Darnell Valentine culminated his magical and tremendous career in 1981 as KU’s No. 2 all-time leading scorer (1,821 points) behind Clyde Lovellete, the school’s all-time assist leader with 609, while also ranking first in steals with 336 and free throws made (541).
Thirty-nine years later, his steals and free throws made still rank No. 1, while he is No. 7 in scoring and No. 6 in assists.
Valentine’s records, indeed, have stood the test of time.
“I didn’t realize they kept records back in those days. I think that a lot of these records would certainly have been broken if guys would have stayed for the whole four years of college,” Valentine said on Jan. 1, 2005 before the KU-Georgia Tech game and his jersey retirement ceremony in Allen Fieldhouse.
“I look at the Paul Pierces and the Drew Goodens and those guys, they had phenomenal careers. They probably would have shattered everything. The way the climate is now, guys opt to go to the big leagues and play.”
Valentine, a second-team AP All-American his senior year in 1981, averaged 15.4 points, 5.2 assists, 2.8 steals and 3.6 rebounds in 33.1 minutes per game over 118 contests during his career, while shooting 47.6 percent from the field and 71.8 percent at the free throw line.
He is the only player in Big Eight history to be named first-team All-League four years, while also selected as a three-time Academic All-American. He achieved a 3.3 GPA in pre-law.
Former KU coach Ted Owens marveled at Valentine’s contributions — on and off the hardwood.
“He was a complete person. He did it all,” Owens gushed.
But more than all the records was Valentine’s extreme dedication to his craft. Nobody who ever donned a Jayhawk uniform ever worked harder or played better defense.
That was 100 percent effort each time in practice and games.
“It was a passion of mine,” Valentine said.
Owens was asked about his favorite memory of Valentine on the Jayhawk Network Crimson and Blue pregame show that special day on Jan. 1, 2005.
He didn’t hesitate with his reply.
“I think just working with him every day,” Owens said. “We’ve had some great players, some hard working players, but in four years, he never failed one day to come to the court without great motivation. He wasn’t good by accident. He was good because he worked at it every single day. Just the opportunity to work with someone with that kind of attitude really was a highlight.”
Valentine has many fond memories of his KU career.
“Coach Owens, he just created a platform for me to perform well, there were so many good memories,” he said. “I really couldn’t pick one of them. I really used to enjoy going up to Kemper Arena and having those holiday tournaments. That was jut the cat’s meow for me. I think we had a lot of success. My senior year, we were able to go up and win at the end of the year, the Big Eight Tournament there, so that was a crowning moment that really stands out.
“... I think that it’s just unreal, every day, we played so hard, we practiced so hard, that was just so much fun knowing that everyone had the same agenda, same motive to improve. Coach Owens and his direction and guidance, he just kept us growing as players. As I’m reflecting, I just tried to do it all, and coach provided me the platform to do it.”
Valentine, a Wichita Heights prep phenom who was one of the first players in Kansas to be recruited nationally, was now asked about his legacy.
“I’m not real sure, I haven’t really though about my legacy. I’m not old enough to think about a legacy,” said Valentine, who was 45 years old at the time of his jersey retirement. “But I think one thing that was instilled in me, my mother instilled in me was the fact I had a real strong work ethic. I was dedicated to the game and I respected the game. Coming from Wichita, Kansas, a small community, just being able to blaze a trail so to speak, put a spotlight on the players that were there was a tremendous accomplishment I think, and I cherished it. Providing other opportunities for other players from the city, and then coming here and making a contribution and feeling like I did make a contribution.”
Indeed, Valentine “blazed a trail” for future high school standouts and college stars from Wichita like Ricky Ross, Antoine Carr, Greg Dreiling and Aubrey Sherrod, who were also recruited nationally.
“That was really a special time. But they’ve always had good players, even before my time,” Valentine said. “But on the national scene, it was difficult for people to believe, or have the confidence that Wichita could produce quality players that could perform on the national stage. With myself coming through there and creating so much exposure, and that was only because I went outside the system and I got exposure by going to a high school camp that was national (Howard Garfinkel’s prestigious Five-Star camp in Wheeling, West Virginia), and I did very well.”
Valentine, a muscular 6-1, 180-pound point guard with tree-trunk legs, cherished his high school days starring for Heights, where they went 23-0 his senior year in 1976-77, blowing teams out with a margin of 40 points per game in what is considered the best prep team in Kansas history. Valentine led Heights with 26.0 points per game and simply dominated on defense, just like he did at KU.
“I had the question posed to me the other day, what was the best time I had playing basketball, and I said when I played high school basketball that year,” Valentine said. “That was incredible year we had. That team was fantastic. You look at the time. I think I was the first All-American out of Wichita. And then after that, we had Antoine Carr, he and I both had reasonably good (NBA careers). I think Antoine played 17 or 18 years in the NBA (16 years). Then, we had Calvin Alexander, who was a top 10 heavyweight boxer.
