Richard Eugene Garmaker (October 29, 1932 – June 13, 2020) was an American
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 who played professionally 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 ...
(NBA) from 1955 to 1961.
College career
Garmaker was a 6'3"
guard/forward from the
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...
. He was a 1955 consensus
All-American
The All-America designation is an annual honor bestowed on outstanding athletes in the United States who are considered to be among the best athletes in their respective sport. Individuals receiving this distinction are typically added to an Al ...
for the
Golden Gophers, along with
Sihugo Green (Duquesne),
Tom Gola (LaSalle),
Bill Russell
William Felton Russell (February 12, 1934 – July 31, 2022) was an American professional basketball player who played Center (basketball), center for the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1956 to 1969. He was t ...
(San Francisco) and
Dick Ricketts (Duquesne).
Professional career
He was drafted by the NBA's
Minneapolis Lakers
The Los Angeles Lakers franchise has a long and storied history, having played and won championships in both the National Basketball League (United States), National Basketball League (NBL) and the Basketball Association of America (BAA) prior to ...
twice (in 1954 and again in 1955) and joined the team for the
1955–56 NBA season. As a result of that fact, Garmaker became the first player in NBA history to be selected in multiple
NBA draft
The NBA draft is the National Basketball Association's (NBA) annual event, dating back to 1947 BAA draft, 1947, in which the teams in the league can Draft (sports), draft players who declare for the draft and that are Eligibility for the NBA dr ...
s before the practice eventually became abolished in the 1980s.
[, pg. 451] In his four-and-a-half seasons with the Lakers, Garmaker appeared as an
NBA All-Star
The National Basketball Association (NBA) All-Star Game is an annual exhibition basketball game. It is the main event of the NBA All-Star Weekend. Traditionally, the All-Star Game featured a conference-based format, featuring a team composed of ...
four times. He had his finest season in
1956–57, in which he ranked tenth in the league in points per game (16.3) and earned a spot on the All-NBA second team. In 1960, he was traded to the
New York Knicks
The New York Knickerbockers, shortened and more commonly referred to as the New York Knicks, are an American professional basketball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of Manhattan. The Knicks compete in the Na ...
for
Ray Felix and a draft pick, and he retired with the Knicks in 1961, having scored 5,597 career points.
Death
Dick Garmaker died at age 87 on June 13, 2020.
[
]
NBA career statistics
Regular season
Playoffs
References
External links
Career stats
@basketball-reference.com
1932 births
2020 deaths
All-American college men's basketball players
American men's basketball players
Basketball players from Minnesota
Hibbing High School alumni
Junior college men's basketball players in the United States
Minneapolis Lakers draft picks
Minneapolis Lakers players
Minnesota Golden Gophers men's basketball players
NBA All-Stars
New York Knicks players
Shooting guards
Small forwards
Sportspeople from Hibbing, Minnesota
20th-century American sportsmen
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