- Brian Gump is a former Central High School basketball teammate of Gus Johnson and Nate Thurmond who reflected on the abilities and personalities of each player as a teenager
- Cavaliers legend Austin Carr played against the high-flying Johnson and adored Thurmond as a teammate and mentor
- Thurmond is remembered in Cavs history for being an influential figure in the “Miracle of Richfield”
Gus Johnson personified toughness and possessed the build of a grown man. He competed with an edge and let opponents hear about it.
Nate Thurmond had yet to develop what would become a ripped upper body or master control of his lanky frame. He comported himself like a total gentleman.
Long before Akron became known as the hometown of NBA superstar LeBron James, Johnson and Thurmond were born in the Rubber City and played on the same high school basketball team there.
Brian Gump, 83, has fond memories of Johnson and Thurmond from when they were all teammates in the late 1950s under the late coaching legend Joe Siegferth Sr. at Central High School.
“I’m very honored to have played with two Hall of Famers like that together on the same high school team,” Gump, who now lives in Tallmadge, said in a recent phone interview with the Beacon Journal. “There aren’t too many people in the country that can say that.”
Johnson and Thurmond are members of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame who will be inducted posthumously into the Akron Public Schools Athletics Hall of Fame during a ceremony Saturday night at House Three Thirty. APS started its HOF last year, and Siegferth was part of the inaugural class.
Austin Carr says Nate Thurmond became ‘probably one of the best teammates’ he ever had after joining the Cleveland Cavaliers
Former Cavaliers great Austin Carr vied against Johnson and cherished Thurmond as a teammate during their illustrious NBA careers.
“[Johnson] could jump,” Carr, a longtime Cavs broadcaster, told the Beacon Journal. “He was quick off his feet. He was quick on his feet. He could score. He could defend. He could do it all. I mean, Gus Johnson — ‘Honeycomb’ — he was a sweet player.
“[Thurmond was] probably one of the best teammates I ever played with. He was a fierce competitor, a very skilled big man. … He taught me a lot, not just about the game, but about life and dealing with adversity. He was just a great guy.”
Carr also noted Thurmond “was unbelievably strong,” even in the twilight of his career with the Cavs.
“We were playing somebody, and somebody threw a punch at somebody,” Carr said. “Nate caught [the punch] in midair, and he almost dislocated the guy’s shoulder ’cause he couldn’t move it once Nate grabbed him.”
At Akron Central High School, Gus Johnson established himself as an enforcer
During their Central days, Johnson was known much more for feats of strength than Thurmond.
Johnson was listed as a 6-foot-6 center his senior season. He was roughly the same height in the NBA. On the other hand, Thurmond was listed as a 6-7½ center his senior season and eventually grew to 6-11.
Johnson and Gump graduated from Central in 1958, one year before Thurmond. When Johnson and Gump were seniors, Thurmond was listed as 6-4, 160-pound junior.
“He was all legs,” said Gump, Central’s former 5-8 point guard.
Gump described Johnson as “a force” and “the focal point” of Central’s City Series championship team in 1958. The Wildcats’ season ended, though, when they were upset 68-57 by Liberty in a Class AA district semifinal. Johnson scored a game-high 25 points.
“Nobody in the city stands out that would compete with Gus in overall ability and attitude,” Gump said.
Johnson was known for passionately defending his teammates and directing trash talk toward his opponents.
“The mouth was running,” Gump said with a laugh.
Johnson went on to play hoops at Boise Junior College and the University of Idaho before the Baltimore Bullets chose him in the second round (No. 11 overall) of the 1963 NBA Draft.
Why Akron native Gus Johnson was considered ahead of his time during a Hall of Fame NBA career
As a forward at sport’s highest level, Johnson became a five-time All-Star and four-time All-NBA second-team selection. He averaged 17.1 and 12.7 rebounds in 10 NBA seasons. In nine seasons with Baltimore, he helped the franchise reach the playoffs five times and advance to the NBA Finals in 1971. Baltimore traded him to the Phoenix Suns in 1972. He captured a championship in 1973 with the ABA Indiana Pacers.
“He was one of the best threes that ever played the game — three slash four,” Carr said. “He could play both [positions], but he was an unbelievable player. He, to me, was the prototypical three.
“He and [iconic center Wilt] Chamberlain used to go at it strong because Gus was such a physical presence. He would be attacking that hoop all the time, and him and Chamberlain had some nice confrontations.”
In 1986, Hall of Fame forward Billy Cunningham told the Philadelphia Inquirer Johnson suffered a dislocated shoulder decades earlier when Chamberlain blocked a would-be slam dunk.
Because of his aggressive, high-flying style and physical prowess, Johnson was considered ahead of his time. He developed a reputation for breaking backboards in the 1960s, something he foreshadowed with Central.
