Bob Lanier, St. Bonaventure and NBA legend, remembered as 'one of the kindest' people

For more than half a century, the question has lingered on the campus of St. Bonaventure University and within Bonnies fandom.

Had Bob Lanier not gotten hurt in the East Regional final of the 1970 NCAA Tournament, could the Bonnies have gone to the Final Four and ultimately knocked off John Wooden’s dynastic UCLA Bruins in the national championship game?

The awful memory of Lanier writhing in pain on the floor at Carolina Coliseum in Columbia, South Carolina will almost certainly be present in the minds of everyone connected to St. Bonaventure Wednesday with news that Lanier passed away Tuesday night at the age of 73.

The NBA said in a statement that Lanier, who was the No. 1 overall pick by the Detroit Pistons in the 1970 NBA Draft, died after a short illness.

Lanier, who was born in Buffalo and attended Bennett High School, played 14 seasons in the NBA with the Pistons and later the Milwaukee Bucks. He averaged 20.1 points and 10.1 rebounds, played in eight NBA All-Star games, and was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 1992.

“For more than 30 years, Bob served as our global ambassador and as a special assistant to David Stern and then me, traveling the world to teach the game’s values and make a positive impact on young people everywhere,” NBA commissioner Adam Silver said in a statement. “It was a labor of love for Bob, who was one of the kindest and most genuine people I have ever been around.”

Lanier’s local legend was forged before he ever stepped foot onto an NBA court.

Always big for his age, Lanier wasn’t really interested in basketball as a young boy as he preferred baseball and ping pong. But then when he was 13 he showed up one day at the Masten Boys Club gymnasium on Masten Street on the East side of Buffalo and physical education director Lorrie Alexander took one look at him and set out on a mission.

“I’d hate to think what would have happened if it hadn’t been for Mr. Alexander,” Lanier once said. “He got me started in basketball. Oh, how that man worked me. Run, run, run. And the rope - the jump rope. I’ll never forget it. He’d have me working with it all the time.”

Soon, Lanier became the best player in Buffalo and when it came time to choose from the many schools offering scholarships, he picked St. Bona because it was just two hours away in Olean and his parents could come to watch him play.

“Three things stood out in my mind,” St. Bona coach Larry Weise, who was born and raised in East Rochester, said when he first laid eyes on Lanier. “First, of course, was the size and the way he moved so well. Second, the great touch around the basket, the good hands. Finally, the fact that he passed off a lot which indicated to me that he was a team-type player.”

As expected, Lanier was a dominant college player once he became eligible to play as a sophomore - at the time, freshman could not play varsity - and it seemed as if the crowning achievement was going to be a national championship in his senior season.

St. Bona won its first 12 games before stumbling at Villanova 64-62, but from there the Bonnies closed the regular season with 10 more wins, the closest of which was a 10-point defeat of Long Island, and then came NCAA tournament victories over Davidson (85-72) and North Carolina State (80-68) that vaulted them into the East Regional final against their lone conqueror, those pesky Wildcats of Villanova.

The day began so well. St. Bona, eager for revenge, pounced on the Wildcats early and led 46-30 at halftime. The rout continued into the second half and with 10 minutes left, the score had ballooned to 71-51. And then disaster struck.

Chris Ford - who would later be Lanier’s teammate with the Pistons - missed a shot from the lane, and when he went to follow it he tripped over someone’s ankle and bowled into the side of Lanier’s right knee, sending him sprawling to the floor in pain and St. Bona’s championship hopes circling down the drain.

After a couple minutes Lanier rose, hobbled around a bit, and he looked as if he might be OK. In fact, he convinced Weise to put him back into the game after a brief rest. But 34 seconds into that shift Lanier could play no longer, the pain too great, and he knew it was over.

The Bonnies went on to win the game easily, 97-74 and they were going to their first Final Four, but it was as hollow a victory as you could imagine.

“This is a tough break for Bob and the team,” Weise said a day later when Lanier underwent surgery to repair the damage. “But we’re going to Maryland with a positive attitude. We’ve just got to work harder, everyone, including myself. We can’t get down. We won’t.”

Facing Jacksonville State, led by another future NBA great, 7-foot-2 center Artis Gilmore, at Cole Field House on the campus of the University of Maryland, the Bonnies jumped out to an early lead but Gilmore began to take charge from there. He would finish with 29 points and 21 rebounds and the Bonnies fell 91-83 in the national semifinal.

What if Lanier hadn’t gotten hurt? Could the Bonnies have beaten Jacksonville State and then UCLA which was in between the eras of Lew Alcindor and Bill Walton?

Without reservation, guard Billy Kalbaugh, the co-captain of that St. Bona team along with Lanier, said, “We’d have won. At the time he went down we were playing as well as anybody. On any given night we could have beaten anybody, and that includes UCLA.”

Weise seconded that thought: “I have no question we would have won.”

For his career, Lanier averaged 27.6 points and 15.7 rebounds per game in three seasons for St. Bona, and the Bonnies never lost a game to its Buffalo-area rivals Canisius and Niagara who formed what was then called the Little Three.

Lanier finished his 75-game career as the school record holder for most points (2,067); points per game (27.6); rebounds (1,180); single-game points (51 vs. Seton Hall); single-game rebounds (27 vs. Loyola, Md.); single-season rebounds (416); and average rebounds in one season (16 in 1969-1970).

He remained a legendary figure at the university years after he graduated. Lanier was awarded an honorary doctorate by his alma mater in 1985 and the Gaudete Medal, the university’s highest service award, in 2004.

With the Pistons, he was the franchise’s all-time leader in career points and rebounds before he was later passed by Isiah Thomas and Bill Laimbeer.

“What we had was unique,” Lanier said of that 1969-70 Bonnies team. “We shared so much together. We had no egos. A little clip on the side (of his knee) ruined a beautiful dream.”

Sal Maiorana can be reached at maiorana@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @salmaiorana.

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Bob Lanier dies at 73: St. Bonaventure grad led team to Final Four