Slater Martin, a five-time NBA champion during a Hall of Fame career, died Thursday in Houston, according to the Houston Chronicle. Martin was 86.
Martin helped lead the Minneapolis Lakers to NBA titles in 1950, 1952, 1953 and 1954. He was part of the St. Louis Hawks’ championship team in 1958.
A 5-foot-10 guard, Martin played 11 seasons in the NBA, making the All-Star Game seven times. He played for the New York Knicks in addition to the Lakers and Hawks. For his career, he averaged 9.8 points, 4.2 assists and 3.4 rebounds over 745 regular-season games. He averaged 10 points, 3.8 assists and 3.4 rebounds in 92 playoff games.
Martin went to high school in Houston, then starred at the University of Texas in a collegiate career that was interrupted by service in the Navy during World War II, according to the Chronicle. The Longhorns reached the 1947 NCAA Final Four, and Martin scored 49 points in his next-to-last game for Texas in 1949 against TCU.
Martin was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass., in 1982. His uniform No. 15 was retired by University of Texas in 2009.
“He was a true Houstonian, a true Texan. He had friends in every walk of life. He never met anybody he didn’t like,” longtime Houston Rockets media relations director and broadcaster Jim Foley told the Chronicle.