WARRENSVILLE HEIGHTS, Ohio – Now, the NBA draft is on national television.
Check that.
The popping of the ping pong balls to determine the order of the NBA draft is on national television. This year’s lottery will be on ESPN Tuesday at 8:30 p.m.
Austin Carr laughs when we talk about that at his kitchen table – the NBA draft lottery on TV.
“You know how I found out I was drafted by the Cavs?” asked Carr.
OK, how?
“I was in history class at Notre Dame," said Carr. “My professor told me what happened. Cleveland had picked me. Later, my agent called. I don’t even remember hearing from the Cavaliers that day.”
Carr was the first overall pick in the 1971 NBA draft.
After hearing the news, Carr went to his next class.
This was the same Austin Carr who averaged 38.1 points a game as a junior for the Irish.
He came back as a senior and averaged 37.9 points per game.
“That was before the 3-point shot," said Carr. “I’d have averaged over 40 points easy with the 3-point line.”
Carr smiled as he said it.
Not bragging, just mentioning it in passing.
Carr said older Cavs fan remember him as a player, a key part of the 1975-76 Miracle of Richfield team.
“But most people now know me from doing the games (Cavs TV broadcasts). They see me and say, ‘GET THAT WEAK STUFF OUTTA HERE!’" Carr said, quoting of his signature lines.
He has been doing the games on TV for 20 years. He has been a part of the Cavaliers organization for 35 years.
His broadcasting partner is Fred McLeod, who calls Carr, “Mr. Cavalier.”
He is all that...and more.
HE’LL BE GREAT
As the 1971 draft approached, Wayne Embry was in his first year as general manager of the Milwaukee Bucks. Coached by Larry Costello, the Bucks were the defending NBA champions. They had the No. 17 pick in the draft.
“Do I need to look at film of Carr?” asked Costello.
“No,” said Embry.
“Why not?” asked the coach.
“Because we’ll never get a shot at him,” said Embry. “And if we do, you don’t need to see film. We’re taking him.”
“So he’s that good?” asked Costello.
“No,” said Embry. “He’s great.”
Embry recently recalled that conversation from 48 years ago.
“If Austin Carr had stayed healthy, I have no doubt that he would have been a Hall of Famer,” said Embry.
STAGGERING STATISTICS
I remember watching Carr score 46 points as Notre Dame upset UCLA in a nationally televised game. It was January 23, 1971. It was the only game the Bruins would lose that season.
This was during the days of black and white, three-channel television. It was when few games were broadcast. It was when most information on college players came from the newspapers, Sports Illustrated or Street & Smith magazine.
At that point, I was 15 years old. That was the greatest college performance I’d seen in my young life.
It also was the most points ever scored by a player against a Wooden-coach UCLA team. While it is a game that lives in Notre Dame history because UCLA was such a power, Carr had so many games like that.
“I saw him score 61 points against Ohio U.,” recalled Joe Tait, the former Cavaliers broadcaster.
That remains an NCAA tournament record for points in a single game.
But in his next NCAA game, Carr scored 52 against Adolph Rupp’s powerhouse Kentucky team.
Other big NCAA games: 52 points vs. TCU, 7 points vs. Houston, 45 point vs. Iowa.
Carr averaged 41.3 points in seven NCAA tournament games. He shot 51 percent from the field. He averaged 8.8 rebounds.
“Someone once said no wonder I scored 61 (against Ohio),” said Carr. “After all, I took 44 shots. I did. But I made 25 of them.”
The Irish were 20-9 in Carr’s senior year. They had some nice players such as Collis Jones and Sid Catlett, but Carr was the sun, moon and stars in the South Bend basketball galaxy.
THE FRANCHISE PLAYER
Bill Fitch not only was the coach of the NBA expansion Cavaliers in 1971, he also was their general manager.
He picked the players, coached the players and even negotiated the contracts for the players.
“I didn’t need to talk to Austin before the draft,” recalled Fitch. “I knew he was a player who could change our franchise. He also was a great kid.”
