A few clips of Nate Thurmond in College

[jongib369]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqQaVKuO9sc

http://www.toledoblade.com/image/2011/02/26/800x600_b1cCM_cT/Anderson-Arena-Harold-Anderson-Nate-Thurmond.jpg

[pudman13]

I've been reading Rick Barry's 1972 biography, which is fascinating for a number of reasons (between this bio and Jerry West's, it appears that 60s/70s basketball stars are some of the strangest people on earth!)

In any case, Barry has some very complimentary things to say about Thurmond, saying that Nate absolutely made him (Barry) a better player via his defense and ability to control the game without necessarily being a scorer. He also said Thurmond was a great passer and a very unselfish player who was more concerned with getting other people the ball than scoring himself. These are the kinds of things that don't show up in the stats. There's very little footage available of Thurmond in his prime, but it's worth noting that in that in this one available quarter:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-qjW-DfFKk
Thurmond twice throws Larry Bird-like inbound passes perfectly down the court to result in a dunk and a layup. (8:47 and 13:40.)

[Rake2204]

I've been reading Rick Barry's 1972 biography, which is fascinating for a number of reasons (between this bio and Jerry West's, it appears that 60s/70s basketball stars are some of the strangest people on earth!)

In any case, Barry has some very complimentary things to say about Thurmond, saying that Nate absolutely made him (Barry) a better player via his defense and ability to control the game without necessarily being a scorer. He also said Thurmond was a great passer and a very unselfish player who was more concerned with getting other people the ball than scoring himself. These are the kinds of things that don't show up in the stats. There's very little footage available of Thurmond in his prime, but it's worth noting that in that in this one available quarter:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-qjW-DfFKk
Thurmond twice throws Larry Bird-like inbound passes perfectly down the court to result in a dunk and a layup. (8:47 and 13:40.)Good stuff. Interesting clip with no commentary but I may give that an extended view later.

I tend to chalk those two inbound passes up as poor transition defense though. Good recognition and execution but likely paling in comparison to a lot of the other things Thurmond pulled off. Layups off inbound bomb passes is a classic open gym play.