Swen Nater

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Swen Nater
Wilson (Long Beach, California
)
College
San Diego Clippers
1983–1984Los Angeles Lakers
1984–1985Australian Udine
Career highlights and awards
Career ABA and NBA statistics
Points
8,980 (12.4 ppg)
Rebounds8,340 (11.6 rpg)
Assists1,235 (1.7 apg)
Stats Edit this at Wikidata at NBA.com
Stats Edit this at Wikidata at Basketball-Reference.com

Swen Erick Nater (born January 14, 1950) is a Dutch former professional

ABA Rookie of the Year. He played college basketball for the UCLA Bruins, winning two National Collegiate Athletic Association
(NCAA) titles.

Early life

Nater was born in the Netherlands in Den Helder.[1] His parents divorced when he was three years old. When his mother remarried and the family's economic situation deteriorated, she, her husband, and Nater's younger brother moved to the United States, leaving Nater and his sister in an orphanage. After three years it appeared they would remain in the Netherlands until a television show, It Could Be You (a forerunner to This Is Your Life), discovered the situation and brought the two siblings to America to be reunited—on TV—with the rest of the family. At age nine, he was in a new country and did not speak a word of English.[2][3] He took his stepfather's name and was known as Swen Langeberg.[4][5]

Nater did not get along with his stepfather, who did not want him to play basketball.

Long Beach Wilson High School in Long Beach, California. He tried out for their basketball team as a junior, but he was cut.[3][1] He had arrived at the first practice barefoot but was told by the coach he needed shoes. His family unable to afford them, Nater returned to practice with shoes stolen from a teammate. The coach told Nater to leave. He did not try out as a senior.[1]

College career

Nater attended and played basketball at

UCLA.[2] After leaving Cypress, he changed back to his father's name, Nater.[5] He had already moved out from his stepfather's home after he forbade Nater from playing at Cypress.[4]

Nater

NCAA titles. He was a backup to Bill Walton, and averaged just 3.2 points and 3.3 rebounds per game as a senior. He never started a collegiate game—his primary role was helping to develop Walton in practice.[6][7]

Professional career

Nater was drafted by

The Floridians in the 1972 ABA Draft, and then by the Virginia Squires in the June 1972 ABA dispersal draft after the Floridians' demise.[8][9] Nater was also drafted in the first round of the 1973 NBA draft with the 16th overall pick by the Milwaukee Bucks;[1] he was the first NBA first-round pick to have played in the NCAA without ever starting a college game.[3] Milwaukee offered him $50,000.[10] In August 1973, he opted to sign a three-year, $300,000 contract with the Squires, who spread the payments over seven years.[9][10] On November 21, 1973, the Squires traded Nater to the San Antonio Spurs for a draft pick and $300,000.[9]

With the Spurs, Nater was the

New York Nets
.

Nater's NBA career began with the

San Diego and became the Clippers a year later, Nater became a local favorite. Nater led the NBA in rebounding average during the 1979–80 season, making him the only player ever to lead both the NBA and ABA in rebounding.[7] On January 12, 1982, he had surgery to remove bone chips from his right knee. The injury limited him to just 14 games in 1981–82 and seven in 1982–83.[13]

Before the

Kareem Abdul Jabbar.[14]
Nater and Scott helped lead the Lakers to the NBA Finals that year, but the next season the team did not offer him a guaranteed contract.

Nater played for Australian Udine in the Italian League, where he was the best paid player and led the league in rebounding even though the team ended up being relegated. The next season, he initially accepted an offer from Barcelona in the Spanish League, but ultimately he changed his mind and decided to retire.

Career statistics

Legend
  GP Games played   GS  Games started  MPG  Minutes per game
 FG%  Field goal percentage  3P%  3-point field goal percentage  FT%  Free throw percentage
 RPG  Rebounds per game  APG  Assists per game  SPG  Steals per game
 BPG  Blocks per game  PPG  Points per game  Bold  Career high
 *  Led the league

ABA

Regular season

Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG
1973–74
Virginia
 17 - 22.0 .556* .000 .630 9.1 1.0 0.4 0.9 12.6
1973–74
San Antonio
 62 - 32.3 .551* .000 .740 13.6 1.8 0.4 0.8 14.5
1974–75
San Antonio
 78 - 34.8 .542 .000 .752 16.4* 1.2 0.6 1.1 15.1
1975–76
New York
 43 - 23.6 .485 .000 .718 10.3 0.4 0.4 0.6 8.7
1975–76
Virginia
 33 - 23.5 .498 .000 .675 9.8 1.1 0.4 0.8 11.3
Career 233 - 29.5 .532 .000 .722 13.1 1.2 0.5 0.9 13.0

