Quinn Buckner

William Quinn Buckner (born August 20, 1954) is an American former professional basketball player and coach.

Born in 1954 in Phoenix, Illinois, Buckner played basketball at Thornridge High School in Dolton, Illinois.

His Falcons lost only one game during his junior and senior seasons and won back-to-back state titles.

The 1972 team was undefeated, with no team coming within 14 points of it, and is often cited as the greatest team in the history of Illinois high school basketball.

Buckner was also an excellent football player, making all-state in high school.

He is the only person ever named Chicago area Player of the Year for both football and basketball.

In Buckner's freshman season, 1972–73, Indiana reached the Final Four, losing to UCLA.

He played for the United States men's national basketball team in the 1974 FIBA World Championship, winning the bronze medal.

In two consecutive seasons, 1974–75 and 1975–76, the Hoosiers were undefeated in the regular season and won 37-consecutive Big Ten games.

The 1974–75 Hoosiers swept the entire Big Ten by an average of 22.8 points per game.

However, in an 83–82 win against Purdue they lost consensus All-American forward Scott May to a broken left arm.

With May's injury keeping him to 7 minutes of play, the No. 1 Hoosiers lost to Kentucky 92–90 in the Mideast Regional.

Buckner, along with three of his teammates, would make the five-man All-Big Ten team.

The following season, 1975–76, Buckner served as a co-captain and the Hoosiers went the entire season and 1976 NCAA tournament without a single loss, beating Michigan 86–68 in the title game.

Indiana remains the last school to accomplish this feat.

In Buckner's 10-year NBA career he was a tough defender, a solid playmaker, and a stabilizing force in any lineup.

At various stages he filled the role of team leader and trusty reserve.

He played collegiate basketball for the Indiana University Hoosiers, and won a national championship in 1976.

He was a captain of both the last undefeated NCAA Division I basketball champion and the 1976 Olympics gold medal team.

Buckner was selected by the Milwaukee Bucks with the 7th pick of the 1976 NBA draft.

He had a ten-year NBA career for three teams (the Bucks, the Boston Celtics, and the Indiana Pacers).

Although he scored only 10.0 points per game during his college career, Buckner was selected by the Milwaukee Bucks in the first round of the 1976 NBA draft, the seventh pick overall.

He was also selected by the Washington Redskins in the 1976 NFL Draft.

(Buckner had played free safety on the Hoosiers’ football team for two years.)

Before he joined the Bucks, Buckner played on the gold medal-winning 1976 U.S. Olympic basketball team alongside Adrian Dantley, Mitch Kupchak, and Scott May.

But nothing could have prepared him for the NBA experience.

Buckner's teams had suffered only 25 defeats in his eight years of high school and college basketball, and he had never been on a team that lost more than seven games in a season.

But Milwaukee lost 52 times in 1976–77, finishing last in the Midwest Division.

In 1984, he won an NBA title with the Celtics.

Buckner is one of only eight players in history to win an NCAA championship, an NBA championship, and an Olympic gold medal.

He is one of only three players in history to win a High School state championship, NCAA championship, an NBA championship, and an Olympic gold medal.

He also was a State Champion while playing high school basketball in Illinois.

In addition to his playing career, Buckner was the head coach of the Dallas Mavericks for one year, from 1993 to 1994.

Currently, Buckner is a color analyst for the Indiana Pacers television broadcast team on Bally Sports Indiana.

Buckner also was the play-by-play announcer on 989 Sports line of college basketball games for several years.

In 2006, Buckner was voted as one of the 100 Legends of the IHSA Boys Basketball Tournament, a group of former players and coaches in honor of the 100 anniversary of the IHSA boys basketball tournament.

Buckner elected to play college basketball for the Indiana University Hoosiers under Coach Bob Knight.

He ended his college career as a four-year starter and three-year captain at Indiana, and also played football for one year.

He seemed to get along with volatile Coach Knight better than any other player in the Hoosiers' history.

"The one thing that I learned early was to respect authority figures, right or wrong", Buckner told the Dallas Morning News concerning his relationship with Knight.