Nate Archibald: Tiny Archibald

On August 4th, 1978, Nate “Tiny” Archibald was traded from the San Diego Clippers to the Boston Celtics. This turned out to be the best possible thing to happen to Archibald as he would later team up with Larry Bird and Kevin Mchale and win a title.

Archibald went to 4 years of college (1966-67 at Arizona Western and 1967-1970 at UTEP). He was drafted with the 19th pick in the 2nd round of the 1970 draft. He went to the Cincinnati Royals. After 2 years with the Royals, he went to the Kansas City-Omaha Kings and averaged 34 points in his first season in 1972-73. In August of 1978, he was traded to the Boston Celtics with great players like Jo Jo White, Dave Cowens and Cedric Maxwell. They got Larry Bird the next season and won 61 games, but they lost in the Eastern Conference Finals to the 76ers, who lost to Magic Johnson and the Lakers in the NBA Finals. The next season, the Celtics won 62 games with Larry Bird and rookie Kevin Mchale. They beat the Houston Rockets in 6 games to win the NBA Championship. Archibald played 1 more season in Boston, before playing his final NBA season in Milwaukee (1983-84). Overall, Archibald won 1 NBA Title (1981), 6x All Star, All-Star MVP (1981), 3x All-NBA 1st Team, 2x All-NBA 2nd Team, Scoring and Assists leader (1973).

Archibald was a great point guard in the 70’s and 80’s, but he is largely overlooked. He was a great scorer and a great passer and helped the Celtics win a championship.

I hope you enjoyed this edition of This Day In History, please leave a comment on which player I should do next and which day.