Chester "Chet" Walker (born February 22, 1940, Benton Harbor, Michigan) is a former pro basketball player.
Walker played high school basketball for the Benton Harbor High School boys basketball team. He graduated from Bradley University in 1962 as the school's all-time leading scorer. The Bradley Braves won the NIT Championship in 1957 and 1960. Walker's speed and agility on the court earned him the nickname "Chet the Jet." He probably is best remembered as a starting forward on the 1966–67 Philadelphia 76ers team, which some consider the best NBA team of all time.
Walker was drafted by the Syracuse Nationals and was named to the NBA's first All-Rookie Team in 1963. He followed the team to Philadelphia after his rookie season. A seven-time participant in the NBA All-Star Game, Walker averaged over 19 points and eight rebounds a game for the '66–67 76ers, who won 68 games and lost just 13—the best record in NBA history at the time. That Alex Hannum-coached squad, which also featured center Wilt Chamberlain, guards Hal Greer and Wali Jones, and sixth man Billy Cunningham, ended the eight-year championship run of the Boston Celtics. Walker played his final six seasons with the Chicago Bulls, and never averaged less than 19.2 points and 5.0 rebounds a game. In his 13-year career, Walker scored a total of 18,831 points. The 6–6 forward was an outstanding free-throw shooter, especially in his later years with the Bulls. He led the NBA with an accuracy rate of 85.9 percent in 1970–71, and ranked among the top-10 free-throwers five other times.
After his playing days, Walker became a moderately successful TV movie producer. He is the author of a memoir entitled, "Long Time Coming: A Black Athlete's Coming-Of-Age in America " published in 1995.
On February 24, 2012 (two days after Walker's 72nd birthday) it was announced that Chet Walker was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame by the veterans committee. He was formally inducted into the Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts on September 7, 2012.
Famous quotes containing the word walker:
“The gift of loneliness is sometimes a radical vision of society or one’s people that has not previously been taken into account.”
—Alice Walker (b. 1944)