St. Louis Built a Four-Asset Package for Larry Foust
Basketball-Reference's Minneapolis, St. Louis and league transaction ledgers all date the Larry Foust deal to February 1, 1960, one day later than the legacy Atlanta-source record. The verified core package sent Foust to St. Louis for Chuck Share and the draft rights to Nick Mantis and Willie Merriweather. Pro Sports Transactions and the APBR Lakers chronology also preserve a $10,000 cash payment from St. Louis to Minneapolis. Because the stronger cluster of team, league and chronology sources uses February 1, the source-backed review corrects the canonical date while retaining the cash term supported outside Basketball-Reference.
Foust Strengthened Two Finals Teams
Foust gave the Hawks a useful veteran center for the rest of his NBA career. He played 25 games after the trade in 1959-60, then 68 games in 1960-61 and 57 more in 1961-62. Across those 150 St. Louis regular-season games he scored 1,359 points and grabbed 899 rebounds. His role was no longer the All-Star-level centerpiece it had been earlier in the decade, but he remained a dependable interior contributor on teams that reached the 1960 and 1961 NBA Finals. The immediate return was especially efficient: Foust averaged 10.2 points and 7.3 rebounds in 22.6 minutes during his 25-game finish to the 1959-60 season.
Minneapolis Received Almost No Lasting Production
The Lakers received several assets on paper, but very little of the basketball value lasted. Share appeared in only three regular-season games for Minneapolis before his NBA career ended. Mantis played 10 games for the Lakers in 1959-60, totaling 71 minutes and 21 points, then spent the next two seasons outside the NBA before later resurfacing elsewhere. Merriweather never played in an NBA game. The $10,000 cash payment gave Minneapolis guaranteed financial consideration, and that prevents the return from being graded as a complete zero. Still, the three basketball assets produced only 13 Lakers regular-season appearances combined.
The Contender Converted Spare Parts into a Starting Center
This is one of the clearer veteran-for-depth exchanges in the early archive. St. Louis gave up an aging reserve center, two draft-rights assets with limited or no NBA impact, and cash, then received 150 games from Foust plus meaningful frontcourt minutes on two Finals teams. Minneapolis gained flexibility and some money, but the actual player return barely materialized. Share was at the end of his career, Mantis never became part of the rotation, and Merriweather never reached the league. The difference is not superstar upside; it is simply that one side received three seasons of usable NBA production while the other received almost none.
Final Verdict
Hawks Win — St. Louis A-, Minneapolis C. St. Louis acquired Larry Foust from the Minneapolis Lakers in a transaction Basketball-Reference dates to February 1, 1960. The Hawks sent Chuck Share plus the draft rights to Nick Mantis and Willie Merriweather, while Pro Sports Transactions and a contemporary Lakers chronology also preserve a $10,000 cash payment to Minneapolis. Foust then played 150 regular-season games for St. Louis over the remainder of his career, contributing to consecutive NBA Finals runs in 1960 and 1961. Share appeared in only three regular-season games for Minneapolis, Mantis played 10, and Merriweather never appeared in the NBA. The surviving evidence therefore supports a clear Hawks win and also corrects the legacy January 31 date to February 1.