 Toney in 2013 | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1957-11-23)November 23, 1957 (age 67) Birmingham, Alabama, U.S. |
| Listed height | 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) |
| Listed weight | 178 lb (81 kg) |
| Career information | |
| High school | Charles B. Glenn (Birmingham, Alabama) |
| College | Louisiana (1976–1980) |
| NBA draft | 1980: 1st round, 8th overall pick |
| Selected by thePhiladelphia 76ers | |
| Playing career | 1980–1988 |
| Position | Shooting guard |
| Number | 22 |
| Career history | |
| 1980–1988 | Philadelphia 76ers |
| Career highlights and awards | |
| Career statistics | |
| Points | 7,458 (15.9 ppg) |
| Rebounds | 1,009 (2.2 rpg) |
| Assists | 1,965 (4.2 apg) |
Stats at NBA.com  | |
| Stats atBasketball Reference | |
Andrew Toney (born November 23, 1957) is an American former professionalbasketball player for thePhiladelphia 76ers of theNational Basketball Association (NBA) from 1980 to 1988. A two-timeNBA All-Star, he won anNBA championship with the 76ers in 1983. Contemporary basketball greatsLarry Bird andSidney Moncrief put Toney on par withMichael Jordan offensively.Bob Ryan of theBoston Globe called Toney, “‘the most forgotten great player in NBA history.’”[1]
Toney was born on November 23, 1957, inBirmingham, Alabama.[2] Toney attended Birmingham’s Glenn High School. On the basketball team, he averaged 31 points per game as a junior and 37 points per game as a senior. He was named Alabama's “Mr. Basketball” as a senior, and was named to All-America teams as a junior and a senior. The team was 80-14 with Toney. He also played baseball and participated in track.[3]
He attended the University of Southwestern Louisiana (now theUniversity of Louisiana at Lafayette), and played basketball under coachesJim Hatfield andBobby Paschal. On the basketball team, he averaged 21 points per game as a freshman, 26.1 as a senior, and 23.6 over his college career. He led the team to a 21-9 record as a senior, going as far as theNational Invitation Tournament quarterfinals. He was All-Southeastern Conference in 1980. He set nine school records, and scored 46 points in a game three times, including a game againstAuburn to win the Bayou Class Championship.[3]
Toney was drafted by the 76ers out of Southwestern Louisiana with the eighth pick of the1980 NBA draft.[4] On arriving in Philadelphia, future Hall of FamerJulius Erving took Toney under his wing.[3] As a rookie, he averaged 12.9 points per game, had a .495 field goal percentage and was seventh in rookie of the year voting.[5]
His vaunted play against theBoston Celtics began in his rookie season. In a late 1981 regular season game he had 35 points against the Celtics. In the first game of the Eastern Conference finals between the 76ers and the Celtics, he had 26 points, and then 35 points in game two -- both of which were played in Boston. The Sixers were up 3-1 in the series, but the Celtics held Toney to only 17 points in the final two games and took the series.[6]
He was dubbed "the Boston Strangler"[7] byBoston sportswriters[citation needed] during the76ers' and Celtics' rivalry in the early 1980s because of his ability to single-handedly dominate games against the Celtics. Most famously, in Game 7 of the 1982 Eastern Conference Finals, he scored 34 points in the 76ers victory over Boston.[4] The game ended with the Celtics crowd shockingly chanting for the rival 76ers to "Beat L.A." TheLos Angeles Lakers won the 1982 championship over the 76ers, but Toney averaged 26 points and 7.8 assists per game, with a .529 field goal percentage, .750 three-point field goal percentage, and .862 free throw percentage in that series.[8][9] During the 1982 regular season, on March 7, 1982, Toney scored 46 points against the Lakers and hall of fame defensive specialistMichael Cooper.[10][11]
Toney also scored 30 points in Game 2 against the Celtics in the 1982 conference finals,[8] 39 points in Game 4 and averaged 22.1 points per game in that series.[12] While his playoff career points per game average was 17.4 overall, against the Celtics it was 19.8.[4] Celtic guardM. L. Carr said Toney's passing made him even more impossible to guard.[7] After the following season when the Sixers won the 1983 championship, the Celtics traded for big defensive guard, and future hall of famer,Dennis Johnson, in significant part to try and defend Toney (andMagic Johnson).[6][13][14]
Toney was named to twoAll-Star teams, in 1983[15] and 1984,[16] and averaged 15.9 points per game for his career.[9] He was so difficult to cover defensively when holding the ball on the wing, with the ability to shoot or drive, that the 76ers bench players would shout "torture chamber" at the opposing player attempting to defend Toney.[17]
Toney was an integral part of the1982–83 76ers championship team averaging 20 points a game, alongside teammatesJulius Erving,Moses Malone,Bobby Jones andMaurice Cheeks,[18] all hall of famers,[11] but his career was cut short after seven seasons by chronic foot injuries (only five of which were healthy seasons[4]). The team did not believe that he was hurting before it was revealed that he had stress fractures on both feet. This led to a few years of bitterness between Toney and 76ers management,[7] though he and the owner at the time,Harold Katz, improved their relationship.[1] Some distance has continued between Toney and the team into the 21st century.[19]
