Dave Meyers obit

Former UCLA, NBA player Dave Meyers dies at 62

 

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — Dave Meyers, the star forward who led UCLA to the 1975 NCAA basketball championship as the lone senior in coach John Wooden’s final season and later played for the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks, died Friday. He was 62.

Meyers died at his home in Temecula after struggling with cancer for the last year, according to UCLA, which received the news from his younger sister, Ann Meyers Drysdale.

He played four years for Milwaukee after being drafted second overall by the Los Angeles Lakers. Shortly after, Meyers was part of a blockbuster trade that sent him to the Bucks in exchange for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

The 6-foot-8 Meyers led UCLA in scoring at 18.3 points and rebounding at 7.9 in his final season, helping the Bruins to a 28-3 record. He had 24 points and 11 rebounds in their 92-85 victory over Kentucky in the NCAA title game played in his hometown of San Diego.

Meyers Drysdale also played at UCLA during her Hall of Fame career.

Meyers assumed the Bruins’ leadership role during the 1974-75 season after Bill Walton and Jamaal Wilkes had graduated. Playing with sophomores Marques Johnson and Richard Washington, Meyers earned consensus All-America honors. Meyers made the cover of Sports Illustrated after the Bruins won the NCAA title.

“One of the true warriors in @UCLAMBB history has gone on to glory,” Johnson wrote on Twitter. “Dave Meyers was our Captain in ’75 and as tenacious a player ever. RIP.”

Johnson recalled in other tweets how Meyers called him ‘MJB’ or Marques Johnson Baby when he was a freshman, and later in the NBA, Meyers was nicknamed “Crash” because he always diving on the floor for loose balls.

As a junior, Meyers started on a front line featuring future Hall of Famers Walton and Wilkes.

Meyers was a reserve as a sophomore on the Bruins’ 1973 NCAA title team during the school’s run of 10 national titles in 12 years under Wooden. The team went 30-0 and capped the season by beating Memphis 87-66 in the championship game, when Meyers had four points and three rebounds.

In 1975, Meyers, along with Elmore Smith, Junior Bridgeman and Brian Winters, was traded to Milwaukee for Abdul-Jabbar and Walt Wesley.

During the 1977-78 season, Meyers was reunited with Johnson on the Bucks and averaged a career-best 14.7 points. He missed the next year with a back injury. Meyers returned in 1979-80 to average 12.1 points and 5.7 rebounds in helping the Bucks win a division title.

Born David William Meyers, he was one of 11 children. His father, Bob, was a standout basketball player and team captain at Marquette in the 1940s. The younger Meyers averaged 22.7 points as a senior at Sonora High in La Habra, California.

Meyers made a surprise announcement in 1980 that he was retiring from basketball to spend more time with his family. He later earned his teaching certificate and taught sixth grade for several years in Lake Elsinore, California.

In 1974–75, with Walton and Wilkes graduated, the Bruins reloaded and Meyers was the senior starter on a front line with two sophomores and future All-Americans Marques Johnson and Richard Washington. Meyers led the team in both scoring and rebounding with 18.3 points and 7.9 rebounds per game with a .484 field goal percentage. He won the John Wooden Award as UCLA's Most Valuable Player, and he was a consensus first-team All-American. The Bruins went 28–3 and won the NCAA championship in the 1975 NCAA Division I basketball tournament, the team's 10th in a 12-year span, with a 92–85 win over Kentucky. Meyers recorded 24 points and 11 rebounds in the championship game.

Meyers was the second overall pick in the 1975 NBA draft by the Los Angeles Lakers. Nineteen days later, Meyers, along with Elmore Smith, Junior Bridgeman, and Brian Winters, was traded to the Milwaukee Bucks in exchange for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Walt Wesley.

In his rookie season of 1975–76 with the Bucks, Meyers played 72 games and averaged 22.1 minutes per game. He averaged 7.4 points, 6.2 rebounds and 1.4 assists per game. He posted a then career single-game high of 28 points in just his third NBA game, against the New Orleans Jazz.

In 1976–77, Meyers was limited to 52 games, but his playing time increased to over 25 minutes per game, while he averaged 9.7 points, 6.8 rebounds and 1.7 assists per game, with a .467 field goal percentage. On April 10, 1977, he set a new personal best of 31 points against the San Antonio Spurs.

In 1977–78, his third season, Meyers came into his own as a starter and the Bucks, after two losing seasons, rebounded to a 44–38 record. Playing alongside his former UCLA teammate Marques Johnson, Meyers played 80 games and averaged over 30 minutes per game. Meyers posted a career-high 14.7 points per game along with 6.7 rebounds and a career-high 3.0 assists. On November 15, 1977, he upped his single-game scoring personal best to 32 points, against the Portland Trail Blazers.

Meyers missed the 1978–79 season with a back injury.

In the 1979–80 season, he played 79 games and just under 28 minutes per game as the Bucks went 49–33 and won the NBA Midwest Division. Meyers averaged 12.1 points, 5.7 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game.

After five NBA seasons, on April 30, 1980, Meyers made a surprise announcement that he was retiring from basketball to spend more time with his family and devote more time to his Jehovah's Witness faith.

He is survived by his wife, Linda, whom he married in 1975, and daughter Crystal and son Sean.