Dave Bing on NBA Hall of Fame career and being Detroit's Mayor

In The Front Row with Mike Vaccaro

Dave Bing grew up in Washington, DC and became an All-American basketball player in high school. He received plenty of college scholarship offers, but football standouts Ernie Davis and John Mackey convinced him to go to Syracuse. Bing would help turn the Syracuse basketball program into a winner as the team's leading scorer playing alongside Jim Boeheim. In three years, Bing scored nearly 2000 points and was a consensus All-American which led to the Detroit Pistons to draft him second overall in 1966. He was the Rookie of the Year and would play 9 of his 12 seasons in Detroit. He was also a seven-time NBA All-Star and amassed 18,327 points and 5397 assists before retiring. Bing was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1990 and was be named to the NBA's 50th and 75th Anniversary Teams. After his playing days, he opened Bing Steel and turned it into a multi-million-dollar company partnering with General Motors. In 2009, he was elected Mayor of Detroit and served in that role until the end of 2013. In 2014, he founded the Bing Youth Institute which helps create hundreds of one-on-one relationships with mentors and mentees. In this episode, Bing recounts stories of his basketball career and how it helped him in his business life. He tells us why he was such a prolific scorer and what he's most proud of in his multiple careers. Bing also shares his love for the city of Detroit and his thoughts on the retirement of former teammate Jim Boeheim as Syracuse head coach after 47 years.