Darnell Valentine made his mark in the NBA

In my last blog entry, I wrote about Darnell Valentine’s jersey retirement in Allen Fieldhouse in 2005. Now, I feature him again with a story about his NBA career. I rank Valentine as the No. 3 former Jayhawk guard with the best NBA career behind Jo Jo White and Kirk Hinrich. And I have D.V. as the No. 11 ex-’Hawk overall with the top NBA career.

Like I did with Paul Mokeski, yet even more so, I followed Valentine’s pro career religiously as my fandom reached new heights. Every time he was on TV, it was like Hanukkah, a time to celebrate and rejoice with my dad in watching my childhood hero perform on basketball’s greatest stage. I remember getting so nervous when he was at the free throw line; I wanted so much for the ball to swish through the net. And when he missed, which wasn’t very often (78.7 percent career free throws), I felt badly for him. 

I would also listen to his games on the AM radio and chart his statistics for the season. Following Darnell in the NBA became a central part of my life in high school and college. The first thing I did when I got the paper was look at the box scores to see how Darnell performed the previous night. I cheered his successes and became saddened whenever he was injured. Once in college at KU, after he suffered an injury while playing for the Los Angeles Clippers, I took a break from studying in the stacks of Watson Library and wrote a long, heartfelt letter to him, closing with an inspirational poem about D.V. taking the ball coast to coast and scoring a layup over Moses Malone.

It was a letter I needed to write; I had to let my childhood hero know how important he was to me.

Several months later, Darnell wrote me back as I leaped for joy when the letter arrived in my mailbox. Oh, I’ll never forget that letter postmarked Dec. 17, 1986 written on stationary from the Holiday Inn Westwood Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles:

“Dear David: How are ya? I’ve spent a lot of time in Lawrence this summer and I’m surprised I didn’t meet you. But I received your letter, and it was really inspiring. I appreciate your support and loyalty. The amazing thing that may surprise you is fan support goes a long, long way and it makes the game of basketball that much more enjoyable. Kansas is truly a beautiful place with beautiful people and I’m proud to be a part of it. Thank you and take care. God Bless, Darnell.”

I’ve always appreciated Darnell for taking the time to write me back, and will forever cherish that letter. 

I ached for D.V. to reach the upper rank of NBA point guards, and while it never happened, I always admired his tenacious defense and how hard he worked and competed to become the best player possible.

...

Darnell Valentine first exploded on the national scene the summer after his junior year at Wichita Heights at Howard Garfinkel’s prestigious Five-Star camp in Wheeling, West Virginia. After Valentine’s performance, Garfinkel simply gushed that he was the best guard in the history of the camp, even superior to Butch Lee of Marquette and Phil Sellers of Rutgers.

Scouts continued to rave over Valentine’s game as the phenom joined Kansas basketball. During his sophomore year in 1978 while scouting at the Big Eight Holiday Tournament in Kansas City, Boston Celtics general manager Red Auerbach was awed over Valentine’s skills.

“Valentine is quicker than Jo Jo (White) and he penetrates better,” Auerbach told The Sporting News in comparing him to the former Celtics’ star (1969-1979) who was inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame last September.

As Valentine earned All-American honors his senior year in 1981 and prepared for the NBA Draft, Auerbach predicted the Wichita native was destined for stardom.

“He is,” Auerbach marveled, “going to be a great one.”

While Valentine never lived up to the hype, he had a very commendable nine-year NBA career and was a true defensive wizard with an unwavering work ethic. The 6-1 guard’s career all began with the Portland Trail Blazers, who chose him as the No. 16 pick in the first round of the draft.

After learning the ropes his rookie season under starter Kelvin Ransey and averaging 6.4 points per game, Valentine became the starting point guard in Year 2. Portland head coach Jack Ramsay was so high on Valentine that he raved about him to Sports Illustrated just before his second season.

"Darnell Valentine may be the best point guard in the NBA, you'll see," Ramsay said.

Valentine averaged a career-high 12.5 points and 2.1 steals per game in 1982-83, endearing himself to Ramsay and Blazers fans with his nonstop hustle, defensive prowess, and charming personality.

"He's a fierce competitor," Ramsay told "The Complete Handbook of Pro Basketball." "He never stops. He's never going to be outplayed."