Toney retired at age thirty because of the physical problems with his feet.[7]
Toney ranked second in three-point field goal percentage in 1981-82 (.424) and sixth in 1984-85 (.371).[2][9] His lifetimefield goal percentage is 50.0%, remarkable for a guard often shooting from distance.[3][9]
Pat Williams, vice president of basketball operations for theOrlando Magic, shared an anecdote withTony Rizzo while being interviewed onThe Really Big Show on ESPN850 WKNR in Cleveland on February 11, 2010, while promoting his latest book about the lateChuck Daly. Williams said that when he was a general manager back in the days of their great rivalry with the Lakers and Sixers (c. 1980–1983), he askedDanny Ainge, the Celtics guard, what player he worried about the most come playoff time. "NotMagic orDr. J, it's Andrew Toney that keeps me awake at night!" said Ainge. Williams went on to say that were it not for injuries Toney would have been a Hall of Famer.Charles Barkley stated that Toney was the best player he ever played with.[7] Hall of fame player and Toney's former coachBilly Cunningham, like Williams, believed Toney would have been in the hall of fame but for his injuries, and that he and backcourt mate Cheeks had just started to grow into their potential together.[4][11]
Hall of fame Celtics opponent, and member of theNBA 75th Anniversary Team, Larry Bird,[20] praised Toney as one of two shooting guards of whom he was most afraid. The other was Michael Jordan.[21] Hall of fame guardSidney Moncrief, who won the very first Defensive Player of the Year Award in 1983,[22] and who had to defend Toney, said "Toney was un-guardable .... he could do everything. ... I studied him, and it’s nothing you could do that could stop him from scoring, beyond double-teaming him and getting the ball out of his hands...." He also found Toney very smart, with a counter for whatever the defender tried. Moncrief "always put [Toney] right there with Michael [Jordan]."[23] After the 1983 championships, Hall of Fame Laker coachPat Riley said “'Toney is probably the toughest clutch shooter in the league today .... He is just impervious to pressure.'”[3]
In one NBA ranking of the greatest backcourt duos in league history, Toney and Maurice Cheeks were ranked eleventh out of seventy pairs.[24]
In 1992, Toney was inducted into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame.[3] In 2013, he was inducted into the Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame.[25] In 2016, Toney was inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame.[2]
| GP | Games played | GS | Games started | MPG | Minutes per game |
| FG% | Field goal percentage | 3P% | 3-point field goal percentage | FT% | Free throw percentage |
| RPG | Rebounds per game | APG | Assists per game | SPG | Steals per game |
| BPG | Blocks per game | PPG | Points per game | Bold | Career high |
| † | Won anNBA championship |
| Year | Team | GP | GS | MPG | FG% | 3P% | FT% | RPG | APG | SPG | BPG | PPG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1980–81 | Philadelphia | 75 | — | 23.6 | .495 | .310 | .712 | 1.9 | 3.6 | .8 | .1 | 12.9 |
| 1981–82 | Philadelphia | 77 | 1 | 24.8 | .522 | .424 | .742 | 1.7 | 3.7 | .8 | .2 | 16.5 |
| 1982–83† | Philadelphia | 81 | 81 | 30.5 | .501 | .289 | .788 | 2.8 | 4.5 | 1.0 | .2 | 19.7 |
| 1983–84 | Philadelphia | 78 | 72 | 32.8 | .527 | .316 | .839 | 2.5 | 4.8 | .9 | .3 | 20.4 |
| 1984–85 | Philadelphia | 70 | 65 | 32.0 | .492 | .371 | .862 | 2.5 | 5.2 | .9 | .3 | 17.8 |
| 1985–86 | Philadelphia | 6 | 0 | 14.0 | .306 | .000 | .375 | .8 | 2.0 | .3 | .0 | 4.2 |
| 1986–87 | Philadelphia | 52 | 12 | 20.3 | .451 | .328 | .796 | 1.6 | 3.6 | .3 | .2 | 10.6 |
| 1987–88 | Philadelphia | 29 | 15 | 18.0 | .421 | .333 | .806 | 1.6 | 3.7 | .4 | .2 | 7.3 |
| Career | 468 | 246 | 26.9 | .500 | .342 | .797 | 2.2 | 4.2 | .8 | .2 | 15.9 | |
| All-Star | 2 | 0 | 20.0 | .625 | .000 | 1.000 | .5 | 5.0 | 2.0 | .0 | 10.5 | |
| Year | Team | GP | GS | MPG | FG% | 3P% | FT% | RPG | APG | SPG | BPG | PPG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1981 | Philadelphia | 16 | — | 22.3 | .428 | .111 | .815 | 2.3 | 3.4 | .7 | .4 | 13.8 |
| 1982 | Philadelphia | 21 | — | 33.7 | .507 | .333 | .796 | 2.4 | 4.9 | .9 | .1 | 21.8 |
| 1983† | Philadelphia | 12 | — | 29.8 | .470 | .000 | .754 | 2.3 | 4.6 | .9 | .1 | 18.8 |
| 1984 | Philadelphia | 5 | — | 36.0 | .519 | .000 | .767 | 2.2 | 3.8 | .8 | .2 | 20.6 |
| 1985 | Philadelphia | 13 | 13 | 34.0 | .477 | .429 | .770 | 2.5 | 5.1 | .9 | .4 | 16.8 |
| 1987 | Philadelphia | 5 | 0 | 20.8 | .382 | .000 | 1.000 | 1.8 | 5.4 | .4 | .4 | 5.6 |
| Career | 72 | 13 | 29.8 | .478 | .235 | .786 | 2.3 | 4.5 | .8 | .3 | 17.4 | |
Toney's son Channing playedNCAA Division I basketball at theUniversity of Alabama at Birmingham and played a few matches professionally in Poland withAsseco Prokom Gdynia.[26] He also won the second-tierFinnish Division I championship withBisons Loimaa.[27]
Toney lives outside ofAtlanta, and worked as an elementary school teacher, and then took on positions as instructional coach for theGwinnett County Schools' Community-Based Mentoring Program, and with Project Reconnect.[28][11][1]
Links to related articles | |||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||
