a line- drive feet-on-the-floor set shot. He went on to common greater than 20 factors a recreation at Maryland in his junior and senior seasons.
A slender 6 toes 2 inches, Shue was chosen by the Warriors because the third total choose within the 1954 N.B.A. draft. But after six video games with them, he was bought to the Knicks and spent two seasons in New York enjoying in a backcourt with (*90*) Braun and Dick McGuire.
The Knicks traded Shue to the Pistons in 1956, throughout their last season in Fort Wayne, Ind., when the N.B.A. nonetheless included medium-size cities and journey was hardly luxurious.
“Every time we flew from Fort Wayne to the East Coast, we had to stop in Erie, Pennsylvania, to gas up or we’d run out of gas over the Great Lakes,” he informed Terry Pluto within the oral historical past “Tall Tales” (1992), recalling journeys on the proprietor Fred Zollner’s DC-3.
Shue was an All-Star with the Detroit Pistons from 1958 to 1962. He performed his last two seasons with the Knicks and the Bullets, then retired with a scoring common of 14.4 factors a recreation for 10 seasons.
He started his teaching profession with Baltimore in 1966, taking on a Bullets staff that had gained 16 video games the earlier season. His Bullets went 57-25 in 1968-69 behind Earl Monroe and Wes Unseld, whom Shue chosen within the two earlier drafts. They gained the Eastern Conference title in 1971 with a seven-game playoff victory over the Knicks, the defending N.B.A. champions. But they have been swept within the finals by the Milwaukee Bucks of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Oscar Robertson.
Shue grew to become the coach of the 76ers in 1973, when he was requested to resurrect a staff that had gone 9-73. He coached them to the N.B.A. playoff finals in 1977 behind Julius Erving, however they misplaced to the Portland Trail Blazers in six video games. When the 76ers obtained off to a 2-4 begin the next season, Shue was fired.
He grew to become the coach of the San Diego Clippers in 1978-79 after they gained 27 video games because the Buffalo Braves. He took the Clippers to a 43-39 file, however he departed halfway by means of the next season once they have been losers as soon as extra.
Shue had a expensive run-in when his Clippers have been going through the Bulls in Chicago in January 1980. After referee Dick Bavetta referred to as a technical foul on the Clippers for having too many males on the court docket, Shue shoved him.
Commissioner Larry O’Brien fined Shue $3,500 and suspended him for every week with out pay.
“I am a mild-mannered man,” Shue mentioned afterward, “but sometimes you have to stand up and assert yourself.”
Shue spent practically six years in his second stint with the Bullets after they moved to Washington. He completed his teaching profession with the Clippers in Los Angeles in 1989 after a season and half of shedding basketball.
His groups gained 784 video games and misplaced 861 over all.
Shue confused protection as a coach.
He “taught the right defensive theories — overplaying your man, helping out, double-teaming the ball,” the Bullets’ ahead Gus Johnson informed Pete Axthelm in “The City Game” (1970).
Information on Shue’s quick survivors was not instantly accessible.
Shue returned once more to Philadelphia in July 1990 as common supervisor of the 76ers.
“There’s no such thing as nine lives,” he informed The Philadelphia Daily News. “I spent 20 years in coaching, and so much can happen when you do that job. You can get fired, you can leave, but it doesn’t reflect on your abilities.”
The 76ers’ proprietor at the time, Harold Katz, mentioned, “Some guys survive. There are people like that, who continuously show up.”
Shue remained within the publish till May 1992, when he was reassigned as director of participant personnel.
He was nonetheless at it into his 80s — this time trying to find the following N.B.A. phenom as a 76er scout.
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