Phil Sellers


Phillip Sellers, Jr. is an American former professional basketball player for the Detroit Pistons of the NBA.

Early life

Born in Brooklyn, New York, Sellers played high school basketball at Thomas Jefferson High School in Brooklyn. He achieved success at the prep level, winning the MVP Award of Pittsburgh's Dapper Dan Tournament at the end of his senior season. He also earned All-America honors at Jefferson and received over 200 scholarship offers from colleges across the country to play basketball. Sellers signed a letter of intent to play at Notre Dame, but worries about managing the tough academics made him reconsider and so he attended Livingston College in New Jersey, a part of Rutgers University specially designed to help students from low-income backgrounds.

Rutgers University

At Rutgers, Sellers played under then-assistant coach and future college basketball legend Dick Vitale. His decision to become a Scarlet Knight was initially criticized, but Sellers led Rutgers to two NIT berths during his freshman and sophomore seasons and then back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances in his final two seasons.

1975–76 season

Rutgers University's best men's basketball season in school history came during 1975–76. Sellers, a senior and Consensus Second Team All-American, led the team to a 31–0 start. The team finished 31–2, and their only two losses occurred in the national semifinals and the third-place game. Sellers graduated from Rutgers in 1976 and is still the school's all-time leading scorer
and rebounder. On January 16, 1988, he had his jersey number retired, making him one of only three Scarlet Knights players to have ever been so honored.

NBA

After graduating, Sellers was picked in the third round of the 1976 NBA Draft by the Detroit Pistons, but lasted only a year with the Pistons before being put on waivers. He then served as an assistant at Rutgers for three years before moving on to a job with a mortgage banking firm in Perth Amboy, New Jersey. Sellers finished his one-year NBA career averaging 4.5 points, 0.9 rebounds and 0.6 assists in 44 games played.