David Greenwood obit

David Greenwood, former UCLA and Verbum Dei star who won an NBA title, dies

 He was not on the list.

David Greenwood adored basketball so much in middle school that he would play for three different teams in three different parks on the same day, multiple times a week.

His brother, Al, would be in the car driving around with him between games while David traded in his sweaty uniform for a fresh one, repeating the process over and over.

“He was relentless,” Al said, “because he loved the game.”

At home, David would get tossed around in driveway games by the cement contractor father who was twice his size, only to keep getting back up for more contact. In practices, he shot blindfolded to perfect his form, his brother having to let him know when he was close to going out of bounds so that he could get his bearings.

Greenwood, the determined Compton kid who went from a star high school player at Verbum Dei to one of the top scorers in UCLA history to an NBA champion with the Detroit Pistons, died Sunday night at a Riverside hospital from cancer. He was 68.

True to the nature of someone who played through debilitating foot injuries throughout his career, Greenwood did not inform family of his illness until the end of his life.

“Everything happened so quickly,” said Bronson Greenwood, David’s nephew. “It was kind of a shock.”

One of the all-time great high school players in Southern California, Greenwood and teammate Roy Hamilton were among the final players recruited by legendary UCLA coach John Wooden. They were shocked when Wooden retired shortly after their senior season of high school and was replaced by Gene Bartow.

But they decided to stick with their commitments, lured in part by the pitch of a coach they would never play for in college.

“He told me if I went to USC or UNLV or Notre Dame, I’d be an All-American,” Greenwood once told The Times of Wooden’s proposal. “But if I went to UCLA, I’d be able to test myself against 12 other high school All-Americans every single day. ... It was kind of like, ‘Come here and test your mettle.’ ”

Greenwood’s work ethic continued to push him as a Bruin. His practices with the team were followed by an hour in another gym, his brother feeding him passes. Along the way, he never shortchanged himself or teammates.

“If he said he was going to shoot 100 free throws,” Al said, “it wasn’t 50, it wasn’t 65, it was 100 — and he didn’t stop until he got to 100.”

Having been dubbed “Batman and Robin” in high school, Greenwood and Hamilton remained close at UCLA, rooming together and biking to campus from where they lived in the Fairfax District. Hamilton remembered Greenwood as a remarkable rebounder who whipped outlet passes to him to get fast breaks started.

“We would always know how to motivate each other,” Hamilton said, “and connect with each other on the floor.”

Becoming a star by his sophomore season, Greenwood averaged a double-double in points and rebounds as a junior and a senior, finishing each season as an All-American. The 6-foot-9 forward’s go-to move was starting with his back about 10 to 12 feet from the basket before faking one way and unleashing a spin-around jumper.

One of his favorite memories as a Bruin, according to his brother, was a comeback against Washington State toward the end of his career in which the Bruins wiped out a late double-digit deficit, winning on Greenwood’s putback dunk only seconds before the buzzer.

UCLA never recaptured the Wooden glory during Greenwood’s four seasons, reaching the Final Four his freshman year and a regional final his senior year. But Greenwood remains No. 15 on the school’s all-time scoring list, having tallied 1,721 points.

After the Lakers selected Magic Johnson with the first pick of the 1979 NBA draft, the Chicago Bulls took Greenwood second as part of their massive rebuilding efforts. (Hamilton was also a lottery pick, going 10th to the Pistons.)

“He wasn’t exciting, he was steady,” Al Greenwood said of his brother. “You knew you were going to get a double-double every night out of him regardless of what the score was.”

Greenwood started every game in his first NBA season, averaging 16.3 points and 9.4 rebounds while making the all-rookie team. The Bulls went 30-52, their loss total more than triple the 17 losses that Greenwood’s teams had absorbed in four seasons as a Bruin.

But he persevered through the losing and a series of foot injuries caused by a running style in which his heels would hit the ground before his toes. Al remembered his brother coming back to Los Angeles to play the Lakers and taking his shoes off at home, saying it felt as if they were full of broken glass.

“That was how his feet felt a lot of the time, but he just played even when he shouldn’t have,” Al said. “I always called him The Thoroughbred.”

Greenwood would undergo one Achilles’ surgery on one foot and two on the other, never missing a full season in the process.

In October 1985, before the widespread use of cell phones, Greenwood learned he had been traded to San Antonio for future Hall of Famer George Gervin while listening to the radio. Late in his 12-year NBA career, he was a surprise playoff contributor for the Detroit Pistons when they won the 1990 NBA championship. Hamilton worked for CBS Sports as part of the production team broadcasting the Finals that year.

“Having my best friend in the world on the team and winning a title,” Hamilton said, “that was a joy for me.”

Greenwood went on to own several Blockbuster video stores and coached at his alma mater, guiding Verbum Dei to state championships in 1998 and 1999. His nephew recalled a soft side, his uncle picking him up and giving him a good tickle.

Greenwood is survived by his brother, Al; sister, Laverne; son, Jemil; and daughter, Tiffany, along with his former wife, Joyce. Services are pending.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Before the Michael Jordan era in Chicago, Greenwood was one of the franchise's marquee players along with Reggie Theus and Orlando Woolridge. On October 24, 1985, Greenwood was traded by the Bulls to the San Antonio Spurs in exchange for future Hall of Famer George Gervin.

On January 26, 1989, Greenwood and Spurs teammate, Darwin Cook were traded to the Denver Nuggets for Calvin Natt and Jay Vincent. On October 6, 1989, Greenwood signed as an unrestricted free agent with the Detroit Pistons, whom he would assist in a victorious effort in the 1990 NBA Finals as a reserve. He would later sign as an unrestricted free agent with the San Antonio Spurs on August 17, 1990, until his release on May 21, 1991.

Greenwood attended the University of California at Los Angeles. He was inducted into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame as a member of the Class of 2021. He died in Riverside, California on June 8, 2025, from cancer.

 

Career information

High school     Verbum Dei (Los Angeles, California)

College            UCLA (1975–1979)

NBA draft        1979: 1st round, 2nd overall pick

Drafted by       Chicago Bulls

Playing career 1979–1991

Position           Power forward / center

Number           34, 10, 22, 33

Career history

1979–1985      Chicago Bulls

1985–1989      San Antonio Spurs

1989    Denver Nuggets

1989–1990      Detroit Pistons

1990–1991      San Antonio Spurs

Career highlights

NBA champion (1990)

NBA All-Rookie First Team (1980)

2× Consensus first-team All-American (1978, 1979)

2× Pac-10 Player of the Year (1978, 1979)

3× First-team All-Pac-10 (1977–1979)

First-team Parade All-American (1975)