Willoughby had been arrested in March
HACKENSACK -- Former Nets basketball player Bill Willoughby agreed Tuesday to enter a pre-trial intervention program after an alleged scuffle with two city police officers.
Willoughby, 58, will take part in the program for six months and avoid prosecution. He will attend anger management as part of the program.
Willoughby declined to comment after a hearing in Bergen County Superior Court.
"There was no admission of anything," his attorney, Albert Wunsch III, said. "He's just a good man."
Willoughby was the subject of at least two suspicious person calls to police on March 2, 2016. He became nervous and tried to run when officers approached him on Clinton Place, police said.
He got into a scuffle with the police officers, who afterward found marijuana on him, police said. He was charged with possession of marijuana, resisting arrest and aggravated assault on a police officer.
The 6-foot, 8-inch Willoughby was one of the first high school players to make the jump from high school to the NBA when he was drafted by the Atlanta Hawks in 1975. He attended Dwight Morrow High School in Englewood.
However, his career was mostly undistinguished, aside from a 1981 game when he blocked Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's skyhook as a member of the Houston Rockets. His basketball life ended when he was 28, and he entered retirement broke after agents embezzled $1.1 million of his earnings.
Willoughby eventually graduated from Fairleigh Dickinson University in 2001 at the age of 44, giving a commencement address at Continental Airlines Arena--the same place he played his final NBA game in 1984.
Despite Willoughby's troubles, he later advised Kevin Garnett to make the jump from high school to the NBA, according to "Boys Among Men," a preps-to-pro history by writer Jonathan Abrams.
Myles Ma may be reached at mma@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MylesMaNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.