Dan Issel

Dan Issel earns my admiration on more than scoring alone, though the 25.7 points-per-game school record at Kentucky is staggering. ABA Rookie of the Year, a six-time ABA All-Star and an NBA All-Star, he embodied that wild, inventive league before it merged away. What I appreciate most is the full arc: a 206-cm giant who later gave back as a coach and earned a citizenship award in 1985. Players from that scrappy ABA era carry a rough-edged charm I love. Issel strikes me as the sort of competitor remembered as much for character as for numbers.

Name (English)

Dan Issel

Name (Japanese)

ダン・イッセル

Reading

だん・いっせる

Born

October 25, 1948 (age 77)

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Scorpio / Rat

Origin

Batavia, Illinois, United States

Height

206 cm

Occupation

basketball player / basketball coach / coach

High school

Petersburg High School

University

University of Kentucky

Awards & achievements

• 1985 J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award

• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan%20Issel
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%80%E3%83%B3%E3%83%BB%E3%82%A4%E3%83%83%E3%82%BB%E3%83%AB
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1159084

Tags

• Illinois
• basketball player
• basketball coach
• coach

Last updated

2026-06-21

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.