Wayne Embry

(right) meeting with Reuven Rivlin, president of Israel, at Beit HaNassi, August 2017 Wayne Richard Embry (born March 26, 1937) is an American former professional basketball player and basketball executive. Embry's 11-year playing career as a center spanned from 1958 to 1969 playing for the Cincinnati Royals, Boston Celtics and Milwaukee Bucks, all of the National Basketball Association (NBA). After his playing career, Embry transitioned to a career as a professional basketball executive, becoming the first African American general manager and team president in NBA history. In 1999, he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Since 2004, Embry has served as a senior basketball advisor for the Toronto Raptors.

(right) meeting with Reuven Rivlin, president of Israel, at Beit HaNassi, August 2017 Wayne Richard Embry (born March 26, 1937) is an American former professional basketball player and basketball executive. Embry's 11-year playing career as a center spanned from 1958 to 1969 playing for the Cincinnati Royals, Boston Celtics and Milwaukee Bucks, all of the National Basketball Association (NBA). After his playing career, Embry transitioned to a career as a professional basketball executive, becoming the first African American general manager and team president in NBA history. In 1999, he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Since 2004, Embry has served as a senior basketball advisor for the Toronto Raptors.

Early life

Embry was born on March 26, 1937, in Springfield Ohio. He was raised on a family farm five miles outside of Springfield, on a 70-acre property with four separate homes for his nuclear family, his grandparents, and two uncles. The family was poor and his father also had to work as a car mechanic. He attended Tecumseh High School near New Carlisle, Ohio, where he was a three-year letter winner and earned honorable mention All-State honors as a basketball payer. He was already 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) as a 15-year old junior center. In his senior year (1954), Tecumseh was undefeated in the regular season, and their only loss came in the regional tournament finals. In his first year at Tecumseh, Embry was the only African-American student in the school. He suffered racial epithets at the school and wanted to leave, but his parents told him he had to stick it out by believing in himself as a man or no one else would believe in him, a philosophy he followed the rest of his life.

College career

Embry was recruited to Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, by coach Bill Rohr, who won Embry over by emphasizing academics rather than basketball as the primary reason to attend Miami. Embry became a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity. He was nicknamed "Goose" by his basketball teammates. As a two-time All-Mid-American Conference center, Embry, a team captain, led the then-Redskins to conference championships and NCAA Tournament appearances in 1957 and 1958. He led the MAC in scoring and rebounding in those two seasons, averaging 23.1 and 24.9 points, and 17.2 and 18.1 rebounds per game as a junior and senior, respectively. Embry still holds several school records, including best career rebounding average (15.5) (through the 2024–25 season). He ranks among Miami leaders in the all-time scoring list with 1,401 points (just outside the top-10) and is second on the total rebounding list with 1,117 (two behind Ron Harper's 1,119). He holds both Miami and MAC records for most rebounds in a game with 34 (in a game where he also scored 39 points and hit the winning shot in a one-point overtime victory), and season (488). He was one of only 14 players in MAC history to total more than 1,000 career points and rebounds, and was the first Miami player to reach both of those numbers in a career. He was selected to the Helms Athletic Foundation All-America third team as a senior, and he was a two-time honorable mention All-America selection in 1957 and 1958. He was inducted in the second class of the Miami Athletics Hall of Fame in 1970. He became the fourth player in Miami history to have his jersey (23) retired. Embry earned a Bachelor of Science in education from Miami.

NBA playing career

Embry was originally drafted by the St. Louis Hawks in the third round of the April 1958 NBA draft (23rd overall).

NBA career statistics

Regular season

|- | align="left" | 1958–59 | align="left" | Cincinnati | 66 || - || 24.1 || .387 || - || .656 || 9.0 || 1.5 || - || - || 11.4 |- | align="left" | 1959–60 | align="left" | Cincinnati | 73 || - || 21.8 || .439 || - || .514 || 9.5 || 1.1 || - || - || 10.6 |- | align="left" | 1960–61 | align="left" | Cincinnati | style="background:#cfecec;"| 79* || - || 28.3 || .451 || - || .668 || 10.9 || 1.6 || - || - || 14.4 |- | align="left" | 1961–62 | align="left" | Cincinnati | 75 || - || 35.0 || .466 || - || .690 || 13.0 || 2.4 || - || - || 19.8 |- | align="left" | 1962–63 | align="left" | Cincinnati | 76 || - || 33.0 || .458 || - || .667 || 12.3 || 2.3 || - || - || 18.6 |- | align="left" | 1963–64 | align="left" | Cincinnati | 80 || - || 36.4 || .458 || - || .650 || 11.6 || 1.4 || - || - || 17.3 |- | align="left" | 1964–65 | align="left" | Cincinnati | 74 || - || 30.3 || .456 || - || .644 || 10.0 || 1.2 || - || - || 12.7 |- | align="left" | 1965–66 | align="left" | Cincinnati | style="background:#cfecec;"| 80* || - || 23.5 || .411 || - || .603 || 6.6 || 1.0 || - || - || 7.6 |- | align="left" | 1966–67 | align="left" | Boston | 72 || - || 10.1 || .409 || - || .569 || 4.1 || 0.6 || - || - || 5.2 |- | style="text-align:left;background:#afe6ba;" | 1967–68† | align="left" | Boston | 78 || - || 13.9 || .400 || - || .589 || 4.1 || 0.7 || - || - || 6.3 |- | align="left" | 1968–69 | align="left" | Milwaukee | 78 || - || 30.2 || .427 || - || .664 || 8.6 || 1.9 || - || - || 13.1 |- class="sortbottom" | style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"| Career | 831 || - || 26.2 || .440 || - || .640 || 9.1 || 1.4 || - || - || 12.5 |}