“... That was a phenomenal team. That was a family. Coach Lafayette (Norwood) was the father of the family, and the head. He gave us a lot of incredible instructions and life lessons. I think it all made a difference in our lives, his presence and that whole experience. That was a great experience.
“We were quite fortunate,” Valentine added. “I had the chance to play with Antoine Carr, Calvin Alexander, Doc Holden. I think we were a little ahead of our time. That was really a special time for us. I think that what we accomplished was pretty remarkable.”
Every KU fan knew how great Valentine was in high school and college. And they also marveled about his muscular legs, which also became his trademark in his nine-year NBA career.
David Lawrence of the Jayhawk Radio Network talked to Valentine about his legs before the KU-Georgia Tech game and his jersey retirement in 2005 on the Crimson and Blue show. Lawrence played football at Kansas during the same years that Valentine created his magic at Kansas.
“You were everyone’s favorite player, including ours,” Lawrence said, “but a lot of the guys had a hard time with you because anytime we were out on dates, our coeds would always remind us, no mater how much we lifted weights, we didn’t quite match up with Darnell Valentine.”
Valentine just smiled.
“My mom gave me these big old legs,” he said. “That’s my only forte. People don’t remember that I played a little bit. They call you the guy with the big legs. So that was my mark.”
“That was long before weights were really in vogue with basketball players,” Owens added.
Tim Jankovich, a KU assistant coach at the time, who battled against Valentine as a K-State point guard for two years, admits he was "scared" of Valentine's big legs.
Jankovich truly admired Valentine.
“I’m just glad that I’m not having to play today and he’s not guarding me,” Jankovich said. “I thought he was one of the best defensive players that I’ve ever played against. We came out the same year in high school, he was in Wichita and I was from Manhattan. We never played in high school, but I was well aware of him. Of course, playing against each other, I had a great deal of respect for him. He was a tremendous player. I though the was an even better defensive player than offensive player. He was an awfully good offensive player, and certainly well deserving of having his jersey retired.
“Darnell was way ahead of his time,” Jankovich added. “At KU, we’ve had some guys ahead of our time. We’ve had Wilt Chamberlain, who was about 50 years ahead of his time. Darnell was probably a good 20 years ahead of his time. He was rock solid. He had the biggest legs I’ve ever seen. His legs frightened me. I was scared of his legs. I didn’t want him to put a knee in my mine and break it off. He was so strong and athletic and explosive.
“He was a heck of a player.”
Indeed, he was. Especially on defense, where he he locked up opposing team’s point guards and seemingly stole the ball at will.
“He was the very heart of our defense,” Owens said. “When you had to fight Darnell coming up the court and you couldn’t break him down, then the rest of us could get out and over play our men. He was incredible. I’ll never forget one night at Oklahoma, everyone got tired of him stealing the ball, so finally Oklahoma just decked him on the other end of the court. Then I did a stupid thing, got into a little conversations with (OU coach) Dave Bliss. Darnell’s mother, Rose, called me and she said, ‘I’m proud of you coach even though the Big Eight conference is after you.’”
Valentine also had few peers when it came to penetrating the lane. He was extremely quick with the dribble and could easily blow by his man and get into the paint. Valentine was often compared to Jo Jo White when he played at KU. White was also an All-American at KU and is enshrined in the Naismith Hall of Fame after spending most of his NBA career starring for the Boston Celtics.
“Darnell and Jo Jo have a lot of likeness. Both have a great attitude towards work and both are complete players,” Owens told The Sporting News during Valentine’s sophomore season in 1978-79.
“But Jo Jo never penetrated like Darnell. Darnell does that better than anyone I’ve ever seen.”
“Valentine is quicker than Jo Jo and penetrates better,” Red Auerbach, who was general manager of the Celtics at the time who drafted White out of Kansas and one of the most respected minds in basketball history, told The Sporting News after watching Valentine earn MVP honors in the 1978 Big Eight Holiday Tournament.
Opposing coaches would devise schemes to stop Valentine from penetrating. In his biography in the Wichita Sports Hall of Fame, it noted that “he was such a force as a penetrating point guard that he forced KU nemesis Coach Jack Hartman of Kansas State to create a 3-2 zone defense specially designed just to try to stop Valentine.”
Twenty-four years after he led KU to the Sweet 16 and became an All-American, Valentine was thrilled that his No. 14 jersey was being retired and hanging in the rafters for all time. A great honor for someone who did so much for Kansas. Dressed dapper in a maroon suit and looking svelte like he could play today — “I’m still playing weight, baby” — Valentine talked before the KU-Georgia Tech game on New Year’s Day, 2005 about what an honor it was.
