Indiana Pacers Legend George McGinnis Passed Away

[WillyJakkz]

I remember him from Sixers highlights with Dr J but he was best known as an Indiana Pacer.


George McGinnis
https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/m/mcginge01.html

Rest In Peace Legend

[jkvonny]

Oh dang! RIP.

Great player. 2 time ABA champion, Indiana Pacers.

[JRoy]

RIP champ.

[boomershadow]

Very sad. Was just talking about him the other day actually.

[Roscoe Sheed]

sad to see the ABA legends pass away. I wish there was more footage of the ABA- the best basketball book I've ever read was "Loose Balls" by Terry Pluto- essentially an oral history of the ABA

[GSWFan1994]

One of the greatest players of the 70s.

During a five year stretch (age 22 to 26), he averaged 27/14//4 + 2.9 stocks, albeit with a very high turnover rate (he had 5.3/game in 1974/1975, which IIRC was a record until James Harden broke it later on, with 5.7/game in 2016/2017).

He was part of that 76ers team which lost to Bill Walton's Blazers in the 1977 Finals.

He only played until 31 years old, I don't know why though.

All in all, a decorated career:

6x All-Star
5x All-NBA/ABA team
2x ABA champ
1974/1975 ABA MVP
17k points / 9k rebounds / 3k assists
Member of ABA All-Time team
... and a Hall of Famer, obviously.

RIP.

[kcktiny]

A superstar in the ABA, a star in the NBA.

Many know how great he was with the Pacers in the ABA, but I would bet most do not know that his first four years in the NBA (1975-76 to 1978-79, 3 years with Philly, 1 year with Denver) among all NBA PFs McGinnis was:

- 2nd in points scored with 6761 (21.8 pts/g, only Elvin Hayes scored more)
- 2nd in rebounds with 3552 (11.5 reb/g, only Hayes had more)
- 1st in FTAs with 2527 (8.2 FTA/g)
- 1st in assists with 1238 (4.0 ast/g)
- 1st in steals with 627 (2.0 ST/g)

[wojoaderge]

My 2nd all-time favorite player. He is the "ge" in wojoaderge

[One_and_Done]

One of the best players most fans have never heard of.

[76ersForLife]

He was a terriric player but not a great fit with the 76ers. One of the best trades in 76ers history was when they traded him for Bobby Jones.

RIP.

[HeartBreakKid]

RIP

[slicedbread2]

One of the greatest players of the 70s.

During a five year stretch (age 22 to 26), he averaged 27/14//4 + 2.9 stocks, albeit with a very high turnover rate (he had 5.3/game in 1974/1975, which IIRC was a record until James Harden broke it later on, with 5.7/game in 2016/2017).

He was part of that 76ers team which lost to Bill Walton's Blazers in the 1977 Finals.

He only played until 31 years old, I don't know why though.

All in all, a decorated career:

6x All-Star
5x All-NBA/ABA team
2x ABA champ
1974/1975 ABA MVP
17k points / 9k rebounds / 3k assists
Member of ABA All-Time team
... and a Hall of Famer, obviously.

RIP.

It was confirmed that he suffered back problems later on in life that resulted in multiple surgeries. I wouldn't be surprised if his back had given out and doctors told him to retire in order to preserve a decent quality of life. He was a part of 2 deals involving Denver:

1) Denver sent eventual hall of famer 76ers legend Bobby Jones to Philadelphia for McGinnis. Sadly McGinnis was a flop while Jones became a legend who is considered to be one of the nicest guys ever to play the game due to his honesty and stoic nature. The Nuggets had buyers remorse and did the following.

2) Traded him to Indiana for Alex English. Pacers ownership was desperate for nostalgia from the ABA days to help boost sagging attendance during the early post merger years. Sadly for the Pacers, McGinnis was well past his prime while English would be one of the defining players of the 80's in the Nuggets' rainbow inspired uniforms(looked like Tetris when it really was a bunch of blocks that formed a mosaic of Denver's skyline).

Nonetheless McGinnis is forever a legend in the land of Hoosiers. RIP OG.

[Ray Donovan]

McGinnis was a warrior in his ABA days, great player. From what other poster said had great 4 year run in NBA too. Remember picture of him smoking a cigarette on the bench before practice haha

[GSWFan1994]

sad to see the ABA legends pass away. I wish there was more footage of the ABA- the best basketball book I've ever read was "Loose Balls" by Terry Pluto- essentially an oral history of the ABA

Amazing book. I think I've read it at least 3 times over the years... plus the countless "consultations" I did too.

