Science Fair Project Encyclopedia
Categories: 1957 births | Basketball players | Cleveland Cavaliers players | Detroit Pistons players | Women's basketball
Bill Laimbeer
William Laimbeer Jr. (born May 19 1957 in Boston, Massachusetts) is a former basketball player in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He is currently the Head Coach of the Detroit Shock in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA).
Raised in the Chicago suburb of Clarendon Hills, Illinois, Laimbeer attended the University of Notre Dame, and in 1974 he played one of the Sleestak during the first season of the television series Land of the Lost.
He was drafted by the Cleveland Cavaliers in 1979. He was later traded to the Detroit Pistons on February 16 1982. During his entire career, Laimbeer was one of the most notorious players in the NBA. He was universally despised for committing brutal fouls, but in return flopping to the ground at the slightest tap. On the other hand, he was a intimidating and versatile player, one of the few centers who could actually score three-pointers.
He spent 14 seasons in the NBA, 12 of them at Detroit. Laimbeer became the 19th player in league history to amass more than 10,000 points and 10,000 rebounds, and his 685 consecutive games played streak is the longest in the league. Laimbeer retired 11 games into the 1993-94 season at age 36, and his #40 jersey was eventually retired by the Pistons.
In 1994, Laimbeer co-founded with his father William Sr., Laimbeer Packaging Corp., a company located in Melvindale, Michigan, a Detroit suburb, producing corrugated cardboard boxes. The company struggled through the late 1990s and Laimbeer closed it by early 2002. [1]
His father was a ranking executive with the Owens-Illinois corporation, and early in his career Bill Laimbeer was sometimes heard to quip that he was the only NBA player that didn't make more money than his dad.
Laimbeer maintained his ties to the Pistons as a broadcast commentator.
After taking over as head coach of the Detroit Shock midway through the 2002 season, he lead the franchise to its first WNBA championship in 2003 and was named Coach of the Year that year. It was the first time in WNBA history that a team other than Los Angeles or Houston won the title.
Trivia: As a teenager, Bill Laimbeer portrayed one of the Sleestaks on the children's television series Land of the Lost
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