75: Darel Carrier-ABA/NBA

Darel Carrier is one of the greatest players to ever play in the ABA, the American Basketball Association and he joins me on this edition of Sports Forgotten Heroes. A prolific shooter from 3-point territory, Darel was named to the ABA’s All-Time team and is the leagues career leader in field goal percentage from downtown. In fact, for his career, Darel averaged exactly 20 points-per-game. Darel was a terrific high school basketball player who was offered scholarships by the University of Kentucky and Western Kentucky University. A home-body, as he explains on today’s show, Darel chose WKU over UK and became the Hilltoppers go-to guy almost immediately. His skill on the court caught the eye of the then St. Louis Hawks and Darel was drafted by the team in the 9th Round of the NBA Draft. However, rather than try the NBA, Darel received (as he said) a better offer from the Phillips 66’ers (then one of the greatest Industrial League teams) with the promise of a job. So, off to Oklahoma Darel went and goodbye to the NBA. After three years with Phillips, a new professional basketball league was launching and it was placing a team near Darel’s home in Kentucky. So, Darel opted to try his game on the professional level with the Kentucky Colonels of the ABA (American Basketball Association) and he, along with Louie Dampier, formed one of basketball’s greatest backcourt tandems. The two of them were deadly from downtown and helped build one of the ABA’s most dominant teams. But injuries (a herniated disk and later a torn Achilles) ended Darel’s career after just six seasons. On this episode of Sports’ Forgotten Heroes, Darel talks about his career and the decisions he made that ultimately shaped his career.

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