Slater Nelson "Dugie" Martin Jr. (October 22, 1925 – October 18, 2012) was an American professional basketball player and coach who was a playmaking guard for 11 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA). A seven-time NBA All-Star, he won five championships. He is a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
Early life
Martin was born on October 22, 1925, in Elmina, Walker County, Texas. Martin's father gave him the nickname "Dugan" early in life, after a character in the Maggie and Jiggs comic strip; and Martin did not realize his name was actually Slater for years. The nickname became "Dugie" when he went to Minneapolis to play for the Lakers.
Martin's grandmother got him interested in playing basketball at a young age, and made great efforts to support his development as a basketball player. She learned the subtleties of the game, and would conduct review sessions with Martin after his high school games. Martin was an alumnus of Jefferson Davis High School (now Northside High School) in Houston, where he led his school to two state basketball championships in 1942 and 1943, at 5 ft 7 in (1.7 m) and 130 pounds (59 kg). Martin won All-State honors as a player both years as well.
College and Naval service
In 1943, Martin tried out for and made the basketball team at the University of Texas at Austin (UT), but left after either four or 14 freshman games to join the United States Navy during World War II, serving in the Pacific theater of war. Martin returned to UT in 1946, also having grown to 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m). He was also a married man when he attended college.
He averaged 12.7 points per game as a junior the following season. Texas played in the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) in 1948. As a senior, he led the Southwest Conference in scoring at 16 points per game, 3.1 points per game better than the runner-up. Martin set a UT and Southwest Conference scoring record in 1949 with 49 points in a game for the Longhorns against Texas Christian University (TCU). On August 3, 1949, the BAA merged with the National Basketball League (NBL) to form the NBA.
From 1949-56, Martin played for the George Mikan-led Minneapolis Lakers that won four NBA championships between 1950 and 1954. Among Martin's Lakers teammates on the first two championship teams was future Pro Football Hall of Fame Minnesota Viking head coach Bud Grant.
He had a 311 consecutive game playing streak for the Lakers, missing only four games in seven years.
The Hawks finished first in the Western division, swept the Lakers 3–0 in the Western Division Finals, but ultimately lost to the Boston Celtics four games to three in the 1957 NBA finals. Martin averaged 14.7 points, 4.1 assists, 3.9 rebounds in 44.1 minutes per game during the finals (second only to Pettit in minutes played for the Hawks). Martin was selected as a starting guard in the January 1957 All-Star Game, and was named second-team All-NBA for the 1956-57 season.
In 1958, Martin won another NBA title, with the Hawks, defeating the Celtics four games to two. This Hawks team was the only team to win an NBA championship during the 10-season period from 1956-57 through 1965-66 other than the Boston Celtics. During the 1958 finals, Martin averaged 41.3 minutes per game, with 12.2 points, 4.2 assists and 3.3 rebounds per game.
Martin was an All-Star and second-team All-NBA again in the 1958-59 season.
Martin finished his career in 1960 with the Hawks, and was team captain. The Hawks defeated the Lakers 4–3 in the 1960 Western Division Finals (the Lakers last year in Minneapolis), but lost the 1960 NBA Finals to the Celtics in seven games. His final NBA game came in Game 5 against the Minneapolis Lakers on March 22, 1960. At the time Martin retired, he was the oldest and smallest player in the NBA, and the last active player from the Lakers championship teams of the early 1950s. Martin, however, did not want to be both coach and player, and delegated coaching authority to his teammate and roommate Alex Hannum, soon giving up the player-coach role fully to Hannum, after leading the team to a 5–3 record during his abbreviated eight game stint as head coach. Both Hannum and Holzman became Hall of Fame coaches.
Martin had an opportunity to coach in Detroit after retiring, but decided to go home to Texas instead.
Legacy and honors
Martin was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on May 3, 1982, in Springfield, Massachusetts. He is the only Longhorn to be so honored. Future All-NBA forward Kevin Durant’s number was retired soon after Martin's, after playing only one year for UT.
In 1964, he was inducted into the Texas Sports Hall of Fame. He was included in the University of Texas Longhorn's Hall of Honor in 1962.