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World B. Free

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For the hardcore punk band, see World Be Free.

World B. Free
Free in 2015
Personal information
Born (1953-12-09) December 9, 1953 (age 71)
Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.
Listed height6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)
Listed weight185 lb (84 kg)
Career information
High schoolCanarsie (Brooklyn, New York)
CollegeGuilford (1972–1975)
NBA draft1975: 2nd round, 23rd overall pick
Selected by the Philadelphia 76ers
Playing career1975–1988, 1991
PositionShooting guard / point guard
Number21, 24, 12
Career history
1975–1978Philadelphia 76ers
1978–1980San Diego Clippers
1980–1982Golden State Warriors
1982–1986Cleveland Cavaliers
1986–1987Philadelphia 76ers
1987Miami Tropics
1987–1988Houston Rockets
1991Atlanta Eagles
Career highlights and awards
Career NBA statistics
Points17,955 (20.3 ppg)
Rebounds2,430 (2.7 rpg)
Assists3,319 (3.7 apg)
Stats at NBA.com Edit this at Wikidata
Stats at Basketball Reference Edit this at Wikidata

World B. Free (born Lloyd Bernard Free; December 9, 1953)[1] is an American former professional basketball player who played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1975 to 1988. Free was known as the "Prince of Mid-Air", "Brownsville Bomber", and most often as "All-World".

Early years

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Free was born on December 9, 1953, in Atlanta, Georgia. He grew up in the Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, and attended Canarsie High School. He then attended Guilford College in North Carolina. As a freshman, he led Guilford's basketball team and helped the team win the NAIA National Championship and was named MVP of the NAIA Tournament.

Professional career

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Free played for the San Diego Clippers, Philadelphia 76ers, Golden State Warriors, Cleveland Cavaliers and Houston Rockets in the National Basketball Association. He got his name from his days in Brooklyn, where a friend nicknamed him "World" because of his 44-inch vertical leap and 360 degree dunks. Free was known for his "rainbow" jump shots, referring to the extreme arc of the ball during the shot. He was also known for taking high risk shots and playing flamboyantly. During Free's time playing for the San Diego Clippers, fans would shout "shoot, shoot, shoot" whenever Free took possession of the ball. Free averaged 20.3 points per game over 13 seasons in the NBA.

Free began his career in the 1975–76 NBA season as a member of the 76ers, having been selected by the 76ers with the 23rd pick of the 1975 NBA draft. In the decisive game seven of the 1977 Eastern Conference semifinal series between the Sixers and the Boston Celtics, Free helped lead his team to victory with a game-high 27 points. The Sixers subsequently defeated the Rockets in the Eastern Conference Finals, but lost to the Portland Trail Blazers in the 1977 NBA Finals.[2] Following the 1977–78 NBA season, Free was traded to the Clippers for a future pick in the 1984 NBA draft that was ultimately used to select Charles Barkley.[3]

For both the 1978–79 and 1979–80 campaigns, George Gervin and Free were number 1 and 2 in the league in scoring. In 1979, Free led the Clippers to an improved 43–39 record, but they narrowly missed the playoffs. His best statistical season was 1979–80 with the Clippers, averaging 30.2 points per game, as well as 4.2 assists per game and 3.5 rebounds per game in 68 games. He was an All-Star that season as well, although the Clippers failed to make the playoffs again.

On August 28, 1980, San Diego traded Free to Golden State for Phil Smith and a first-round pick.[4] During the 1981-82 NBA season, Free would help the Warriors to a 45–37 record, leading the team in assists per game at 5.4 while also scoring 22.9 points per game (second on the team only to Bernard King’s 23.2 per game average).[5] However, despite their above .500 record, they would miss the postseason.

During the 1984–85 season, Free became the 39th player in league history to surpass 15,000 career points.[6] During that year, now on the Cavaliers, Free made the playoffs for the first time since he was on the 76ers, and averaged career-playoff-highs of 26.3 points and 7.8 assists per game, during a 3-1 first round loss to the Celtics.[7] In that series, Free led the Cavaliers to a 105-98 Game 3 win with a postseason-career-high 32 points.[8]

Free later played in the United States Basketball League (USBL) for the Miami Tropics after being waived by the Philadelphia 76ers in March 1987. He was named the USBL Playoffs MVP after leading the Tropics to the title after scoring 30 points in the championship winning game against the Rhode Island Gulls.[9] Following the USBL season, he joined the Houston Rockets for the 1987–88 season, which was his last NBA season. For Free, the highlight of that season was November 12, 1987, when he scored 38 points against the Sacramento Kings at ARCO Arena and brought the Rockets back to win the game.

In 1991, Free had a comeback with Atlanta Eagles of the USBL, before retiring permanently.[10]

Player profile

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Free loved to go one-on-one against a defender and either whirl around him or take a jump shot. His shot was possibly his greatest strength: a soft, high-arcing lob that stayed in the air longer than the average jump shot and was so straight when he was "on" that it barely jostled the net. When he was younger, on the playgrounds of New York City, his jump shot was a flat line drive, but he was tired of having the ball blocked, so he developed a new style of shooting.

