John R. Hummer (born May 4, 1948) is an American

venture capitalist Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in terms of number ...

and retired 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 who was an original member of the

Buffalo Braves The Buffalo Braves were an American professional basketball team based in Buffalo, New York. The Braves competed in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Atlantic Division (NBA), Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference ...

after starring for the

Princeton Tigers men's basketball The Princeton Tigers men's basketball team is the intercollegiate men's basketball program representing Princeton University. The school competes in the Ivy League in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). The Tiger ...

team. He also led his high school to the 1966 Virginia State 1A championship and helped Princeton earn a 1967–68 co-Ivy League Championship as well as a 1968–69 outright Ivy League Championship. Over the course of his basketball career, he was coached by four National Basketball Hall of Fame members. In college, Hummer was a three-time All-

Ivy League The Ivy League is an American collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference of eight Private university, private Research university, research universities in the Northeastern United States. It participates in the National Collegia ...

selection (first-team:

1969 1969 ( MCMLXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1969th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 969th year of the 2nd millennium, the 69th year of the 20th century, and the ...

and 1970, second team: 1968). He played for two Ivy League champion teams and served as team

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

as a senior. He was a part of the first of

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 ...

Pete Carril Peter Joseph Carril (; July 10, 1930 – August 15, 2022) was an American basketball coach. He is best known as head coach of Princeton University for 30 years and for his use of the " Princeton offense". He also coached at Lehigh University a ...

's thirteen Ivy League champions (1968), eleven

NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament The NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, branded as March Madness, or The Big Dance, is a single-elimination tournament played in the United States to determine the men's college basketball national champion of the NCAA Division I, Di ...

teams (1969) and three undefeated conference champions (1969). Although Hummer set no statistical records, his name continues to be ranked high in the Princeton record book by many statistical measures. He played six seasons 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) for the Braves,

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 ...

and

Seattle SuperSonics The Seattle SuperSonics (commonly shortened to Sonics) were an American professional basketball team based in Seattle. The SuperSonics competed in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Western Division (1967–1970), and ...

. He was the 15th overall selection in the

1970 NBA draft The 1970 NBA draft was the 24th annual NBA draft, draft of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The draft was held on March 23, 1970, before the 1970–71 NBA season, 1970–71 season. In this draft, 17 NBA teams took turns selecting amate ...

and the first

draft Draft, the draft, or draught may refer to: Watercraft dimensions * Draft (hull), the distance from waterline to keel of a vessel * Draft (sail), degree of curvature in a sail * Air draft, distance from waterline to the highest point on a v ...

choice in the history of the Braves franchise. As a Braves draft choice, he was a somewhat controversial pick in a draft year with two

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 ...

local products available. During his NBA career, he played for Hall of Famers

Dolph Schayes Adolph Schayes ( ; May 19, 1928 – December 10, 2015) was an American professional basketball player and coach in the National Basketball Association (NBA). A top scorer and rebounder, he was a 12-time NBA All-Star and a 12-time All-NBA select ...

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 ...

and

Jack Ramsay John Travilla Ramsay (February 21, 1925 – April 28, 2014) was an American basketball coach, commonly known as "Dr. Jack" (as he held an earned doctorate). He was best known for leading the Portland Trail Blazers to the 1977 NBA championship, ...

. After his professional basketball career ended, he went to

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

to get an

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA) is a professional degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration; elective courses may allow further study in a particular a ...

in 1980. In 1989, Ann Winblad and he founded Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, a venture capital firm focusing on

software Software consists of computer programs that instruct the Execution (computing), execution of a computer. Software also includes design documents and specifications. The history of software is closely tied to the development of digital comput ...

companies.

Amateur career

Hummer attended

Washington-Lee High School Washington-Liberty High School, formerly known as Washington-Lee High School, is a public high school in the Arlington Public Schools district in Arlington, Virginia, covering grades 9–12. Its attendance area serves the central third of Ar ...

Arlington, Virginia Arlington County, or simply Arlington, is a County (United States), county in the U.S. state of Virginia. The county is located in Northern Virginia on the southwestern bank of the Potomac River directly across from Washington, D.C., the nati ...

. Following in the footsteps of his brother Ed Hummer, he led W-L to the 1966 Virginia 1A state title as a high school senior. Ed had led the team to the 1962 and 1963 titles. His nephew (Ed's son Ian) was a freshman on the 2009–10 Princeton team. In Hummer's sophomore season at Princeton, the team was co-champion of the Ivy League with a 20–6 (12–3 Ivy) record. Despite the fact that Princeton had three of the five first-team All-Ivy team members, plus second-team member Hummer, they lost the one-game league playoff to the

Jim McMillian James M. McMillian (March 11, 1948 – May 16, 2016) was an American professional basketball player. After starring at Thomas Jefferson High School in Brooklyn, McMillian played college basketball for the Columbia Lions. He led Columbia to a t ...

