Gene Shue, All-Star and Longtime N.B.A. Coach, Dies at 90

Gene Shue, an All-Star N.B.A. guard of the late Nineteen Fifties and early ’60s who went on to show losers into winners in 22 seasons as a professional coach, has died. He was 90.

The N.B.A. introduced the loss of life however didn’t say the place or when Shue died.

Shue launched into his professional profession enjoying with the previous Philadelphia Warriors in 1954, the yr the 24-second shot clock was adopted. He was an N.B.A. presence for seven many years in a journey with second and even third acts.

Lengthy after becoming a member of the Warriors as a first-round draft select of Maryland, Shue returned to town twice, as a coach of the 76ers (previously the Syracuse Nationals) and later in front-office roles. He had two stints enjoying for the Knicks. He ended his enjoying profession with the Baltimore Bullets and later coached them in Baltimore and Washington. He coached the Clippers in San Diego and Los Angeles. He was an All-Star for 5 consecutive seasons with the Detroit Pistons, twice averaging greater than 20 factors a sport. And he was named a first-team all-N.B.A. guard in 1960, together with the Boston Celtics’ Bob Cousy.

Shue was twice N.B.A. coach of the yr, with Baltimore in 1969 and with Washington in 1982, and he coached the Bullets and later the 76ers to the N.B.A. finals.

“I’ve by no means had an ideal crew, and I’ve all the time settled for one thing much less,” he advised The Boston Globe in 1985. “My entire historical past entails taking weak groups and turning them round.”

Eugene William Shue was born on Dec. 18, 1931, in Baltimore. When he performed basketball in grammar faculty, the courtroom’s ceiling was barely larger than the hoops, so he developed a line- drive feet-on-the-floor set shot. He went on to common greater than 20 factors a sport at Maryland in his junior and senior seasons.

A slender 6 toes 2 inches, Shue was chosen by the Warriors because the third total decide within the 1954 N.B.A. draft. However after six video games with them, he was bought to the Knicks and spent two seasons in New York enjoying in a backcourt with Carl Braun and Dick McGuire.

The Knicks traded Shue to the Pistons in 1956, throughout their last season in Fort Wayne, Ind., when the N.B.A. nonetheless included medium-size cities and journey was hardly luxurious.

“Each time we flew from Fort Wayne to the East Coast, we needed to cease in Erie, Pennsylvania, to fuel up or we’d run out of fuel over the Nice Lakes,” he advised Terry Pluto within the oral historical past “Tall Tales” (1992), recalling journeys on the proprietor Fred Zollner’s DC-3.

Shue was an All-Star with the Detroit Pistons from 1958 to 1962. He performed his last two seasons with the Knicks and the Bullets, then retired with a scoring common of 14.4 factors a sport for 10 seasons.

He started his teaching profession with Baltimore in 1966, taking on a Bullets crew that had gained 16 video games the earlier season. His Bullets went 57-25 in 1968-69 behind Earl Monroe and Wes Unseld, whom Shue chosen within the two earlier drafts. They gained the Japanese Convention title in 1971 with a seven-game playoff victory over the Knicks, the defending N.B.A. champions. However they have been swept within the finals by the Milwaukee Bucks of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Oscar Robertson.

Shue grew to become the coach of the 76ers in 1973, when he was requested to resurrect a crew that had gone 9-73. He coached them to the N.B.A. playoff finals in 1977 behind Julius Erving, however they misplaced to the Portland Path Blazers in six video games. When the 76ers bought off to a 2-4 begin the next season, Shue was fired.

He grew to become the coach of the San Diego Clippers in 1978-79 after they gained 27 video games because the Buffalo Braves. He took the Clippers to a 43-39 report, however he departed halfway by the next season once they have been losers as soon as extra.

Shue had a expensive run-in when his Clippers have been going through the Bulls in Chicago in January 1980. After referee Dick Bavetta known as a technical foul on the Clippers for having too many males on the courtroom, Shue shoved him.

Commissioner Larry O’Brien fined Shue $3,500 and suspended him for per week with out pay.

“I’m a mild-mannered man,” Shue stated afterward, “however typically you must rise up and assert your self.”

Shue spent practically six years in his second stint with the Bullets after they moved to Washington. He completed his teaching profession with the Clippers in Los Angeles in 1989 after a season and half of shedding basketball.

His groups gained 784 video games and misplaced 861 over all.

Shue harassed protection as a coach.

He “taught the precise defensive theories — overplaying your man, serving to out, double-teaming the ball,” the Bullets’ ahead Gus Johnson advised Pete Axthelm in “The Metropolis Sport” (1970).

Info on Shue’s quick survivors was not instantly accessible.

Shue returned once more to Philadelphia in July 1990 as normal supervisor of the 76ers.

“There’s no such factor as 9 lives,” he advised The Philadelphia Every day Information. “I spent 20 years in teaching, and a lot can occur whenever you try this job. You may get fired, you possibly can depart, however it doesn’t mirror in your talents.”

The 76ers’ proprietor on the time, Harold Katz, stated, “Some guys survive. There are individuals like that, who repeatedly present up.”

Shue remained within the publish till Might 1992, when he was reassigned as director of participant personnel.

He was nonetheless at it into his 80s — this time looking for the subsequent N.B.A. phenom as a 76er scout.