Dan Issel - Domination

Daniel (Dan) Paul Issel (born October 25, 1948 in Batavia, Illinois) is a retired American professional basketball player and coach.

Upon Issel's graduation in 1970 he signed to play basketball for the Kentucky Colonels of the American Basketball Association (ABA). In his first season, Issel led the ABA in scoring with a scoring average of 29.9 points per game, and pulled down 13.2 rebounds per game. He was named the ABA Rookie of the year in 1971, and was selected to the All-ABA Second Team. The following season, Issel raised his scoring average to 30.6 points per game, made the All-ABA First Team, and was named MVP of the 1972 ABA All-Star Game.

In 1975, Issel won an ABA title with the Colonels, who also featured sharp-shooting guard (and fellow ex-Kentucky Wildcat) Louie Dampier, as well as 7-2 center Artis Gilmore. After the Colonels' championship season Issel was sold by the Colonels' owners to the short-lived Baltimore Claws franchise and ended up with the Denver Nuggets for the following season.

Issel remained with the Nuggets following the ABA's merger with the NBA in 1976, and represented Denver in the 1977 NBA All-Star Game. He continued playing through the 1984-1985 season, and received the NBA's J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award in 1985 for his outstanding service to the community.

Issel accumulated over 27,000 points in his combined ABA and NBA career. At the time of his retirement the only professional basketball players to have scored more points than Issel were Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Wilt Chamberlain and Julius Erving.

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[Bassmon53]

I met Dan tonight at the Nuggets-Thunder game. Very gracious guy. What a legendary player. My daughter and my niece's husband said "Who's Dan Issel?" and i replied, "Look up in the rafters for number 44."

They found it.

[EvoCize]

OMG. Issel was a beast. Dude can score with the best of them. A hard nose player that proved he belong with the big boys especially being drafted sooooo low in the draft. He was easily a steal for the team that drafted him. One of the bes to EVER PLAY.

[Dunksandpunks]

The NBA media is awful. A bunch of idiotic bloggers. I had no idea Dan Issel played until youtube. The only white guys u hear about are Pistol Pete, Bird and a few others. Dan Issel wasn't some average player. He retired the 4th leading scorer of all time. And 99 percent of people outside of Colorado think he is just some racist guy who was once in the front office/ hc for a shitty nuggets team. There is no sense history. I blame it on the MJ/Magic/Bird thing. No one else matters.

[abysmalatrocious]

Hey there. I thought LaFrentz was a Top 10 center (blocked 2 shots a game some seasons early on) in the early 2000s. Then I noticed he slowed down with Boston. I know he had a bad freak knee injury his rookie season. But, my hunch is that the knee never fully recovered, and he slowly declined. Made a boatload of money, so he was able to retire early. Still, I know he tried. I always liked him as a player.

[PeekaPeep]

I remember LaFrentz. Wonder what he's up to nowadays...

[abysmalatrocious]

Remember when the Nuggets drafted Raef LaFrentz, and Issel was with the Nuggets? It was said that Issel saw a lot of himself in Raef LaFrentz!

[Chris Moore]

Well, that's how you know it was a big game. I remember the Horse always left his teeth out for big games.....

[PeekaPeep]

Closest player to Issel today is David Lee, I think. Only real difference between them...is Lee still has his two front teeth intact, lol.

[therealmcnulty]

he dominated beer drinking mexicans too, not just basketball

[plrogers1]

I recall Dan coming to a party my brother Greg had..... I was probably 10 years old. He had to duck thru every doorway !

[abysmalatrocious]

I collect replica jerseys, and after watching this, I decided that I was going to buy one of those Revolution 30 (Swingman, not the $250 authentics) of Nuggets 44 Issel. I'm 37 (in 2010), and can you believe that it wasn't until 1999 when I was 26, that I knew Issel could dunk? Just like Blair Rasmussen, I couldn't believe Issel could dunk. Then again, I was 10 when Issel was in his prime, but didn't have cable tv.

[Najee Nixon]

His gap isn't as big as Leon Spinks's. Thats a relief.