-led 1968

Columbia Lions The Columbia University Lions are the collective athletic teams and their members from Columbia University, an Ivy League institution in New York City, United States. The current director of athletics is Peter Pilling. History Intercollegia ...

. That year the team rose to as high as 8th in the AP Poll. This was the first of thirteen Ivy League championships for

. The following season, the team accumulated a 19–7 (14–0) record and participated in the

1969 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament The 1969 NCAA University Division men's basketball tournament involved 25 schools playing to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division I college basketball. It began on March 8, 1969, and ended with the championship game on March ...

. They lost to St. John's in the tournament, but Hummer was joined by

Geoff Petrie Geoffrey Michael Petrie (born April 17, 1948) is an American former professional basketball player. A native of Pennsylvania, he played professional basketball in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for the Portland Trail Blazers where he ...

on the first-team All-Ivy squad. This was the first of eleven NCAA tournament appearance for Carril. It was also the first of three 14–0 conference champions for Carril. As a senior, Hummer was first-team All-Ivy, but the Tigers placed third in the conference to the undefeated (in Ivy League games) Corky Calhoun-led

Penn Quakers The Penn Quakers are the athletic teams of the University of Pennsylvania. The school sponsors 33 varsity sports. The school has won three NCAA national championships in men's fencing and one in women's fencing. Sponsored teams Men's varsit ...

and McMillian's Lions. Although Princeton did not appear in the 1970 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, they hosted Penn's game. All three of his varsity years were spent under Carril. Again, following in the footsteps of his brother who had served as Princeton

of the 1966–67 team, John was co-captain for the 1969–70 team along with classmate Petrie. Hummer was honored with the team's B. Franklin Bunn ’07 Award for play, sportsmanship and influence that contributed most to the sport. During his career, he shared the spotlight with Petrie and did not set any statistical records at a school and conference where

Bill Bradley William Warren Bradley (born July 28, 1943) is an American politician and former professional basketball player. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he was a United States Senate, United States senator from New ...

continues to dominate the record books. Over the course of his career, Hummer was the 9th Tiger to accumulate 1000 career points (1031 in 67 games) and he continued to rank seventh in school history with a 15.4 points/game average through the 2009–10 season. Since his career ended in 1970 only Brian Taylor has posted a higher average. He stands eighth in career

free throw In basketball, free throws or foul shots are unopposed attempts to score points by shooting from behind the free-throw line (informally known as the foul line or the charity stripe), a line situated at the end of the restricted area. Free throws ...

s made (297), having only been passed since his career ended by Craig Robinson and Kit Mueller. He is tenth in career rebounds.

Professional basketball career

Following his senior season, Hummer was one of three first-round Ivy League selections in the 1970 NBA Draft (Petrie – 8th, McMillian 13th and Hummer 15th). Hummer was also drafted by

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 ...

in the 1970

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 ...

draft. The 1970 draft included two promising

local- Buffalo area talents:

St. Bonaventure University St. Bonaventure University is a private university, private Franciscan university in St. Bonaventure, New York. It has 2,760 undergraduate and graduate students. The Order of Friars Minor, Franciscans established the university in 1858. In ath ...

's Buffalo-born

Bob Lanier Robert Jerry Lanier Jr. (September 10, 1948 – May 10, 2022) was an American professional basketball player. He played center (basketball), center for the Detroit Pistons and the Milwaukee Bucks of the National Basketball Association (NBA). L ...

and

Niagara University Niagara University (NU) is a private Catholic university in the Vincentian tradition in the census-designated place Niagara University, New York, in the town of Lewiston near Niagara Falls. It is run by the Congregation of the Mission and ...

's Calvin Murphy. Murphy was a fan favorite that many local fans hoped the Braves would select. However, Braves General Manager

Eddie Donovan Eddie Donovan (June 2, 1922 in Elizabeth, New Jersey – January 20, 2001) was a professional basketball coach and executive. He coached the New York Knicks, New York Knickerbockers from 1961 through 1965, and was the coach on the opposing sideli ...

doubted the Murphy could make it in the NBA. The Baltimore Bullets traded to improve their draft position on the day of the March 23, 1970 NBA draft. They traded their #15 selection and Mike Davis to the expansion

for the #9 selection. That day, the Braves selected Hummer with the 15th pick. Hummer averaged 11.3 points and 8.9 rebounds for the 1970–71 Buffalo Braves during an average of 32.6 minutes in 81 games played for coach

