James Silas: “Captain Late” Commanded Respect in the Clutch (Part I)

Author: David Friedman
Published on: Feb 28, 2005

Before Tim Duncan made bank shots with the regularity of a metronome, before David Robinson ran the floor like a gazelle and before George “Iceman” Gervin finger rolled his way to four scoring titles, the San Antonio Spurs were led by an amazingly skilled 6’2” dynamo who earned the nickname “Captain Late.” His paycheck read “James Silas” but Spurs’ broadcaster Terry Stembridge tagged him with a nickname worthy of a superhero after Silas produced several electrifying 20-point fourth quarter performances.

Bobby “Slick” Leonard coached the Indiana Pacers to three ABA titles. He also was the captain for the 1953 NCAA champion Indiana Hoosiers before enjoying a seven year NBA career during which he competed with and against legends such as Elgin Baylor, Wilt Chamberlain, Bill Russell and Jerry West. He does not mince words when speaking about Silas’ exploits: “Jimmy Silas really should be in the Hall of Fame. I liken Jimmy Silas a lot to Sam Jones in Boston. We had to double team Jimmy Silas between the three point line and the top of the key, trying to get it (the ball) away from him. I mean this guy was a monster. He had the stop and pop jumpers. He was strong, could play defense, pass—I mean, this guy was a great, great basketball player. All you ever hear people talk about are the great players in the NBA. Well, I would put this guy up against any of them.”

In the 1974 ABA playoffs, Silas and the Spurs extended the defending champion Pacers to seven games. The teams met again in the 1975 playoffs, with the Pacers advancing after a hard fought six game series. The Pacers double teamed Silas even though he was playing alongside future Hall of Famer and Top 50 selection Gervin. Leonard says, “He was that dangerous. If you go down there (to San Antonio), when they left Hemisfair and went into the Alamodome, you see the two players up there in great big pictures across that backdrop—George Gervin and Jimmy Silas.” Despite the extra defensive attention, in the 1975 playoffs Silas averaged 18.8 ppg and led the ABA in postseason assists (10.0 apg).

Told that Leonard considers him the most underrated guard in ABA history, Silas offers a direct reply: “I feel like that, too.” He adds, “I always respected Indiana because Indiana was the team to beat in the ABA at that time. They had some supreme players—Roger Brown, Mel Daniels, George McGinnis, Freddie Lewis, Don Buse and on and on. That was a great team, a team that you had to get up for. It was just something that I loved--I loved the game so much and I really valued my play against teams that I thought were good. Indiana was a team that you had to play well against to beat them.”

Bob Bass, two-time NBA Executive of the Year, coached the Spurs at that time: “They doubled him to get the ball out of his hands, no question about it. That was not done a lot. Everybody doubles nowadays. He was the guy that we always went to late in the game, even though we had Gervin. We went to Silas late because he was such a great free throw shooter. He was one of the guys who could back you down. Like Oscar Robertson backed people down, he’d back you down, and if you came to double, we had the floor spaced well enough all along the baseline that he could make the play, make the pass or make the shot and get fouled. He was just a terrific guy at the end of games.”

“Captain Late” did his damage close to the basket. Bass says, “He reminds me of Baron Davis. Not the way that they play, but the way that they’re built. Baron Davis is built just like he was, about 6’3,” and real physical, real strong. Silas’ release on his jump shot was real high above his head. You couldn’t get to it. He would back you down around 12, 14 feet and shoot a little fall away that was nearly impossible to guard if you didn’t double him.”

Unaware of Bass’ comparison, Silas offers this scouting report: “Take Sam Cassell and combine him with Baron Davis--the strength and quickness of Davis combined with Sam’s ability to get off any kind of shot. I really think that those two guys are closer to the way I played than anybody else that I’ve seen play in the league.” Silas adds this about the “Captain Late” title: “I felt that my game was good for 48 minutes or however long I was on the floor, so I took offense at first, because I thought that it meant that I was only deadly at the end of the game. But it fit what I was about and I came to love it.”

Silas’ numbers steadily increased during his ABA career, from 13.7 ppg and 3.1 apg in 1972-73 as a rookie with the Dallas Chaparrals (as the Spurs were known before moving to San Antonio) to 15.7 ppg and 3.8 apg in 1973-74 to 19.3 ppg and 4.9 apg in 1974-75. He consistently delivered in late game situations; even if the original intention was not to go in Silas’ direction, the ball often ended up there. Bass says, “I remember calling a play and Gervin had a bad mismatch, like he did most of the time because he was so big for a guard. I was going to go to Gervin at the end of the game, but he said, ‘Give the ball to Jimmy Si and he’ll get it done.’ For a guy of that stature, a guy as good a player as Gervin was, to say that, you can imagine what kind of respect James Silas had with our team.”

In the 1975-76 season “Captain Late” ranked sixth in the ABA in scoring (23.8 ppg), fourth in field goal percentage (.519), fourth in free throw percentage (.872), fifth in assists (5.4 apg), fifth in minutes played (3112) and ninth in steals (1.8 spg). He made the All-ABA First Team ahead of Gervin (who averaged 21.8 ppg and 2.2 apg) and only an otherworldly season from another basketball superhero, Julius “Dr. J” Erving, kept him from winning MVP honors. Erving’s Nets and Silas’ Spurs met in the ABA playoffs and Silas’ tremendous season came to a sudden, disappointing end in the first game of the series; he broke his ankle by landing on the foot of Nets’ guard Brian Taylor after shooting a jump shot. The Nets beat the Spurs and went on to claim the last ABA championship. That summer the NBA and ABA merged and the Spurs were one of four ABA survivors in the new 22 team league. It seemed that Silas would at last get the chance to showcase his skills on a large national stage.

Part II looks at Silas’ NBA career