Unfortunately, Valentine never rose to NBA stardom despite his outstanding defense and great playmaking and penetration ability. He was a questionable outside shooter, battled injuries, and was constantly fighting for minutes with fellow point guards Lafayette Lever and Steve Colter in Portland. He also played in a complex halfcourt offense under Ramsay, which restricted his freedom.

Then with the arrival of rookie and future All-Star Terry Porter in 1985-86, the Blazers dealt Valentine to NBA purgatory with the woeful Los Angeles Clippers for a first-round draft pick, where he played in obscurity for two and a half seasons before finishing his career with the Cleveland Cavaliers (two seasons) at age 31 in 1991.

Valentine talked about that trade to Los Angeles to the Oregonian in 2009.

"It was an open competition in training camp (with Colter and Porter), and I came out the starter," Valentine said. "I was playing well, but then they wanted to change directions."

Before the Clippers’ deal, a trade to Indiana fell apart as Valentine became “a lame duck.”

"Everything was so abrupt. So I passed the baton to Terry,” Valentine said of Porter, who became an All-Star and one of the top assist men in NBA annals.

Valentine, who was ranked the No. 33 best player in Trail Blazers' history by the Oregonian in 2009, always elevated his game in the playoffs for Portland. He averaged 12.0 points, 6.8 assists, and shot a scorching 88.4 percent from free throw line during the postseason, and is tied for the team record for most assists in a playoff game with 15. Valentine, who averaged 18.4 points and 8.4 assists in a playoff series with Phoenix in 1984, also ranks fifth all time in Blazer history in playoff assists.

"I was never the greatest player during the season," Valentine said. "But when it got to playoffs, I think teams were so intent on stopping our strengths – (Jim) Paxson and (Calvin) Natt – that it allowed me to make things happen."

Valentine, whose trademark was his tree-trunk thighs, has a favorite story about his time in Rip City.

"I had those big legs, which were probably my rite to passage,” he said. “Well, there was another player in the league who had big legs too – World B. Free – and Mychal Thompson would never let me hear the end of it. He always wondered why I couldn't jump like World B. Free. So he always called me 'Ground Jordan'."

While he wasn’t a leaper, Valentine was the consummate and unselfish point guard for Ramsay. The Hall of Famer and late Portland head man loved coaching Valentine and greatly admired his work ethic.

Under the caption, “Heart of a Champion,” here’s what Ramsay wrote in his 2004 book, “Dr. Jack’s Leadership Lessons learned from a Lifetime in Basketball”:

“Many of the players I coached who weren’t among the team’s most gifted players were the hardest workers and made maximum use of their skills. Darnell Valentine was perhaps the most self-disciplined player I ever dealt with.

“DV — who had watermelon-sized quads, a strong upper body and excellent quickness handling the ball and defending — worked fanatically on his conditioning.  He was on the floor an hour before practice, working on his defensive footwork, pull-up jumpers, or full-court drives to the hoop. Then he would stretch for about 15 minutes before the team practice began. He was also extremely careful about his diet. He ate primarily foods high in carbohydrates and supplemented them with enough protein and fat to fuel his extraordinary energy level. Valentine even brought his own food blender with him on road trips and often boarded the team bus carrying large bags of fruit and veggies, which he offered to everyone. In addition to his fierce work ethic, relentless self-discipline and powerful will to win, he always wore a smile and was one of the best team players I ever coached.”

Valentine was overwhelmed with gratitude when I relayed Ramsay’s statement to him before his jersey retirement at KU on Jan. 1, 2005. The two were good friends and fellow fitness addicts; they used to take bike rides together.

“Coming from him, that’s an incredible compliment,” Valentine said. “I appreciate that. We did a lot of things alike. We thought alike. Even when I was traded to the Clippers, I know that I understand the business of basketball now, sometimes it’s not about the coach and it’s not about your playing. It’s a business. Sometimes, things are done by committee. Jack and I, we had a great relationship.”

Valentine, who has lived in Portland since he retired from basketball and worked for Precision Castparts (a Fortune 500 manufacturing company) as employee engagement leader since 2007, richly enjoyed his time with the Blazers.

