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Louie Dampier

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Louie Dampier
Dampier in 1979
Personal information
Born (1944-11-20) November 20, 1944 (age 79)
Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S.
Listed height6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)
Listed weight170 lb (77 kg)
Career information
High schoolSouthport (Indianapolis, Indiana)
CollegeKentucky (1964–1967)
NBA draft1967: 4th round, 38th overall pick
Selected by the Cincinnati Royals
Playing career1967–1979
PositionPoint guard
Number10
Career history
1967–1976Kentucky Colonels
1976–1979San Antonio Spurs
Career highlights and awards
Career ABA and NBA statistics
Points15,279 (15.9 ppg)
Rebounds2,543 (2.6 rpg)
Assists4,687 (4.9 apg)
Stats at NBA.com Edit this at Wikidata
Stats at Basketball Reference
Basketball Hall of Fame

Louis Dampier (born November 20, 1944) is an American retired professional basketball player.

A 6-foot-tall guard, Dampier is one of only a handful of men to play all nine seasons in the American Basketball Association (ABA) (1967–1976), all with the Kentucky Colonels. Dampier is the only player that had played in the playoff in all nine ABA years, He also was one of just two players to play all nine ABA seasons with the same team; the other was Byron Beck of the Denver Rockets, later renamed the Nuggets. After the ABA–NBA merger in 1976 Dampier also played three seasons (1976–1979) in the National Basketball Association (NBA) with the San Antonio Spurs. Dampier was inducted as a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2015.

High school

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Dampier was born in Indianapolis and played at Southport High School; leading the Cardinals to two IHSAA Sectional titles and the finals of the IHSAA Regionals in 1961–62 and 1962–63. He also played in the Annual All-Star game featuring the top high school Senior players from Indiana and Kentucky. During the series following his senior season (1962–63) Dampier faced a Kentucky team led by Clem Haskins and Wayne Chapman. Dampier averaged 8.5 points as the Indiana team split the series with Kentucky.

University of Kentucky

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A jersey honoring Dampier hangs in Rupp Arena

Dampier was a two-sport athlete at the University of Kentucky, playing baseball as well as basketball. Playing under coach Adolph Rupp, Dampier, Tommy Kron and Pat Riley led Rupp's Runts to the 1966 NCAA championship game, where they lost to Texas Western College (now the University of Texas at El Paso) in a watershed game for college basketball. This game spearheaded the end of racial segregation in college basketball.

During his three years at Kentucky (at the time, freshmen were ineligible to play varsity sports), Dampier was a two-time All-American and three-time All-Southeastern Conference selection. He was also named Academic All-SEC twice and Academic All-American once. Upon graduation from Kentucky in 1967, Dampier scored 1,575 points, at the time third-most in school history behind only Cotton Nash (1,770) and Alex Groza (1,744).

Pro basketball

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In 1967, the Cincinnati Royals (now the Sacramento Kings) selected Dampier in the fourth round of the NBA draft and the Kentucky Colonels selected him in the ABA draft.[1] Dampier eventually signed with the Kentucky Colonels of the fledgling ABA and teamed with Darel Carrier to form the most explosive backcourt duo in the league. In each of the ABA's first three seasons, both Dampier and Carrier averaged at least 20 points per game. Both were three-point field goal specialists (the ABA had used the three-point field goal from its inception), but especially Dampier who made 500 during a three-year stretch: a record 199 during the 1968–69 season, 198 in 1969–70 and 103 in 1970–71. At the conclusion of the ABA's history, Dampier made a career-record 794 3-point field goals.[2] His record 199 three points made in a single season will resist for 26 years in NBA until 1995.

He also finished first all-time in the ABA in games played (728), minutes played (27,770), points scored (13,726), and assists (4,044).[2] During the 1970–71 season, he hit 57 consecutive free throws for what was then a pro record (ABA or NBA). Seven times, he was named an ABA All-Star. He was a unanimous choice for the ABA Top 30 team.[3] He played on the Colonels' 1975 ABA championship team, which featured a later Kentucky standout, Dan Issel, as well as 7'2" center Artis Gilmore.

After the 1976 season, the ABA ceased operations with Kentucky and two other teams folding. Dampier was selected by the San Antonio Spurs (one of the four teams to join the NBA in the ABA–NBA merger) in the 1976 ABA Dispersal Draft. Playing mostly as a role player behind George Gervin, Dampier averaged 6.7 points in 232 NBA games.

Dampier later served as an assistant coach with the Denver Nuggets.

Several divisions in the 21st century semi-pro ABA were initially named after stars of the old ABA, including Dampier.

