Gar Heard

Gar Heard
Personal information
Born (1948-05-03) May 3, 1948
Hogansville, Georgia
Nationality American
Listed height 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m)
Listed weight 219 lb (99 kg)
Career information
High school Ethel Knight (LaGrange, Georgia)
College Oklahoma (1967–1970)
NBA draft 1970 / Round: 3 / Pick: 40th overall
Selected by the Seattle SuperSonics
Playing career 1970–1981
Position Power forward
Number 40, 24
Career history
As player:
19701972 Seattle SuperSonics
1972–1973 Chicago Bulls
19731976 Buffalo Braves
19761980 Phoenix Suns
1980–1981 San Diego Clippers
As coach:
1992–1993 Dallas Mavericks
1999–2000 Washington Wizards
Career highlights and awards
Career NBA statistics
Points 6,828 (8.7 ppg)
Rebounds 5,876 (7.5 rpg)
Assists 1,220 (1.6 apg)
Stats at Basketball-Reference.com

Garfield "Gar" Heard (born May 3, 1948) is an American retired professional basketball player and coach. He played collegiately at the University of Oklahoma and was selected by the Seattle SuperSonics in the third round of the 1970 NBA draft. He had a 15-year NBA career for four different teams (the Sonics, the Buffalo Braves/San Diego Clippers, the Chicago Bulls, and the Phoenix Suns). Heard is best known for a buzzer beater he made to send Game 5 of the 1976 PhoenixBoston championship series into a third overtime. This feat is commonly known as "The Shot", or "The Shot Heard 'Round the World", in reference to Ralph Waldo Emerson's poem "Concord Hymn", which was written about the Battle of Lexington.

College career

Heard set an Oklahoma school record with 21 double-doubles for a season by a Sooner in 27 games during 1969–70. It was finally broken by Blake Griffin on February 14, 2009.[1][2]

Professional career

Prior to the 1973–74 NBA season, Heard and Kevin Kunnert were traded from the Chicago Bulls to the Buffalo Braves for John Hummer, a 1974 NBA draft 2nd round pick and a 1975 NBA draft 2nd round pick. Heard went on to rank in the top ten in rebounds and blocked shots that season.[3] The deal was part of the resume that earned Buffalo Braves General Manager Eddie Donovan the NBA Executive of the Year Award.[4] Heard once played 86 games in an NBA season, which is 82 games long, when he was traded in the middle of the 1975–76 NBA season from Buffalo to the Phoenix Suns.[3]

The Shot

See also: 1976 NBA Finals

With two seconds remaining in double overtime, John Havlicek had given Boston a one-point advantage with a running one-handed shot. The Celtics' timekeeper then ran the clock out instead of stopping it after a made basket, per league rules. The Boston Garden crowd erupted, believing the game was over, and the Celtics themselves actually went back to their locker room. Legend has it that Havlicek had actually taken the tape off his ankles by this stage. But the Suns correctly pointed that there was still time left, though the officials only placed one second back on the clock instead of two. (Celtics fans had stormed the court after the time was erroneously allowed to expire, and one particularly boisterous fan attacked referee Richie Powers after it was announced that the game was not over yet.) Paul Westphal then intentionally took a technical foul by calling a timeout when the Suns had no more timeouts to use. It gave the Celtics a free throw, which Jo Jo White converted to give Boston a two-point edge, but the timeout also allowed Phoenix to inbound from mid-court instead of from under their own basket. When play resumed, Heard caught the inbound pass and fired a very high-arcing turnaround jump shot from at least 20 feet away. It swished through, sending the game into a third overtime. However, Boston eventually won the game and the Finals, four games to two. Heard had scored 17 points and grabbed 12 rebounds in Game 5.

A revision to Rule 12-A, Section I, in regards to excessive timeouts, resulted in the elimination of the advancement of the ball following an excessive timeout. The rule has since been changed to award the ball to the team shooting the free throw.

Coaching

In addition to his playing career, Heard served as head coach of the Dallas Mavericks from 1993–1994 and the Washington Wizards from 1999–2000. His overall head coaching record is 23-74. During the 2004–2005 season, Heard was an assistant coach with the Detroit Pistons; he coached several games that season when Larry Brown was out due to a medical condition. Heard has also served several stints as an assistant coach for the Indiana Pacers.

Head coaching record

Legend
Regular season G Games coached W Games won L Games lost W–L % Win-loss %
Post season PG Playoff games PW Playoff wins PL Playoff losses PW–L % Playoff win-loss %
Team Year G W L WL% Finish PG PW PL PWL% Result
Dallas 1992–93 53 9 44 .170 6th in Midwest Missed Playoffs
Washington 1999–00 44 14 30 .318 (fired)
Career 97 23 74 .237

References

  1. Helsley, John (February 15, 2009). "Blake Griffin has 40 points, 23 boards for No. 2 Sooners against Texas Tech". The Oklahoman.
  2. "Capel's Sooners Still Streaking". Oklahoma Sports / SoonerSports.com (CBS Interactive). Retrieved 2009-02-15.
  3. 1 2 "Gar Heard". Basketball-Reference.com. Retrieved 2010-03-27.
  4. "Denver's Mark Warkentien named NBA Executive of the Year". NBA.com. 2009-05-03. Retrieved 2010-03-27.
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