"Coming out of Kansas, I was afraid that the NBA would be an overwhelming challenge," Valentine said. "But the Blazers — the Stu Inmans the Harry Glickmans — they embraced and cared about us, and I think that eventually was reflected in the community. And it's amazing how that regenerates itself. Portland is a special place. I could feel that right from the start.”

Valentine boasts career averages of 8.7 points (5,400), 5.0 assists, 2.1 rebounds and 1.5 steals in 23.2 minutes per game. He started 345 of 620 contests, while shooting 43.7 percent from the field, 26.1 percent from beyond the arc, and 78.7 percent at the free throw line.

I asked my childhood hero when he returned to Allen Fieldhouse for his jersey retirement in 2005 how he felt about his pro career.

“I think it could have possibly been better, and it could have possibly been a lot worse,” he replied. “I’m just thankful that it was what it was. I think I had some tough breaks. ... I’m proud of what I was able to accomplish.”

Lafayette Norwood, Valentine’s close friend, mentor and coach at Wichita Heights and assistant at Kansas, believed he caught a tough break by never catching on with the Chicago Bulls and superstar Michael Jordan. The Bulls were close to trading for Valentine after the 1984-85 season (his fourth year with Portland), but the deal never happened.

“I thought that was the turning point in his life,” said Norwood, who added the Bulls didn’t have a point guard at the time. “I thought if the Bulls could have got him, he could have been able to experience some things I thought we had in mind at the beginning of his career. Chicago was in the process of beginning to evolve as far as being a championship final team. If he could have gone to Chicago, obviously with Michael, he could have made that happen and become a critical (part to their success).”

Norwood thought Valentine could have elevated Jordan and his Bulls’ teammates’ games with his tenacious defense and become one of the best NBA point guards. Despite not getting with the Bulls, Norwood was proud of what D.V. accomplished during his nine NBA seasons.

“Oh, he had a great career,” Norwood said with a smile.

Like many others, Norwood was deeply impressed with Valentine’s competitive fire.

“I've never been around a young man so obsessed to be a professional athlete,” Norwood told the Lawrence Journal-World on Jan. 17, 1986.

David Magley, Valentine’s teammate at KU, also greatly admired his work ethic. Magley saw Valentine compete in the NBA when he played briefly for the Cleveland Cavaliers as a rookie in 1982-83.

“I gained even greater respect for Darnell,” Magley told the Journal-World after the Cavs released him. “I respected Darnell at KU because he worked so hard. He’s kept it up in the NBA. Darnell is so devoted. A lot of NBA players just don’t show the intensity he does.”

“He was a warrior,” former Missouri guard and NBA rival Larry Drew told me several years ago.

Valentine credits his mother, Rose, for his superior drive.

“My mother instilled in me was the fact I had a real strong work ethic,” he said. “I was dedicated to the game and I respected the game.” 

And Valentine, of course, loved the game.

Recalling Jayhawk legend Darnell Valentine's jersey retirement ceremony in Allen Fieldhouse

"Without heroes, we are all plain people and don't know how far we can go." --Bernard Malamud in "The Natural"

Darnell Valentine was my childhood hero; I idolized everything about the former Jayhawk star. I shot free throws using his distinctive style and wore my socks high like him. When Darnell played for Portland in the NBA, I bought my beloved dog Snoopy Trailblazer dog food. I used to work out at home gaining motivation by looking at a framed picture of Darnell leading a fast break with Portland. Just when I thought I couldn’t run in place anymore, I focused even more on the picture and kept on running, kept on sweating, kept on persevering. I ran even faster, lifted my legs even higher, doing this all for Darnell. I admired his unwavering work ethic so much, and wanted to be just like him.

In this blog entry, I look back at a historic moment with his jersey retirement ceremony in Allen Fieldouse 12 years ago, when Valentine took his rightful place among the Jayhawk greats to have his No. 14 jersey unfurled from the hallowed rafters in the Phog.

...

It was halftime of the thrilling Kansas-Georgia Tech game in Allen Fieldhouse on Jan. 1, 2005, as the resounding cheers and memories all came racing back for Darnell Valentine.

Dressed stylishly in a maroon suit, white shirt and glasses and still looking extremely physically fit — “I’m still playing weight, baby,” he  told a small group of reporters earlier that day — Valentine stood at midcourt flanked by his former KU head coach Ted Owens and assistant Lafayette Norwood.