Dampier was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in September 2015.[4]

ABA and NBA career statistics

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Legend
  GP Games played   GS  Games started  MPG  Minutes per game
 FG%  Field goal percentage  3P%  3-point field goal percentage  FT%  Free throw percentage
 RPG  Rebounds per game  APG  Assists per game  SPG  Steals per game
 BPG  Blocks per game  PPG  Points per game  Bold  Career high
 *  Led the league
† Denotes seasons in which Dampier's team won an ABA championship
* ABA record
Bold Denotes career highs

Regular season

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Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG
1967–68 Kentucky (ABA) 72 - 41.1 .421 .268 .823 4.6 3.6 - - 20.7
1968–69 Kentucky (ABA) 78 - 42.6* .420 .361 .811 3.8 5.8 - - 24.8
1969–70 Kentucky (ABA) 82 - 40.9 .399 .361 .831 3.8 5.5 - - 26.0
1970–71 Kentucky (ABA) 84 - 38.3 .418 .368 .851 3.5 5.5 - - 18.5
1971–72 Kentucky (ABA) 83 - 38.7 .442 .361 .836 3.1 6.2 - - 15.9
1972–73 Kentucky (ABA) 80 - 38.0 .451 .348 .784 2.7 6.5 1.2 0.1 16.8
1973–74 Kentucky (ABA) 84 - 35.0 .465 .387* .832 2.4 5.6 1.0 0.2 17.8
1974–75† Kentucky (ABA) 83 - 34.7 .500 .396 .809 2.5 5.4 1.1 0.6 16.8
1975–76 Kentucky (ABA) 82 - 34.6 .479 .368 .863 1.9 5.7 0.7 0.6 13.0
1976–77 San Antonio 80 - 20.4 .460 - .744 1.0 2.9 0.6 0.2 6.6
1977–78 San Antonio 82 - 24.8 .509 - .752 1.5 3.5 1.1 0.2 9.1
1978–79 San Antonio 70 - 10.9 .490 - .744 0.9 1.8 0.5 0.1 3.9
Career ABA 728* - 38.1 .439 .358 .826 3.1 5.6 0.9 0.5 18.9
Career NBA 232 - 19.1 .488 .748 1.1 2.8 0.7 0.2 6.7
Career Total 960 - 33.5 .444 .358 .820 2.6 4.9 0.9 0.2 15.9

Playoffs

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Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG
1968 Kentucky (ABA) 5 - 44.8 .442 .405 .839 4.8 4.6 - - 26.6
1969 Kentucky (ABA) 7 - 46.6 .357 .291 .870 4.3 4.0 - - 22.3
1970 Kentucky (ABA) 12 - 43.8 .369 .329 .774 3.8 6.8 - - 17.7
1971 Kentucky (ABA) 19 - 43.6 .385 .319 .742 4.1 9.4 - - 16.9
1972 Kentucky (ABA) 6 - 42.3 .420 .478 .625 3.2 7.5 - - 13.2
1973 Kentucky (ABA) 12 - 34.8 .516 .455 .700 2.1 3.3 - - 13.4
1974 Kentucky (ABA) 8 - 28.6 .483 .500 .778 2.0 4.0 0.8 0.0 13.4
1975† Kentucky (ABA) 15 - 40.3 .509 .385 .868 2.4 7.5 1.3 0.5 16.9
1976 Kentucky (ABA) 10 - 39.3 .519 .500 .900 1.3 7.7 1.1 0.5 16.0
1977 San Antonio 2 - 31.0 .250 - 1.000 1.5 4.5 0.5 0.5 6.0
1978 San Antonio 6 - 21.5 .459 - .250 1.2 2.5 0.7 0.3 5.8
1979 San Antonio 7 - 7.9 .571 - .571 0.7 1.1 0.4 0.1 2.9
Career ABA 94 - 40.4 .436 .366 .789 3.0 6.6 1.1 0.4 16.9
Career NBA 15 - 16.4 .433 .600 1.0 2.1 0.5 0.3 4.5
Career Total 109 - 37.1 .436 .366 .781 2.8 6.0 0.9 0.3 15.1

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Basketball-Reference.com Louie Dampier page
  2. ^ a b The Official NBA Basketball Encyclopedia. Villard Books. 1994. pp. 208–209. ISBN 0-679-43293-0.
  3. ^ "30 Year ABA All-Time Team". Archived from the original on May 17, 2008. Retrieved June 5, 2008.
  4. ^ "Five Direct-Elect Members Announced for the Class of 2015 by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame" (Press release). Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. February 14, 2015. Archived from the original on February 14, 2015. Retrieved February 14, 2015.
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