A two-time WCC Player of the Year from Santa Clara, Kenny Sears was drafted fifth overall in 1955 by the New York Knicks. Sears, who had previously made history as the first basketball player to grace the cover of Sports Illustrated was a two-time All-Star with New York.
Sears was a more than competent Forward and finished eighth in MVP voting in 1957 and 1959. He was also a competent shooter who twice led the NBA in Field Goal Percentage in back-to-back years (1958-59 and 1959-60) and became New York’s top scorer but his career was derailed when his jaw was broken in a fight with George Lee of the Detroit Pistons. He missed several games that year and subsequently broke his contract to play for the San Francisco Saints of the short-lived American Basketball League. Sears returned to the Knick after a year but was not the same player. The Knicks traded him to the San Francisco Warriors where he played two unremarkable years before retiring.
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