And then it happened. At 2:34 p.m., Valentine’s No. 14 jersey was retired and unfurled from the rafters. The crowd roared in approval while Valentine got chills and flashed a broad smile. After composing himself, he took the microphone and addressed the crimson and blue faithful while speaking from the heart.

“This is such an overwhelming ceremony and opportunity for me,” said Valentine, who starred at KU from 1977-1981. “I'm so proud; I'm so honored. My wife, Cindy, my daughter, Tierra, we are so proud. This has just been a 24-year fulfillment of my desire to be up there among some of the greats of Kansas basketball. First, I'd like to acknowledge our heavenly Father for giving me the gift of basketball. Also, for surrounding me with love and support to allow me to accomplish the things I was able to accomplish. My mother, she instilled in me to always try to leave a place better then I found it. She would be pleased today. Lafayette Norwood and Mrs. Betty Norwood, my adopted parents — I don’t know if they adopted me, or if I just tried to grab a leg and hold on. He’s certainly given me a life full of lessons and guidance, and I’m just honored to have him here with me as well. 

“Coach Ted Owens' 19-year career here at the University of Kansas, and he allowed me to be part of this program and to give me a platform to play and surround me with players that complemented me. Thank you coach. My teammates, oh man, I had some great teammates. I’m so proud that I've been able to go forward and represent them, because without them — team, the acronym 'Together, Everyone Accomplishes More" — I think that epitomizes the unity that we had. 

“Also, I'd like to acknowledge a gentleman that certainly has touched this community in a way that no person ever has, Mr. Bob Billings. He exemplified kindness, generosity, and character — what a great man. Also, I’d like to acknowledge Jamie Coulter, who played a big role in me coming here to the University of Kansas, and without the tireless efforts of Mr. Bemie Morgan, we might not be having this ceremony today. Thank you, Bernie.

“I hope that as you come to Allen Fieldhouse, and you young people, I’m going to give a shout out to you guys as well. As you come into Allen Fieldhouse, I hope that these jerseys up here will inspire you to in the tradition of Kansas, to pursue excellence, because it’s so short lived. It’s an opportunity for you to really define yourself. I had the opportunity here at the University of Kansas to have the springboard to allow me to have a lifestyle and life that I have. You guys take advantage of this. I challenge you to leave this place better than you found it.  

“Rock Chalk, Jayhawks!

The packed crowd of 16,300 cheered again — even louder this time. It was a wonderful and heartfelt ovation for a man and player who accomplished so much during his collegiate career. KU’s first McDonald’s All-American from powerhouse Wichita Heights, Valentine is the lone Jayhawk to be named first-team All-Conference four times and the only KU player to be selected as a three-time Academic All-American (1979, ‘80 and ‘81).

Valentine, who was named an All-American on the hardwood after his senior season in 1981, is one of just three Kansas players to earn All-American honors both on the floor and academically.

“He was a complete person,” Owens said. “He did it all.”

Blessed with great instincts and extremely quick hands and feet, Valentine was arguably the greatest defensive guard to wear a KU uniform. He still holds the school record for career steals with 336, while ranking first in free throws made with 541. A deadly penetrator who could blow by opponents at will, Valentine is also fifth in career scoring with 1,821 points. In addition, D.V. was a four-time team MVP and ranks fifth on the career assist list with 609. 

Valentine started from day one, leading the 1977-78 team his freshman year to a 24-5 season and Big Eight championship. After Kansas went 18-11 his sophomore year before stumbling with a 15-14 record as a junior, Valentine guided the Jayhawks to a 24-8 record his senior season, a Big 8 Tournament championship, and a Sweet 16 finish.

It was, quite simply, a career he will never forget. He remains grateful for his decision to attend Kansas over North Carolina and legendary coach Dean Smith. Valentine’s decision was clinched when Owens named Norwood — his high school coach — an assistant at Kansas.

“It’s something that I’ve never looked back on,” Valentine said before the Georgia Tech game. “I’m 300 percent sure that it was the right decision for me.”

Owens remarked that day it was a joy to coach Valentine. He considers Valentine as perhaps the hardest worker he’s ever coached.

 “He wasn’t good by accident,” Owens said. “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.”

