Phil Hankinson was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 basketball

Basketball

Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...

 player. He was born in Augusta, Georgia

Augusta, Georgia

Augusta is a consolidated city in the U.S. state of Georgia, located along the Savannah River. As of the 2010 census, the Augusta–Richmond County population was 195,844 not counting the unconsolidated cities of Hephzibah and Blythe.Augusta is the principal city of the Augusta-Richmond County...

.

Hankinson attended what is now Great Neck North High School

Great Neck North High School

John L. Miller Great Neck North High School or simply "North High," or "North," is a public high school, including grades 9 through 12, in the village of Great Neck, New York, operated by the Great Neck School District...

 in Great Neck, New York

Great Neck, New York

The term Great Neck is commonly applied to a peninsula on the North Shore of Long Island, which includes the village of Great Neck, the village of Great Neck Estates, the village of Great Neck Plaza, and others, as well as an area south of the peninsula near Lake Success and the border of Queens...

, where he scored 28.7 points and pulled down 17 rebounds per game in 1968-69, his senior year.

A 6'8" forward, Hankinson played at the University of Pennsylvania

University of Pennsylvania

The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...

 from 1970 to 1973. He participated on three Ivy League

Ivy League

The Ivy League is an athletic conference comprising eight private institutions of higher education in the Northeastern United States. The conference name is also commonly used to refer to those eight schools as a group...

 championship teams that reached the NCAA Tournament

NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship

The NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship is a single-elimination tournament held each spring in the United States, featuring 68 college basketball teams, to determine the national championship in the top tier of college basketball...

, and he was named team MVP in 1973.

After college, Hankinson was selected by the Boston Celtics

Boston Celtics

The Boston Celtics are a National Basketball Association team based in Boston, Massachusetts. They play in the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference. Founded in 1946, the team is currently owned by Boston Basketball Partners LLC. The Celtics play their home games at the TD Garden, which...

 in the second round of the NBA Draft

NBA Draft

The NBA Draft is an annual event in which the thirty teams from the National Basketball Association can draft players who are eligible and wish to join the league. These players are usually amateur U.S. college basketball players, but international players are also eligible to be drafted...

. He appeared in two seasons with the Celtics before a knee injury ended his playing career. Hankinson held NBA career averages of 3.9 points per game

Points per game

Points per game, often abbreviated PPG, is the average number of points scored by a player per game played in a sport, over the course of a series of games, a whole season, or a career. It is calculated by dividing the total number of points by number of games. The terminology is often used in...

 and 1.8 rebounds per game. He also won an NBA championship ring with the Celtics in 1974.

In November 1996, Hankinson was found shot in his car in Kentucky

Kentucky

The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...

, the victim of an apparent suicide

Suicide

Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...

. His father said that Hankinson had suffered from depression ever since his injury occurred.