Richie Guerin
Richie Guerin (* May 29, 1932 in New York City ) is a retired American professional basketball player and coach.
After his time at Iona College to Guerin notified for the NBA Draft in 1954. The shooting guard was selected in the second round at 17th overall position of the New York Knicks. His first game for the Knicks, he was able to complete only in 1956, because he had to serve two years of military service in the Marines before. In the season 1958/59 to Guerin could qualify with the Knicks for the playoffs the only time. There they defeated the Syracuse Nationals 0-2. From 1958 to 1963 he was invited to the All-Star Game. 1959, 1960 and 1962, he was also elected to the All- NBA Second Team. In the four years starting from the season 1959/60 he scored both the most points and most assists for the Knicks. In the 1961/62 season he scored an average of 29.5 points per game. With 21 assists in a game in 1958 and 57 points in a game in 1959 he set two more franchise records. For the Knicks time with Guerin had little success. After participating in the playoffs in 1959, only 26-36 percent of the season games were won in the following four years.
On October 18, 1963 Richie Guerin was transferred for a second-round draft pick and a compensation amount to the St. Louis Hawks. In his second season he was named player-coach and took over the team of Harry Gallatin.
In the 1965 expansion draft, he was selected as player of the Seattle SuperSonics. But he never played for Seattle and continued to train St. Louis. In the 1967/68 season the Hawks reached 56 wins first place in the West. Guerin was voted Coach of the Year.
Prior to the 1968/69 season, the franchise was relocated from St. Louis to Atlanta. On November 15, 1968 Richie Guerin was transferred in exchange for Dick Smith as a player back to the Hawks and turned itself on again sporadically. His last assignment as a player he was in the fourth game of the semi finals of the playoffs in 1970 against the Los Angeles Lakers. At the age of 37, he scored 21 points, 5 rebounds and 3 assists, but could not prevent the Hawks lost the series with 0:4 anyway. Throughout his NBA career scoring Guerin in 848 games overall 14,676 points. He came up with 4,211 assists and 4,278 rebounds fetched.
For the Hawks, he coached players like Bob Pettit, Lenny Wilkens or Pete Maravich, which were later incorporated into the Hall of Fame or Lou Hudson. In his eight years as coach of the Hawks, the team still reached the playoffs, but could never qualify for the final itself. His successor was Cotton Fitzsimmons.
After the end of his coaching career, he worked for a year as an official for the Hawks. Later he worked as a sports reporter for his old team from New York, as well as a stock broker on Wall Street. Guerin is married and has four children.
2013 Richie Guerin was recorded for his achievements as a player in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.