Alvan Adams

Known as the "Oklahoma Kid" and "Double A", Alvan Adams was an All-American basketball player from Putnam City, who later blazed trails at the University of Oklahoma before playing 13 seasons in the NBA for the Phoenix Suns.

Adams lettered three years at Putnam City, helping lead his team to the 4A State Championship and earning All-American and High School Player of the Year honors in 1972. He picked the University of Oklahoma over schools such as Maryland, UCLA, Vanderbilt and Kansas.

At OU he proceeded to set a number of new records such as most points in a game (43), the most rebounds in a game (28), the highest single season scoring average of 26.5 as a junior and the highest single rebounding average of 13.3 as a junior. He was the only unanimous selection on the Big Eight Conference 1970s All-Decade Team.

In 1974, Adams was selected to play on the USA Team that toured China and played in the World University Games in Moscow. He carried a 3.8 grade point average in pre-medicine while at OU and was on the Dean's Honor List. He was named both the Big Eight Player of the Year and MVP of the Big Eight Tournament three times.

Before by-passing his senior year for the NBA draft, Adams set Sooner records of 1,707 points and 938 rebounds. He was named "Rookie-of-the-Year" in 1976 and during 13 pro seasons with the Phoenix Suns he scored a total of 13,910 points.

He ranks on the Suns all time list being first in rebounds (6,937), had 4,012 assists, 1,289 steals and played in a total of 988 games. In his pro-career, he averaged 14.1 points and 7 rebounds per game, a .788 percentage from the free throw line. He averaged 4.1 assists per game and ranked third in line behind Wilt Chamberlain's 4.4 and Bill Russell's 4.3.

Adams was the Sun's first "Rookie of the Year", and was the only rookie selected to the 1976 NBA All-Star Game. He was instrumental in the Suns winning their first Western Conference title and their participation in the 1976 championship. He led all scorers in the 1976 championship finals against the Celtics, leading with 138 total points and a single game high of 33.

Adams is director of operations for the America West Arena and events coordinator for the Suns and the city's arena football and tennis franchises.