“This is large, this is an incredible opportunity for me just to come back,” Valentine said. “This is like the crowning moment for me. I don’t know how involved, or what my presence will be from this point forward, other than another time for them to recognize me. This is the crowning of my adult life right now.”
Asked about it taking 24 years since he left KU for his jersey to be retired, Valentine gave an eloquent reply.
“I was just looking at the media guide. There was a gentleman in 1927 whose jersey was retired in 2002. I forget this name,” Valentine said. “That was a great era. ... Jo Jo, he left here in ‘69. His jersey wasn’t retired until 2001. It seems like 24 years is a nice place. I can certainly appreciate it and I can relish that it is happening now and come back and be excited about it and fully appreciate what it means.”
However, Valentine felt slighted about it taking so long to have his jersey retired when talking previously to a Portland newspaper, his hometown where he’s lived since retiring from the NBA.
“I am excited, no question,” Valentine said. “But they retired the numbers of so many of their recent players — Raef LaFrentz, Nick Collison, Jacque Vaughn — within a year or two after they left Kansas. I think the timing for me is a little bit off, to say the least.”
Even the great players, leaders, and tremendous people have their faults and imperfections. Valentine certainly did. He had a big ego and hurt KU basketball at times during his career. When former KU assistant and then-Knicks assistant coach Bob Hill spoke to my class at KU in 1985, I asked him who the best player he’s ever coached.
Without hesitation, Hill replied:
“Darnell Valentine.”
Hill, though, quickly added that Valentine wasn’t the most coachable player. He said that Valentine would break down plays at the end of the game and KU would lose. Hill added that everyone blamed Owens when it was Valentine’s fault.
This is painful to write, because I truly idolized Valentine growing up and he meant so much to me and I followed his NBA career so religiously and had pictures of him all over my wall as true inspiration. I put him on a pedestal; to me, he could do no wrong. He used to be my all-time favorite Jayhawk before Tony Guy replaced him in my heart.
But Guy — Valentine’s teammate for three years — told me in 1999 that Valentine was a very selfish player that was only concerned about furthering his career, instead of winning.
Guy gave an example of Ricky Ross, Valentine’s teammate in 1979-80 who was well-known to be extremely selfish with a big ego. One game, Guy told told me, Ross had a big scoring night but KU lost. Everyone was despondent in the locker room except Ross. Ricky couldn’t understand why his teammates were down after his high scoring game.
“That’s how Darnell was,” Guy said.
However, Guy greatly admired Valentine’s defense and work ethic.
“I wouldn’t say we were friends,” he said. “I had a great deal of respect for that guy. The guy was an incredible athlete, his work ethic was phenomenal.”
But?
“He was very selfish and it cost us dearly,” Guy said. “He wanted to get his. When I played, Darnell was basically allowed to do whatever he wanted and whenever he wanted to do it. And it cost us. We weren’t nearly the teams we could have been under Darnell. A tremendous basketball player, but he used all of his skills to enhance his own career. That’s all he was about.
“Darnell could have made it possible for two or three other guys to have gone to the NBA,” Guy added. “That’s how good Darnell was. That’s what Magic (Johnson) did (for Michigan State). Jay Vincent (he played nine years in the NBA) and Gregory Kelser (No. 4 overall pick in 1979 by Dick Vitale's-coached Detroit Pistons who played five years in the NBA) weren’t great basketball players. But every time time you saw them, they were dunking it. That was Magic. They were just average basketball players. Magic was about winning championships. How do you measure a great player? You measure a great player by his ability to make those around him better than they actually are. It’s about winning. Team sports is about winning
“... Darnell was a phenomenal player,” Guy continued. “Trust me, I had to play with him every day and against. The guy was incredible. There was not a guy that I played against that I had to worry about another team’s point guard. Other than one--Larry Drew (Missouri star). One of the best players that we played against. He could shoot, but more important, he used his skills to help his team win. He could have shot more than he actually shot.”
Despite these critical comments about Valentine, Guy admitted that “Darnell was a lot of fun to play with. We had a lot of laughs. Had a great time with him. But we had a lot of disappointments, too.”
Max Falkenstien was also negative of Valentine in his 1996 book, Max and the Jayhawks:
“Darnell was a fabulous player for KU, but I felt that often he tried to do too much at the expense of the team.”
While these are critical remarks, there is no question that Darnell Terrell Valentine is one of KU’s all-time greats and certainly left his mark at Kansas.
No. 14 definitely has a special place in Owens’ heart. He couldn’t have been more elated to see his jersey retired 15 years ago.
“Darnell Valentine is one of the greatest players we’ve ever had here,” Owens told the Jayhawk Radio Network on Jan. 1, 2005.
“It’s a wonderful day. To see him honored is a blessing for all of us.”
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