Catching Up With Nate Thurmond Throughout the 2011 Offseason, warriors.com has caught up with a number of Warriors from the past. Click here to take a trip down memory lane with some of the best players to ever wear a Warriors jersey.
Considered one of the best centers to ever play the game of basketball, Nate Thurmond was inducted
into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 1985 and was named one of the 50 Greatest Players in
NBA History in 1996. A seven-time NBA-All-Star, he was selected to the NBA All-Defensive First or
Second Team five times. On March 8, 1978, hisWarriors jersey #42 was retired.
Over a 14-year NBA career – the first 11 of which were played with the San Francisco and Golden State
Warriors – Thurmond averaged 15 points and 15 rebounds per game. In addition to his 11-year stint
in a Warriors uniform, Thurmond has spent the last 24 years as a valued asset to the club’s community
relations department. In all, “Big Nate” has spent 35 years as a member of theWarriors organization.
In 757 games with the Warriors from 1963 thru 1974, Thurmond averaged 17.4 points and 16.9 rebounds. A member of Golden
State’s 1966-67 Western Division Championship team, he remains the franchise’s all-time leader in rebounds (12,771) and
minutes played (30,729), while ranking second to Chris Mullin in games played.
In 1974, while with Chicago, he posted the first quadruple-double in league history, registering 22 points, 14 rebounds, 13 assists
and 12 blocks in a single game. Additionally, he posted an NBA record with 18 rebounds in one quarter on February 28, 1965 at
Baltimore versus the Bullets, surpassing the previous record of 17 held by bothWilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell.
After earning All-America honors as a senior at Bowling Green in 1963, the San Francisco Warriors selected Thurmond with the
third overall pick in the 1963 NBA Draft. Playing alongside Chamberlain as a rookie, he was named to the NBA All-Rookie Team.
Following his NBA career, Thurmond returned to San Francisco, where he resides with his wife, Marci. In addition to his current
work with theWarriors, Thurmond is co-owner of “Big Nate’s Barbecue” restaurant in The City.
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