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Leonard Slick Biography

American basketball guard who played for the Minneapolis/ Los Angeles Lakers (1956–1961) and Chicago Packers/ Zephyrs (1961–1963), and served as coach of the Chicago Zephyrs/ Baltimore Bullets (1962–1964) and Indiana Pacers (1968–1980). He coached the Pacers to three American Basketball Association (ABA) championships. Leonard returned to the Pacers in 1985 as a color commentator, first for television with Jerry Baker, then on radio, where he remained alongside Mark Boyle on WFNI 1070 AM. His trademark phrase was "Boom, baby!" for a successful three-point shot by a Pacers player. Leonard was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a coach in 2014. He became the first individual to be inducted into the Indiana University Sports Hall of Fame. He was also a member of the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame and Indiana Sports Writers and Broadcasters Hall of Fame. Leonard sustained three falls in 2018. The first in January shattered his left hip, while the second in June resulted in a broken left wrist. After his third fall in late December, he took a hiatus from calling games, before coming back on 28 February 2019. He died on 13 April 2021 at the age of 88. Link to Wikipedia biography Read less