Playoffs

|- | align="left" | 1961–62 | align="left" | Cincinnati | 4 || - || 32.0 || .467 || - || .778 || 11.3 || 2.0 || - || - || 14.0 |- | align="left" | 1962–63 | align="left" | Cincinnati | 12 || - || 32.8 || .450 || - || .662 || 13.5 || 1.3 || - || - || 16.8 |- | align="left" | 1963–64 | align="left" | Cincinnati | 10 || - || 36.3 || .381 || - || .622 || 12.4 || 2.1 || - || - || 13.4 |- | align="left" | 1964–65 | align="left" | Cincinnati | 4 || - || 30.8 || .438 || - || .818 || 6.3 || 2.0 || - || - || 12.8 |- | align="left" | 1965–66 | align="left" | Cincinnati | 5 || - || 27.8 || .421 || - || .583 || 6.8 || 0.4 || - || - || 7.8 |- | align="left" | 1966–67 | align="left" | Boston | 5 || - || 7.6 || .387 || - || .500 || 2.6 || 0.6 || - || - || 5.2 |- | style="text-align:left;background:#afe6ba;" | 1967–68† | align="left" | Boston | 16 || - || 10.1 || .390 || - || .448 || 2.8 || 0.4 || - || - || 3.7 |- class="sortbottom" | style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"| Career | 56 || - || 24.1 || .418 || - || .645 || 8.0 || 1.1 || - || - || 10.1 |}

NBA front-office career

In 1970, Embry left his job in Boston's department of recreation and joined the Bucks front office as director of player personnel, under team president Ray Patterson. He served as Patterson's administrative assistant, originally working as chief scout and then becoming more involved with everyday team operations over time, learning management from Patterson (as he had previously learned from Red Auerbach). Embry kept an eye for former Royals teammates he could lure to the rising contender. Embry was instrumental in numerous signings to aid the team, including his former teammate and roommate Oscar Robertson (traded to the Bucks in 1970) and scout John Killilea. The Bucks also traded for Embry's old Royals' teammate Bob Boozer in September 1970, who played over 22 minutes per game for the Bucks during his final NBA season, adding potent depth to the Bucks' team. The addition of Robertson to a team that already included then-named future Hall of Fame center Lew Alcindor (now Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) quickly produced an NBA title in 1971. In 1972, when Patterson decided to leave the Bucks to take over the Houston Rockets, Embry was unanimously selected as general manager by the Bucks' board. This made Embry the first African American NBA general manager, and the first African American general manager in any major U.S. sport. He served as general manager for the Bucks (1972–1976), and then as a Bucks' vice president and consultant for the next eight years. As general manager in 1975, Embry had to address Abdul-Jabbar's demand to be traded, though the Bucks did not want to trade him. Embry traded Abdul-Jabbar and Walt Wesley to the Los Angeles Lakers for Elmore Smith, Dave Meyers, Brian Winters, and Junior Bridgeman. He resigned as general manager early in the 1976–77 season, along with coach Larry Costello, having fallen out of favor with team president James Fitzgerald. In 1985, the Indiana Pacers hired Embry as a vice president and consultant, where he was instrumental in the 1986 draft. In June 1986, Embry was hired as vice president and general manager (1986–1999) of the Cleveland Cavaliers. In his first season, Embry hired future Hall of fame player and coach Lenny Wilkens as head coach. Embry became an executive vice president in 1992, and in 1994 was promoted by the Cavaliers to executive operating officer and team president (1994–2000), while still its general manager, the first African American to become an NBA team president. Embry stepped aside as general manager in June 1999 (for Jim Paxson). He remained general manager for the WNBA's Cleveland Rockers. In 2004, he was named senior assistant to the general manager of the Toronto Raptors (Rob Babcock), and became the team's interim general manager in 2006. Babcock was a rookie general manager when Embry was hired in 2004 to be Babcock's senior advisor. In April 2005, Embry was named senior advisor to the team's president, Richard Peddie, bypassing Babcock in the chain of command. In mid-January 2006, Peddie went to Embry as his senior advisor with concerns over Babcock's performance as general manager. Soon after, Peddie went to the Raptors' board with his concerns over Babcock and then announced Babcock's firing on January 26, 2006. On January 26, 2006, Raptor team president and CEO Peddie named Embry the interim general manager for the Raptors after the firing of Babcock, a position Embry held for less than two months until Bryan Colangelo was hired as the new president and general manager. Still, during his short stint as general manager, Embry engineered two significant trades. Embry has continued to serve as senior basketball advisor for the Raptors (through at least 2024). Since joining the team, the Raptors went on to become NBA champions in 2019.

External links

Wayne Embry's Ohio Basketball Hall of Fame Enshrinement Speech. Wayne Embry's Miami University statue dedication and Freedom of '64 Award Ceremony Toronto Raptors profile Embry interview in 1973 AFVN radio aircheck

Text derived from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1344986356 under CC BY-SA 4.0; modifications have been made.