Playoffs

Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG
1973–74
San Antonio
 7 - 30.1 .553 .000 .714 11.7 2.1 0.4 0.7 14.9
1974–75
San Antonio
 6 - 39.0 .476 .000 .429 16.5 1.0 0.2 1.0 14.8
Career 13 - 25.0 .515 .000 .543 13.9 1.6 0.8 0.3 14.8

NBA

Regular season

Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG
1976–77
Milwaukee
 72 - 27.2 .528 - .754 12.0 1.5 0.8 0.7 13.0
1977–78
Buffalo
 78 - 35.6 .504 - .765 13.2 2.8 0.5 0.6 15.5
1978–79
San Diego
 79 - 25.4 .569 - .800 8.9 1.8 0.5 0.4 10.7
1979–80
San Diego
 81 - 35.3 .554 .000 .718 15.0* 2.9 0.6 0.5 13.4
1980–81
San Diego
 82 - 34.3 .553 .000 .795 12.4 2.4 0.6 0.6 15.6
1981–82
San Diego
 21 7 27.4 .577 1.000 .747 9.1 1.4 0.3 0.4 12.5
1982–83
San Diego
 7 0 7.3 .300 .000 1.000 1.9 0.1 0.1 0.0 2.3
1983–84
Los Angeles
 69 0 12.0 .490 .000 .692 3.8 0.4 0.4 0.1 4.5
Career 489 7 28.4 .537 .250 .760 10.8 2.0 0.5 0.5 12.2

Playoffs

Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG
1983–84
Los Angeles
 17 - 8.6 .500 .000 .769 2.4 0.1 0.1 0.1 3.4

After the NBA

He built the basketball program at

San Diego, California, and coached from 1985 to 1995.[15] He left the position because it "was high on work and low on pay.” He was living in El Cajon, California, where his two daughters were born and raised.[16]

Nater later lived in Enumclaw, Washington,[17] where he went to work for Costco, for whom he was a sporting goods assistant buyer.[6][15] and then in Des Moines, Washington overlooking Puget Sound, with his wife Dr. Wendy Ghiora.

Nater has also co-authored books with basketball coaches Wooden and Pete Newell.

Publications

  • Wooden, John; Nater, Swen (2006). John Wooden's UCLA Offense. Human Kinetics.
    ISBN 9780736061803
    .
  • Newell, Pete; Nater, Swen (2007). Pete Newell's Playing Big. Champaign, Illinois: Human Kinetics.
    ISBN 9780736068093
    .

See also
  • List of National Basketball Association annual rebounding leaders
  • List of National Basketball Association single-game rebounding leaders

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Hazeltine, Rick (December 17, 1988). "LOOKING UP TO HIM : Swen Nater Is a Lifetime Rebounder With Valuable Lessons to Pass On". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on May 13, 2014.
  2. ^ a b c "ABOUT COACH SWEN NATER". CoachSwen.com. Archived from the original on 2013-09-10. Retrieved 2014-03-05.
  3. ^ a b c Walton, Bill (February 24, 2004). "What a long, strange trip it's been, Swen". ESPN.com. Archived from the original on June 30, 2015.
  4. ^
    Newspapers.com
    .
  5. ^
    Newspapers.com
    .
  6. ^ a b Raley, Dan (January 9, 2008). "Where Are They Now?, Seattle Post Intelligencer". Archived from the original on March 5, 2014.
  7. ^
    ISBN 9780786748877
    . Retrieved March 22, 2012.
  8. ^ a b "BasketballReference.com Swen Nater page". Archived from the original on 27 December 2008. Retrieved 3 March 2022.
  9. ^ a b c "Remember the ABA: Oakland Oaks/Washington Caps/Virginia Squires Year-to-Year Franchise Notes". Remembertheaba.com. Retrieved 3 March 2022.
  10. ^
    Newspapers.com
    .
  11. ^ "StaTuesday: Milwaukee Bucks who saw 20-20". FOX Sports. 16 January 2018. Retrieved 3 March 2022.
  12. ^ "Atlanta Hawks at Milwaukee Bucks Box Score, December 19, 1976". Basketball-Reference.com. Retrieved 3 March 2022.
  13. Newspapers.com
    .
  14. Newspapers.com
    .
  15. ^
    New York Times
    . Retrieved 2009-07-08.
  16. ^ Ringer, Sandy (November 10, 1997). "Enumclaw's Nater Grew Up With Game". The Seattle Times. Retrieved May 25, 2021.
  17. ^ What a long, strange trip it's been, Swen, Espn.co.uk, Retrieved 2018-12-11.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Swen_Nater&oldid=1215296503"