“We played Canton South down there one game, and I actually remember Gus stealing the ball, he dribbled the full length of the court just about and went in for a hellacious dunk,” Gump said. “He about tore the rim down.”
Akron’s Nate Thurmond received accolades as a seven-time NBA All Star and praise from Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as a fearsome defender
Gump attended the University of Findlay and traveled north to watch Thurmond play hoops at Bowling Green State University. Gump’s old Central teammate no longer had the look of a late bloomer.
“His development progressed, I think, more than Gus’ did after high school,” Gump said.
Eights spots before Baltimore picked Johnson, the San Francisco Warriors selected Thurmond in the first round (No. 3 overall) of the same draft in 1963.
Thurmond played 14 NBA seasons, including 11 with the San Francisco and Golden State franchise. He averaged 15 points, 15 rebounds and 2.1 blocked shots, though the NBA didn’t officially count blocks until the 1973-74 season when Thurmond had passed his prime.
Like Johnson, Thurmond was twice voted to the NBA All-Defensive First Team.
Iconic center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, surpassed by James in February as the NBA’s all-time leading scorer, has said Thurmond was the best defender he ever encountered.
Thurmond made seven NBA All-Star teams. When the league unveiled its 50 Greatest Players in NBA History in 1996, Thurmond was on the prestigious list.
Nate Thurmond played a crucial role for the Cavs in the ‘Miracle of Richfield’
Early in the 1975-76 season, Thurmond’s second with the Chicago Bulls, he was traded to the Cavs and played the role of an inspirational leader in the “Miracle of Richfield.” Gump called Thurmond “a classy guy” and said he exhibited similar intangibles at Central.
The Cavs benefited. They were 6-11 before Thurmond’s arrival and went 43-22 the rest of the regular season to capture the Central Division title and advance to the postseason for the first time in club history. They defeated Washington 4-3 in the first round of the playoffs and then fell 4-2 to the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals with starting center Jim Chones out with a broken foot suffered in practice before the series.
If not for Thurmond’s guidance as an accomplished veteran coming off the bench, Carr said the Cavs would not have made it as far as they did.
“We were playing Phoenix, and we were down at halftime. Nate had just come to the team, and he came in the locker room and the first thing he said was, ‘You guys don’t realize how good you can be. You guys don’t play like you want to win. You guys play like you’re expecting to lose,’” Carr recalled.
“He says, ‘I’m trying to win a championship before I retire. We’ve got to get it together and we’ve got to play like we know we can play, and you guys can be much better than what you are.’ That was the statement that just kind of permeated through the locker room, and from that point on, we never looked back.”
Yet, Thurmond never won a title despite playing in two NBA Finals with the Warriors. The Warriors traded him to Chicago in September 1974 and eliminated the Bulls in Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals eight months later. Then the Warriors won the championship in 1975 without Thurmond.
In Thurmond’s Bulls debut, he became the first player in NBA history to register a quadruple-double, compiling 22 points, 14 rebounds, 13 assists and 12 blocks on Oct. 8, 1974, against the Atlanta Hawks.
Thurmond still holds the league record for most rebounds in a single quarter of a regular-season game — 18 on Feb. 28, 1965, against Baltimore. Yes, Johnson was playing for the opposing team.
How former Akron Central basketball teammates Gus Johnson and Nate Thurmond have been honored after their NBA careers
On April 29, 1987, Johnson died of brain cancer at the age of 48. On July 16, 2016, Thurmond died of leukemia at 74.
Johnson’s No. 25 jersey hangs in the rafters at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C. Thurmond’s No. 42 is receiving the same treatment at Chase Center in San Francisco and Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland.
In 1985, Thurmond was inducted into the basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts. Johnson followed in 2010.
On Saturday, those Central Wildcats will enter their hometown Hall of Fame together.
“I know that they’re looking down,” Gump said, “and they’re very appreciative of it.”
More on the APS Athletics Hall of Fame:Humorous newspaper gaffe aided Mike Meneer’s ascent as an Akron basketball coaching legend
Akron Public Schools Athletics Hall of Fame ticket information
Doors to the APS Athletics HOF banquet are scheduled to open at 5 p.m. Saturday at House Three Thirty, 532 W. Market Street in Akron. There will be a cash bar. Dinner is set for 6 p.m.
Tickets can be purchased online at akronschools.com/district/departments/athletics/tickets.
The APS Athletics HOF’s Class of 2023 will be composed of Johnson, Thurmond, Tim Flossie, Mark Gangloff, Charles Gladman, Mike Meneer, Gene Michael, Katie Miller Como, Jeff Walker and John Wooldridge.
James will be inducted as a special contributor.
Akron City Series football represented:‘It’s euphoric’: Ohio State’s John Wooldridge entering APS Athletics Hall of Fame with Tim Flossie
Nate Ulrich can be reached at [email protected]. On Twitter: @ByNateUlrich.