Marquette's 1977 national title ran through him — in the Final Four semifinal, Whitehead caught Butch Lee's length-of-the-court pass and scored the winning basket at the buzzer against UNC-Charlotte. Drafted 41st in 1978, the 6-foot-10 center passed through the Jazz in 1978-79, the franchise's New Orleans days, on his way to an 11-year NBA career of 679 games and 4,423 points for six teams.
He was found dead on December 20, 2012, at age 56 — an autopsy attributed his death to gastrointestinal hemorrhaging. The buzzer-beater off the full-court pass remains one of the NCAA tournament's storied finishes.
HOW HE CAME & WENTHe signed with Utah as a free agent on January 18, 1980 and was lost to Dallas in the 1980 expansion draft that May.
No photograph of this signature is online yet.
| SEASON | TEAM | G | MPG | PPG | RPG | APG | SPG | BPG | FG% | 3P% | FT% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1979–80 | UTA | 32 | 10.3 | 2.1 | 3.0 | 0.6 | 0.2 | 0.3 | .449 | — | .294 |
| JAZZ TOTAL | 1 SEASON | 32 | 10.2 | 2.1 | 3.0 | 0.6 | 0.2 | 0.3 | .449 | — | .294 |
Season by season, regular season, with this franchise only. More info: Basketball-Reference ↗ · Wikipedia ↗