Charlie Yelverton (born December 5, 1948) is an American former 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. At a height of 1.88 m (6 ft 2 in) tall, he played as

shooting guard The shooting guard (SG), also known as the two, two guard or off guard,Shooting guards are 6'3"–6'7"BBC Sports academy URL last accessed 2006-09-09. is one of the five traditional basketball positions, positions in a regulation basketball game ...

small forward The small forward (SF), also known as the three, is one of the five Basketball position, positions in a regulation basketball game. Small forwards are typically shorter, quicker, and leaner than Power forward (basketball), power forwards and Cent ...

. He is a member of the New York State Basketball Hall of Fame.

College career

Yelverton played

college basketball College basketball is basketball that is played by teams of Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. In the Higher education in the United States, United States, colleges and universities are governed by collegiate athle ...

at Fordham, with the

Fordham Rams The Fordham Rams are the varsity sports teams for Fordham University. Their colors are maroon and white. The Fordham Rams are members of NCAA Division I and compete in the Atlantic 10 Conference for most sports. In football, the Rams play in t ...

, from 1968 to 1971. He won the

Haggerty Award __NOTOC__ The Lt. Frank J. Haggerty Award is given to the top men's college basketball player from an NCAA Division I school in the New York metropolitan area. The Haggerty Award is presented by the Metropolitan Basketball Writers Association (MB ...

in 1971, and was also an

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Third Team selection in (

1971 * The year 1971 had three partial solar eclipses (Solar eclipse of February 25, 1971, February 25, Solar eclipse of July 22, 1971, July 22 and Solar eclipse of August 20, 1971, August 20) and two total lunar eclipses (February 1971 lunar eclip ...

). Fordham retired Yelverton's jersey number 34 in 2023.

Professional career

Yelverton was drafted 25th overall by the

Portland Trail Blazers The Portland Trail Blazers (colloquially known as the Blazers) are an American professional basketball team based in Portland, Oregon. The Trail Blazers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Northwest Division (N ...

, in the

1971 NBA draft The 1971 NBA draft was the 25th annual NBA draft, draft of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The draft was held on March 29 and 30, 1971, before the 1971–72 NBA season, 1971–72 season. In this draft, 17 NBA teams took turns selecting ...

, but only appeared in one

NBA 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 ...

season.

During a game on February 1, 1972, Yelverton did not participate in pre-game warmups and sat on the bench during the singing on the US national anthem. ''

The Oregonian ''The Oregonian'' is a daily newspaper based in Portland, Oregon, United States, owned by Advance Publications. It is the oldest continuously published newspaper on the West Coast of the United States, U.S. West Coast, founded as a weekly by Tho ...

'' reported his actions were in protest of Portland's release of Willie McCarter. Blazers forward

Sidney Wicks Sidney Wicks (born September 19, 1949) is an American former professional basketball player in the National Basketball Association (NBA). A native of California, he played college basketball for the UCLA Bruins. Wicks was selected by the Portlan ...

was accused of playing lackadaisical defense during the game as his protest. Yelverton told the ''

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'' in 2016 his protest was in response to the

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and

capitalism Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their use for the purpose of obtaining profit. This socioeconomic system has developed historically through several stages and is defined by ...

. Portland

head coach A head coach, senior coach, or manager is a professional responsible for training and developing athletes within a sports team. This role often has a higher public profile and salary than other coaching positions. In some sports, such as associat ...

Rolland Todd Rolland Douglas Todd (born April 26, 1934) is a former player and coach in the National Basketball Association, and a former player in the American Basketball League (1961–63), American Basketball League, who also coached basketball at Univers ...

was fired the next day for failing to handle the situation and Yelverton went on to play 24 more games for the Blazers. He was waived in September 1972, shortly before the Blazers were scheduled to travel to

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

for a pre-season tournament between NBA and ABA teams. In the summer of 1973, Yelverton was invited the training camp of the ABA

Carolina Cougars The Carolina Cougars were a basketball franchise in the American Basketball Association that existed from 1969 through 1974. The Cougars were originally a charter member of the ABA as the Houston Mavericks in 1967. The Mavericks moved to North Ca ...

Elon University Elon University is a private university in Elon, North Carolina, United States. Founded in 1889 as Elon College, the university is organized into six schools, most of which offer bachelor's degrees and several of which offer master's degrees or ...

Elon, North Carolina Elon () is a town in Alamance County, North Carolina, Alamance County, North Carolina, United States. It is part of the Burlington, North Carolina, Burlington Metropolitan Statistical Area, metropolitan statistical area. The population as of the ...

. He was not offered a contract at the conclusion of the camp. Yelverton then headed to Europe, where he played with

Olympiacos Olympiacós Sýndesmos Filáthlon Peiraiós (, Olympic Association of Fans of Piraeus) is a major multi-sport club based in Piraeus, Greece. Olympiacos is parent to a number of different competitive departments which participate in football, ...

in Greece, and

Ignis Varese Pallacanestro Varese, also called by its current sponsor's name, the Openjobmetis Varese, is an Italian professional basketball club based in Varese, Lombardy. Founded in 1945, the team plays in the Italian first division LBA. For past club spo ...

in Italy. He helped Ignis Varèse to win the 1975

EuroLeague The EuroLeague is a European men's professional basketball club competition. The league is widely recognised as the top-tier and the most prestigious men's basketball league in Europe. The league consists of 20 teams, of which 16 are given lon ...

title, and he also played with the same team in two other

EuroLeague Finals The EuroLeague Finals are the championship finals of the EuroLeague competition. The EuroLeague is European professional club basketball pyramid, the highest level tier, and most important professional sports, professional sports club, club bask ...

, in 1978 and 1979. He also won the 1978 Italian League title, while in Varèse. On February 3, 2008, Yelverton was among the 105 player nominees for the

50 Greatest EuroLeague Contributors The 50 Greatest EuroLeague Contributors (2008) of FIBA European Champions Cup and EuroLeague history were awarded and chosen on February 3, 2008, in Madrid, Spain. The occasion was the fiftieth anniversary since the founding of the inaugural s ...

list, which commemorated the fiftieth anniversary of the EuroLeague competition.

Career statistics

NBA

Source

Regular season

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Portland Portland most commonly refers to: *Portland, Oregon, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon *Portland, Maine, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maine *Isle of Portland, a tied island in the English Channel Portland may also r ...

, 69 , , 17.8 , , .389 , , .707 , , 2.9 , , 1.2 , , 7.9

References

External links

NBA Profile and Stats at Basketball-Reference.comEuroLeague 50 Greatest Contributors Nominees
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yelverton, Charlie 1948 births Living people 20th-century American sportsmen All-American college men's basketball players American expatriate basketball people in Greece American expatriate basketball people in Italy American expatriate basketball people in Switzerland American men's basketball players Pallacanestro Brescia players Basketball players from New York City Fordham Rams men's basketball players Olympiacos B.C. players Pallacanestro Varese players Pittsburgh Condors draft picks Portland Trail Blazers draft picks Portland Trail Blazers players Shooting guards Small forwards