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Donald Jay Ohl (April 18, 1936 – December 2, 2024) was an American professional basketball player for 10 seasons (1960–1970) in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Illinois Fighting Illini. The guard took part in five consecutive NBA All-Star Games (1963–1967).
Ohl attended Edwardsville High School, where he averaged 19.6 points per game in his senior year, 1953–1954, and his team finished fourth in the Illinois state basketball tournament. He also played baseball and golf in high school. As a basketball player, he made All-Southwestern Conference as a junior and senior, and was both first-team All-District and first-team All-State as a senior.
As Ohl told The Edwardsville (Ill.) Intelligencer in a 2008 interview, "'It may have been a mistake, but I didn't end up playing in the NBA until two years after I got drafted. I didn't think I was good enough for the NBA even though people who should have known kept telling me that I was. I started working for Caterpillar and they had a team in the Industrial League, which might be comparable to a farm club of the NBA.'" He played a couple of years in the NIBL.
"'In 1960, we won an AAU tournament in Denver, and the next week they had the Olympic Trials to see who would represent the U.S. in the Olympics. We played the final game against the college all-stars, who had a bunch of All-Americans like (future NBA stars) Oscar Robertson, Jerry West, Walt Bellamy and Jerry Lucas, and of course, they beat us.'"
Ohl performed well enough at the Olympic Trials to put himself back on the NBA radar. He was scouted by Detroit Pistons coach Dick McGuire, who acquired his rights from the Warriors, they made an offer that Ohl couldn't turn down. In his rookie year he went from bench player to starter, and by his third year with the Pistons he was an all-star, averaging 19.3 points a game. He made five consecutive NBA All-Star Teams from 1962–1963 to 1966–1967. He went on play 10 seasons for the Pistons, Baltimore Bullets, and St. Louis-Atlanta Hawks. He was the Bullets team MVP in 1965 and 1966. The crafty , 190-pounder (86 kg) scored 11,549 points, averaging 15.9 points per game for his career.
Ohl has the highest playoff scoring average in the Washington Wizards franchise history, at 26.23.
In 1968, Ohl was traded to the Hawks for Tom Workman and a third round draft choice. Two years later, he was taken in the 1970 NBA Expansion draft by the Cleveland Cavaliers but opted to retire at 34 years of age.
Ohl twice scored a career high of 43 points in a single game, first on January 23, 1963, in a 123–119 defeat against the Los Angeles Lakers and again on December 25, 1966, in a 129–127 loss to his former team, the Pistons.
"They called it the Brinks robbery out in Baltimore because it was so one-sided to Baltimore," Ohl told the Edwardsville (Ill.) Intelligencer. "Dickey McGuire was my coach my first two years and I just admired him to death. He quit and Charlie Wolf took over, and for me it was not a good situation and apparently for two or three other players, because they went with me. I was happy to get out. I liked Detroit, but I was ready to go."
In the 1964–65 campaign, Ohl, backcourt sidekick Kevin Loughery and the front line of Howell, Walt Bellamy and Gus Johnson carried the Bullets to the first playoff series victory in franchise history, a four-game upset of the St. Louis Hawks in the 1965 Western Division semifinals.
"(Lakers co-star Elgin) Baylor wasn't playing -- he was hurt," Ohl recalled. "It was the third game. It was in Baltimore. We played, we won and in the locker room I said, 'How many did West get?' and they said, '51 (points).' I said, '51, you got to be kidding me.' I think I had 35 or 38, I don't remember. I said, 'I guarantee you one thing you can print is he won't get 51 tomorrow night.'"
"We go play the next game, we win and I said, 'How many did West get?' They said, '53.' I said, 'You got to be kidding me.' (Fred) Schaus, the coach, just put him on the side of the floor, gave him the ball and let him work it in until he got a shot, because like I said, Baylor wasn't playing. Great player, good friend. I enjoy him."
| Detroit | 79* | 27.5 | .394 | .719 | 3.2 | 3.4 | 13.3 | ||
| Detroit | 77 | 32.8 | .444 | .718 | 3.5 | 3.2 | 17.0 | ||
| Detroit | 80* | 37.0 | .439 | .724 | 3.0 | 4.1 | 19.3 | ||
| Detroit | 71 | 33.3 | .408 | .680 | 2.5 | 3.2 | 17.3 | ||
| Baltimore | 77 | 36.6 | .438 | .732 | 4.4 | 3.2 | 18.4 | ||
| Baltimore | 73 | 36.2 | .445 | .735 | 3.8 | 4.0 | 20.6 | ||
| Baltimore | 58 | 34.9 | .451 | .780 | 3.3 | 2.9 | 20.3 | ||
| Baltimore | 39 | 28.1 | .433 | .770 | 2.9 | 2.2 | 14.8 | ||
| St. Louis | 31 | 26.5 | .454 | .783 | 2.0 | 2.4 | 13.1 | ||
| Atlanta | 76 | 26.3 | .427 | .707 | 2.2 | 2.9 | 12.1 | ||
| Atlanta | 66 | 14.9 | .473 | .806 | 1.7 | 1.7 | 6.3 | ||
| Career | 727 | 30.8 | .434 | .732 | 3.0 | 3.1 | 15.9 | ||
| All-Star | 5 | 0 | 17.4 | .372 | .933 | 1.8 | 1.4 | 9.2 | |
| 1961 | Detroit | 5 | 26.0 | .321 | .684 | 3.8 | 2.8 | 12.6 |
| 1962 | Detroit | 8 | 39.6 | .415 | .815 | 3.4 | 3.1 | 20.5 |
| 1963 | Detroit | 4 | 38.8 | .398 | .864 | 3.0 | 4.8 | 21.3 |
| 1965 | Baltimore | 10 | 43.2 | .481 | .782 | 6.4 | 2.7 | 26.1 |
| 1966 | Baltimore | 3 | 37.0 | .507 | .750 | 4.7 | 2.7 | 26.7 |
| 1968 | St. Louis | 6 | 23.8 | .482 | .682 | 2.0 | 3.5 | 11.5 |
| 1969 | Atlanta | 11 | 17.6 | .349 | .591 | 1.2 | 1.5 | 6.6 |
| Career | 47 | 31.5 | .427 | .752 | 3.4 | 2.8 | 16.9 | |
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