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History Repeating?
Posted by: Matt Sanchez on April 21st, 2011
The author's views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of the Utah Jazz.
Steve Alford was a basketball God.
The son of a coach, he spent his childhood shooting jumpers in an empty gym, often in the middle of the night.
He starred at New Castle Chrysler High School averaging 37.7 points per game his senior season. He received many accolades and was named Mr. Basketball in Indiana. An award that has gone to: Oscar Robertson, Glenn Robinson, Greg Oden and Eric Gordon, among others.
In a state where basketball lore is told as bedtime stories, Alford was the prize of Indiana.
He stayed home and played ball for Bob Knight at Indiana University. As a freshman he helped the Hoosiers beat North Carolina (and Michael Jordan) in the ‘84 NCAA Tournament.
Again Alford racked up the honors. He was Big-Ten player of the year and named to the All-America First Team his junior and senior seasons.
If that wasn’t enough he led Indiana to the NCAA Championship in 1987 when the Hoosiers knocked off Syracuse 74-73. Alford finished the title game with 23 points, hitting 7-10 from the 3-point line.
As a 4 year star at Indiana he left as the school’s all-time leading scorer and held career averages of: 20 points, 3 assists and 3 rebounds. He shot a blistering 90% from the free throw line and 53% from 3-point range.
He was part of the Gold Medal winning 1984 Olympic Basketball team along with Michael Jordan, Patrick Ewing, Chris Mullin and Sam Perkins. He recalled a story that Jordan said he would never last all four years playing under Bob Knight.
At 6′ 2″ he was the kind of player that always had to beat the odds. He wasn’t the biggest. He wasn’t the fastest. But he proved the doubters wrong.
The Indiana Pacers had the 11th pick in the draft and needed someone to work hard, shoot the ball well and stretch the floor. Somone that would sell tickets and jerseys, get fans excited about the future and be the face of the franchise. They needed a player to take the team to the next level.
Naturally, who did the fans want?
Fans were adamant about the Pacers keeping the Alford in Indiana. It seemed like a natural fit. The Pacers needed a face and the fans wanted their hometown guy.
Sound familiar?
1987 NBA Draft
Former Pacers GM Donnie Walsh had pressure from everywhere about taking Alford. He did decide to go with a shooter, but it wasn’t the Hoosier.
The Pacers selected…Reggie Miller from UCLA.
Fans booed the picked and couldn’t believe the team passed on what seemed to be a no-brainer.
Miller went on to have a hall-of-fame caliber career, spending all 18 of his seasons in Indiana, and leading to the team to the Eastern Conference Finals six times.
Alford ending up playing four seasons in the NBA, starting in three games. He has since become a successful college coach and is currently the head man at the University of New Mexico.
Will a little history be repeating 24 years later?
Replies: 15
Views: 3146
15 Responses
Alford and Jimmer should spend some time on the phone before the draft.
Whoa, that does sound familiar. Good work man
Much like the Blazers passing on Michael Jordan to get to?? I can’t think of his name he was so much of a bust.
Except the fact that Alford probably could play defense. Don’t want Jimmer. He won’t fit in the system. He’ll be good in a fast paced team: Phoenix or New York. Maybe even Milwaukee were they shoot a lot of unnecessary shots.
I want the Jazz to draft (assuming we have the 6th and 12th) Knight and Burkes or Hamilton.
Great connection, the only places where I don’t see it full connect is the fact that Jimmer didn’t grow up in Utah, and that there was actually a Reggie Miller in that draft, there’s not something like that in this draft.
and @ LK Anderson: I’m pretty sure it was Sam Bowie, but I may be wrong, I’m about 94% sure.
@Ryan, you don’t know there isn’t a Reggie in this draft yet. You just can’t make a statement like that. But on the other hand, it was Same Bowie. How did the Blazers know they were going to draft a player before, not only 3 HOF’s, but 3 of the 50 best players of all time. The little factoid only affirms my the first part of my statement.
Thanks for reading everyone.
There are always differences when comparing apples to apples. This one is bigger. This one is greener. This one is sweeter.
@Gerald, well said. We keep hearing this draft is “weak” but nobody knows how they will shape in 10 years.
I agree that Jimmer wouldn’t fit in the Jazz system. I’ve said multiple times he would be better suited in a run and gun system such as the Knicks. But, just like the Blazers drafted Bowie ahead of Jordan, you just never know…
Until about 7 years down the road that is, haha.
I don’t think Jimmer really relates to this on equal standings yes both players were/are seriously hyped up. But Jimmer did not accomplish what ALford did. Plus a lot of people forget that BYU was a pretty defensive team despite Jimmer.
That being said I prefer we get Vesely/Knights/that Bismack guy at 6 and either Hamilton/Jones/Jimmer at 12 in that order. Hamilton could come in and contribute on our team right away, and his ability to play SG/SF is very tempting.
@Matt, thanks. I would like to believe I make pretty good points. Its only a few, but there are times I’m way off, haha.
Sometimes luck or bad luck also plays it’s way. Again the Blazers front and center. Oden instead of Durant. Trading to let Jazz take D-Will. What could have been..
Nice story, but you don’t know that Jimmer ISN’T going to turn out to be a ‘Reggie Miller’.
He probably won’t, but you can’t know that yet. Jimmer’s from NY btw, he just went to college at BYU.
With all the people dropping out out of the draft, it might turn out that Jimmer IS the best player at pick #12. The hard part is it’s just one of those things you don’t know until 4-5 years later.
Jimmer will undoubtedly have to change his game wherever he ends up going. No NBA team is going to give him the ball and ask him to shoot it as much as he likes and then let him play easy zone defense. We know he can shoot. The real questions are whether he can do the other things he wasn’t required to do in college. And those are hard questions to answer until he has a shot at doing them. The answer might be yes and he’s a great player. It might be no and he’s a backup or a bust. We will see.
I do hope for Mr. Ferdette’s sake he go to a team that wants his skills and is willing to let him play his style and get some quality time. Hopefully not to a team that wants him to sell T-shirts and put paying rear ends in the seats, who only trots him out at the end of games to satisfy the screaming fans. I feel the Utah Jazz may be the second situation not the first.
Is history repeating itself? No. Why not? The stories seem awfully similar. Well, here’s the deal. Jimmer never beat a Michael Jordan in the NCAA tournament and Jimmer never led BYU to a national championship game. Jimmer didn’t play on the Olympic team (yes, he never had the opportunity, but if the Olympics were this summer, I don’t think Jimmer would’ve been invited). The team drafting Jimmer won’t draft him with the expectations that he will be the face of their franchise. The fans of Jimmer in Utah will want Jimmer on the Jazz (as is the case with every local guy), but they won’t expect him to be the face of the Jazz either. So no. History isn’t repeating itself. But nice try.
I think Jimmer will be a decent player in the NBA. In the right system with the right attitude I think he could flourish. Yes, you bring up the story of the Pacers passing on Alford for Reggie Miller and it working out very well, but I could think of several situations where the seemingly obvious choice was right in front of a team’s face but they took someone else and ended up kicking themselves in the shins for the next 15 years because the player they should’ve taken became an all star while the player the did take was a dud. You never know. The Jazz have two picks in this draft If we grab a center or Small Forward with the first pick and guys like Burks, Walker, and Knight are all gone by our second pick, I have no qualms with the Jazz taking a shot at Jimmer because there still is the chance he could turn into a great role player for us.