Willie Naulls

William Dean Naulls (October 7, 1934 – November 22, 2018) was an American professional basketball player for 10 years in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He was a four-time NBA All-Star with the New York Knicks and won three NBA championships with the Boston Celtics.

Naulls grew up in California, where he was named the state's Mr. Basketball in high school. He played college basketball with the UCLA Bruins, and earned All-American honors as a senior in 1956. Naulls was selected by the St. Louis Hawks (known now as the Atlanta Hawks) with the ninth overall pick of the 1956 NBA draft. He played briefly with St. Louis before being traded to New York, where he spent most of his career. With the Knicks, he became the first African American to be named a captain of a professional team in a major American sport. After a brief stint with the San Francisco Warriors (now the Golden State Warriors), Naulls finished his career with Boston Celtics. In December 1964, he was part of a Celtics unit that became the first all-black starting lineup in the NBA history.

Early life Naulls was born in Dallas, Texas, to Daily and Bettie (Artis) Naulls. During World War II, the family moved to Los Angeles when he was nine to escape racial segregation.

College career Naulls attended the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he played for the Bruins under future Basketball Hall of Fame coach John Wooden.

As a senior in 1955–56, Naulls set the Bruins single-game rebounding record with 28 against Arizona State, and he finished the season with 582 field goal attempts to set the school's single-season record.

In his three seasons at UCLA, Naulls averaged 15.5 points and 11.4 rebounds per game. He was inducted into the UCLA Athletics Hall of Fame in 1986. The Knicks named him their captain in 1960, making him the first African-American athlete to hold the position for any pro team in a major American sport. In 1960–61, Naulls scored a single-season team record of 1,846 points, averaging 23.4 points per game. On March 2, 1962, Naulls scored 31 points and established another team record with his seventh straight game scoring 30 points or more. That 1964–65 Celtics team was named one of the 10 best teams in NBA history during the league's 50th anniversary. The Naulls finished his 10-year NBA career with averages of 15.8 points and 9.1 rebounds per game. which he had been battling for eight years.