Harry Edward "Buddy" Jeannette (September 15, 1917 – March 11, 1998) was an American professional basketball player and coach.

Biography Jeannette was widely regarded as the premier backcourt player between 1938 and 1948. He was named to the First Team of the National Basketball League (NBL) four times, and won titles with the NBL's Sheboygan Red Skins in 1943 and Fort Wayne Pistons in 1944 and 1945. Jeannette also won a title with the American Basketball League's Baltimore Bullets in 1948.

Most of his playing career came prior to the formation of the modern National Basketball Association (NBA) in its predecessor leagues the National Basketball League (NBL) and Basketball Association of America (BAA) including three years as a player-coach for the original Baltimore Bullets of the Basketball Association of America (BAA). In the 1948 BAA playoffs, he became the first player-coach to win a professional championship. After his playing career ended in 1950, he coached the original Bullets for one more season. He then became the head coach at Georgetown University for four seasons, leading the team to an appearance in the 1953 National Invitation Tournament. In 1957, he was named head basketball and baseball coach at the University of Baltimore. Jeannette served as head coach of the Baltimore Bullets in the Eastern Professional Basketball League (EPBL) from 1958 to 1961.

Jeannette returned to the ranks of professional coaching in the NBA to lead the modern Baltimore Bullets twice, once for a full season and once as an interim coach. He later would coach the American Basketball Association's Pittsburgh Pipers for part of a season.

In 1994, Jeannette was enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Jeannette attended Washington and Jefferson College, in Washington, Pennsylvania.

Career playing statistics NBL

†Denotes seasons in which Jeannette's team won an NBL championship

NBL Source Regular season

| style="text-align:left;"| 1938–39 | style="text-align:left;"| Warren/Cleveland | 26 || 54 || 65 || || || 173 || 6.7 |- | style="text-align:left;"| 1939–40 | style="text-align:left;"| Detroit | 26 || 46 || 54 || || || 146 || 5.6 |- | style="text-align:left;"| 1940–41 | style="text-align:left;"| Detroit | 23 || 75 || 54 || 86 || .628 || 204 || 8.9 |- | style="text-align:left;background:#ffe6fa;"| 1942–43† | style="text-align:left;"| Sheboygan | 4 || 24 || 14 || 17 || .824 || 62 || 15.5 |- | style="text-align:left;background:#ffe6fa;"| 1943–44† | style="text-align:left;"| Fort Wayne | 22 || 68 || 48 || 65 || .738 || 184 || 8.4 |- | style="text-align:left;background:#ffe6fa;"| 1944–45† | style="text-align:left;"| Fort Wayne | 27 || 85 || 82 || 111 || .739 || 252 || 9.3 |- | style="text-align:left;"| 1945–46 | style="text-align:left;"| Fort Wayne | 34 || 99 || 105 || 136 || .772 || 303 || 8.9 |- |style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"|Career | 162 || 445 || 422 || 415 || .730 || 1,324 || 8.2

Playoffs Year Team GP FGM FTM FTA FT% PTS PPG 1940 Detroit 3 6 8 20 6.7 1941 Detroit 3 8 5 21 7.0 1943† Sheboygan 5 16 17 49 9.8 1944† Fort Wayne 5 12 10 34 6.8 1945† Fort Wayne 7 22 23 67 9.6 1946 Fort Wayne 4 7 5 6 .833 19 4.8Career 27 71 68 6 .833 210 7.8

BAA/NBA

Regular season Year Team GP FG% FT% APG PPG 1947–48† Baltimore 46 .349* .758 1.5 10.7 1948–49 Baltimore 56 .367 .784 2.2 5.6 Baltimore 37 .284 .820 2.5 5.2Career 139 .341 .781 2.1 7.2

Playoffs Year Team GP FG% FT% APG PPG 1948† Baltimore 11 .492 .881 1.1 8.8 1949 Baltimore 3 .154 1.000 1.7 2.7Career 14 .432 .891 1.2 7.5

Head coaching record Sources

BAA/NBA/ABA

|- style="background:#FDE910;" | style="text-align:left;"|Baltimore | style="text-align:left;"| |28||20||48|||| align="center"|2nd in Western||11||8||3|| | style="text-align:center;"|Won BAA Championship |- | style="text-align:left;"|Baltimore | style="text-align:left;"| |60||29||31|||| align="center"|3nd in Eastern||3||1||2|| | style="text-align:center;"|Lost in Division Semifinals

| style="text-align:left;"|Baltimore | style="text-align:left;"| |68||25||43||||align="center"|5th in Eastern||–||–||–||– | style="text-align:center;"|Missed playoffs |- | style="text-align:left;"|Baltimore | style="text-align:left;"| |37||14||23|||| align="center"|–||–||–||–||– | style="text-align:center;"|Fired |- | style="text-align:left;"|Baltimore | style="text-align:left;"| |80||37||43|||| align="center"|3rd in Western||10||5||5|| | style="text-align:center;"|Lost Division Finals |- | style="text-align:left;"|BaltimoreJeannette was one of three head coaches for Baltimore during the season. Mike Farmer had coached Baltimore to a 1–8 record in its first nine games when Jeannette took over. Jeannette served as interim head coach for the next 16 games. Gene Shue then took over as head coach, posting a 16–40 record to lead Baltimore to a 20–61 finish. | style="text-align:left;"| |16||3||13|||| align="center"|–|||–||–||–||– | style="text-align:center;"|Interim |- | style="text-align:left;"|PittsburghJeannette was Pittsburghs second head coach of the season, taking over the team from John Clark after it had gone 14–25 in its first 39 games. Jeannette coached Pittsburghs remaining 45 games, leading the team to a 29–55 finish. | style="text-align:left;"| |45||15||30|||| align="center"|–|||–||–||–||– | style="text-align:center;"|Missed playoffs |- class="sortbottom" | style="text-align:left;"|Career (BAA/NBA) | ||309||136||173|||| ||24||14||10|||| |- class="sortbottom" | style="text-align:left;"|Career (overall) | ||573||326||247|||| ||24||14||10||||

College

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References

Further reading

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