. The 22–60 Braves finished fourth in the four-team Atlantic Division. Hummer and the Braves struggled for two more seasons with 60-loss seasons. The 1972–73 Braves were

's first coaching season with his second NBA team. After the Braves selected

Ernie DiGregorio Ernest DiGregorio (born January 15, 1951), also known as "Ernie D.", is an American former professional basketball player. He played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for the Buffalo Braves, Los Angeles Lakers, and Boston Celtics from ...

in the 1973 NBA draft to complement 1972 NBA draft selection

Bob McAdoo Robert Allen McAdoo Jr. ( ; born September 25, 1951) is an American former professional basketball player and coach. He played 14 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA), where he was a five-time NBA All-Star and named the NBA Mos ...

, it was clear the team was going to change to fast-paced offense to leverage DiGregorio's skills. Hummer was more of a defensive player. Prior to the

1973–74 NBA season The 1973–74 NBA season was the 28th season of the National Basketball Association. The season ended with the Boston Celtics winning the NBA Championship, beating the Milwaukee Bucks 4 games to 3 in the NBA Finals. Notable occurrences * The ...

, Hummer was packaged with a 1974 NBA draft 2nd round pick and a

1975 NBA draft The 1975 NBA draft was the 29th annual draft of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The draft was held on May 29, 1975, before the 1975–76 season. In this draft, 18 NBA teams took turns selecting amateur U.S. college basketball players ...

2nd round pick in a trade that sent him to the

in exchange for Gar Heard and Kevin Kunnert. The deal was part of the resume that earned Donavan the

NBA Executive of the Year Award The NBA Executive of the Year is an annual award in the National Basketball Association (NBA) award given since the 1972–73 NBA season, to the league's best general manager, president of basketball/business operations, or another high-ranking e ...

. That season the 54–28

Dick Motta John Richard Motta (born September 3, 1931) is an American former basketball coach whose career in the National Basketball Association (NBA) spanned 25 years. Motta coached the Washington Wizards, Washington Bullets to the 1978 NBA Finals, 1978 ...

-coached 1973–74 Bulls team that he was traded to initially would make the playoffs, but the 36–46

-coached 1973–74 SuperSonics that he would finish the season with would not. During the season (on January 7), he was traded by the Bulls to the

in exchange for a 1975 NBA draft 2nd round selection. Russell's SuperSonics ( 1974–75 and 1975–76) were the only playoff teams for whom he played in the postseason. In the 1975 NBA Playoffs, the Sonics defeated the

Detroit Pistons The Detroit Pistons are an American professional basketball team based in Detroit. The Pistons compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Central Division (NBA), Central Division of the Eastern Conference (NBA), East ...

2–1 in the first round before losing to the

Golden State Warriors The Golden State Warriors are an American professional basketball team based in San Francisco. The Warriors compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference. Founded in 1946 i ...

4–2. Hummer appeared in six of the nine playoff games that year, but accumulated no points. The following season the Sonics earned a bye in the first round of the

1976 NBA Playoffs The 1976 NBA playoffs was the postseason tournament of the National Basketball Association's 1975–76 season. The tournament concluded with the Eastern Conference champion Boston Celtics defeating the Western Conference champion Phoenix Suns ...

where they lost to the

Phoenix Suns The Phoenix Suns are an American professional basketball team based in Phoenix, Arizona. The Suns compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Pacific Division (NBA), Pacific Division of the Western Conference (NBA), We ...

. Hummer appeared in three of these games. Never a strong free throw shooter, Hummer failed to make 50% of his free throws during his last three seasons in the NBA. In the 1974–75 season, he shot an unusually low 0.275 from the free throw line.

Education

Hummer graduated from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

in 1970 with an A.B. in English and in 1980 with an

from

Stanford Graduate School of Business The Stanford Graduate School of Business is the Postgraduate education, graduate business school of Stanford University, a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California. For several years it has been the most selective ...

Venture capitalism

In 1989 Ann Winblad and Hummer founded Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, which claims to have been the first venture capital firm to focus exclusively on the

Software industry The software industry includes businesses for development, maintenance and publication of software that are using different business models, mainly either "license/maintenance based" (on-premises) or " Cloud based" (such as SaaS, PaaS, IaaS, ...

. The company has financed over 100 ventures that have been on the forefront of trends that have gone from

personal computer A personal computer, commonly referred to as PC or computer, is a computer designed for individual use. It is typically used for tasks such as Word processor, word processing, web browser, internet browsing, email, multimedia playback, and PC ...

