Dick McGuire dies at 84; Hall of Famer spent decades with the Knicks

Dick McGuire, a basketball Hall of Famer and longtime member of the New York Knicks organization, died Wednesday of natural causes at Huntington Hospital in Long Island, the team announced. He was 84.

McGuire, who was still working as the team’s senior basketball consultant, was a part of the Knicks’ organization for 53 of its 64 seasons.

“Dick McGuire was the epitome of what it means to be a Knickerbocker: pride, tradition and class,” Knicks President Donnie Walsh said in a statement. “It was an honor to watch him play for our hometown team, and I consider myself very lucky to say I worked alongside a man who shaped the National Basketball Assn. for parts of all eight decades of its existence.”

McGuire was a five-time All-Star and led the Knicks to three straight NBA finals from 1951 to ’53. He went on to serve the team as a coach, assistant coach and, for decades, as its top college scout. His No. 15 was retired in 1992 and he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame a year later.

A 6-foot-tall point guard nicknamed “Tricky Dick” for his court sense and passing ability, McGuire still ranks third on the Knicks’ career list with 2,950 assists.

“As one of its first superstars, Dick was instrumental to the early success of the NBA,” Commissioner David Stern said in a statement. “Whether as player, coach, scout or consultant, Dick loyally served the New York Knicks organization.”

Richard Joseph McGuire was born Jan. 26, 1926, in the Bronx, N.Y., and grew up in Rockaway Beach in Queens, part of a famed basketball family. The second of three sons, McGuire grew up playing sandlot football and baseball and honed his basketball skills on the blacktop courts at 108th Street next to the boardwalk and beach, not far from the bar his father owned.

His younger brother, Al, also played for the Knicks during the 1950s. He later won a national championship as coach of Marquette University and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1992. They are the only brothers in the Hall of Fame.

At St. John’s University, Dick McGuire played on the 1944 team that won the National Invitation Tournament. For two years during World War II he served in a military training program at Dartmouth, then returned to St. John’s in 1946.

He was picked by the Knicks in the first round of the 1949 draft and played eight seasons for the team, averaging 8.0 points and 5.7 assists in the days before the 24-second clock drove scoring averages up.

Traded to Detroit on April 3, 1957, for a first-round pick, McGuire played three seasons with the Pistons, the last as a player-coach. He coached the Pistons for three more seasons, leading them to the playoffs every year before retiring in 1963.

He spent one year out of basketball working as an insurance salesman before returning to the Knicks in 1965, replacing Harry Gallatin as coach. Among the players McGuire coached in 2 1/2 seasons were Willis Reed, Cazzie Russell, Walt Frazier, Bill Bradley and Phil Jackson, now the coach of the Lakers. McGuire was replaced as coach by Red Holzman in 1967 and became a scout.

He is survived by his wife, Teri; four children, Richard Jr., Leslie, Michael and Scott, who is a Knicks scout; seven grandchildren; and his older brother John. His brother Al died in 2001.

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