Charlie Scott

Charles Thomas Scott, also known as Shaheed Abdul-Aleem, (born December 15, 1948) is an American former professional basketball player. He played two seasons in the American Basketball Association (ABA) and eight seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Scott was an Olympic Gold Medalist and was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2018. Scott is the leader in most points per game with 24.8 in Suns franchise history.

Early life Scott was born in New York City and grew up primarily in Harlem, New York. Scott transferred to Laurinburg which was famous at the time for preparing basketball players for college.

While in high school, Scott spent one summer at a basketball program at Davidson College with coach Lefty Driesell. However, three weeks after pledging, Scott withdrew from the fraternity because of his demanding basketball schedule.

Scott was a gold medalist at the 1968 Summer Olympics playing for the 1968 United States men's Olympic basketball team. Scott was the fourth leading scorer on the team (8.0) coached by Henry Iba.

Professional career Scott was drafted by the Boston Celtics in 1970 but he had already signed a contract with the Virginia Squires of the American Basketball Association (ABA). Scott was named ABA Rookie of the Year after averaging 27.1 points per game. During his second season with the Squires, he set the ABA record for the highest scoring average in one season (34.6 points per game). However, he became dissatisfied with life in the ABA and joined the NBA's Phoenix Suns in 1972. The Suns traded Paul Silas to the Celtics after the season in order to keep him. At that point, he briefly went by the name Shaheed Abdul-Aleem.

Scott continued his stellar play in the NBA, representing the Suns in three straight NBA All-Star Games (1973, 1974, and 1975), then was traded to the Boston Celtics for Paul Westphal and two draft picks. With the Celtics in the 1975-76 NBA season, Scott won a championship ring against the Suns. Scott later played for the Los Angeles Lakers and Denver Nuggets. He retired in 1980 with 14,837 combined ABA/NBA career points.

He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2018.

Personal life

Scott was childhood friends with actor Demond Wilson of Sanford & Son fame.

While attending the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Scott married Margaret Holmes. They had a daughter, Holly Scott Emanuel.

Scott and his current wife, Trudy, have three children—sons Shaun Scott and Shannon Dean Scott and daughter Simone Scott—and have lived primarily in Atlanta and Los Angeles. They currently live in Columbus, Ohio, where son Shannon used to play for the Ohio State Buckeyes.

ABA and NBA statistics

BoldDenotes career high

Regular season

Playoffs