ADVERTISEMENT

Dave Cowens NBA MVP

C

corbinlee

Gold Member
Jun 12, 2016
5
5
3
Watching the 30 for 30 on lakers vs celtics and decided to look up past mvp's of the NBA and noticed one player who seemed like an outlier in Dave Cowens (72'-73') ... . I'd never heard of him and I see that he's from Newport, KY. Also inducted into the Naismith hall of fame .. and went to Florida state for college

Would love to hear from any basketball benny who might know more about Dave and how in the world did he not come to UK?
Thanks
 
Heard some old timers talk about him. Mainly in playing some rec leagues with him. Gonna try and find out more
 
After going to high school in Newport, KY you decided to go to college at Florida State: how on earth did Coach Adolph Rupp fail to make you a Wildcat? I wanted to go a bit further away than 80 miles from home, and Kentucky had signed a guy that year named Dan Issel to be their center.
 
  • Like
Reactions: UKvisitor
Cowens got everything he could out of the talent he had but he was a very overrated player. Not sure why he got the mvp award that year. He was not close to being the best player in the league that season.
 
corbinlee said:
Watching the 30 for 30 on lakers vs celtics and decided to look up past mvp's of the NBA and noticed one player who seemed like an outlier in Dave Cowens (72'-73') ... . I'd never heard of him and I see that he's from Newport, KY. Also inducted into the Naismith hall of fame .. and went to Florida state for college

Would love to hear from any basketball benny who might know more about Dave and how in the world did he not come to UK?
Thanks
Click to expand...


Was really a late bloomer and I'm not sure Rupp really wanted him. That was the same year that Issel came to UK. I'm not even sure if he had an offer from UK. Could be wrong on that though.
 
KentuckyRLD said:
Cowens got everything he could out of the talent he had but he was a very overrated player. Not sure why he got the mvp award that year. He was not close to being the best player in the league that season.
Click to expand...

Don't think I agree much with what you say. He averaged more than 20 ppg and over 16 rpg his MVP season while leading the C's to 68 wins, pretty dang good qualifications for an MVP season. As for being overrated? He was a double-double machine for his career with nearly 18 ppg and well over 13 rpg. Again, pretty stellar stats for an "overrated" player. Was he in a class with Jordan, Bird, Johnson, etc.? Of course not, but not many are. He was a fierce player and one of the toughest players in the league during his career and any team would have loved to have Big Red on their team, he was a pure winner. I don't think anyone has ever mentioned him as one of the all time greats but he was still an amazing player, in his own right, and far from overrated. He accomplished a great deal and was very fun to watch.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Chuckinden, brianpoe, ORCAT10 and 14 others
ORCAT said:
Don't think I agree much with what you say. He averaged more than 20 ppg and over 16 rpg his MVP season while leading the C's to 68 wins, pretty dang good qualifications for an MVP season. As for being overrated? He was a double-double machine for his career with nearly 18 ppg and well over 13 rpg. Again, pretty stellar stats for an "overrated" player. Was he in a class with Jordan, Bird, Johnson, etc.? Of course not, but not many are. He was a fierce player and one of the toughest players in the league during his career and any team would have loved to have Big Red on their team, he was a pure winner. I don't think anyone has ever mentioned him as one of the all time greats but he was still an amazing player, in his own right, and far from overrated. He accomplished a great deal and was very fun to watch.
Click to expand...
That's how I remember him as well. A very aggressive, hard nosed player who could hit the top of key jump shot or drive very aggressively. If I remember right he was a lefty.
 
  • Like
Reactions: musrat59
Cowens was a great player. i never got to watch any of his college games because back then tv wasn't what it is today, but i never missed a celtics game during the bird era---and he was one of my favorites when he played with them.
I asked the question on here last year why rupp never recruited him and jpscott was kind enough to relate the whole story about why he didn't play at uk.
 
  • Like
Reactions: KYNC89
KentuckyRLD said:
Cowens got everything he could out of the talent he had but he was a very overrated player. Not sure why he got the mvp award that year. He was not close to being the best player in the league that season.
Click to expand...
Not sure what NBA you were watching. You don't get named one of the 50 best NBA players of the league's first half century without being a great player. Or make eight all star teams. Or be named MVP of the finals.

By the way, someone above mentioned that he used to play in rec leagues in Northern Kentucky back when he was still in the NBA. That's true. I knew his younger brother and the guy who was a teammate at Newport Catholic then roomed with him at Florida State. I played I some of those full court rec league games against him and he was amazing to watch run the court at his size.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Chuckinden and westerncat
GYERater said:
UK fans, lol. It is ok to admit Cowens was a great player even though he chose to go to another school 50 years ago. ROY, MVP, 8 time all-star, named one of the 50 greatest players in NBA history. Yeah the guy was pretty good.
Click to expand...
But, but the guy above said he was overrated.
 
Interesting discussion. I think it's fair to say that he was both a great player, and also wasn't the best player in the league in 1973.

Just like today, the best player in the league didn't always win the MVP. Kareem averaged 30 and 16 for a 60 win team that year, but Kareem could have gotten the MVP every year.
 
  • Like
Reactions: UKUGA
I, very seldom watch the NBA these days, but did watch a lot when Cowens played and he was a helluva player for the Celtics.
 
I always enjoyed Dave Cowens and really think he is one that got away. But he was a late bloomer and UK brought in a super class that year. Hugh Durham was his college coach at FSU and was a Kentucky native. He brought in some of the best talent Kentucky HS produced to Florida State. The best being Cowens, Otto Petty and Ron King. UK recruited King, high school All American, and I was really disappointed to see him go to FSU. Petty was a high school team mate and about 5'6" but very fast and quick as a house cat.
 
