First African American scholarship athlete at Marshall led his hometown Thundering Herd to its initial NCAA Tournament appearance in 1956. Spent 15 years in the NBA, all with the 76ers. A 10-time league all star, he won an NBA championship in 1967 and holds franchise records for points scored, games played, and field goals made. Inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and named in 1996 one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History.
If you ask someone old enough to see him play, they’ll tell you he was famous for shooting a jump shot on his free throws. His rationale was a 15 foot jump shot was easy for him, so he wanted to take the same shot as often as he could. His FT % was over 80%.
The '66-'67 '76ers were a superteam, assembled without free agency to beat the Celtics. They did. They were so good Billy Cunningham, a Hall of Fame player, came off the bench. Greer was the 2nd best player on that team. Wilt Chamberlain was the best.
Sadly, Greer finished on the 2nd worst team ever. Billy Cunningham had to leave the Sixers to play for the Carolina Cougars. The Sixers could not replace him and went 9-73. They had the worst record and winning percentage until the Charlotte Bobcats went 7-59. Greer was 36 at that time and it was his last year.
He was great and was appreciated. In his time, the Sixers were broadcast on 1210 WCAU and their games could be heard up and down the east coast. RIP.