Dick Van Arsdale, a three-time All-Star who, together with his brother, Tom, was half of the primary set of similar twins to play within the N.B.A. after starring and complicated opponents and teammates alike in highschool and at Indiana College, died on Monday at his dwelling in Phoenix. He was 81.
Tom Van Arsdale stated the trigger was coronary heart and kidney failure.
Whereas the Van Arsdales had remarkably comparable statistical careers, Dick was thought of the marginally higher participant, if solely by the measure of superior professional groups. He performed for the New York Knicks and the Phoenix Suns throughout 12 N.B.A. seasons, making the playoffs 4 instances, whereas Tom suited up for 5 groups, none of which made the playoffs throughout the identical span.
Blonde and blue-eyed, the Van Arsdale twins have been the stereotypical image of their rural Indiana roots. However on the basketball court docket, neither was a exact positional match at 6 toes 5 inches: not quick sufficient for the backcourt, not large enough for the frontcourt.
Dick, who started his professional profession as a ahead and switched to protect, was nonetheless a rugged defender whereas averaging a profession 16.4 factors per recreation, exceeding 20 factors thrice throughout his years in Phoenix.
Van Arsdale had performed three seasons with the Knicks when, in 1968, he joined the newly shaped Suns, an growth workforce whose normal supervisor, Jerry Colangelo, had chosen him first. Van Arsdale scored the franchise’s first factors and have become a corporation fixture, generally known as the unique Solar. He served as interim coach in the course of the 1986-87 season, then as a front-office govt and later a tv analyst.
“We couldn’t discover a higher participant on or off the ground to construct our workforce,” Colangelo informed The Arizona Republic in 1970. “If I might subject 5 Vans, what I’d lack in top and rebounding, I’d offset with battle and need.”
The performative similarities within the Van Arsdales have been as putting as their look. After their senior highschool seasons, they shared the title of Mr. Indiana Basketball, an honor introduced yearly by The Indianapolis Star recognizing the highest highschool basketball participant within the state.
Each have been recruited by Indiana College, the place Dick averaged 17.2 factors and 10 rebounds per recreation to Tom’s 17.4 and 10. They have been drafted into the N.B.A. one choice aside — Dick because the thirteenth decide, Tom because the 14th. They every performed in three N.B.A. All-Star video games.
“We’ve got all the time gone to the identical faculties, taken the identical programs, bought about the identical grades,” Dick informed Newsday in 1966. “We’ve got all the time had one another to speak to and battle with. We really feel we have now been fortunate as a result of we have now been so shut. I do know that isn’t true with different twins, probably as a result of they aren’t as equal as we’re.”
Their intense sibling rivalry dated to childhood one-on-one video games on the household dwelling, although they loathed guarding one another within the N.B.A. Out of uniform, uncommon was the participant or coach who might inform them aside. They weren’t above playful identification swaps, although Tom resisted Dick’s scheme to change uniforms in one among two N.B.A. All-Star video games through which they have been on competing sides.
In 1978, they spoofed their similar seems in a TV industrial for Miller Lite beer.
In contrast to his brother, Dick skilled the playoffs in 1967 and 1968 with the Knicks, in 1970 with the Suns and once more in 1976 when the Suns misplaced to the Boston Celtics within the N.B.A. finals. Van Arsdale averaged 6.6 factors in 28.5 minutes off the bench in a six-game collection.
He was in New York when the Knicks have been setting the stage for his or her early Seventies N.B.A. titles, taking part in with Willis Reed, Walt Frazier and Dick Barnett. He left for Phoenix the season New York grew to become contenders. In Phoenix, he performed with Connie Hawkins and later, as a part of the workforce that confronted Boston within the 1976 finals, with Alvan Adams, Ricky Sobers and a backup guard named Pat Riley.
Tom Van Arsdale, hoping lastly to play postseason ball, reunited with Dick in Phoenix for the 1976-77 season, however accidents to key gamers ruined the workforce’s possibilities. The brothers, at 34, retired collectively.
A number of units of similar twins adopted them into the N.B.A., together with the Morris brothers, Markieff and Marcus. In 2013, Marcus joined his brother with the Suns. Markieff is now with the Dallas Mavericks.
Richard Albert Van Arsdale was born on Feb. 22, 1943, in Indianapolis, quarter-hour after his brother, each untimely, inflicting concern for his or her survival.
The Van Arsdales lived in Greenwood, a municipality 11 miles south of Indianapolis that was cited in 1965 by the Indiana Civil Rights Fee as a sunset city, the place nonwhites weren’t allowed after darkish.
Raymond Van Arsdale, the twins’ father, taught math and coached monitor at Emmerich Guide Excessive College in Indianapolis. Their mom, Hilda (Thomas) Van Arsdale, labored within the faculty workplace. The household’s choice to have the twins attend and play towards stiffer competitors at Guide, the place they misplaced within the state title recreation in 1961, brought on some resentment in Greenwood.
Dick married Barbara Fenton in 1965. Along with his brother, he’s survived by his spouse; a son, Jason; a daughter, Jill Van Arsdale; and 4 grandchildren. He lived within the prosperous Arcadia part of Phoenix.
In 2005, Dick suffered a stroke that brought on speech impairment. His hand motion unaffected, he took up ink and pencil drawing. “If I didn’t have artwork proper now, I’d have issues,” he informed Phoenix journal in 2013.
He additionally had his brother, who concurrently started oil portray. In 2018, the brothers opened an artwork studio and retailer within the Previous City part of Scottsdale, Ariz. “He bought into it once I did,” Dick informed the journal. He held up two joined fingers and stated, “We’re like this.”
Ash Wu contributed reporting.