My knowledge of basketball is not extensive, as Alan knows, but I can shed a little light on Billy Ray Bates.  He came up to the Blazers from the Continental League and quickly became a fan favorite as a scoring machine off the bench, with a knack for hitting big shots in the clutch.  Everyone loved him.  Then came attitude problems and drugs.  (The drugs may have been the source of the attitude problems, as he seemed a nice guy the first year or so.)  Soon he's missing team buses, then practices, then games.  His nickname among teammates was "The Late Billy Ray Bates."  Pretty soon he got the boot.

>From: "Holst, Alan R" <HolstAR@...>
>To: <mnbuckets@yahoogroups.com>, <brian_burns@...>,        "Steve and Felicia Holgate" <holgatefamily@...>
>Subject: Scoring Leaders
>Date: Tue, 9 Aug 2005 13:43:05 -0400
>
>
>I was checking out databaseBasketball.com during lunch, and tried a
>search for all time NBA scoring leaders PER 48 MINUTES.  The top ten,
>not surprisingly when you think about it, was entirely made up of guys
>who had a cup of coffee and hit a couple of shots.  (The all time leader
>is the immortal Worthy Patterson.)  The top ten played a total of 31
>minutes in their NBA careers COMBINED.
>
>Among players who played at least ten games, the all time leader is
>Travis "Machine Gun" Grant, who averaged 39 points per 48 minutes in the
>33 games of his one NBA season.  When you consider that he is the all
>time scoring leader in college basketball history (he is the only
>college player to top 4,000 points, which Division II or no is pretty
>impressive) and that he averaged 25 points per game the one season he
>got a chance to start in the ABA (his other 2 ABA seasons he topped 30
>points per 48 minutes in more limited time) it makes you wonder why the
>heck he never got more of a chance.  Jeez, even if he couldn't guard his
>grandmother you'd think a lot of teams could have found a spot for him
>to score some points off the bench.
>
>Another surprise in the top ten among those who played at least 10 NBA
>games is Ron Bonham, who averaged 33.7 points per 48 minutes in 76 NBA
>games.  He was also an consensus first team All American and a national
>champion at Cincinnati, and when he finished his high school career was
>the all time leading scorer in Indiana high school basketball history!
>Why didn't HE play more?
>
>DERRICK Gervin averaged 30 points per 48 minutes in 77 NBA games.
>
>The top 50 players who played at least 100 NBA games are as follows.
>
>1. Michael Jordan 37.8 per 48 minutes
>2. George Gervin 37.5
>3. Freeman Williams 34.4 (#2 all time Division I scorer,
>twice led nation in scoring)
>4. Shaquille O'Neal 34.3
>5. John Drew 33.6
>6. Dominique Wilkins 33.6
>7. David Thompson 33.2
>8. Jerry West 33.1
>9. Elgin Baylor 32.8
>10. Bob Pettit 32.7
>11. Adrian Dantley 32.6
>12. Walter Davis 32.5
>13. Karl Malone 32.3
>14. Alex English 32.3
>15. Kareem Abdul Jabbar 32.1
>16. Bernard King 32.1
>17. World Free 32.0
>18. Mark Aguirre 32.0
>19. Bob McAdoo 31.8
>20. Allen Iverson 31.7
>21. Billy Ray Bates 31.7
>22. Wilt Chamberlain 31.5
>23. Dan Issel 31.5
>24. Pete Maravich 31.5
>25. Robert Hawkins 31.4
>26. Kiki Vandeweghe 31.3
>27. Billy McGill 30.9
>28. Julius Erving 30.7
>29. Kobe Bryant 30.7
>30. Rick Barry 30.6
>31. Tracy McGrady 30.5
>32. Sam Jones 30.5
>33. John Williamson 30.4
>34. Vince Carter 30.4
>35. Tommy Heinsohn 30.4
>36. Larry Bird 30.4
>37. Clyde Lovellette 30.1
>38. Cliff Hagan 29.7
>39. Flynn Robinson 29.7
>40. Quintin Dailey 29.5
>41. Mike Mitchell 29.4
>42. Paul Westphal 29.4
>43. Ricky Pierce 29.3
>44. Patrick Ewing 29.3
>45. Paul Pierce 29.3
>46. Hakeem Olajuwon 29.2
>47. Oscar Robertson 29.2
>48. Paul Arizin 29.2
>49. Billy Cunningham 29.2
>50. Moses Malone 29.2
>
>Lou Hudson (28.9) and Kevin McHale (27.6) both made the top 100.
>Minutes played were not recorded during George Mikan's first three years
>in the league.
>
>Even more than Travis Grant, I wonder Billy Ray Bates, Robert Hawkins,
>Flynn Robinson and Freeman Williams couldn't get more playing time.
>(Did they have personal/behavioral problems like Quintin Dailey?)
>
>