Albert Amos Tucker Jr. (February 24, 1943 – May 7, 2001) was an American professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

player. Born in

Dayton, Ohio Dayton () is a city in Montgomery County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of cities in Ohio, sixth-most populous city in Ohio, with a population of 137,644 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The Dayton metro ...

, Tucker is sometimes credited with inventing the

alley-oop In basketball, an alley-oop is an offensive play in which one player passes the ball near the basket to a teammate who jumps, catches the ball in mid-air and dunks or lays it in before touching the ground. The alley-oop combines elements of t ...

with his brother Gerald while at Oklahoma Baptist University, Shawnee, Oklahoma.

College records

With his brother Gerald, Al was recruited from Dayton to Oklahoma Baptist University, where he played three seasons. Although he played before the introduction of the 3-point shot, he set a number of records, some of which remain 50 years later. He had 27 rebounds in one game, 2,788 career points, 996 points in a season, 50 points in a game, a 31.1-point season scoring average, a 28.7-point career scoring average, 21 field goals in a game, 365 field goals in one season, 266 free throws in one season, 1,252 rebounds in a career, 467 rebounds in a season.

Professional career

A 6'8" forward, Tucker played four seasons (1967–1971) in the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...

and one season (1971–1972) in the

American Basketball Association The American Basketball Association (ABA) was a major professional basketball league that operated for nine seasons from 1967 to 1976. The upstart ABA operated in direct competition with the more established National Basketball Association thr ...

as a member of the Seattle SuperSonics, Cincinnati Royals,

Chicago Bulls The Chicago Bulls are an American professional basketball team based in Chicago. The Bulls compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Central Division of the Eastern Conference. The team was founded on January 16 ...

, Baltimore Bullets, and

The Floridians ''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The ...

. He averaged 10.1

points per game Points per game, often abbreviated PPG, is the average number of points scored by a player or team per game played in a sport, over the course of a series of games, a whole season, or a career. It is calculated by dividing the total number of poi ...

in his career and earned NBA All-Rookie Honors at the end of the

1967–68 NBA season The 1967–68 NBA season was the 22nd season of the National Basketball Association. The season ended with the Boston Celtics winning the NBA Championship, beating the Los Angeles Lakers 4 games to 2 in the 1968 NBA Finals, NBA Finals. Notabl ...

. Tucker is notable as the Seattle SuperSonics' first ever NBA draft pick, selected sixth overall in the 1967 NBA draft. Tucker was also selected in the 1967 ABA Draft by the Oakland Oaks.

Personal

Tucker's father played for the

Harlem Globetrotters The Harlem Globetrotters is an American Exhibition game, exhibition basketball team. They combine athleticism, theater, entertainment, and comedy in their style of play. Over the years, they have played more than 26,000 exhibition games in 124 ...

in 1940.

Career statistics

NBA/ABA

Source

Regular season

Playoffs

References

External links

Career statistics

Obituary
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tucker, Al 1943 births 2001 deaths American men's basketball players Baltimore Bullets (1963–1973) players Basketball players from Dayton, Ohio Chicago Bulls players Cincinnati Royals players Miami Floridians players Oakland Oaks draft picks Oklahoma Baptist Bison basketball players Seattle SuperSonics draft picks Seattle SuperSonics players Shooting guards United States men's national basketball team players 1967 FIBA World Championship players