Bill Sharman

William Walton Sharman (May 25, 1926 – October 25, 2013) was an American professional basketball player and coach. He is best known for his time with the Boston Celtics in the 1950s, where he partnered with Bob Cousy in a backcourt regarded at the time as one of the finest pairings in the sport. As a coach, he won championships in the ABL, the ABA, and the NBA, and he is credited with introducing the morning shootaround now common throughout the game.

Sharman was the first North American sports figure to win a championship as a player, a coach, and an executive. He claimed 15 NBA titles in all — four as a player with the Celtics, one as head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers, and ten as a Lakers executive — and 17 championships across basketball when his ABL and ABA titles are counted. As a coach he led the 1971–72 Los Angeles Lakers to a record 33-game winning streak, a then-record 69–13 regular-season mark, and the franchise's first championship in Los Angeles.

Sharman is a two-time inductee into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, enshrined in 1976 as a player and in 2004 as a coach. Only John Wooden, Lenny Wilkens, Tommy Heinsohn, and Bill Russell share that double honor.