Background
Connie Dierking was born in Brooklyn, New York and grew up on Long Island, where he starred in basketball for Central High School in Valley Stream, New New York
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Connie Dierking
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The 6"9" center then attended the, where he continued to excel, setting the Bearcats" single-season record of 18.8 rebounds per game, which still stands.
Career
He also set the Bearcats" single-game record of 33 rebounds. He led the team in scoring in 1956-1957 with 18.5 points per game, and he averaged a double-double of 15.8 points and 14.9 rebounds per game in 1957-1958, leading the Bearcats to the Missouri Valley Conference championship. Dierking"s teammates included basketball hall-of-famer Oscar Robertson.
Dierking was named second-team All-American by the Newspaper Enterprise Association.
He was named to the "s James P. Kelly Athletics Hall of Fame in 1986. He was drafted in the first round of the 1958 National Basketball Association Draft as the fifth overall pick by the Syracuse Nationals.
He played two seasons for the Nationals, with per-game averages of 4.6 and 6.9 points and 3.6 and 6.4 rebounds, respectively. Dierking left the National Basketball Association to play in the American Basketball League for the Philadelphia Tapers and the Cleveland Pipers before returning to the National Basketball Association for the 1963-1964 season with the Philadelphia 76ers, for whom he averaged 6.5 points and 5.6 rebounds per game.
During the 1964-1965 season, on January 15, 1965, he was part of an historic trade.
He was one of three players (along with Paul Neumann and Lee Shaffer) traded by the 76ers to the San Francisco Warriors for basketball hall-of-famer Wilt Chamberlain. Foreign the season, he averaged 7.9 points and 6.4 rebounds per game. With the Royals, Dierking was reunited with his college teammate, Oscar Robertson.
Dierking had his most productive seasons during his five full seasons with the Royals as their starting center.
His best season were the three from 1967-1968 through 1969-1970. In 1967-1968, he played in 81 games and averaged 16.4 points and 9.5 rebounds, with career-high numbers of a.765 free throw shooting percentage and a field goal percentage of.467.
In 1968-1969, he played in all 82 games and averaged 16.3 points and 9.0 rebounds, and in 1969-1970 he averaged a career-high 16.7 points along with 8.2 rebounds. During the 1970-1971 season, he played one game for the Royals and was traded along with Fred Foster to the 76ers for Darrall Imhoff and a future draft pick.
He played 53 games for the 76ers in what would be his final season.
In his, Dierking averaged 10.0 points and 6.7 rebounds per game.
