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SAN FRANCISCO - Former NBA player Bill Cartwright won three NBA championships as a player with the Chicago Bulls while winning two more titles as an assistant coach. But it all started at the University of San Francisco, where Cartwright received WCC Player of the Year honors three times while he was a student-athlete.
He cemented his legacy on the hardwood nearly 40 years ago, but now he's back on campus, and TheW.tv's Sarah Kezele headed to the Hilltop to catch up with the legend.
Cartwright and Kezele sit down at multiple scenic spots around campus to reminisce about his time as a Don and USF's rise to No. 1 in the nation during the 1976-77 campaign, his memories of the league and his current role with the University.
A native of Lodi, Calif. who attended Elk Grove High School, Cartwright is USF's all-time leading scorer with 2,116 points and ranks third all-time with 1,137 rebounds. He graduated as the WCC's all-time leading scorer and his point total still ranks sixth all-time in conference annals while his rebounding total ranks eighth. Cartwright still holds the school's single-season record for field goal percentage, making 66.7 of his shots from the floor during his senior season of 1978-79.
The third overall selection in the 1979 NBA Draft by the New York Knicks, Cartwright played 16 seasons in the NBA with the Knicks, Chicago Bulls and Seattle Sonics. As a player, he won three NBA titles with legendary Bulls' teams on the early 90's and added two more rings as an assistant coach under Phil Jackson in 1997 and '98. He also served as head coach of the Bulls during the 2001-02 season.
Last April, Cartwright returned to USF as Director of University Initiatives and was also inducted into the WCC's Hall of Honor. In April, he will be inducted into the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame (BASHOF).
This video feature, produced by TheW.tv, aired on "WCC This Week" on Saturday, Feb. 25, 2017.