Walt Hazzard

At 69 years old, Walt Hazzard has this physical status:

Mahdi Abdul-Rahman (born Walter Raphael Hazzard Jr.; October 15, 1942 – November 18, 2011) was an American professional basketball player and college basketball coach.

He played for the UCLA Bruins in college and was a member of the UCLA Bruins' first national championship squad in 1964.

At the 1964 Summer Olympics, he earned a gold medal with the US national team.

Hazzard started his professional career with the Los Angeles Lakers, who selected him as a territorial pick in the 1964 NBA draft.

In 1968, he was named an NBA All-Star with the Seattle SuperSonics.

He was the head coach at UCLA in the 1980s when his playing career ended.

Personal life and death

Hazzard converted Islam in the summer of 1972 and began going by the name "Mahdi Abdul-Rahman" in 1972–73, his eighth season in the NBA. He returned to UCLA in 1976-77, earning his degree in kinesiology at the age of 35. Abdul-Rahman Hazzard, the boy's name, by 1980, had changed to Abdul-Rahman Hazzard when he joined Compton. Recognition of the name Hazzard was one of the reasons cited by the author. He felt that the name change was poorly received in basketball circles, claiming that it cost him jobs both during and after his playing career. Despite the fact that he was a Muslim, he chose to rename his Islamic name more effectively. When UCLA recruited Walt Hazzard as their coach in 1984, they named him as Walt Hazzard.

Hazzard and his partner Jaleesa had four children, Yakub, Jalal, Rasheed, and Khalil, the former being a prolific hip hop artist well known in hip hop circles by the stage name DJ Khalil. Jacob and Max Hazzard, Hazzard's grandsons, also play basketball. Jacob is a former walk-on basketball player at Arizona, and Max plays basketball for both UC Irvine and Arizona.

Hazzard was hospitalized on March 22, 1996, after a stroke. Despite a full recovery over the years, his health never recovered in full, and post-disease, he was much less active in the public arena. Shortly after the incident, Lakers owner Jerry Buss told Hazzard's family that he would remain on the team's payroll as long as Buss owned the team; Hazzard stayed a Lakers employee for the remainder of his life. His health had deteriorated dramatically by the start of 2011 and he was hospitalized in intensive care. Hazzard died at the UCLA Ronald Reagan Medical Center on November 18 of that year due to heart surgery complications. He was 69 years old. In the Muslim section at Rose Hills Memorial Park in Los Angeles, Walt Hazzard is interred.

Source

College career

When he was a senior at Overbrook High School in Philadelphia, where his teams lost 89-3 and he was named the city's player of the year. Hazzard then transferred to University of California, Los Angeles, where he was a central player on the Bruins' varsity basketball team. UCLA made their first Final Four appearance in the 1962 NCAA tournament during Hazzard's first season on the varsity squad. In the semi-finals, they lost 719-70 to eventual champion Cincinnati.

Thanks to Hazzard, his backcourt partner Gail Goodrich, and UCLA coach John Wooden, UCLA's first undefeated season in 1963-64 was in no small part. The team earned their first NCAA Championship, and Hazzard was selected by the Associated Press as the tournament's Most Valuable Player. Following UCLA's win in the 1964 tournament, Sports Illustrated published a cover photograph of Walt Hazzard dribbling the basketball up court and the headline, "UCLA Is The Champ." "Walt Hazzard Drives Through Duke" was Walt Hazzard's creation. The United States Basketball Writers Association selected Hazzard as an All-American and then selected him as College Player of the Year (USBWA). In 1996, his number 42 jersey was retired in Pauley Pavilion, but Hazzard allowed standout recruit Kevin Love to wear the number.

Bill Bradley earned a spot on the 1964 Olympic basketball team for the United States, which also earned the gold medal. He was a pre-draft territorial pick for the Los Angeles Lakers in 1964.

NBA career

Hazzard played in the NBA from 1964-1967, first with the Los Angeles Lakers, the Atlanta Hawks, and briefly for the Golden State Warriors. After retiring from professional basketball, he rejoined the SuperSonics for the 1973-74 season.

Hazzard, who appeared in the SuperSonics' inaugural 1967–68 season, averaged 6.2 assists per game, and was selected to play in the 1968 NBA All-Star Game. During Lenny Wilkens' offseason with Seattle, he was traded to the Hawks. Hazzard's career-high average in assists came during the 1970–70 season, when he averaged 6.8 assists per game while playing for the Hawks.

Coaching career

In 1980, Hazzard took up a part-time position at Compton Community College, earning $1,500 a year to be the head coach. He set a 53-09 record in his two seasons, but 21 victories from his first season were later suspended because he used an ineligible player. According to Hazzard, he had good numbers from the season before his arrival, but it was unclear that the ineligible player had played that season. He went to Chapman College, where he coached two seasons with a 44–14 record.

In 1984, he returned to UCLA as its men's basketball coach, twenty years after winning the national championship as a student. He was inducted into the UCLA Athletics Hall of Fame the same year. He coached for four seasons, winning 77 out of 125 games. The UCLA basketball team from 1984 to 1985 won the NIT championship. Both the Pac-10 regular season championship and the inaugural Pac-10 tournament were won by the 1986–87 Bruins. However, the Bruins' 1987–88 season featured just two games over.500, the closest they had come to a losing streak in 40 years—Hazzard was fired.

He spent a number of years with the Los Angeles Lakers, first as an advance scout on the west coast and then as a special consultant.

Source