(PC) software to enterprise computing to

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...

applications. The company's investments have now spanned generations of

software application Application software is any computer program that is intended for end-user use not computer operator, operating, system administration, administering or computer programming, programming the computer. An application (app, application program, sof ...

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and construction, constructi ...

s, delivery methods, and

business model A business model describes how a Company, business organization creates, delivers, and captures value creation, value,''Business Model Generation'', Alexander Osterwalder, Yves Pigneur, Alan Smith, and 470 practitioners from 45 countries, self-pub ...

s, including

Omniture Omniture is an online marketing and web analytics business unit in Orem, Utah. It was acquired by Adobe Systems in 2009. Until 2011, Omniture operated as a business unit within Adobe as the "Omniture Business Unit", but as of 2012 Adobe began ret ...

, Voltage Security,

MuleSoft MuleSoft, LLC. is a software company headquartered in San Francisco, California, that provides integration software for connecting applications, data and devices, founded in 2006. The company's Anypoint Platform of integration products is designe ...

Wind River Systems Wind River Systems, Inc., also known as Wind River (trademarked as Wndrvr), is an Alameda, California–based company, subsidiary of Aptiv PLC. The company develops embedded system and cloud software consisting of real-time operating systems sof ...

and Hyperion Solutions. Other notable companies that Hummer Winblad Venture Partners did provide venture capital for, that no longer exist, are

Napster Napster was an American proprietary peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing application primarily associated with digital audio file distribution. Founded by Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker, the platform originally launched on June 1, 1999. Audio shared ...

, Pets.com, and HomeGrocer.

Career statistics

NBA

Source

Regular season

{, class="wikitable sortable" style="font-size:95%; text-align:right;" !Year !Team !GP !GS !MPG !FG% !FT% !RPG !APG !SPG !BPG !PPG , - , style="text-align:left;", , style="text-align:left;", Buffalo , 81 , , , , 32.6 , , .444 , , .580 , , 8.9 , , 2.0 , , , , , , 11.3 , - , style="text-align:left;", , style="text-align:left;", Buffalo , 55 , , , , 21.6 , , .390 , , .468 , , 4.2 , , 1.3 , , , , , , 5.3 , - , style="text-align:left;", , style="text-align:left;", Buffalo , 66 , , , , 23.4 , , .444 , , .561 , , 4.9 , , 2.1 , , , , , , 8.0 , - , style="text-align:left;", , style="text-align:left;",

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

, 18 , , 0 , , 10.3 , , .500 , , .500 , , 2.1 , , .7 , , .2 , , .1 , , 3.3 , - , style="text-align:left;", , style="text-align:left;",

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

, 35 , , , , 26.7 , , .467 , , .469 , , 7.0 , , 2.7 , , .7 , , .6 , , 8.2 , - , style="text-align:left;", , style="text-align:left;",

, 43 , , , , 13.2 , , .380 , , .275 , , 2.4 , , .9 , , .2 , , .2 , , 2.2 , - , style="text-align:left;", , style="text-align:left;",

, 29 , , , , 12.6 , , .478 , , .415 , , 2.7 , , .9 , , .2 , , .3 , , 2.8 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 327 , , 0 , , 22.7 , , .438 , , .524 , , 5.3 , , 1.7 , , .3 , , .3 , , 6.9

Playoffs

{, class="wikitable sortable" style="font-size:95%; text-align:right;" !Year !Team !GP !MPG !FG% !FT% !RPG !APG !SPG !BPG !PPG , - , style="text-align:left;",

1975 It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe. Events January * January 1 – Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...

, style="text-align:left;",

, 6 , , 11.3 , , .000 , , – , , 1.5 , , .7 , , .3 , , .0 , , .0 , - , style="text-align:left;",

1976 Events January * January 2 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 18 – Full diplomatic ...

, style="text-align:left;",

, 3 , , 5.3 , , .667 , , – , , .3 , , .0 , , .0 , , .0 , , 1.3 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 9 , , 9.3 , , .200 , , – , , 1.1 , , .4 , , .2 , , .0 , , .4

References

External links

* at www.databasebasketball.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Hummer, John 1948 births Living people 20th-century American sportsmen American men's basketball players American venture capitalists Basketball players from Virginia Basketball players from Washington, D.C. Buffalo Braves draft picks Buffalo Braves players Centers (basketball) Chicago Bulls players Miami Floridians draft picks Parade High School All-Americans (boys' basketball) Power forwards Princeton Tigers men's basketball players Seattle SuperSonics players Sportspeople from Arlington County, Virginia Stanford Graduate School of Business alumni Washington-Liberty High School alumni