William C. Bridges (April 4, 1939 – September 25, 2015) 
Played for: Kansas City Steers (1961–1962), St. Louis /Atlanta Hawks (1963–1971), Philadelphia 76ers (1971–1972), Los Angeles Lakers (1972–1974), Golden State Warriors (1975)
Bill Bridges (Basketball Reference [Player] — Power forward / Center (PF / C)
11,012 points (11.9 points per game), 11,054 rebounds (11.9 rebounds per game), 2,553 assists (2.8 assists per game) in 926 games
NBA champion (1975)
3× NBA All-Star (1967, 1968, 1970)
2× NBA All-Defensive Second Team (1969, 1970)
All-ABL First Team (1962)
He was presented with offers from the NBA (with the Chicago Packers) and the upstart American Basketball League (with the Kansas City Steers) in 1961. He chose the Abe Saperstein-founded ABL and played the 1961-62 season with Kansas City, who went 54-25 and made the ABL Finals only to lose to the Cleveland Pipers. He averaged 21.4 points per game and 13.4 rebounds and was named to the All-ABL First Team. In the second season of the doomed league, Bridges set a ABL record in points with 55 on December 9, 1962. He later had a knee injury in that month, but fate lent a hand in not missing much. Substantial losses (such as losing the Pipers after the first season) led to the dissolving of the league on New Year's Eve of 1962; Kansas City was 22-9 and the best team in the league at the time it went under. The points leader that year with 849 in 29 games (29.2 average), Bridges also ranked as the all-time ABL leader in rebounds with 1,496 in 108 games. Days later, on January 8, 1963, Bridges played his first game in the NBA with the St. Louis Hawks against the Lakers. He recorded one rebound in four minutes; five days later, he recorded his first double-double, having 12 points and 10 rebounds in a 105-104 win against Cincinnati. He played in 27 games that year and almost recorded more rebounds (144) than points (164). In the eight-team NBA playoffs, Bridges had three games with over 10 rebounds (all in the first round: Game 1, 2, and 4 of the Division Semifinals against Detroit). In the 1963 Western Division Finals against the Lakers, with a chance to go to the NBA Finals, Bridges shot 37.3% from the field with 5.3 rebounds as the Hawks lost in seven games. The 6'6 power forward would play for the Hawks for eight more postseasons (with two division titles), which included six total trips to the Division Finals (one step away from the NBA Finals), but they lost them all.
Bridges would gradually go up in minutes per game from season to season, going from 13.9 in that first year to 24.4 in the 1963-64 season to over 30+ minutes in eight straight seasons from 1965 to 1973. He had his first season averaging 10+ points/10+ rebounds a game in the 1964-65 season, averaging 11.5 points and 10.8 rebounds in 79 games. In seven straight seasons (1965-1972), he was in the top ten in the league in total rebounds (topping out at 5th in the 1966-67 season with 1,190). He peaked in points for a game with 37 in a loss against Detroit on December 26, 1967. The 1967-68 season saw him lead the league in fouls, with 366, which actually was a league record for two years. He received a little bit of recognition with the Hawks, where he was named to the All-Star Game three times and the All-Defensive Second Team twice in the span of four years (1967-1970). For whatever reason, 14 games into the 1971-72 season, Atlanta felt they needed to trade for Jim Washington (interestingly, despite being four years younger than Bridges, Washington and Bridges wound up retiring in the same year in 1975. Bridges departed the team with the second most rebounds in league history next to Bob Petitt. Since 1962, the first year that Bridges played in Atlanta, no player has recorded more total rebounds than him for the franchise, with Kevin Willis coming the closest with 7,332.
Oddly enough, his high in rebounds for a game came with Philadelphia: he had 32 in a win versus Seattle on March 19, 1972. In 78 total games of the 1971-72 season, he averaged 12.6 points with 13.5 rebounds. The 1972-73 season basically became an "outhouse to the penthouse story" for Bridges. The 1972-73 76ers, coached by a combo of Roy Rubin and Kevin Loughery to a total of 9 wins, but Bridges was around for only ten games before Philadelphia traded him and Mel Counts on November 2 for Leroy Ellis and John Trapp. Bridges had his final season with 30 minutes per game, averaging 35 with 10.3 points and 11 rebounds per game. In the playoff run, he averaged over 30 minutes while getting 9.3 rebounds and 8.9 points per game as the Lakers lost to the Knicks in five games in the NBA Finals. The 1973-74 season saw him mostly played on the bench and the early part of the 1974-75 season was much of the same. Troubled by knee injuries and an elbow injury (which eventually healed), he played a total of 32 whole games and averaged 13 minutes with 2.7 points and 7.7 rebounds. The Lakers waived him in December 1974 before Bridges was recruited to play for the Warriors in March 1975. In the 1975 playoffs (in which a 48-win Golden State was the #1 seed in the Western Conference), he would log in 148 minutes, with the most significant action coming in Game 6 of the Conference Finals against Chicago. He logged eleven rebounds (ten defensive) as the Warriors beat the Bulls 86-72 to force Game 7. In his last games as a player in the 1975 NBA Finals against the heavy favorite Washington Bullets, Bridges logged in seven rebounds with four whole points, but the Warriors rolled anyway to a four-game sweep (besides, Game 2 and 4 were decided by one point each, and Bridges had two points in each) to let Bridges go out a winner. He served as an environmental consultant in California for many years. 2004 saw Bridges honored by Kansas with a jersey retirement (thanks to the efforts of booster Bernie Morgan). 2014 and 2016 saw him inducted into the New Mexico and Kansas Sports Halls of Fame. He passed away from cancer in 2015 at the age of 76.
This Hall is practically built for guys like Bridges in unsung heroes that did their job well and aren't given as much attention as they deserve. Bridges and his 11.94 rebounds per game ranks 18th in NBA/ABA history. 452 of his 926 career games ended up with him having at least 10 points and 10 rebounds, which actually ranks among the top 50 for 10/10 games in NBA history. Of course, Bridges isn't the leader for non-HOFers, because it currently is held up by current player Nikola Vučević (582) and Buck Williams (572), but still*. In the top 30 for rebounds per game, only the following are not in the Hall: Bridges, Mike Lewis (11.93), Andre Drummond (active, 11.91), Rudy Gobert (active, 11.68), Ira Harge (11.60), Swen Nater (11.55), Walter Dukes (11.25), and Johnny "Red" Kerr (11.15). You know how many players exist who recorded over 10,000 rebounds in less than 1,000 games? 14 players *total*, with Bridges being 10th (two are active), which actually is more than David Robinson in less games. 209 players at the height of 6'6 or shorter have gotten 10,000 points, but how many players at that height or shorter had 10,000 rebounds? Just three: Bridges, Charles Barkley (12,546) and Elgin Baylor (11,463). But Bridges had what you would call a great basketball life, and I suppose that is enough for most to aspire for.
On behalf of the Unsung Hall of Fame, it is my privilege to welcome Bill Bridges to the Hall.
N O T E S
*Speaking of Unsung Hall of Famers...
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