And No. 14 honored his mother’s wish by leaving Kansas “better than I found it.” The Jayhawks went two seasons without an NCAA berth before Valentine arrived in 1977 and lifted KU back to national prominence. Of course, KU has continued its basketball excellence with reaching phenomenal heights ever since.

“They went on to win the championship since I (was there); they’re still highly touted as a program, and the leadership that they brought in with Larry Brown, Roy Williams, Bill Self, it’s just spectacular,” Valentine said. “I think I did my role.” 

Did he ever.

Whatever more he accomplishes, Valentine will always cherish New Year’s Day, 2005 when he realized a longtime dream with his jersey retired alongside the other KU legends in the hallowed rafters of Allen Fieldhouse.

“This is the crowning of my adult life right now,” he said with a big smile that afternoon before his jersey retirement. 

Then moments after he spoke to the crowd at halftime, Valentine stood near the north goal and continued to soak in the moment.

“I’m looking at 13, that’s Wilt Chamberlain (jersey number in the rafters). I’m looking at 14, that’s me, and I’m looking at 15, that’s Jo Jo White,” Valentine said. “That is just a crowning moment, amongst the great players of all at Kansas, that No. 14 is there. My family and I, we’re very proud.”

Owens certainly was that magical and memorable day.

“Darnell Valentine is one of the greatest players we’ve ever had here,” he said. “To see him honored is a blessing for all of us.”

Recalling Jayhawk legend Bud Stallworth's college and NBA career

My first memories of KU basketball growing up in Lawrence center around the 1972-73 team and the 1973-74 Final Four squad. So unfortunately, I was too young and just missed remembering Bud Stallworth's senior season in 1971-72, when he scored 50 points against Missouri in his final home game in Allen Fieldhouse en route to averaging a whopping 25.3 points per game and becoming an All-American.

But I've always felt a connection to Bud since he was a former student of my dad in the School of Social Welfare. My dad would see Bud over the years when I was growing up, and he'd bring home a prized autograph of him on a yellow sheet of paper. One day, my dad gave me an autograph of Bud and Aubrey Nash, a teammate of Bud's on the 1971 Final Four team. I cherished those autographs, even though I never saw Bud play a game or shoot a basket at Kansas.

My dad would tell me what a great player and student he was, and kept a paper Bud wrote for one of his classes. As I recall, Bud wrote the paper while he was with the Seattle SuperSonics his rookie season, the team which selected him No. 7 overall in the 1972 NBA Draft.

On the paper, Bud penned the instructor's name as G. Goodrich, not G. Garfield (my dad), whose first name is Goodwin ("Goody"). Bud must have been subconsciously thinking of Gail Goodrich, an NBA star at the time and future Hall of Famer who later played with Stallworth for the New Orleans Jazz during the 1976-77 season, Bud's last year in the league.

My dad and Bud, who have stayed in contact all these years, have joked and shared some laughs about the KU legend referring to him as G. Goodrich. 

My dad, a distinguished professor who taught 34 years at KU and was honored with a scholarship award in his name after retirement in 2003, gave up his season tickets to Jayhawk games many years ago. However, he made sure to be in the Phog the night Bud had his jersey retired at halftime of the KU-Missouri game on Jan. 31, 2005. I was sitting on press row that game behind the goal at the south end of the fieldhouse, and reveled in seeing Bud's jersey being unfurled from the rafters. I know my dad was also overjoyed and proud to see one of his former students receive one of his greatest honors.

A few days later, my dad wrote an email to Bud congratulating him on having his No. 15 jersey retired and great halftime speech. Bud immediately wrote back, praising my dad and all his professors as being one of the reasons he was able to achieve such an honor.

What a class act.

But I already knew Bud was a true class act many years before that. In 1990, I decided to interview him for my Reporting I class at KU. I did exhaustive research on Bud's college and NBA career in preparation for our interview. I even borrowed my friend's tape recorder so his words could stay with me a lifetime.

But then my alarm never came on and I overslept for our 9 a.m. interview. Bud had called my parents' house, where I was living at the time, and I immediately got on the phone and deeply apologized. Bud was so nice and caring and asked in an uplifting voice, "Do you still want to do it?” I said, "Yes, I'll be right over."