  • Like
Reactions: musrat59, mhap8704 and oakbrookcat
When I hear a player has a great motor like MKG I think Dave Cowens certainly had one in his day!
 
ORCAT said:
Don't think I agree much with what you say. He averaged more than 20 ppg and over 16 rpg his MVP season while leading the C's to 68 wins, pretty dang good qualifications for an MVP season. As for being overrated? He was a double-double machine for his career with nearly 18 ppg and well over 13 rpg. Again, pretty stellar stats for an "overrated" player. Was he in a class with Jordan, Bird, Johnson, etc.? Of course not, but not many are. He was a fierce player and one of the toughest players in the league during his career and any team would have loved to have Big Red on their team, he was a pure winner. I don't think anyone has ever mentioned him as one of the all time greats but he was still an amazing player, in his own right, and far from overrated. He accomplished a great deal and was very fun to watch.
Click to expand...

^^^This^^^

AlohaCat
 
If I were a linker I would Link the Sports Illustrated with Cowens and Dr J leaning on each other on the cover, if my memory serves me correctly it was at time of NBA-ABA merger and was captioned "Dave and the Doctor in one big league" Dave was a crash the floor go all out the player.
 
GYERater said:
UK fans, lol. It is ok to admit Cowens was a great player even though he chose to go to another school 50 years ago. ROY, MVP, 8 time all-star, named one of the 50 greatest players in NBA history. Yeah the guy was pretty good.
Click to expand...
This is all very true. It is also true that Rupp had good reasons to be satisfied with Dan Issel. Either of these narratives is valid. But it is not valid for people to minimize Cowens' abilities and accomplishments. The guy was an all time great.
 
Blue Decade said:
This is all very true. It is also true that Rupp had good reasons to be satisfied with Dan Issel. Either of these narratives is valid. But it is not valid for people to minimize Cowens' abilities and accomplishments. The guy was an all time great.
Click to expand...

Rumors were that Issel was Rupp's third choice that year. Don't remember who
were the other two. Seems like OSU
signed one of the others.
 
musrat59 said:
I, very seldom watch the NBA these days, but did watch a lot when Cowens played and he was a helluva player for the Celtics.
Click to expand...
Same here.
Cowens was a pure winner.
He didn't give a damn about anything but winning.

He would dive for balls, he would run the floor with maximum effort.

He didn't make excuses, or cry like some of these guys do now.

It was all about team and winning.
 
  • Like
Reactions: crpoore and musrat59
Great player but he played in era that the NBA was about to collapse. Larry Bird on the other hand is the one we should be talking about.
 
poppycat said:
Rumors were that Issel was Rupp's third choice that year. Don't remember who
were the other two. Seems like OSU
signed one of the others.
Click to expand...

UK was recruiting George Janky (Chicago, IL), Joe Bergman (Clinton, Iowa) and Dan Issel (Batavia, IL) for one spot. (They were saving another spot for guard Rick Mount, who ended up attending Purdue.)

The myth is that Issel was UK's third choice, but if you look back at the information at the time, along with the remembrances of Joe Hall etc., that wasn't necessarily the case. Basically they would have been happy with any one of the three.

There's more information available at the page below, including the newspaper article which likely led Issel to believe he was a third choice (even though he wasn't).

Link to Article

Dave Cowens was in the same class and signed with Florida State May 31, 1966. Apparently UK wasn't recruiting him.
 
  • Like
Reactions: poppycat
JPScott said:
UK was recruiting George Janky (Chicago, IL), Joe Bergman (Clinton, Iowa) and Dan Issel (Batavia, IL) for one spot. (They were saving another spot for guard Rick Mount, who ended up attending Purdue.)

The myth is that Issel was UK's third choice, but if you look back at the information at the time, along with the remembrances of Joe Hall etc., that wasn't necessarily the case. Basically they would have been happy with any one of the three.

There's more information available at the page below, including the newspaper article which likely led Issel to believe he was a third choice (even though he wasn't).

Link to Article

Dave Cowens was in the same class and signed with Florida State May 31, 1966. Apparently UK wasn't recruiting him.
Click to expand...

Casey, (without the accident) Issel, Pratt, and Mount
would have been one of all time hauls up to that time.
Didn't Mount avg about 30ppg one year?
 
The Cowens' lived on Nelson Place and if I recall he had younger twin brothers. Met Dave when I was in 6th grade before the family moved. Just before the Celtics went back to the finals.
 
KentuckyRLD said:
Cowens got everything he could out of the talent he had but he was a very overrated player. Not sure why he got the mvp award that year. He was not close to being the best player in the league that season.
Click to expand...
I disagree about him being overrated.
 
  • Like
Reactions: musrat59
KentuckyRLD said:
Cowens got everything he could out of the talent he had but he was a very overrated player. Not sure why he got the mvp award that year. He was not close to being the best player in the league that season.
Click to expand...

Dave Cowens was a superior player at every level. He was recruited by Kentucky native Hugh Durham to FSU. DC played all out every play and he played both center and PF with equal skill.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

P

Pope has direct connection to NBA Academy Latin America

Replies
6
Views
2K
Rupp Rafters - Basketball Forum
Elliott Tim
Elliott Tim
P

What if Cal left Arkansas for the NBA before coaching a game?

Replies
35
Views
3K
Rupp Rafters - Basketball Forum
sk73
S
Smashcat

Cliff Hagan turning 92

Replies
23
Views
741
Rupp Rafters - Basketball Forum
haganjeff
haganjeff
LmdCat

Why Is Mitch Still Here??

Replies
21
Views
1K
Rupp Rafters - Basketball Forum
indianskid7220
I
uk78

You UK fans are spoiled jerks, just awful

Replies
28
Views
3K
Rupp Rafters - Basketball Forum
ukfan1622
ukfan1622
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest posts

ADVERTISEMENT
Top Bottom
Back