William Walton Sharman (May 25, 1926 – October 25, 2013), also known as "Battling Bill", was an American professional basketball player and coach. Sharman is a two-time Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductee, having been inducted in 1976 as a player, and in 2004 as a coach. Only John Wooden, Lenny Wilkens, Tommy Heinsohn and Bill Russell share this double honor.
Sharman is mostly known for his time with the Boston Celtics in the 1950s as a player in the National Basketball Association (NBA), partnering with fellow Hall of Fame guard Bob Cousy in what was then considered the greatest backcourt duo of all time. As a coach, Sharman won titles in the American Basketball League (ABL), American Basketball Association (ABA), and NBA, and is credited with introducing the now-ubiquitous morning shootaround. He was named Coach of the Year in both the ABA and NBA.
Sharman was the first North American sports figure to win a championship as a player, coach, and executive. He was a 15-time NBA champion (having won four titles as a player with the Celtics, one as head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers, and ten during his time as a Lakers' general manager, president, and special consultant); and a 17-time champion in professional basketball overall counting his ABL and ABA titles. Sharman coached the 1971–72 Los Angeles Lakers to an NBA record 33-game win streak; a then-record regular season 69–13 win–loss mark; and the first Lakers championship in Los Angeles.
Sharman was an All-American basketball player at the University of Southern California (USC). He played under Naismith Hall of Fame head coach Sam Barry. Sharman was selected twice as the Most Valuable Player in the Pacific Coast Conference. Two of his teammates at USC were future Hall of Fame coaches Alex Hannum and Tex Winter.
Early life Sharman was born on May 25, 1926, in Abilene, Texas. The family moved to California when he was a child, and he grew up in Lomita, California. He originally attended Narbonne High School where he was on a championship basketball team in ninth grade. As a sophomore, he began attending Porterville High School (PHS), a high school in the Central California city of Porterville, California, after his father obtained a newspaper dealership there. Narbonne's season had ended, and he joined PHS's basketball team and won another championship in the same year. This enabled Sharman to win five high school basketball championships in four years.
He was a 15-letter athlete at PHS, excelling in basketball and baseball, competing in track, and winning the state amateur tennis title. He graduated in 1944, and was named California's Outstanding Athlete. He gave credit to PHS for contributing to his later success in life. Acclaimed sportscaster Keith Jackson said that "'Bill Sharman may have been the best all-around athlete to ever come out of the state of California'".
Sharman served during World War II from 1944 to 1946 in the US Navy.
College career Sharman was a graduate of the University of Southern California. He started on both the baseball and basketball teams. USC records describe him as playing on the school's baseball team for two years, in 1949 and 1950, and not as a member of the 1948 USC Trojans baseball team.
Sharman played basketball for four years at USC (1946–1950) in the Pacific Coast Conference. He averaged 15.9 points per game as a junior (1948–1949), and 18.6 as a senior (1949–1950). His 13.7 points per game average over his USC career was a then school record. As a senior, he was selected team captain and the team's most valuable player. Sharman, who was known as "Battling Bill", received a standing ovation from USC's fans for the last 1½ minutes of his final college game, played against John Wooden and the UCLA Bruins. Sharman was twice selected All-Pacific Coast Conference (PCC) and twice was named the PCC's Most Valuable Player.
Following his senior year, it is reported that Sharman was a consensus first-team 1950 NCAA Men's Basketball All-American, along with his future Boston Celtic teammate Bob Cousy. It was contemporaneously reported in 1950 that the International News Service and Colliers Magazine named Sharman a first-team All-American, the Associated Press and United Press named him a second-team All-American, and Look magazine named him a third-team All-American. The Sporting News also named him a first-team All-American.
Sharman played forward for USC under Hall of Fame head coach Sam Barry. In addition to Sharman, Barry coached two other future Hall of Fame coaches at USC, Tex Winter and Alex Hannum. Sharman was Hannum's teammate from 1946 to 1948 at USC. They both played with Winter during the 1946–47 USC season.
Professional baseball career In 1950, the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball organization offered Sharman a contract with a $12,000 signing bonus, at a time when professional baseball was more prestigious than professional basketball. However, Sharman knew he had been taken by the Washington Capitols in the NBA draft, so he got the Dodgers to agree that he not be prevented from playing professional basketball.
Minor leagues From 1950 to 1955, Sharman played professional baseball in the Brooklyn Dodgers minor league system. He played for the Pueblo Dodgers, Elmira Pioneers, Fort Worth Cats, St. Paul Saints, and the Mobile Bears. He had a lifetime .281 batting average in 638 games. He was called up to the Dodgers late in the 1951 season but did not appear in a game. He was part of a September 27 game in which the entire Brooklyn bench was cleared from the dugout for arguing with the home plate umpire over a ruling at the plate. This has led to the legend that Sharman holds the distinction of being the only player in baseball history to have ever been ejected from a major league game without ever appearing in one. However, although Sharman was among the Dodger bench players that had to go to the clubhouse, none of them were actually barred from playing in the game. In fact, in the top of the ninth, one of the other dismissed players, Wayne Terwilliger, was used as a pinch-hitter in the game.