So I arrived at his office at Hall-Kimbrell in Lawrence. The first thing I did was give Bud the paper he wrote for my dad's social welfare class in 1972. He flashed a huge smile and I think that helped break the ice, not that any ice needed to be broken with the friendly and personable Stallworth. After about 30 minutes to an hour, Bud received a few calls from his secretary, and told her he was still in an interview. Finally, after yet another call to his office, Bud told his secretary to "hold all calls."

For a naive 24-year-old who was conducting one of the first interviews of my life and didn't really know what I was doing, Bud made me feel very special by telling his secretary to hold his calls and giving me undivided attention. Looking back and hearing the tape, I asked repetitive questions, but Bud didn't seem to mind. In fact, the interview lasted three hours, and I felt Bud was enjoying his time just as much as me and could have talked for three additional hours.

It was a wonderful experience talking to Bud about such topics as his recruitment to KU, his college and NBA career, work, his time living in Los Angeles and Hawaii, his unsuccessful professional comeback with the CBA’s Kansas City Sizzlers, and also race issues, etc.

I'll always be grateful to him for giving this aspiring journalist so much time. It's been said the greatest gift you can give someone is your time and knowledge.

All these years later, whenever Bud sees me around town or at a KU basketball game, the first thing he always asks is, "How is your dad?” After I tell Bud how my dad is doing, then he'll always say, "Tell him I said hi."

Bud has special memories of my dad, has always been so gracious to me, and is simply one of the nicest people I've ever met.

So in tribute to Bud, here is a portion and update of the long article I wrote about him for my Reporting I class back in 1990. And yes, while my professor wrote on my report at the time that "no daily newspaper editor wants that many words on Bud Stallworth," I did get an A on the paper.

Thanks Bud!

…

Bud Stallworth knew his destiny at an early age growing up in Hartselle, Ala. When his first-grade teacher asked him and his classmates what they wanted to be when they grew up, Stallworth didn’t hesitate.

“I wrote that I wanted to be a professional basketball player,” KU’s former All-American said during an exclusive three-hour interview in 1990 in Lawrence at his office with Hall-Kimbrell Environmental Services, where Stallworth served as director of client relations and marketing.

“I was pretty serious about playing basketball early. I liked the game. I just had that image that at one point in my lifetime, I could actually play professional basketball. Some people I guess growing up wanting to be doctors or rocket scientists, and I wanted to be a professional basketball player.”

Stallworth began playing basketball when he was age 5, and at 10 years old, he was being chosen over high school players to play in the local pick-up games. Stallworth, who has always had a strong inner drive and ambition, took great pride in shooting the basketball.

“I grew up at one time they didn’t have any backboards, and I wasn’t shooting at straight rims sticking on a pole,” Stallworth said. “(But) I knew how to get the ball up to the basket. A lot of kids were throwing it and couldn’t touch the rim. I liked to do it. I’d go to the little basket outside and throw it up and get it in. That was a big thrill to me.”

As his game grew, so did his reputation. Stallworth began attracting national attention just before his senior year of high school. The Alabama schools had desegregated in 1967, causing high schools across the state to recruit this rising phenom.

“The athletes were considered the barrier breakers in the state of Alabama,” said Stallworth, who is currently a pre- and post-game KU basketball television analyst for Time Warner Metro Cable. 

“They were being selected because of their athletic skills and if they had good academics, they were being recruited to go and be integrated into the white schools system in the state of Alabama. This brought a whole new wave of notoriety to me and other black athletes in the state of Alabama, because now there was an outlet to go to the University of Alabama, the University of Auburn, and be considered a great person, break through the race barrier, all of this. But they wanted the creme de la creme to do that. I had all the credentials for that. I had the academics and I had the athletic skills. All of a sudden, I’m getting the exposure in papers. I’m getting the interviews, I’m getting the recruitment deals all in the span of one year.”

Instead of transferring, Stallworth decided to stay in his old high school. He said he felt loyalty to the school with his dad being the principal and his mom a teacher.

Stallworth, who averaged about 45 points per game his senior year, eventually chose KU over Alabama, Auburn, Vanderbilt and Cincinnati. He’ll never forget his first trip to Lawrence for music camp during the summer after his junior year of high school.

