Former Bucks president Bill Alverson, who negotiated the Abdul-Jabbar trade, has died

After Kareem Abdul-Jabbar dropped a bombshell on Milwaukee Bucks management by requesting a trade in October 1974, team president Bill Alverson and general manager Wayne Embry met with New York Knicks officials at a hotel in downtown Milwaukee.

The Knicks, according to Embry, offered an aging Walt Frazier and cash for Abdul-Jabbar, the 7-foot-2 center who had led the Bucks to the 1971 NBA title and was the league’s most dominant player.

“The Knicks thought they were going to come in and take advantage of us country hicks, but that wasn’t going to happen,” Embry said with a chuckle. “Bill was much sharper than that. He was one of the smartest people I’ve ever known.”

William Hale “Bill” Alverson, who with Embry negotiated the blockbuster trade that sent Abdul-Jabbar to the Los Angeles Lakers, died Wednesday in Naples, Fla. He was 84.

Alverson lived in Mequon with Patricia, his wife of 62 years, but the couple wintered in Naples.

“He had some ailments over the last few years, but about 10 days before he died he had congestive heart failure,” said son Hale Alverson. “They got him to a hospital and he was coherent for four or five days and last four or five days were in hospice.”

A native of Rockford, Ill., Bill Alverson was a graduate of Princeton University and the University of Wisconsin Law School. He was a partner at Godfrey & Kahn when he became president of the Bucks, replacing Ray Patterson.

“He was a very subtle and quiet person but a lawyer with a tremendous amount of integrity,” said longtime Bucks executive John Steinmiller. “He was quiet behind the scenes in keeping things together. The funniest thing was, he had a great personality when he took off his lawyer robe. He was a good guy and had a good sense of humor.

“I think he was a good person at a good time to keep the Bucks rolling.”

On June 16, 1975, Alverson and Embry traded Abdul-Jabbar and Walt Wesley to the Lakers for Brian Winters, Elmore Smith, David Meyers, Junior Bridgeman and cash. It remains among the biggest trades in NBA history.

Some members of the Bucks’ board of directors didn’t want to trade Abdul-Jabbar, but Embry convinced them the great center was not happy in Milwaukee and would leave the team when his contract expired.

Alverson and Embry initially met with Lakers officials in Denver. Lakers owner Jack Kent Cooke did not attend the meeting but was kept abreast of negotiations by phone by team attorney Alan Rothenberg. The two sides couldn’t work out a deal, so Alverson and Embry booked a red-eye back to Chicago.

“We’re about to get on the plane and Alan comes running down the concourse and goes, ‘I’m on the flight with you,’ ” Embry said. “We hammered away from Denver back to Chicago. We get to Chicago, still no deal. I drive to Milwaukee, go to bed about 8 in the morning and at 9:30 the phone rings.

“It’s Bill. He says, ‘Guess who’s in town?’ Alan rented a car and drove to Milwaukee. So, we got the deal done. My conclusion was Kareem had given us several good years and a championship and we should honor his wish and trade him, because he’s not going to be happy here.”

Alverson resigned as team president in 1975, when Janesville businessman Jim Fitzgerald led a group of investors that bought Milwaukee Professional Sports and Service Inc., the parent company of the Bucks.

Alverson then joined Patterson in Houston as the Rockets’ board chairman and also was chairman of the board of governors of the NBA in 1976, when the league merged with its rival, the American Basketball Association.

“He was terrific,” Embry said of Alverson. “He delegated well and he held his people accountable. Bill let me do my job. We were a model tandem, I think.”

Alverson is survived by his wife, sons Hale and Woody and daughter Tricia Schelble. Visitation is 10 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. Saturday with a memorial service to follow at Schmidt & Bartelt, 10280 N. Port Washington Road.