Dave was born in Detroit and attended Austin Catholic Preparatory School.  As a youngster, he played in the CYO (Catholic Youth Organization) grade school football league and Pony League baseball.  In Pony League baseball, he pitched and led his team to a state championship, but they lost in the regional championship.  In high school, Dave starred in basketball and baseball.  In basketball, he was named All-State as a junior and as a senior.  In just the school’s third year of organized basketball, he led his team to the Michigan Class A high school state championship.  He also pitched on the baseball team and helped lead them to the city championship.  Dave attended the University of Detroit where he starred in both basketball and baseball.  As a rugged 6’6” and near 230 pound forward, he averaged 24.8 points and 19.3 rebounds a game helping lead the team to their first post-season appearances, the National Invitation Tournament in 1960 and 1961 and the NCAA tournament in 1962.  He earned numerous accolades in the process including All-American honors in his sophomore through senior years.  He also earned All-American honors as a pitcher in baseball and helped lead the Titans baseball squad to three NCAA appearances.  Following college, Dave was sought after by his hometown Detroit Tigers, but they did not want him to also play another sport.  So, he signed as a free agent with the Chicago White Sox when they offered him a $75,000 bonus and allowed him to play basketball.  He was drafted by the Detroit Pistons in the 1962 NBA Draft as a territorial pick later in the month.  He is one of thirteen in history to play both in the NBA and MLB.  With the White Sox, Dave began in the class A Southern Atlantic League with Savannah/Lynchburg and had an outstanding season, going 10-1 with a 2.49 ERA.  He also was called up to the White Sox and pitched 18 innings with a 3.50 ERA and no decisions.  He then joined the Pistons, where he averaged 12.7 points and 8.7 rebounds per game and was named to the NBA All-Rookie team.  Dave returned to baseball in 1963 and spent the entire year with the White Sox, going 3-4 with a 3.09 ERA.  He then returned to the Pistons but was injured for most of the year and played only 15 games.  For 1964, he was assigned to White Sox Triple AAA squad in Indianapolis where he went 15-8, tying for third in wins for the league, and posting an ERA of 3.93.  In November, after a 2-9 start in 1964 Pistons owner, Fred Zollner named Dave player-coach.  Many believed he did this to get Dave to fully commit to basketball.  At only 24, he was the youngest coach in NBA history.  Dave returned to the Triple AAA Indianapolis squad for 1965 and had another successful year in the minors, going 15-12 with a 3.65 ERA.  He received another call up to the White Sox late in the season but decided to turn it down and to focus on just basketball.  With the Pistons and basketball now being his full-time focus, Dave hoped this would help his additional coaching duties.   He was putting up very good statistics, but the Pistons weren’t winning.  After three years as a player-coach (at ages 24-26) and having a losing record each year, he stepped down from his coaching position.  On December 19, 1968, Dave was traded by the Pistons to the New York Knicks.  The trade transformed the Knicks from a good team to a great team.  DeBusschere, as his teammate Walt Frazier and coach Red Holzman later declared, was the missing piece that made the Knicks a championship squad.  The transformation was immediate.  In his first 15 games with the Knicks, they went 14-1.  They finished third in the NBA Eastern Division and made the playoffs, where they won the Eastern Division semifinals 4-0 over the Baltimore Bullets (the Knicks first playoff series win since 1953).  They lost the Eastern Division Semifinals to the Boston Celtics (2-4).  In 1969-70, Dave’s first full season with the Knicks, the Knicks went 62-20 and finished first in the NBA Eastern Division.  The Knicks then swept through the playoffs defeating the Bullets 4-3 in the Eastern semifinals, the Milwaukee Bucks and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar 4-1 in the Eastern finals, and the Los Angeles Lakers 4-3 in the NBA Finals giving the Knicks their first NBA championship.  Dave averaged 19 points and 12.6 rebounds a game in the finals.  The next year, the Knicks made it to the playoffs but lost in the 1971 NBA Eastern conference finals to the Bullets 4-3.  In 1972, the Knicks made it back to the NBA finals but lost to the Lakers, 1-4.  In 1973, the Knicks made it back to the NBA finals, facing the Lakers for the third time in four seasons, and won their second NBA championship 4-1.  Dave averaged 15.6 points and 11.6 rebounds a game in the finals.  Dave played one more season averaging 18.1 points a game and 10.7 rebounds a game.  In his final year, he had the highest field goal percentage and free throw percentage of his career and tied his game high with a 41-point game.

Dave’s NBA accolades include 2X NBA champion, 8X NBA All-Star, 6X NBA All-Defensive First Team (every season of his career after the inception of the award), All-NBA Second Team, and NBA All-Rookie First Team.

Following his NBA career, at 33, Dave became general manager (on a 10 Year, $750,000 contract) of the New York Nets of the ABA.  The next year, at 34, Dave gave up that position when he was unanimously elected by the 10-man ABA board as the ABA’s seventh commissioner for the 1975-76 season (on multi-year contract estimated at $100,000 to 125,000 a year), which would prove to be the last for the league.  He helped bring about the merger of the NBA and ABA on June 17th, 1976, which added 4 teams (each paying the NBA $3.2 million to join the league) bringing the total NBA teams from 18 to 22.  The ABA teams added were Denver Nuggets, Indiana Pacers, New York Nets, and San Antonio Spurs.  In addition to the 4 teams added, 2 other teams’ players from the ABA (St. Louis and Kentucky) were absorbed into the NBA via the 1976 ABA Dispersal Draft.