Frank Thomas

Notable Sports Figures
Career Statistics
GP PTS P/G FG% FT% REB AST STL BLK
NBA Regular Season 932 25192 27.0 .474 .814 4449 6238 81 23
NBA Playoffs 153 4457 29.1 .469 .805 855 970 — —
NBA All-Star Games 12 160 13.3 .453 .720 47 55 — —
ability,” but “made up for these deficiencies with pure
hustle and an apparent lack of regard for his body. He
broke his nose at least nine times. On more than one occasion
West had to be helped to the court before games in
which he ultimately scored 30 or 40 points.”
Shines in Playoffs
As good as he was as a player overall, West really
shone in the playoffs. In the Lakers’ 1965 finals against
the Celtics, he averaged 46.3 points per game, the highest
points-per-game average for any playoff series.
When the Lakers again faced off against the Celtics in
the 1969 finals, West was named most valuable player,
the first and only time such honors have gone to a member
of the losing team. In an interview West did with
NBA.com on the occasion of the NBA’s 50th anniversary,
West recalled: “I thought we should have won in
‘69—I felt we had the better team. Those are the ones
that leave emotional scars.” Despite West’s brilliance on
the basketball court, the record of the Lakers through
1970 was a study in frustration. In the nine seasons from
1962 through 1970, the Lakers made it into the finals six
times but lost all six times—five times to the Celtics and
once to the New York Knicks. Half of the finals in which
the Lakers played went to seven games, and in two of
them against the Celtics, Boston won the seventh and
deciding game by a single basket.
In the 1970 finals against the Knicks, West launched
his famous bomb, dazzling not only the opponents but his
own teammates as well. Walt Frazier of the Knicks recalled
thinking: “The man’s crazy. He looks determined.
He thinks it’s really going in!” Much to the amazement of
Frazier and others, it did, sending Game 3 of the finals
into overtime. In the end, however, the Lakers again came
up dry, with the Knicks taking not only Game 3 but the
series as well to win the NBA championship.
Briefly Considers Retirement
As much as West wanted to win an NBA championship,
the toll taken by numerous injuries had forced
him to seriously consider retirement prior to the 1971-
72 season. In the end, he returned to the Lakers and
helped the Los Angeles team to write a new chapter in
NBA history. With Baylor largely sidelined by injury,
the Lakers looked to West, Wilt Chamberlain, and Gail
Goodrich to carry them through. And carry them
West
through, they did. The trio helped power the Lakers to a
33-game winning streak under new coach Bill Sharman,
a former star of the Celtics. At the middle of the season,
the Lakers had an unprecedented record of 39-3. The
team ended the season with a record of 69-13, the best
single-season record in NBA history. Throughout the
regular season, West, though increasingly hampered by
injuries, managed to average 25.8 points per game while
leading the NBA in assists with 9.7 per game.
It began to look as though the Lakers were finally on
track to win the NBA championship that they had sought
for so long. In the playoffs, the Lakers demolished the
Chicago Bulls in four games and took the Milwaukee
Bucks in six. Facing off against the Knicks in the finals,
the Lakers lost the first game to New York but came back
to win the next four games in a row, all by relatively
large margins, taking the team’s combined record for the
regular season and playoffs to a remarkable 81-16. Not
only had West finally won an NBA championship, but he
had done it with a team enjoying one of the greatest seasons
in NBA history. Thus revitalized, West went on to
play another two seasons for the Lakers. In the 1972-73
season, the Lakers again made it into the NBA finals but
lost the championship to the Knicks. A pulled groin injury
during the 1973-74 season kept West out of all but
31 games during the regular season and a single game in
the playoffs. At season’s end, West announced his retirement,
telling the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner: “I’m not
willing to sacrifice my standards. Perhaps I expect too
much.” Always high-strung, West was increasingly bothered
in his later years as a player by a nervous condition.
Steps Down as Player in 1974
West left professional basketball in 1974 as the third
highest career scorer in NBA history, with a total of
25,192 points in 932 games. Only Chamberlain and
Robertson had better records at that time, although in
the years to come five other NBA players would surpass
him. His career average of 27 points per game is the
fourth highest ever, behind Michael Jordan, Chamberlain,
and Baylor. West still retains the record for the highest
average points per game for a player over the age of 30,
for 31.2 points per game during the 1969-70 season,
when he was 31.
West’s absence from basketball was relatively brief.
He returned as the Lakers coach for the 1976-77 season
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