Personal life

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Free admired Muhammad Ali.[6]

In 1979, Free was dating Lady B and rapped freestyle with her during a trip to New York City, after which Lady B would become a highly influential radio DJ.[11]

Name change

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On December 8, 1981, a day before his 28th birthday, he legally changed his first name to World.[12] According to Free, "the fellas back in Brownsville gave me the nickname 'World' when I was in junior high... they just started calling me 'all-world', because all-city and all-county and things like that weren't good enough. Finally they just started calling me World... I'm still the same guy I was when I was Lloyd, though. I'll say what I'm going to do, and then I'll go out and do it."[6]

Post-playing career

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Currently, Free is director of player development and a community ambassador for the Philadelphia 76ers.[13] Among other things, he greets fans at 76ers home games in his flamboyant/colorful wardrobe. Free has also led the Sixers' "Summer Hoops Tour". On November 30, 2005, Free was honored as a Cleveland Cavaliers Legend at halftime of the Cavaliers game against the Los Angeles Clippers. On March 26, 2022, Free was honored with a spot on the Cavaliers Wall of Honor along with former players Lenny Wilkens and Campy Russell and former owner Gordon Gund.[14] Dick Vitale often uses his name in college basketball season previews to give the award for best name.

NBA career statistics

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Legend
  GP Games played   GS  Games started  MPG  Minutes per game
 FG%  Field goal percentage  3P%  3-point field goal percentage  FT%  Free throw percentage
 RPG  Rebounds per game  APG  Assists per game  SPG  Steals per game
 BPG  Blocks per game  PPG  Points per game  Bold  Career high

Regular season

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Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG
1975–76 Philadelphia 71 – 15.8 .448 – .602 1.8 1.5 0.5 0.1 8.3
1976–77 Philadelphia 78 – 28.9 .457 – .720 3.0 3.4 1.0 0.3 16.3
1977–78 Philadelphia 76 – 27.0 .455 – .731 2.8 4.0 0.9 0.5 15.7
1978–79 San Diego 78 – 37.9 .481 – .756 3.9 4.4 1.4 0.4 28.8
1979–80 San Diego 68 – 38.0 .474 .360 .753 3.5 4.2 1.2 0.5 30.2
1980–81 Golden State 65 – 36.5 .446 .161 .814 2.4 5.6 1.3 0.2 24.1
1981–82 Golden State 78 78 35.8 .448 .179 .740 3.2 5.4 0.9 0.1 22.9
1982–83 Golden State 19 18 36.8 .451 .000 .711 2.3 4.7 0.8 0.2 22.8
1982–83 Cleveland 54 51 35.9 .458 .357 .747 2.9 3.7 1.5 0.2 24.2
1983–84 Cleveland 75 71 31.7 .445 .319 .784 2.9 3.0 1.3 0.1 22.3
1984–85 Cleveland 71 50 31.7 .459 .368 .749 3.0 4.5 1.1 0.2 22.5
1985–86 Cleveland 75 75 33.8 .455 .420 .780 2.9 4.2 1.2 0.3 23.4
1986–87 Philadelphia 20 2 14.3 .317 .222 .766 1.0 1.5 0.3 0.2 5.8
1987–88 Houston 58 0 11.8 .409 .229 .800 0.8 1.0 0.3 0.1 6.4
Career 886 345 30.4 .456 .337 .753 2.7 3.7 1.0 0.3 20.3
All-Star 1 1 21.0 .538 – .000 3.0 5.0 0.0 1.0 14.0

Playoffs

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Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG
1976 Philadelphia 3 – 20.7 .393 – .769 0.3 1.7 1.0 0.0 10.7
1977 Philadelphia 15 – 18.7 .371 – .688 2.1 1.9 0.8 0.5 11.9
1978 Philadelphia 10 – 26.8 .411 – .728 3.1 3.7 0.4 0.6 16.1
1985 Cleveland 4 4 37.5 .441 .000 .920 2.5 7.8 1.5 0.0 26.3
1988 Houston 2 0 6.0 .000 .000 – 1.0 0.5 0.5 0.0 0.0
Career 34 4 22.7 .398 .000 .740 2.2 3.0 0.7 0.4 14.0

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "World B. Free". basketball-reference.com. Retrieved January 22, 2008.
  2. ^ Narducci, Marc (April 10, 2020). "Sixers playoff flashback: World B. Free takes over Game 7 and sends Celtics packing". The Philadelphia Inquirer.
  3. ^ Wolf, Jason (February 20, 2013). "As Charles Barkley turns 50, his 76ers story revisited". USA Today.
  4. ^ World B. Free, Clippers’ last All-Star starter, has fond memories
  5. ^ 1981-82 Golden State Warriors Roster and Stats
  6. ^ a b c DuPree, David (April 18, 1985). "World B. Free: Like Ali, Cavaliers' guard has no use for small talk". USA Today. p. 7C.
  7. ^ World B. Free Per Game Playoffs
  8. ^ World B. Free Postseason Career High 32 Points
  9. ^ Armando Salguero (July 27, 1987). "On top of the World". The Miami News. p. B1. Retrieved August 29, 2021.
  10. ^ Jere Longman (July 7, 1991). "World B. Free is back in the orbit of pro basketball". The Akron Beacon Journal. p. E11. Retrieved August 29, 2021.
  11. ^ Wellington, Elizabeth (August 21, 2011). "WRNB's Lady B celebrates 30 years as hip-hop jump-starter". www.inquirer.com. Retrieved July 15, 2024.
  12. ^ SI Vault Retrieved on July 22, 2010.
  13. ^ Sixers Front Office. nba.com. Retrieved on December 20, 2009. Reconfirmed on June 24, 2011.
  14. ^ Withers, Tom. "LaVine's 25 lead Bulls to 98-94 win over young Cavaliers". NBA.com. Retrieved March 27, 2022.
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