Maurice Lucas (born February 18, 1952, in
Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania
) is a retired American
professional
basketball player, and current assistant coach with the
National Basketball
Association's (NBA) Portland
Trail Blazers.
College
Lucas
played college basketball at Marquette University
for two years, leading it to the NCAA championship
game in 1974. Although Marquette did not win the title,
Lucas played the full 40 minutes of the game, leading his team with
21 points and 13 rebounds.
ABA
In 1974 Lucas was selected by the
Chicago
Bulls with the 14th pick of
that
year's NBA Draft. Instead, he joined the
American Basketball
Association's (ABA)
Spirits of
St. Louis where he was named to the 1974-75 ABA All-Rookie 2nd
team. Part way through his second season with the Spirits, he was
traded to the
Kentucky Colonels
and remained with them until the
ABA-NBA
merger in 1976. Lucas was an ABA All-Star for the 1975-76
season.
NBA
After the ABA folded, Lucas would be selected by the Portland Trail
Blazers in the subsequent
dispersal
draft. They had traded
Geoff Petrie
and
Steve Hawes to the
Atlanta Hawks for the 2nd overall pick, which
they used to select Lucas. In the 1976-77 NBA season, Lucas led the
Trail Blazers in scoring, minutes played,
field goals,
free throws, and offensive
rebounds. Not only did the team qualify
for their first trip to the
playoffs
that season, but Lucas and teammate
Bill
Walton led the Trail Blazers past the favored
Los Angeles Lakers, sweeping them 4-0 in
the Western Conference Finals, and stunning the league in a
come-from-behind 4-2 upset victory over the
Philadelphia 76ers for the
championship.
In that NBA Finals series, Lucas asserted his "enforcer" role in
Game 2. With the 76ers comfortably ahead late in the game, the
Blazers streaked down the floor on a fast break.
Lionel Hollins missed the shot, both
Bob Gross and
Darryl
Dawkins went up and wrestled for the rebound, and both came
crashing to the floor. The two appeared ready to come to punches
before Lucas slapped Dawkins from behind and challenged him to
fight him instead of Gross. Both benches emptied and Dawkins and
Lucas were ejected. Although the 76ers would go on to win the game
and go up 2-0 in the series, Lucas' actions appeared to alter the
momentum of the series in favor of the Blazers. Inspired, Portland
won the next two games at home in blowouts, then won at
Philadelphia, and closed out the 76ers at home to win the series.
Lucas remained with Portland until 1980 when he was traded to the
New Jersey Nets.
Lucas moved around the league, playing for the
New York Knicks,
Phoenix Suns, Los Angeles Lakers, and
Seattle SuperSonics before returning to
Portland for his final professional season in
1987-88.
In his 14 year career (2 in the ABA, 12 in the NBA), Lucas scored
14,857 points, 9,306 rebounds (47 NBA/ABA combined career leader
overall), and was a 5 time All-Star (1 ABA, 4 NBA). He was named to
the 1978 All-NBA-Defense First team, the 1978 All-NBA Second team,
and the 1979 All-NBA-Defense Second team.
Post-playing career
The Portland Trail Blazers retired his jersey number, 20, in a
ceremony on November 4, 1988. Lucas was hired by the team as an
assistant coach under
Mike Schuler and
Rick Adelman during the
1988-89 season. In 2005, Lucas rejoined
the Trail Blazers as an assistant coach under
Nate McMillan.
Current
Los Angeles Lakers
forward
Luke Walton, son of Lucas'
Portland teammate
Bill Walton, is named
after him.
Personal life
Lucas underwent surgery for
bladder
cancer in April 2009.
Maurice Lucas' son, David Lucas, played for Oregon State University
from 2001-2005.
Notes
- Trail Blazers Announce Maurice Lucas to Join
McMillan's Coaching Staff, August 1, 2005
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