A 6-foot-9 New Yorker out of DeWitt Clinton High, Behagen starred at Minnesota alongside future baseball Hall of Famer Dave Winfield — and was suspended for the rest of the 1971-72 season for his part in the notorious brawl against Ohio State. Kansas City still made him a first-round pick in 1973, and he earned All-Rookie honors the next spring. Across seven NBA seasons, including a New Orleans Jazz stop, he averaged 10.3 points and 7.0 rebounds.
His later years brought serious trouble. In 2012 Behagen pleaded guilty to stealing more than 7,000 dollars from an elderly Atlanta woman suffering from Alzheimer's, drawing three years of probation and an order of restitution.
HOW HE CAME & WENTKansas City traded him to New Orleans for a 1975 first-round pick on May 28, 1975. He left through one of the odder mechanisms of the era — when the Jazz signed Truck Robinson, Behagen and cash went to Atlanta as compensation.
No photograph of this signature is online yet.
| SEASON | TEAM | G | MPG | PPG | RPG | APG | SPG | BPG | FG% | 3P% | FT% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1975–76 | NOJ | 66 | 26.3 | 11.5 | 8.4 | 2.1 | 1.0 | 0.4 | .446 | — | .804 |
| 1976–77 | NOJ | 60 | 19.5 | 8.6 | 7.2 | 1.4 | 0.7 | 0.3 | .418 | — | .714 |
| JAZZ TOTAL | 2 SEASONS | 126 | 23.0 | 10.1 | 7.8 | 1.8 | 0.9 | 0.4 | .434 | — | .767 |
Season by season, regular season, with this franchise only. More info: Basketball-Reference ↗ · Wikipedia ↗