Don Ackerman

Donald D. "Buddy" Ackerman was a basketball player from the US and was a student at the University of Long Island. In the second game of the NBA draft in 1953, he was picked by the New York Knicks. He played for the Knicks in 28 games in 1953/54.

Ackerman started his basketball career at the Metropolitan in Brooklyn. He played for the LIU Brooklyn in college. In 1953, he was selected in the NBA draft round 2 to play for the New York Knicks. From 1952 to 1953, Ackerman played for the Manchester British-Americans. From 1953 to 1954, he got his big break by being on the New York Knicks with the point guard position. His jersey number is three, while his career statistics in NBA were 43 points, 15 rebounds, and 23 assists.

Ackerman has fulfilled his dream of playing New York Knicks for basketball, but hundreds of Long Islanders recall him because he gave kids an opportunity to play his loved game. After a brief sickness, Ackerman, who founded the basketball program of the Catholic Youth Organization at the Church of St. Anthony in Oceanside forty years ago, died on a Saturday. He was 80 years old and lived in Long Beach. He was remembered as a great mentor and player.

In the 1953/54 National Basketball Association, Ackerman, a guard during his playing, played 28 gambits with the Knicks. His short career in the NBA ended after the season when he was being traded to the Boston Celtics. He purchased a house at Oceanside at the time, and his wife Marie was pregnant. He lived there for 50 years. Ackerman began a landscape company, which he managed for over 40 years, rather than moving the family to Boston.

He founded the St. Anthony's CYO program around 1970 and spent 20 years coaching the basketball program. His ways of comparing the game he grew up playing as a child on Rockaway Beach were coaching. The daughters of Ackerman are also Diane Michaels from Copiague, Donna Mahoney from Longo Beach, and Greenport Susan Lennox; the sons of Baldwin, Michael Ackerman, and Fairbanks, Alaska, and 15 grandchildren. Their children are also surviving while his wife, Marie, died 23 years ago. At the age of 80, Ackerman passed away on July 9, 2011.