Larry Foust
Personal information
Born(1928-06-24)June 24, 1928
Painesville, Ohio, U.S.
DiedOctober 27, 1984(1984-10-27) (aged 56)
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Listed height6 ft 9 in (2.06 m)
Listed weight215 lb (98 kg)
Career information
High schoolSouth Catholic
(Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
CollegeLa Salle (1946–1950)
NBA draft1950: 1st round, 5th overall pick
Selected by the Chicago Stags
Playing career1950–1962
PositionPower forward / center
Number16, 14, 13
Career history
1950–1957Fort Wayne Pistons
1957–1960Minneapolis Lakers
1960–1962St. Louis Hawks
Career highlights and awards
Career NBA statistics
Points11,198 (13.7 ppg)
Rebounds8,041 (9.8 rpg)
Assists1,368 (1.7 apg)
Stats  at NBA.com
Stats at Basketball-Reference.com

Laurence Michael Foust (June 24, 1928 – October 27, 1984) was an American basketball player who spent 12 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA), most notably with the Fort Wayne Pistons and Minneapolis Lakers, and was a two-time All-NBA Team member and an eight-time All-Star.

Career

Foust attended South Catholic High School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and was instrumental in winning the city championship against archrival Southern High School by scoring a last second basket.

A 6ft 9 in center from La Salle University, Foust was selected by the Chicago Stags in the 1950 NBA draft, but the Stags franchise folded before the start of the 1950–51 NBA season, and Foust joined the Fort Wayne Pistons.

With the Pistons, Foust averaged a double-double in points and rebounds and was selected to six All-Star games. On November 22, 1950, Foust scored the winning basket in a 19–18 Pistons victory over the Minneapolis Lakers, the lowest scoring game in NBA history.[1] Foust was tied with Mel Hutchins for the NBA lead in rebounding in the 1951–52 season. In the 1954–55 season, Foust led the NBA in field goal percentage.

Foust later joined the Lakers in 1957,[2] and helped the team make the 1959 NBA Finals.[3] In Game 3 of the series, Foust led the Lakers in scoring and rebounding totals with 26 points and 22 rebounds, during a 123–110 loss to the Boston Celtics.[4] The Lakers would eventually lose the series.

In 1960, he was traded to the St. Louis Hawks,[5] who he would play with for two and a half more seasons before retiring.

Foust retired in 1962 with 11,198 career points and 8,041 career rebounds.

Player profile

Foust utilized his height and strength to stifle his opponents in the paint. Lead-footed and with clumsy hands, Foust demanded his teammates stay away from the paint and feed him the basketball near the rim.[6]

When author Robert Cohen selected an all-star team from 1946 to 1960 era of the NBA, Foust was chosen the fifth-best center, noting that Foust "in many ways represented one of the finest early prototypes of what eventually became the modernized basketball big man. Although Foust had considerable bulk and displayed a great deal of aggression under the boards, he also exhibited a fair amount of agility and ballhandling skills"[7] When calculating players of Hall of Fame Probability, Basketball Reference has him listed as 76th with 94.2%, which is the highest among eligible players that are not in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.[8] He is also the only player with eight All-Star Game selections to not be inducted, although he played at a time when there generally more than twice as many all-stars as teams in the league.[9][10]

NBA career statistics

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
 *  Led the league

Regular season

Year Team GP MPG FG% FT% RPG APG PPG
1950–51 Fort Wayne 68 – .346 .659 10.0 1.3 13.5
1951–52 Fort Wayne 66 39.6 394 .678 13.3 3.0 15.9
1952–53 Fort Wayne 67 34.4 .360 .723 11.5 2.3 14.3
1953–54 Fort Wayne 72 37.4 .409 .712 13.4 2.2 15.1
1954–55 Fort Wayne 70 32.3 .487* .766 10.0 1.7 17.0
1955–56 Fort Wayne 72 28.1 .447 .778 9.0 1.8 16.2
1956–57 Fort Wayne 61 25.1 .394 .718 9.1 1.2 12.4
1957–58 Minneapolis 72 30.6 .398 .756 12.2 1.5 16.8
1958–59 Minneapolis 72 26.8 .390 .765 8.7 1.3 12.3
1959–60 Minneapolis/St.Louis 72 27.3 .407 .791 8.6 1.3 12.2
1960–61 St. Louis 68 17.8 .397 .788 5.7 1.1 8.1
1961–62 St. Louis 57 20.2 .471 .815 5.8 1.4 9.7
Career 817 29.2 .405 .741 9.8 1.7 13.7
All-Star 7 16.9 .315 .938 7.0 0.4 7.0

Playoffs

Year Team GP MPG FG% FT% RPG APG PPG
1951 Fort Wayne 3 – .311 .800 12.3 1.7 12.0
1952 Fort Wayne 2 38.5 .522 .857 15.0 2.5 15.0
1953 Fort Wayne 8 41.5 .397 .838 13.9 0.8 19.1
1954 Fort Wayne 4 32.3 .268 .760 9.5 1.8 10.3
1955 Fort Wayne 11 30.1 .395 .712 9.7 2.4 15.6
1956 Fort Wayne 10 28.9 .377 .787 12.7 1.4 16.8
1957 Fort Wayne 2 32.0 .565 .826 12.5 3.0 22.5
1959 Minneapolis 13 31.1 .418 .820 10.5 0.9 11.8
1960 St. Louis 12 17.1 .392 .800 5.7 0.9 6.5
1961 St. Louis 8 11.1 .450 .571 3.5 0.3 3.3
Career 73 27.4 .394 .781 9.7 1.3 12.4

Death

Foust died in 1984 of a heart attack at age 56.[11] He lived in Mount Lebanon, Pennsylvania at the time of death, and was survived by his wife and four children.[12]

References

  1. ↑ "15 Disgraceful Incidents the NBA Wants You to Forget". June 8, 2017.
  2. ↑ "Western Division".
  3. ↑ 1958-59 Minneapolis Lakers Roster and Stats
  4. ↑ 1959 NBA Finals Game 3: Boston Celtics at Minneapolis Lakers
  5. ↑ Larry Foust Transactions
  6. ↑ Rosen, Charley (2001). The Wizard of Odds: How Jack Molinas Nearly Destroyed the Game of Basketball. Seven Stories Press. pp. 105–110.
  7. ↑ Cohen, Robert (2013). Pro Basketball's All-time All-stars. Rowman & Littlefield.
  8. ↑ "NBA & ABA Leaders and Records for Hall of Fame Probability".
  9. ↑ Khobi Price. "Chris Bosh passed over as Hall of Fame finalist". Sun-sentinel.com. Retrieved May 9, 2022.
  10. ↑ Pelton, Kevin (September 7, 2018). "Welcome to Springfield: The candidates we'd put in the Hall". ESPN.com. ESPN. Retrieved October 16, 2023.
  11. ↑ Vecsey, Peter (February 8, 2009). "1960 LAKERS WILL NEVER FORGET PLANE CRASH THAT CHANGED THEIR LIVES". New York Post. Retrieved May 1, 2017.
  12. ↑ Larry Foust, NBA, Obituary, Philadelphia Inquirer, October 31, 1984
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