Nate Thurmond, Warriors Center and Defensive Wall, Dies at 74

Nate Thurmond, the Hall of Fame center for the Golden State Warriors who became one of the N.B.A.’s most dominant defensive players and rebounders while battling some of the leading big men in league history, died Saturday in San Francisco. Thurmond, who was named one of the N.B.A.’s 50 greatest players in 1996 when it celebrated its 50th anniversary, was 74.

The cause was leukemia, his wife, Marci, confirmed.

Thurmond, who played mostly for the Warriors in the 1960s and ’70s, averaged 15 points a game, displaying a fine outside shooting touch, along with 15 rebounds. He played 11 seasons for the San Francisco and Golden State Warriors and his final three seasons with the Chicago Bulls and the Cleveland Cavaliers. He was a seven-time All-Star and was selected for the N.B.A.’s first or second all-defensive team five times.

He was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass., in 1985.

Thurmond, at 6 feet 11 inches, vied with the likes of Bill Russell, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Willis Reed and Wilt Chamberlain, his onetime teammate.

“The toughest center for me to play against is Nate Thurmond,” Abdul-Jabbar once remarked.

“He played with unbelievable intensity and was simply a man among boys on most nights, especially on the defensive end,” Jerry West, the Hall of Fame guard for the Los Angeles Lakers and a member of the Warriors’ executive board, said Saturday on the team’s website.

LeBron James, Thurmond’s fellow Akron, Ohio, native, wrote on Twitter on Saturday: “Knowing u played in the same rec league as me growing up gave me hope of making it out! Thanks!”

Thurmond became the first player to record an official quadruple-double when he made his debut with the Bulls, scoring 22 points along with 14 rebounds, 13 assists and 12 blocks against the Atlanta Hawks on Oct. 18, 1974.

In the mid-’60s, Thurmond hauled down 42 rebounds against the Detroit Pistons, the best single-game rebounding effort of his career. He set an N.B.A. one-quarter rebounding record with 18 against the Baltimore Bullets in February 1965.