Dave Bing

Bing was born November 24, 1943, in Washington, D.C., to mother Juanita, a housekeeper, and father Hasker, a bricklayer and deacon for the local Baptist church. He was the second child of four living in a two-bedroom, one-story house in the northeast part of town. In his childhood, Bing received the nickname "Duke" from his father, because, according to Bing, he always "wanted to be top dog." Bing's father also suffered a severe head injury during the boy's childhood. While working a construction site, a brick fell four stories onto his head, causing a brain clot. The episode led young Bing to promise himself that he would never work in such a profession. In athletics, Bing played basketball, but older children often told him he was too small for the game. Despite his fuzzy vision, he excelled in baseball at Spingarn High School, Nevertheless, the school's head basketball coach William Roundtree encouraged him to revisit basketball. Roundtree became a fatherly figure to Bing, who decided to join the team. He developed into a double-digits per game scorer, noted for his jump shot and knack for driving to the basket. well aware of the path taken by Los Angeles Lakers forward Elgin Baylor, a Spingarn alum. At the tournament, Bing led his team to victory and earned MVP honors. All in all, in high school, Bing was a three-year letter winner, all–Inter High, all-Metro, and all-East member. In 1962, he was featured in Parade magazine and made the All-American Team. ==College career==

Bing attended Syracuse University, where he was once roommates with Jim Boeheim. He wore a No. 22 jersey in college, as he had in high school, as a homage to Elgin Baylor, who he had watched play on a playground court in Washington, D.C. as a boy in 1957. He led the Orangemen in scoring as a sophomore (22.2) in 1964, as a junior (23.2) in 1965, and as a senior (28.4) in 1966. During his senior year, Bing was fifth in the nation in scoring and was Syracuse's first consensus All-American in 39 years. He was also named to The Sporting News All-America First Team and was named Syracuse Athlete of the Year. In his three-year varsity career at Syracuse, Bing averaged 24.8 points and 10.3 rebounds, with 1883 total points and 786 total rebounds in 76 games. While attending Syracuse, he became acquainted with Joe Biden, who was as student in the law school. Biden would later serve as a U.S. senator, vice president, and president of the United States. ==Professional career==

, 1975 Bing's playing style was somewhat unusual for the time. As a lean, athletic and explosive point guard, he functioned as the playmaker distributing the ball, but also did more shooting and scoring than most others who had this position. At one time a joke about him and his backcourt partner, Jimmy Walker, was that it was a shame they could only play the game with one ball at a time. Detroit Pistons (1966–1975) Bing was selected 2nd overall in the 1966 NBA draft by the Detroit Pistons, and wore the jersey number 21 because player-coach Dave DeBusschere already wore No. 22. Bing sat out 2½ months of the 1971–72 season due to a detached retina incurred from a preseason game against the Los Angeles Lakers, playing in only 45 games that season. While with the Pistons, he played in six NBA All-Star Games (1968, 1969, 1971, 1973–1975), and was named to the All-NBA First Team in 1968 and 1971. Washington Bullets (1975–1977) After leaving the Detroit Pistons, Bing went on to spend his next two seasons with the Washington Bullets, for whom he was named an NBA All-Star once more in 1976, this time winning the game's MVP Award. Boston Celtics (1977–1978) He played his final season with the Boston Celtics, averaging 13.6 points. He then retired at the conclusion of the 1977–1978 season. Overall, in his NBA career, Bing averaged 20.3 points, 6.0 assists and 3.8 rebounds in 901 games over 12 NBA seasons, scoring 18,327 points with 5,397 assists. == National Basketball Retired Players Association ==

In 1992, Bing co-founded the National Basketball Retired Players Association. , he continues to serve on its board of directors. ==Business career==

At age 22 with an NBA contract worth $15,000, Bing was rebuffed by the National Bank of Detroit on getting a mortgage to finance a home. This led Bing to work at the bank during the offseason, holding jobs in the teller, customer relations, and mortgage departments. Immediately after retiring, he worked at a warehouse of the steel processing company Paragon Steel and was paid $35,000. He left after two years, after stints in the company's shipping and sales operations. Bing Steel In 1980, Bing opened Bing Steel with four employees in a rented warehouse from $250,000 in loans and $80,000 of his own money. Losing all his money in six months, the company shied away from manufacturing to focus on being a middleman. With General Motors as their first major client, the company turned a profit in its second year on revenues of $4.2 million. By 1984, Bing was awarded by President Ronald Reagan the National Minority Small Business Person of the Year. By 1985, Bing Steel had expanded to two plants with 63 employees posting revenues of $40 million. The Bing Group Bing Steel transformed itself to the Bing Group, a conglomerate with headquarters located in Detroit's North End. The company, among other things, supplies metal stampings to the automobile industry. At the 1990 NBA All-Star Game, Bing received the Schick Achievement Award for his work after his NBA career. ==Early political involvement and activism==

