Native Washingtonian David “Dave” Bing is not only a Hall of Fame basketball player, but has proved that one’s career goals don’t have to end after they hang up their jersey.
Born in Washington, D.C., in November 1943, Bing was the second of four children in a working-class family.
Life was not always easy for Bing, who suffered an eye injury at a young age, but his parents didn’t have the money to medically treat or correct the injury. While the injury healed on its own, Bing explored sports such as basketball and baseball, but eventually stopped the former when told he was too small to play the game.
As a student at Spingarn, Bing played baseball. While at Spingarn, where NBA legend Elgin Baylor also attended years before, he was encouraged to pick up basketball again and went on to lead his team with MVP honors, and earn titles and accolades including making the All-American team.
He went on to play for Syracuse and thrived there, turning the university into a basketball powerhouse.
“Syracuse was 0-32 the year before Dave Bing came here and he changed everything. And he’s still responsible for after him the recruits that came, and he’s always been with our program for 60 years now,” said Jim Boeheim, former Syracuse basketball coach and special assistant to the university’s athletic director.
Bing went on to become an NBA Hall of Famer who played for the Detroit Pistons, the Washington Bullets (now Washington Wizards), and the Boston Celtics.
During his distinguished career, Bing was a seven-time NBA All-Star who won the Rookie of the Year award in 1976.
After basketball, Bing, 80, went into business and politics, serving as Detroit’s mayor from 2009-2014.
“Everything that I’ve ever done, I’ve attacked it,” Bing said, according to the Detroit Free Press in November 2020. “I have not been a guy that would lay back and just hope something happens. You made things happen.”
Dave Bing came to the Pistons as a result of Detroit losing a coin flip with the N.Y.Knicks. The Knicks took Cazzie Russell and Detroit took Bing. The rest was history.