On this day in Boston Celtics history, champion small forward Willie Naulls was born in Dallas, Texas, in 1934. A graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles, where he played for Hall of Fame coaching legend John Wooden, Naulls was selected with the ninth pick of the 1956 NBA draft by the (then) St. Louis (now, Atlanta) Hawks.
He played 19 games with that organization before being traded to the New York Knicks early in his rookie year. He spent the bulk of his career with the Knicks, who named him the first Black team captain in league history.
It wasn’t the last trade of his career of course, or you would not be reading about him on this site.
