Former NBA All-Star and champion Willie Naulls died Sunday at 84.
He died of respiratory failure caused by a rare immunological condition called Churg-Strauss syndrome, his wife said.
Naulls played in the NBA from 1956 to 1966. He won three titles with the Celtics from 1964-1966 and was an All-Star with the Knicks in 1958 and from 1960-62.
Naulls, a power forward and center, had also been a second-team All-American while playing at UCLA in 1956, playing under future Hall of Fame coach John Wooden.
When his Knicks teammates named him team captain in the 1960s, he was the first black athlete to be a captain in any major professional sports team.
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