Alton Lister

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Alton Lavelle Lister (born October 1, 1958) is a retired American professional basketball player, in the power forward-center position.

The 7' 0" Lister played at San Jacinto Junior College, where he was a teammate of future NBA journeyman shooting guard Oliver Mack.^[1] He later transferred and graduated from Arizona State University, and was selected by the Milwaukee Bucks in the first round (21st overall) of the 1981 NBA Draft, going on to appear in 16 NBA seasons for 5 different teams: Bucks, Seattle SuperSonics, Golden State Warriors and Boston Celtics, finishing his career with 7 games for the Portland Trail Blazers. He wore jersey #53 his entire career, and was best known as a solid rebounder and shot blocker.

In his NBA career, Lister played in 953 games (incidentally, the second most games ever for a player with jersey #53, behind Artis Gilmore) and scored a total of 6,298 points. His best year as a professional came during the 1986-87 season as a member of the Supersonics, appearing in 75 games and averaging 11.6 ppg.

Prior to Arizona State, Lister graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School (Dallas, Texas) (in the Lakewood section of Dallas) in 1976, where he led the Wildcats to many victories and was an All-American and All-State team member. He was inducted into Woodrow's Hall of Fame in 1990.

In 2000, Lister became head coach of at Mesa Community College. From a 9-21 season before his arrival, Lister had five consecutive seasons of 20 or more wins. In the seven years Lister served as coach, 30 players went on to play for NCAA Division I schools. While coaching at Mesa, Lister spent six summers at Pete Newell's Big Man's Camp. The Atlanta Hawks were impressed with Lister’s work at the Newell's camps, thus paving the way for Billy Knight's recruitment of Lister as assistant coach to Mike Woodson in 2007.^[2]

In November 2008, upon the recommendation of Paul Howard, he was hired as skills coach to the San Miguel Beermen of the Philippine Basketball Association.^[3]

See also

• List of National Basketball Association career blocks leaders

Notes

1. ^ Dragons made unexpected appearance 50 years ago, by Harold Bechard, posted March 20, 2007
2. ^ http://www.sundevilcentral.com/sundevil/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=22:alton-lister&catid=22:where-are-they-now&Itemid=26
3. ^ http://sanmiguelbeermen.com/san-miguel-beermen-hired-alton-lister-skills-coach/

External links

• NBA bio of Lister (1994-1998)
• Alton Lister at Basketball-Reference.com
• Stats at Basketballreference.com