The Cavaliers were coming off a 15-67 record in their first NBA season.
Coaches raved at Carr.
“Carr conducts a clinic on the court, he is the most outstanding player in the country this year," Rupp told reporters after Carr shredding his team for 51 points.
“We tried every defense imaginable on Carr,” said South Carolina Coach Frank McGuire. “Nothing could stop him. Not man-to-man. Not zone. Not double-teaming. I’ve seen a lot of great ones and he is a good as any player I’ve ever seen.”
Boston Celtics Coach and GM Red Auerbach once told Milt Richman of UPI: “There are guards, then there’s Austin Carr.”
On the day of the draft, Fitch predicted Carr “would be a superstar.”
Carr was a 6-foot-4 guard who could create his own shot by driving to the rim.
Or by stopping between 10-to-15 feet then swishing a jumper off a dribble. Modern NBA analytics would hate his shot selection, but he was the master of the mid-range jumper.
He also could make shot from what is now 3-point range. He could score near the rim with either hand. He rarely took a bad shot. He was a respectable passer.
He is the greatest college player who seems to be lost in the pages of basketball history.
Thirty-eight years later, Fitch insists he was right about Carr.
“If only he hadn’t gotten hurt," said Fitch from his home in the Houston area.
BAD BREAK
After he signed with the Cavaliers, Carr played in two rookie league games.
“Austin hit for 51 points in 51 minutes,” reported the Cavs 1971 media guide. “Then he suffered a broken bone in his right foot at the end of June.”
Carr tried to come back too soon during training camp in the fall.
He broke it again during the first week.
“I was cutting to the basket, just changing directions,” he said. “It was during practice. No one touched me. It just broke. I guess it was wear and tear from playing on all those concrete playgrounds growing up.”
Carr missed the first 39 games of his rookie season, but still averaged 21.2 points, shooting 42 percent from the field.
When that year was over, he had bone graft surgery on that same foot.
“Typical Cavalier luck," said Tait, recounting what Fitch told him after Carr’s rookie year injuries.
Carr averaged 21 points over his first three Cavs seasons. He made the 1974 All-Star team. He was a good player, but lacked the explosive first step and athleticism he’d displayed in college.
He became an over-achiever, finding ways to score with his basketball acumen.
By his third season, Carr was having knee problems. He had knee surgery in his fourth year.
“It was the same right leg as the foot injuries,” said Carr. “I ended up having four knee surgeries before I retired.”
Carr played 11 seasons, ending up averaging 15.4 points.
“I had to learn how to play with pain,” said Carr. “I had no real cartilage in the knee in my last five years. There were days when it felt like my knee had rocks in it.
“One day, I jumped, came down and my knee cap was pointing to the right.”
FEELING BLESSED
Carr doesn’t like to talk about the injuries or the frustration he felt.
The first foot surgery was a “fusion...they took a bone from my hip and put it into my foot."
The knee problems took away some of Carr’s natural moves and athleticism.
“When I think about it, I’ve been blessed,” he said. “The Cavs and the fans have been super to me.”
Carr is now 71 years old. He is like a fan in the booth, cheering and moaning with his favorite team.
His good friend is former teammate Campy Russell, who now does Cavaliers pre-and-post game TV shows.
Russell was the Cavs’ first-round pick in the 1974 draft. He learned the news from a reporter who called the apartment he shared with two other guys at the University of Michigan.
“It (the draft) just wasn’t that big of a deal back then,” said Russell.
Like Carr, Russell is grateful to be connected with the Cavs all these years.
“The fans identify with us because they know us,” said Russell. “We’re in the community. We like meeting people.”
Carr has his degree in economics from Notre Dame. His No. 34 is retired and hangs in the rafters at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse, formerly The Q, in downtown Cleveland.
He doesn’t look back often at his career.
But he did when Fitch was elected to the Hall of Fame.
Carr sent him a note of congratulations, and added, “I just wish I could have been the player for you that you drafted.”
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