Still, respect hasn’t always been paid to McAdoo for whatever reason. Maybe it’s because his championship years with the Lakers have been cast as him being a player at the end of his career. There’s also that he won MVP playing for Buffalo (now the LA Clippers) at a time some thought Buffalo was in the ABA. McAdoo was the only MVP and scoring champion not named to the NBA’s 50th Anniversary Team, which was one of the more glaring omissions fixed with the 75th Anniversary team. “They know they messed up in the first 50,” McAdoo said. “But I still don’t feel like I’m respected, because people don’t know the whole story.”
Bob McAdoo Rumors
McAdoo could still score, averaging 12 points in 20 minutes in 224 games with the Lakers. “When you saw me with the Lakers, people act like that was at the end of my career — that wasn’t the end of my career,” McAdoo said. “… I shouldn’t have been coming off the bench. “I sat around with people and they say Kevin Durant went to a team in Golden State that already had stars. You think they would have brought Kevin Durant off the bench to keep the team in Klay Thompson’s and Stephen Curry’s hands? This is what happened. I look back and say there’s no way I should have come off the bench in L.A., but that’s the way it worked. But I didn’t raise hell about it. I’d been in the league 10 years, I wanted to win a championship.”
Not only did McAdoo find great success on the court, becoming one of the best Americans to play in the EuroLeague, he also regained his confidence. The bus rides, team dinners and being able to see all of Europe were life-changing experiences because if not for basketball, McAdoo likely would not have enjoyed life like that in the NBA while finishing his career. In Europe, he was having fun, playing well and winning. “S—, we ended up being the best team in Europe,” McAdoo said. “We won two Italian Championships, two EuroLeague Championships. The one year I led the league in scoring, I was MVP in … the EuroLeague Championship series (in 1988). It was fantastic. When I look back at my career, I like my six years in Italy better than I love any of my years in the NBA.”
Vincennes University great and NBA Hall of Famer Bob McAdoo is truly a Trailblazer — the NJCAA is celebrating his outstanding contributions and accomplishments with a special honor. Probably regarded as the best VU player ever, McAdoo was inducted into the inaugural 2021 NJCAA Foundation Hall of Fame class on Thursday.
Arash Markazi: According to Stathead Basketball and the Lakers: “Andre Drummond finished tonight’s game with 20 points and 11 rebounds, joining Bob McAdoo as the only Lakers players to log a 20-point, 10-rebound game in 22 minutes or less.”
Basketball-Reference: Yesterday was Julius Randle’s second game this season with 30+ points, 12+ rebounds, and 6+ assists. He’s the first Knick since Bob McAdoo in 1977-78 to do that twice in a season stathead.com/tiny/cbwTU pic.twitter.com/a89nTfc5KG
