Nate Archibald

Archibald, a playground legend while growing up in a rough-and-tumble neighborhood in the South Bronx, of New York City, played high school basketball for only one-and-a-half seasons, and was cut from the varsity squad at DeWitt Clinton High School as a sophomore.[1] He returned to the team as a junior. During his time without basketball, Archibald briefly flirted with dropping out of school after having been largely truant in past years. But with the help of two mentors, Floyd Layne and Pablo Robertson, Archibald turned it around. Robertson, a former standout at Loyola of Chicago and a Harlem, New York playground impresario, had seen the gifted, mercurial Archibald in action on the playgrounds and convinced the young man's high school coach to re-instate him on the squad.

Despite playing only in blowouts as a junior, the shy, quiet teen managed to blossom into a high-school star, being named team captain and an All-City selection in 1966. Off the court, Archibald began to attend school regularly and worked to improve his poor academic standing, which deterred most colleges from offering him a scholarship. To improve his chances of playing major college basketball, Archibald enrolled at Arizona Western College, transferring to the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) the following year. He had three standout seasons at El Paso, from 1967 to 1970 under Hall of Fame coach Don Haskins.

Archibald was an All-NBA First Team selection three times (1973, 1975, 1976) and an All-NBA Second Team selection two times (1972, 1981). A seven-time NBA All-Star Game selection (1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1980, 1981, and 1982),[8] he was named the 1981 NBA All-Star Game MVP.[2] Archibald led the NBA in free throws made three times and free throw attempts twice. He competed in 876 professional games, scored 16,841 points (18.8 points per game), and dished out 6,476 assists. He was named to the NBA's 50th Anniversary All-Time team. Nate Archibald was inducted to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 1991.[9]

He completed his bachelor's degree from University of Texas-El Paso by going back for three consecutive summers just prior to finishing his NBA career. He then taught in the New York City school system and attended night school at Fordham University. He received a master's degree from Fordham University in 1990 and a professional diploma in supervision and administration in 1994. He began long-distance correspondence work toward a doctorate from California Coast University in 2000 but ceased his studies because of "his lack of funds and the motivation to complete a long-distance correspondence curriculum." He has stated his hope to complete the degree in the future at Fordham.[10]

Archibald was an assistant coach, spending one season in the University of Georgia and two with Texas-El Paso (where he worked with Tim Hardaway).[11] He has also coached the New Jersey Jammers of the USBL and in a Boston recreational league.[12] Archibald coached in the National Basketball Development League in 2001.[13] He resigned a year later to take a position with the NBA's community relations department.[14] Archibald was also named the head coach for the Long Beach Jam in 2004 in the revived ABA, but he would ultimately resign from his position on January 17, 2005 during their second and final season in the ABA.[15][16][17]

• List of National Basketball Association career free throw scoring leaders
• List of National Basketball Association career assists leaders
• List of individual National Basketball Association scoring leaders by season
• List of National Basketball Association annual assists leaders
• List of National Basketball Association players with most assists in a game
• List of National Basketball Association annual minutes leaders

• David L. Porter, ed. (2005). Basketball: A Biographical Dictionary. Greenwood Press. ISBN 978-0-313-30952-6.

• Career statistics and player information from Basketball-Reference.com
• Basketball Hall of Fame profile