Suns All-Decade Teams Part One

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BOSTON – 1976: Keith Erickson #14 of the Phoenix Suns looks on against the Boston Celtics during a game played in 1976 at the Boston Garden in Boston, Massachusetts. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 1976 NBAE (Photo by Dick Raphael/NBAE via Getty Images)

Starter: Keith Erickson

By the time Keith Erickson came to the Suns he was already 29-year-old and for players in that era, definitely supposed to be on the backside of his career. He had spent his previous five seasons with the Lakers where he was nothing more than a mediocre small forward who nearly missed the entire 1971-72 season due to injury.

The Suns acquired him and a 1974 second round pick for Connie Hawkins, who truly was on the downslope of Hall of Fame career, in what n paper was really only nothing than a swap of aging veterans.

Yet Erickson would statistically not only have his best two best seasons of his career in his first two years with Phoenix, but aligned himself as the best small forward of the decade in only four, short, seasons. Erickson averaged 14.6 and 12.3 points per game in 1973-74 and 74-75, with 6.3 and 5.0 boards. With his stats declining each year of his Suns stint, he would still manage a respectable 10.1 and 4.5 points and boards per game in the Suns’ Championship series run in 75-76. Although he had a poor statistical series against Boston in the Finals, his 16.7 points per game against Seattle and 13.3 versus defending champion Golden State helped get the Suns to have the shot at the franchise’s first ring.