Cazzie Russell: Living On Wheat Germ, Vitamin C, and Tiger Milk, 1976

[By the mid-1970s, the clock was ticking on Cazzie Russell’s NBA career. The former top overall pick in the 1966 NBA draft, Russell had bounced from New York to Golden State and onward to Los Angeles. It was a 10-year run that hadn’t lived up to expectations, mainly because those expectations were too high and unrealistic. Russell was an outstanding scorer, but he wasn’t a franchise player as advertised coming out of college. During his NBA twilight years in Los Angeles, Russell still believed he could crack the Lakers’ rotation and put up a cool 15 to 20 a game. Knee surgery sidelined him during the 1974-75 season, his first in Lakerland. But with unshakeable faith in his basketball skills, Russell returned ready to go the next season and stayed ready, training non-stop and watching his diet like few others. By the 1976-77 season, he’d finally get his chance to shine as a full-time Laker playing all 82 games at small forward and averaging 31 minutes and 16 points per outing. In…