World B. Free honored to be nominated for Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame: ‘It’s a feeling you can’t describe’
Finalists will be announced Friday as part of All-Star Weekend’s festivities, and could include big names such as Carmelo Anthony, Dwight Howard, Sue Bird, and former Sixers coach Doc Rivers.
World B. Free needed to call his friend back, to make sure the photo attached to the text message had not been altered.
And when Free confirmed that he had been nominated for the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, his reaction immediately shifted to “so surprised, and so shocked.”
Free remains one of the more recognizable figures at 76ers home games, greeting countless fans while dressed to the nines in a suit and matching fedora. Now, his playing career is officially being considered for enshrinement for the first time, thanks to the Hall’s veterans committee. Finalists will be announced Friday as part of All-Star Weekend’s festivities, and could include big names such as Carmelo Anthony, Dwight Howard, Sue Bird, and former Sixers coach Doc Rivers.
“They say, ‘World, don’t you realize, just being a nominee, you did something?’” Free told The Inquirer before the Sixers’ Jan. 29 win over the Sacramento Kings. “I said, ‘Well, God is good.’ … It’s an honor, and it’s a feeling you can’t describe.”
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Following his 13-year playing career, Free is now in his 26th season in the Sixers’ front office, with an official title of Ambassador of 76ers Basketball. He jokes that means he’s the Pied Piper of the Wells Fargo Center, saying, “I go around. I shake hands. I kiss babies. I make sure people have a smile on their face.” During each game, he is part of a timeout segment when a local military member is honored.
He also delivers motivational speeches at various public appearances, and assists with basketball camps at local schools, recreational centers, and playgrounds. He fondly recalls one time when he identified a young boy who had mostly kept to himself to play three-on-three with him and the staff, and his mother approached him with an effusive thank-you.
“His father just passed away about two days ago,” the boy’s mother told Free. “He hasn’t spoken since then. … When you picked him out of the crowd, I’ve never seen him so excited.”
Those interactions are why the 71-year-old Free believes he is now more known in retirement than when he was an NBA player. It is the result of a four-decade connection formed between a kid from Brooklyn’s Brownsville neighborhood projects and the organization that selected him in the second round of the 1975 draft out of Guilford College in North Carolina.
“Wait, I like the city. This is the city for me,” Free remembers thinking upon arriving in Philly. “I’m going to make something happen here.”
Then known as Lloyd B. Free, he spent his first three seasons with the Sixers, playing alongside such franchise legends as Julius Erving, Billy Cunningham, Doug Collins, and George McGinnis. He still excitedly recalls scoring 27 off-the-bench points as a second-year player in a Game 7 victory against the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference semifinals, and opponents such as future Hall of Famer John Havlicek making a point to tell him, “You keep your head right, young fella. You’re gonna make it.”
“A lot of people doubted my skills,” Free added, “and I put that on my back and I carried it.”
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From there, Free spent his career with the San Diego (now Los Angeles) Clippers, Golden State Warriors, Cleveland Cavaliers, and Houston Rockets, with another Sixers stint in 1986-87. He was an All-NBA second-team selection with the Clippers in 1979, and an All-Star the following season while averaging 30.2 points per game. In 1981, he officially changed his first name to World, a nickname given by childhood friends because of his eye-popping athleticism and because he “would like the world to be free one day,” he said.
And Free embraced the entertainer side of being an NBA player, with a flashy streetball style, insane hops, and high-arching (and free-firing) jump shot. He averaged 20.3 points on 16.1 field-goal attempts in 886 career NBA games.
“I enjoyed playing for people,” Free said. “I want to win. But when I hear the crowd, a switch kicks on in my head and I got to go for it — like [Tyrese] Maxey [is] doing with these guys, or Allen Iverson. When they hear the crowd, it’s like, ‘Oh, that’s it.’
“A light bulb just goes off in my head. I could be walking out normal, but when I hear the crowd, game over.”
Free’s post-playing ambassador role allows him to continue soaking in that fan atmosphere, in the city he says “adopted” him almost 50 years ago. And as he stood on the Wells Fargo Center floor in late January, he began to choke up while reflecting on a career worthy of being nominated for the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.
“Just to mention your name toward that,” Free said. “ … It’s a crying mood, and I’m an emotional person. But I’m not going to do that today, so I hide it. I thank God for it.”