A sharecroppers' son from Flora, Mississippi, E.C. Coleman worked twelve-hour days in the fields before a high school coach talked him into basketball. He became Houston Baptist's all-time leading rebounder, then an original New Orleans Jazzman via the 1974 expansion draft — and one of the NBA's premier defensive forwards. Rick Barry said no player in the league gave him more trouble, and Coleman made the All-Defensive First Team in 1977.
Grief shadowed his final seasons: his brother and teammate Mack died in 1977, another brother the same year, and his mother in 1978. Afterward he worked as a Four Seasons doorman and limousine driver, saying he never felt he had stepped down because he 'hadn't taken that many steps up.'
HOW HE CAME & WENTThe expansion Jazz took him in the 1974 expansion draft, and within two seasons he was the team's best defender and one of the last originals still in uniform.
No photograph of this signature is online yet.
| SEASON | TEAM | G | MPG | PPG | RPG | APG | SPG | BPG | FG% | 3P% | FT% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1974–75 | NOJ | 77 | 28.3 | 8.1 | 7.1 | 1.4 | 1.1 | 0.5 | .445 | — | .699 |
| 1975–76 | NOJ | 67 | 27.6 | 7.3 | 6.3 | 1.3 | 0.8 | 0.4 | .451 | — | .663 |
| 1976–77 | NOJ | 77 | 30.8 | 8.6 | 7.1 | 1.3 | 0.8 | 0.4 | .462 | — | .732 |
| JAZZ TOTAL | 3 SEASONS | 221 | 28.9 | 8.0 | 6.9 | 1.3 | 0.9 | 0.4 | .453 | — | .700 |
Season by season, regular season, with this franchise only. More info: Basketball-Reference ↗ · Wikipedia ↗