NBA Hall of Fame is filled with great players.
Every year former players are added to the hall of fame and we know or have even seen
a lot of them play in realtime.
But I don’t want to look at players everyone knows of and that’s why I’m starting a
new series titled The Hall of famer you don’t know about.
Hello everyone.
I’m PRPLPRNCH and the first hall of famer you don’t know about is Tom Gola.
Tom Gola was born on January 13th, 1933 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
In high school Gola was a great all-around player and because of his great talent a lot
of people expected him to go to a big basketball university.
But he opted to stay close to home and entered La Salle University in 1951.
At 6 foot 6 and 200 pounds Gola was as versatile as they come.
He could play center or forward and even dribble the ball like a guard.
In 4 years of college ball, Tom Gola averaged 20.9 points and 18.7 rebounds.
In his time, La Salle Explorers had a record of 102 wins and only 19 losses.
A four-time college All-America, the first player in collegiate history to score over
2000 points and grab over 2000 rebounds.
Until this day, Tom Gola is widely recognized as one of the greates college players ever.
Similar to his highschool and college basketball career, Tom Gola’s NBA days, started close
to home as he was selected with the 2nd territorial pick of the 1955 NBA draft by the Philadelphia
Warriors.
Along with another La Salle graduate Paul Arizin, Tom Gola was a member of the Warriors
starting 5 in his rookie season as a shooting guard.
Stats wise, he was impressive in a bunch of areas.
For a shooting guard, he was an impressive rebounder.
In his rookie season Gola averaged 10.8 points, 9.1 rebounds and 5.9 assists in 34.5 minutes
per game.
He and the Philadelphia Warriors won the NBA championship in his first year as a player.
Then, came the time for military service.
Gola served in U.S. army for a year,
Before returning to basketball for the 1957-58 season to reunite with his All-nba teammates
Neil Johnston and Paul Arizin.
They didn’t win the championship again, you know,
because there was that one Boston Celtics dynasty that dominated the NBA, but Gola made
the All-NBA second team.
In 1959, Wilt Chamberlain joined the Warriors.
Gola was a great team player, always sacrificing his own stats for the good of the team, and
how can’t you when you have a 7 foot monster at the center position.
The Warriors regularly made the playoffs, but never could get past the Boston Celtics.
During that season, Gola became the first Warrior to have 3 straight games with a triple-double
which shows how versatile he really was.
In total, Tom Gola spent 7 seasons with the team that originally drafted him and in the
process made 3 all-star appearances for the Warriors.
Being on a team with such a great player like Chamberlain, Gola’s production was slipping,
and the management saw it as an opportunity to trade him.
During the 1962-63 season Gola was traded to the New York Knicks where initially he
was moved to the Small Forward position for the remainder of the season.
By that time Gola’s numbers were starting to dip.
In 52 games with the Knicks after the trade, Gola averaged 12 points, 7.1 rebounds and
4.3 assists.
Nevermind the slippage in stats, Gola still made the All-Star team twice while he was
a New York Knick.
In his first full season with the Knicks, Tom Gola returned back to his shooting guard
position, but year by year his production started to slip.
In his last season Gola was just a bench option, averaging 4.4 points, 3.9 rebounds and 2.6
assists in 15.2 minutes per game.
In total, he spent 4 seasons with the Knicks which was his last seasons in the NBA.
He retired from the NBA at age 33.
Tom Gola’s playing career in the NBA spanned 10 years.
In 698 career games, Tom Gola averaged 11.3 points, 8 rebounds and 4.2 assists.
After his playing career, Gola returned to his La Salle college as a head coach.
In 2 years there he compiled a 37-13 record, including a 23-1 record during the 1968-69
season.
His impact was undeniable and the school arena was named after him.
After just 2 years as a coach, Gola started his political career and in 1968 was elected
to the Pennsylvania State House as a Republican representing the Northeast Philadelphia based
170th district.
Tom Gola was selected to the Naismith Basketball Hall Of Fame in 1976.
His political career isn’t the one to remember, but the so nicknamed “Mr. All-Around”
will always be remembered in La Salle University and in the NBA, as a great all-around player
and a hall of famer.
Thank you very much for watching guys.
Did you know something about Tom Gola before this video?
Was his NBA career a bit of a disappointment considering his greatness in college?
Would you like to see more videos about historically great players in the future?
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Oh, by the way.
If you’re a fan of the biggest NBA draft bust series, the top 10 NBA draft Busts of
the 1990s video is coming soon.
Stay tuned.
This was PRPLPRNCH, and I’m out!