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Hall of Fame Professional Basketball Player. For fourteen seasons (1963 to 1977), he played at the center and power-forward positions in the National Basketball Association with the San Francisco/Golden State Warriors, Chicago Bulls and Cleveland Cavaliers. He was named to the NBA's 50th All Time Greatest Players List which was assembled in 1996. With quickness, strength and skill, Thurmond established himself as one of the game's greatest centers during his era. Nathaniel Thurmond attended Central High School in Akron, Ohio, where he made his initial mark on the court and continued on the collegiate level at Bowling Green State University. During his years with the Falcons, he earned All-MAC status three times and achieved All-American honors in 1963. Selected by the Warriors as the third overall pick during the 1963 NBA Draft, he totaled 964 career regular season games. Thurmond is among the greatest of company in the category of players who exceeded both 10,000 points and total rebounds. He earned all star honors seven times. He recorded 18 rebounds during one quarter of a game against the Baltimore Bullets (an NBA record) and produced 42 rebounds during a contest against the Detroit Pistons, both in 1965 respectively. Thurmond was a key player on San Francisco's team which reached the NBA Finals in 1967 and lost to the Philadelphia 76ers. Thurmond was tasked with defending against Wilt Chamberlain during that series. After retiring from basketball, he remained in the game to serve as Community Ambassador with the Warriors' organization, in addition to co-operating a barbecue restaurant in San Francisco. He was enshrined into the Bowling Green State University Athletics Hall of Fame in 1975 and was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1985. His uniform number 42 has been retired by both the Warriors' and Cavaliers' organizations. He died from leukemia.