Sharman continued to play baseball until breaking his basketball shooting hand while sliding into home plate, after which he decided to focus solely on basketball.
Professional basketball career During the same time period he was playing professional baseball, Sharman also played professional basketball for two different teams.
Washington Capitols (1950–51)
Sharman was drafted by the Washington Capitols in the second round of the 1950 NBA draft. His future Celtics teammate Bob Cousy was taken in the first round of the same draft. The team offered Sharman $5,000, the most ever paid to a rookie. After refusing the initial offer, and telling the Capitols he wanted to play baseball, the team increased the offer to $8,000 and Sharman joined the Capitols. The team failed financially 35 games into the 1950–51 season. Before the team folded, Sharman played in 31 games, averaging 12.2 points and 3.5 rebounds per game with an .889 free thrown percentage.
Earl Lloyd, the African American player who broke the NBA's color barrier was a Capitols' teammate. Lloyd did not have a car, and Sharman would drive over to Lloyd's home in segregated Washington, D.C. to pick Lloyd up, so Lloyd would not have to take long bus rides. Lloyd said of Sharman, "'Bill was a decent guy when it wasn't fashionable...."
Boston Celtics (1951 to 1961) Following the disbanding of the Capitols, Sharman was selected by the Fort Wayne Pistons in the NBA's dispersal draft. Sharman wound up as part of a transaction or series of transactions in 1951 that sent Chuck Share to the Pistons, with Sharman, Bob Brannum, and Bob Harris going from the Pistons to the Boston Celtics. The Celtics had drafted Share in the 1950 NBA draft. It was reported at the time that after the Celtics rejected Share's relatively exorbitant contract demands, Share signed with the Waterloo Hawks of the National Professional Basketball League in May 1950. After that, the reporting varies considerably as to the specific nature of the transactions (as to it being a trade involving cash and players; a series of cash transactions; whether the Celtics or Pistons paid Waterloo). All of the reporting does agree that the Celtics obtaining Sharman, Brannum, and Harris turned out heavily lopsided in Boston's favor; with Celtics' owner Walter A. Brown later saying that receiving any one of the three Pistons' players alone for Share would have been a favorable deal for the Celtics.
Sharman played a total of ten seasons for the Celtics. He led the team in scoring for consecutive seasons (1955 to 1959), averaging over 20 points per game during three of those seasons. The Celtics were in the playoffs every season Sharman was with the team (1951 to 1961). Sharman won four NBA championships with the Celtics. He was still referred to as "Battling Bill" Sharman with the Celtics.
Sharman was one of the first NBA guards to shoot better than .400 from the field, with a .450 percentage in 1953–54. He led the NBA in free throw percentage a record seven times (including a record five consecutive seasons), and his mark of 93.2% in the 1958–59 season remained the NBA record until Ernie DiGregorio topped it in 1976–77 (94.5%). Sharman's career free throw percentage was .883, 15th all-time in NBA history (through 2025–26). Sharman still holds the record for consecutive free throws in the playoffs with 56.
Sharman was named to the All-NBA First Team four consecutive seasons (1955 through 1959), and was an All-NBA Second Team member in 1952–53, 1954–55, and 1959–60. Sharman played in eight NBA All-Star games, scoring in double figures in seven of them. He was named the 1955 NBA All-Star Game MVP after scoring ten of his fifteen points in the fourth quarter. Sharman still holds the NBA All-Star Game record for field goals attempted in a quarter with 12.
The pairing of Sharman and fellow Hall of Fame Celtics guard Bob Cousy, combining a pure shooter with a playmaker, formed the first modern backcourt. In one NBA ranking of the greatest backcourt duos in league history, Sharman and Cousy were ranked ninth out of seventy pairs.
At the end of the 1960–61 NBA season, Sharman ended his NBA playing career after 11 seasons. During his 10-year Celtics career, Sharman played in 680 regular season averaging 32 minutes and 18.1 points per game, with an .883 free throw percentage. In 78 playoff games with the Celtics, Sharman averaged 33 minutes and 18.5 points per game, with a .911 free throw percentage.
Coaching career Los Angeles Jets and Cleveland Pipers (1961–62) Sharman's two-year contract with the Celtics ended in 1961, and he became the general manager and coach for the Los Angeles Jets of the American Basketball League (ABL) in the 1961–62 season. He also intended to play for the Jets. In late October 1961, the Celtics threatened to sue Sharman if he played for the Jets, based on the option clause in his NBA contract with the Celtics. Sharman responded that the Celtics' contract was inapplicable because he was the Jets' coach; and further stated that the Celtics had failed to pay him $3,400 due as his 1961 playoff share, in violation of the Celtics' contractual obligations.