Bernie Williams

Bernard "Bernie" Williams (December 30, 1945 – September 23, 2003) was an American basketball player. He attended DeMatha Catholic High School in Hyattsville, Maryland, near Washington, D.C. As a senior in 1965, he started for the DeMatha team that beat New York City's Power Memorial Academy 46–43 on January 30, ending Power's 71-game winning streak. Power was led by 7'1" senior Lew Alcindor, later known as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Sports writers of the time and afterward called it the greatest high school basketball game ever played.

Williams went on to play four years at La Salle University. As a senior in 1968–69, he averaged 18.4 points per game, scoring 1,230 points in 74 games, and led La Salle to a 23–1 record and a No. 2 national ranking. The Explorers were ineligible for both the NCAA and National Invitation tournaments because of academic and recruiting violations in prior years. In the 1969 NBA draft, Williams was selected by the San Diego Rockets. He played with the Rockets until 1971, then spent three seasons with the Virginia Squires of the American Basketball Association, alongside Julius Erving. In 1982, Williams was inducted into a Philadelphia hall of fame.