Bill Laimbeer

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William Laimbeer Jr. is a former basketball player, born on May 19, 1957 in Boston, USA, and raised in the Chicago suburb of Clarendon Hills. He went to the University of Notre Dame, and in 1974 he played one of the Sleestak during the first season of the television series Land of the Lost. He is the current head coach of the Detroit Shock of the WNBA.

He was drafted by the Cleveland Cavaliers in 1979. He was later traded to the Detroit Pistons on February 16 1982. He spent 14 seasons in the NBA, 12 of them at Detroit. Laimbeer became the 19th player in league history to amass more than 10,000 points and 10,000 rebounds, and his 685 consecutive games played streak is the longest in the league. Laimbeer retired 11 games into the 1993-94 season at age 36.

In 1994, Laimbeer co-founded with his father William Sr., Laimbeer Packaging Corp., a company based in suburban Detroit producing corrugated cardboard boxes. The company struggled through the late 1990s and Laimbeer closed it by early 2002. [1]

Laimbeer maintained his ties to the Pistons as a broadcast commentator.

After taking over as head coach of the Detroit Shock midway through the 2002 season, he lead the franchise to its first WNBA championship in 2004 and was named Coach of the Year. It was the first time in WNBA history that a team other than Los Angeles or Houston won the title.