Bing was an early political supporter of Kwame Kilpatrick. However, Bing was among the first Michigan business community leaders to urge the resignation of Kilpatrick from his office as mayor of Detroit when Major scandals emerged in his second term. Kilpatrick ultimately resigned as mayor in September 2008. In November 2002, Detroit lost to Boston. The Detroit bid's weak spot was considered to be its smaller number of hotel rooms compared to other cities seeking to host the 2004 convention. In January 2009, on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Bing received the National Civil Rights Museum Sports Legacy Award. The award honors King's legacy as a leader of the civil rights movement, by acknowledging athletes who have made significant contributions to civil and human rights and who helped establish a foundation for future leaders in athletic careers. The honor was to be presented during the half-time show of the game between the Memphis Grizzlies and the Detroit Pistons in Memphis, Tennessee. Bing volunteered in the Big Brothers Big Sisters of America program. ==Mayoralty==

VP Tony Brown, Faurecia CEO Yann Delabrière, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder, Rush Trucking CEO Andra Rush, U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow, and Bing 2009 elections On October 16, 2008, Bing announced that he would be a candidate for mayor of Detroit in the 2009 Detroit mayoral special election to finish the term of Kwame Kilpatrick, who had resigned as part of a plea bargain agreement after being charged with the crime of perjury. Bing finished first in a 15 candidate non-partisan primary on February 24, 2009. On May 5, 2009, Bing was elected with 52.3% of the vote, defeating interim mayor Kenneth Cockrel Jr., who received 47.7%. Bing had only moved to a residence within city limits shortly before his campaign for mayor, having previously resided in suburban Franklin, Michigan. Bing was reelected to a full term on November 3, 2009. The inauguration for his full term was held at the Fox Theatre. and opted to forgo enjoying many of the benefits to which the mayor was entitled. The city was suffering a $30 million budget deficit. However, by the time he left office, the city's deficit had decreased by $7 million from where it stood when he assumed office. In mid-2011, Bing vetoed the budget passed by the City Council, claiming its cuts were excessive and could be to the detriment of the services of the city's police and fire departments. The City Council's budget made $50 million more in cuts than Bing's initial proposed budget had made. Bing's budget proposal was for $3.1 billion in spending. The City Council overrode this veto in an 8–1 vote. The city's 2012 budget made a 20% decrease to the city's fire department. This has been seen as having a detrimental effect on the city's ability to handle fires, including arson. In mid-2012, the fire department announced 164 layoffs. In 2013, Bing proposed a $1 billion budget, a $300 million decrease from the previous year's budget. By the time he was reelected to a full term, Bing had dismissed more than 400 city employees and had ended 16 out of 51 contracts that the city had with trade unions. Bing spoke of his intention to depopulate neighborhoods, including through forcible means such as eminent domain. Past mayors had made pledges to demolish abandoned homes but taken little action to do so. Under Bing, the city took action to demolish abandoned homes, reporting in early 2013 to have demolished 6,700 since Bing took office. However, the city still had tens of thousands more abandoned homes. Bing's program of demolishing abandoned homes was controversial with some city residents. Bing launched the Detroit Works Project (later renamed Detroit Future City), an effort to create a 50-year outline for the city's future. The project was intended to create a community-planned vision for how the city would manage its problems. The city government underestimated how many citizens would attend community meetings. Controversy arose during the process, when Bing publicized his intention to depopulate certain neighborhoods by forcibly relocating residents to denser neighborhoods. The public anger at this threatened the project. In 2012, Bing persuaded the state legislature and governor to create the Public Lighting Authority of Detroit and dedicate utility and income tax revenue for the $185 million in bonds for this purpose. Bing appointed a lighting authority board, which then signed a contract with DTE Energy to repair the city's streetlights. However, the contract did not take place until early 2013, by which time Bing had left office. Bing's successor Mike Duggan built upon Bing's efforts to repair the city's streetlights to significant success. It has been noted that, due to Bing being out of office when the work was carried out, he has not received much public credit for it. Policing and crime During Bing's tenure, there was trouble within the Detroit Police Department. This included instability in leadership, with the city cycling through four different police chiefs during Bing's less-than-5-years in office. Even as crime in large cities was declining overall in the United States, Detroit saw its homicide rate rise to a 20-year high in 2012. Renovation occurred while Bing was mayor, taking place under the management of a new cooperative governing authority for the convention center. Bing made an unpopular proposal to decrease city bus service on Sundays. This never came into fruition. Kevyn Orr was soon after appointed to the emergency manager role. Many in the city criticized Bing for not being more resistant to emergency management. This was the decision of emergency manager Kevin Orr. Many criticized Bing for not doing more to fight this move by Orr. and had seen approval ratings as low as 14%. He announced on May 14, 2013, he would not run for reelection to another term in the election to be held later that year. ==Later activities==

In 2014, Bing launched the Bing Youth Initiative, a nonprofit with a mission focused on providing academic support as well as behavior and social wellness services to underprivileged young African American men in Detroit. In August 2023, Bing endorsed Elissa Slotkin's candidacy for the 2024 United States Senate election in Michigan. ==Personal life==

Bing is the godfather of Jalen Rose. In 2020, Bing published his autobiography titled 'Attacking the Rim'. ==Honors==

• J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award (1977) • Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame (inducted in 1990) • Named one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History (1996) • College Basketball Hall of Fame (inducted in 2006) • NBA 75th Anniversary Team (2021) • Syracuse Orange Ring of Honor (added in 2024) == NBA career statistics ==

Regular season Playoffs ==Electoral history==