Gar Heard

Garfield Heard (born May 3, 1948) is an American former professional basketball player and coach. He played collegiately at the University of Oklahoma and was selected by the Seattle SuperSonics (now the Oklahoma City Thunder) in the third round of the 1970 NBA draft. He had a 15-year NBA career for four teams: the Sonics, the Buffalo Braves (now the Los Angeles 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 Phoenix–Boston 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. He attended Ethel W. Kight High School in LaGrange, Georgia.

College career In 1966, Heard chose to attend the University of Oklahoma (OU), over the University of Southern Illinois. At the time he graduated, Heard was the Sooners' all-time leading rebounder and second-leading scorer. As a senior, he averaged 21.7 points and 12.5 rebounds per game. The school has described him as "OU's first true superstar." He was selected first-team All-Big Eight for the 1969-70 season. Heard played under head coach John McLeod for three seasons (1967-1970). (McLeod would later coach Heard as an NBA player and Heard would serve as an assistant coach under McLeod).

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

Professional career

SuperSonics, Bulls, Braves Heard was selected by the Seattle SuperSonics (now the Oklahoma City Thunder) in the third round of the 1970 NBA draft (40th overall). He played his first two seasons in Seattle as a reserve power forward. In October 1972, three games into the 1972-73 season, he was traded to the Chicago Bulls (along with a third round draft pick) for Kenny McIntosh. Primarily playing as a reserve power forward, he averaged 20 minutes per game, with 10.3 points and 5.7 rebounds per game that season for the Bulls. In 1973-74, Heard had his best season in the NBA, averaging career highs with 35.7 minutes per game, 15.3 points per game, 11.7 rebounds per game, and 2.8 blocked shots per game.

Suns After Donovan returned to the Knicks in April 1975,

The 1975-76 Phoenix team had a large number of strong offensive players, but defense was a problem. In Buffalo, the team lacked in offensive capability, and became interested in Shumate, offering Heard in a trade. Before the trade, the Suns had a 19–27 (.413) record and had trouble keeping opposing teams under 100 points per game. After acquiring Heard the team had a 23–13 (.639) record. During his 36 games with the Suns that season, Heard averaged 12.4 points, 9.8 rebounds, 1.4 steals and 1.1 blocks per game, and had a 45.2% shooting percentage.

The Suns defeated Seattle in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs (4–2), and then defeated the Golden State Warriors in the Western Conference Finals (4–3). Golden State had a 59–23 regular season record. Heard started all six games in the first round, averaging 15.3 points, 9.3 rebounds, 2.2 steals and 2 blocks per game. He likewise started all seven games against the Warriors, averaging 13.1 points, 12.1 rebounds, 2.3 steals and 2.1 blocks per game.

The Suns played the Boston Celtics in the 1976 NBA finals, losing the series 4–2. Heard played more minutes than any other Sun during the six-game series, averaging 13.5 points, 9.3 rebounds, 1.7 steals and 1.7 blocks per game.

The Shot Game 5 against the Celtics is often rated as the greatest, or one of the greatest, NBA finals game in history. The Celtics won the game 128–126 in triple-overtime. It is the end of the second overtime period, including an extraordinary shot from Heard with one second left in the period, that has been the object of particular focus.

With four or five seconds left in double overtime, after a steal by Paul Westphal, the Suns took a 110–109 lead. Future Celtic hall of famer John Havlicek raced down the floor and made a running 15 foot one-handed shot with two seconds remaining, giving Boston a one-point advantage (111–110). 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.

Heard went on to play four more seasons for the Suns (1976-1980), with the Suns advancing to the Western Conference Finals twice during that period. He played his final season with the San Diego Clippers, for which he had played when the team was in Buffalo.

Coaching Heard was an assistant coach with the Dallas Mavericks for five years (1987-92) under John McLeod (Heard's coach at Oklahoma and with the Suns) and Richie Adubato. He began the 1992-93 season as an assistant coach, but served as the Mavericks' interim head coach through the end of the season, when Adubato was fired in January 1993. the Philadelphia 76ers (1997-98) under Larry Brown, and Detroit Pistons (1998-99) under Alvin Gentry. He joined the Dallas Mavericks as an assistant coach for the remainder of the season, under Don Nelson

From 2000-2003, he was an assistant coach with the Atlanta Hawks under Lon Kruger. The Pistons went to the NBA finals that year, losing to the San Antonio Spurs in seven games.

Career statistics

NBA Source

Regular season

Playoffs Year Team GP MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG

Head coaching record