page_title: Bob Lanier (basketball)
section_title: Personal life
hierarchical_section_title: Bob Lanier (basketball) / Personal life
caption_attribution_description: English: The Arabian Gulf (Jun. 19, 2003) -- National Basketball Association (NBA) Legend and Hall of Fame member Bob Lanier signs autographs for USS Nimitz (CVN-68) and Carrier Air Wing Eleven (CVW-11) sailors during a recent United Services Organization (USO) show. Nimitz Carrier Strike Group and CVW-11 are deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Operation Iraqi Freedom is the multi-national coalition effort to liberate the Iraqi people, eliminate Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction, and end the regime of Saddam Hussein. U.S. Navy photo by Photographer’s Mate 2nd Class Michelle Smith. (RELEASED)
context_page_description: Robert Jerry Lanier Jr. is an American retired professional basketball player who played for the Detroit Pistons and Milwaukee Bucks of the National Basketball Association. Lanier was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1992.
  In his 14 NBA seasons, Lanier averaged 20.1 points, 10.1 rebounds, 3.1 assists, 1.5 blocks, and 1.1 steals while shooting 51.4 percent from the field. He played in eight NBA All-Star Games, and was named Most Valuable Player of the 1974 game. He has had his #16 jersey retired by both the Pistons and the Bucks and his #31 jersey retired by St. Bonaventure University. Lanier is an NBA ambassador.
context_section_description: Lanier currently owns and operates Bob Lanier Enterprises, Inc., a promotional marketing company and is a member of the Proforma network.
  From 2005 to the present day, Lanier has been the NBA Cares Global Ambassador. Lanier routinely works with youth-serving programs that support education, youth, and family development, and health-related causes.
  At the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts, visitors are able to compare the size of their foot to that of Lanier's. The largest shoe ever created by shoe company Allen Edmonds was a size 22 for Lanier.
  Lanier was a spokesperson and chairman of the NBA's "Stay In School" program (later renamed Read to Achieve) from 1989 to 1994.
  According to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Lanier would smoke cigarettes during halftime breaks. Abdul-Jabbar would try to take advantage of this by forcing Lanier to run more during the second half. In the movie Airplane!, Abdul-Jabbar also references Lanier when he says to little Joey: "Tell your old man to drag Walton and Lanier up and down the court for 48 minutes."
  In March 2018, St. Bonaventure won its first game in the NCAA Tournament since 1970, defeating UCLA. Coach Mark Schmidt said, "It can't get better. Our guys just fought, we persevered. ... In 1970, you know, Bob Lanier got hurt, and didn't have a chance to play UCLA and ... this is for him."
  “When I got the job here 11 years ago, we hear the stories about 1970,” Schmidt said. “And everybody talks about if Lanier was healthy, they would have taken on UCLA. This victory is for those guys.”
caption: Lanier signing autographs for USS Nimitz sailors in 2003
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