"I ain't getting in no damn time machine" - Marvin Barnes

[GSWFan1994]

My 2nd all-time favorite player. He is the "ge" in wojoaderge

Now you have to explain to us gentlemen the rest of the history...

[Mavrelous]

Rest in peace...

[GSWFan1994]

It was confirmed that he suffered back problems later on in life that resulted in multiple surgeries. I wouldn't be surprised if his back had given out and doctors told him to retire in order to preserve a decent quality of life. He was a part of 2 deals involving Denver:

1) Denver sent eventual hall of famer 76ers legend Bobby Jones to Philadelphia for McGinnis. Sadly McGinnis was a flop while Jones became a legend who is considered to be one of the nicest guys ever to play the game due to his honesty and stoic nature. The Nuggets had buyers remorse and did the following.

2) Traded him to Indiana for Alex English. Pacers ownership was desperate for nostalgia from the ABA days to help boost sagging attendance during the early post merger years. Sadly for the Pacers, McGinnis was well past his prime while English would be one of the defining players of the 80's in the Nuggets' rainbow inspired uniforms(looked like Tetris when it really was a bunch of blocks that formed a mosaic of Denver's skyline).

Nonetheless McGinnis is forever a legend in the land of Hoosiers. RIP OG.

Nice write-up, thanks for taking the time. I don't remember reading about his possible injuries anywhere.

Yes, I thought it was about injuries. Very unusual for a productive player to retire at 31 yo. And his production fell off a cliff quickly years before he was 31 too.

The Bobby Jones trade was an awesome one for Philadelphia. Then they got Moses Malone basically for free later on too. Do you know why Moses was traded in that context?

And the Alex English trade was another great one as well. English may be perhaps the most underrated player of the 80s.

[slicedbread2]

It was confirmed that he suffered back problems later on in life that resulted in multiple surgeries. I wouldn't be surprised if his back had given out and doctors told him to retire in order to preserve a decent quality of life. He was a part of 2 deals involving Denver:

1) Denver sent eventual hall of famer 76ers legend Bobby Jones to Philadelphia for McGinnis. Sadly McGinnis was a flop while Jones became a legend who is considered to be one of the nicest guys ever to play the game due to his honesty and stoic nature. The Nuggets had buyers remorse and did the following.

2) Traded him to Indiana for Alex English. Pacers ownership was desperate for nostalgia from the ABA days to help boost sagging attendance during the early post merger years. Sadly for the Pacers, McGinnis was well past his prime while English would be one of the defining players of the 80's in the Nuggets' rainbow inspired uniforms(looked like Tetris when it really was a bunch of blocks that formed a mosaic of Denver's skyline).

Nonetheless McGinnis is forever a legend in the land of Hoosiers. RIP OG.

Nice write-up, thanks for taking the time. I don't remember reading about his possible injuries anywhere.

Yes, I thought it was about injuries. Very unusual for a productive player to retire at 31 yo. And his production fell off a cliff quickly years before he was 31 too.

The Bobby Jones trade was an awesome one for Philadelphia. Then they got Moses Malone basically for free later on too. Do you know why Moses was traded in that context?

And the Alex English trade was another great one as well. English may be perhaps the most underrated player of the 80s.

Oh yea English was a beast as well. Truly loved him in those Nuggets rainbow Tetris uniforms!

As for why Moses got traded it was because he was a restricted FA and the ownership group that brought him in at the time(oddly enough it was the Maloof family) sold the Rockets to new owners Charles Thomas and Sidney Shlenker(who'd later own the Nuggets during the mid-late 80's who bought them for $20M and sold them for $65M when he was done). Thomas wanted to keep him around, but decided he couldn't pay Malone due to Houston's economy being in massive decline during the 80's because of the oil bust that crippled H-town in 1981. This ultimately resulted in the 76ers being able to nab Malone for free essentially and the Rockets ultimately tanked for Sampson and Olajuwon resulting in the league instituting a lottery for the draft.

[wojoaderge]

My 2nd all-time favorite player. He is the "ge" in wojoaderge

Now you have to explain to us gentlemen the rest of the history...

wo - World B. Free sg
jo - Joe Barry Carroll (all-time favorite player) c
ad - Adrian Dantley sf
er - Eric Money pg

[Message Boar]

RIP to one of the legends of the ABA

I remember sometimes playing with him in some old nba2k, back when I would put all the historical and current player in one big fantasy draft.