Don Kojis
Donald R. Kojis was an American professional basketball player who played twelve seasons in the National Basketball Association. Kojis is credited as involved in the creation or advancement of the alley-oop dunk.
Early life
Kojis was born on July 15, 1939, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He attended Notre Dame High School in Milwaukee, where he was a standout basketball player. He scored 48 points in one January 1957 game. In 1957, he was named by the Associated Press to its All-Wisconsin high school basketball team.College basketball
Kojis attended Marquette University from 1958 to 1961, where he was a two-time All American. Although only 6 ft 5 in, Kojis was often tasked with playing center on Marquette's small-sized team. Kojis also had tremendous leaping ability. Basketball legend Wilt Chamberlain would later say Kojis was "'the most jumping white boy I've ever seen.'"Kojis led the team in rebounding in the 1959-60 season averaging 15.4 rebounds per game. In 1960-61 his rebounding average increased to 17.1 a game. As of 2024, those remain the two highest season averages for a Marquette men's basketball player.. As of 2024, his 1,222 total rebounds is also first in school history. He could also score, averaging 20.9 and 21.4 points per game in his junior and senior years; and was the school's all-time scorer when he graduated.
He was selected to the 1959 NCAA Tournament All-Mideast Team. In 1961, Marquette retired his number 44 jersey. In 1961, Catholic Digest named Kojis to the Catholic All-America Team. He was inducted into the Marquette 'M Club' Hall of Fame in 1972.
AAU basketball and the Kangaroo Kram
Kojis was drafted by the Chicago Packers in the second round of the 1961 NBA draft. Instead of going into the NBA, Kojis chose to play for the Phillips Oilers in the National Industrial Basketball League, also working in the company's marketing department. Teams in that league competed in Amateur Athletic Union basketball. At the time, working for a corporation while playing on its basketball team could be a more desirable career path than playing in the NBA. It was on the 66ers that Kojis and teammate Charlie Bowerman began to develop the "Kangaroo Kram", which would later be known as the "alley-oop".International basketball
In 1963, he was captain of the United States Men's National Basketball Team at the 1963 FIBA World Championship that came in fourth place. He was also captain of the U.S. team that won the Gold Medal at the 1963 Pan American Games a few weeks earlier.NBA basketball
Kojis decided to forego participating in the 1964 Olympics, and joined the NBA for the 1963-64 season. The Packers, who had drafted him two years earlier, had changed their name to the Chicago Zephyrs in 1962, and then moved to Baltimore for the 1963 season, and were known as the Baltimore Bullets. Kojis played forward for the Bullets, averaging about 15 minutes a game.He also played for the Detroit Pistons, Chicago Bulls , San Diego Rockets , Seattle SuperSonics and Kansas City-Omaha Kings.
Kojis and the expansion draft
Kojis was taken in three expansion drafts, by the expansion Chicago Packers in 1961, the expansion Chicago Bulls in 1966, and the expansion San Diego Rockets in 1967. He was one of four players ever selected in three expansion drafts. The others were George Wilson, Len Chappell and McCoy McLemore. Kojis was also one of a small number of players who played for three expansion teams in their first year. Kojis said he was mistakenly made available on the Bulls list of unprotected players because one of the team's owners placed his name on that list while drunk on the flight to New York for the expansion draft.Chicago Bulls and the alley-oop
In his first year with the Bulls, Kojis played with future Naismith Hall of Fame point guard Guy Rodgers, who was known for his exceptional passing. Rodgers had led the league in assists in 1962-63 and would lead the league in the Bulls inaugural 1966-67 season. Rodgers and Kojis worked together and "introduced the back door baseline lob slam dunk to the NBA", which became the team's most popular play that year in Chicago. The precise origins of the alley-oop are not wholly clear. Among other claims, basketball legend Bill Russell and K.C. Jones are said to have developed the alley-oop, or a version of it, at the University of San Francisco in the 1950s.San Diego Rockets
His best years came with the San Diego Rockets. In the 1967-68 season, he averaged 19.7 points per game and 10.3 rebounds a game. In the 1968-69 season, he averaged 22.5 points and 9.6 rebounds a game. He was named to the 1968 and 1969 NBA West All-Star Teams, as a San Diego Rocket, and was a starter in the 1969 game.Career highlights
He holds the Pistons' record for most field goal attempts per 48 minutes.In 12 seasons he played in 814 games, had 19,241 minutes played, 3,947 field goals made, 8,853 field goals attempted, a.446 field goal percentage, 2,054 free throws made, 2,853 free throws attempted, a.720 free throw percentage, 4,555 rebounds, 1,112 assists, 1,937 personal fouls and 9,948 points.
With a slight knee bend, Kojis jump-shot his free-throw attempts.