William John "Billy" Cunningham (born June 3, 1943) is an American former professional basketball player and coach, who was nicknamed the Kangaroo Kid.

Beginnings[link]

Billy Cunningham was born in Brooklyn, New York. His fame began while he was playing at Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn,^[1] where he was the MVP in the Brooklyn League in 1961. That year, he was the First-Team All-New York City, and a member of the Parade Magazine All-America Team.

College career[link]

Cunningham then went to the University of North Carolina, where he excelled. He once grabbed a record 27 rebounds in a game vs. Clemson on February 16, 1963. Cunningham also set a single-game North Carolina record with 48 points against Tulane on December 10, 1964. In his UNC career, he scored 1,709 points (24.8 points per game), and grabbed 1,062 rebounds (15.4 rebounds per game). Upon graduation, his 1,062 rebounds were the best in North Carolina history and he held seasonal records for most rebounds (379 in 1964) and rebound average (16.1 in 1963).

Honors and achievements[link]

• 3-year letter winner (in his day, freshmen were ineligible for varsity athletics)
• All-Atlantic Coast Conference (1963–65)
• ACC Player of the Year (1965)
• All-ACC Tournament Team (1963–64)
• ACC Academic All-Conference (1965)
• A USBWA All-America (1964–65)
• Helms Foundation All-America (1965)
• Sporting News All-America 2nd team (1965)
• Team Captain (1965)
• Played in the East-West Game in 1965
• Played at the World University Games in 1965
• Named to the ACC 50th Anniversary men's basketball team, honoring the fifty best players in ACC history (2002)

Pro basketball career[link]

In 1965, Cunningham joined the Philadelphia 76ers of the National Basketball Association as a sixth man and played well enough to be named to the NBA All-Rookie Team.

Cunningham is well known for coaching the 76ers to the 1983 NBA Championship. Cunningham also played on the powerful 1967 Sixers championship team (featuring Wilt Chamberlain, Hal Greer, Chet Walker, and Luke Jackson).

In 1972, he joined the Carolina Cougars of the American Basketball Association. In his first ABA season, Cunningham made the All-ABA First Team and was named the ABA MVP. In that 1972-73 season he led the Cougars to the regular season Eastern Division championship and into the 1973 ABA Playoffs where they beat the New York Nets in the Eastern Division Semifinals to advance to the Eastern Division Finals. In the Division Finals the Cougars lost a tight seven game series to the Kentucky Colonels, 4 games to 3. In the 1973-74 season Cunningham and the Cougars finished third in the Eastern Division and lost again to the Kentucky Colonels in the Eastern Division semifinals. After the 1973-74 season, Cunningham returned to the 76ers, where he played until he suffered a career-ending injury early in the 1975-76 season. For his career, Cunningham scored 16,310 points and grabbed 7,981 rebounds in both the NBA and the ABA.

After his playing days were done, he became the head coach of the 76ers on November 4, 1977, and built a great team featuring the likes of Bobby Jones, Maurice Cheeks, Andrew Toney, Moses Malone, and Julius Erving. He reached the 200, 300, and 400-win milestone faster than any coach in NBA history. He led Philadelphia to the NBA Finals 3 times, in 1979-80, 1981-82 and 1982-83, facing the Los Angeles Lakers all 3 times. The 76ers lost to the Lakers in 1980 and 1982, but after acquiring Moses Malone, Cunningham finally got them past the Lakers in 1983, winning the franchise's second NBA Championship as part of a 12-1 playoff run. Upon his retirement, his 454 wins as a head coach were the 12th best in NBA history.

Beyond playing and coaching[link]

In 1987, Cunningham replaced Tom Heinsohn as the lead color commentator (alongside play-by-play man Dick Stockton) for CBS' NBA telecasts. Cunningham left CBS Sports the following season to join the Miami Heat expansion franchise as a minority owner; he ultimately sold his interest of the Heat on August 12, 1994. Cunningham was subsequently replaced on CBS by Hubie Brown.

Coaching record[link]