Against his father’s wishes, Stallworth skipped lunch and headed over to Robinson Gym and scrimmaged against the Jayhawks, who included All-American Jo Jo White. For Stallworth, those games were a defining moment where he first realized he could play with the best players in the country.

The KU players immediately told Kansas head coach Ted Owens about this high school prospect, and the coaching staff began recruiting him. Stallworth had already followed KU hoops because his sister, Eunice, was a student there.

“I was probably the easiest person to recruit at KU, from having the opportunity to spend a little time out here during that camp, but then when I had came back out on my recruiting trip, it was just, ‘I’m sold,’" Stallworth said. "I had this impression of it being what it was like to be recruited and go to school and have the opportunity to play for a national championship and be recognized as one of the better players in the country. You got the exposure there. Some of the great players in history came through KU.  (Wilt) Chamberlain came here. I just felt it was good for me at that time.” 

All Stallworth did in his first varsity game was score 27 points against Marshall, the second-highest in KU history at the time in a debut game behind Chamberlain. The 6-5 small forward had a legendary career and improved each season, averaging 12.7 points as a sophomore in 1969-70, 16.9 points during the 1970-71 Final Four season, which went 27-3 and 14-0 in the Big Eight, and then culminated his career in 1971-72 by averaging 25.3 points and becoming an All-American.

Stallworth has special memories of his career, especially that tight-knit ‘71 Final Four team. KU won thrillers over Houston (78-77) and Drake (73-71) in the NCAA Midwest Regional in Wichita before falling to John Wooden’s UCLA Bruins in the Final Four in Houston, 68-60.

“We were awesome,” Stallworth said about that squad, which featured a starting lineup of leading scorer Dave Robisch, defensive wizard Pierre Russell, Stallworth, point guard Aubrey Nash and pivot Roger Brown. The team had size, defense, scoring punch, and balance with four players averaging in double figures.

 “I thought we were the best team in the country,” Stallworth said. “We were the cockiest team that I had been around. Everybody got along. We felt we had a legitimate shot to win it all. That year we played some tough teams.”

With Stallworth and Nash the only returning starters the next season in 1971-72, KU stumbled to a dismal 11-15 record.

“We had marginal talent my senior year at best,” Stallworth said. “Our starting lineup, (the) tallest guy was 6-6, Wilson Barrow. I didn’t carry them too far.”

Stallworth, though, carried the Jayhawks quite far during his final home game against Missouri on Feb. 26, 1972 (KU won, 90-83), a contest he will never forget when the sweet shooter scored a career-high 50 points, the second-highest output on the KU single-game list behind Chamberlain.

While the Jayhawks had a losing season, senior night was a festive event. Immediately after he was introduced, Stallworth threw a frisbee into the stands as a gesture to give something back for the great fan support that season. He added that a woman later told him that she made sure she got the rights to that frisbee as part of her divorce agreement.

Stallworth was also extra hyped that game since the flamboyant Missouri coach Norm Stewart remarked before the contest that his star, John Brown, was a better player than Stallworth. Stallworth’s mother was also seeing her son play the first time in Allen Fieldhouse, while the 1952 NCAA champions were in attendance celebrating their 20-year reunion.

“I had 50 points before in high school,” Stallworth said. “You know when the hoop is big, it’s just huge. The juices were incredible. This was a frenzy type thing, and it just built and it kept going. The first half I knew I was on. I knew I could get it in whenever I wanted to. It was just scary.

“You dream of having those every night when you walk out in the arena and throw it in. Everything came together at the right time and they were the victim.”

Stallworth left Kansas as the third-leading scorer in school history, a two-time all-league selection, the 1972 Big Eight Conference Player of the Year, and remains one of only three players in KU annals to earn All-American honors on the floor (1972) and academically (1971). His No. 15 jersey was retired in Allen Fieldhouse at halftime of the Kansas-Missouri game on Jan. 31, 2005. 

The scoring machine, who has a bachelor’s degree from KU in social welfare, was then drafted by the Denver Rockets in the first round of the ABA Draft before the Seattle SuperSonics selected him with the seventh overall pick in the NBA Draft, five spots ahead of future Hall of Famer Julius Erving.

Stallworth remembers his nerves sitting by the phone in his Jayhawk Towers apartment waiting for his agent to call and tell him which NBA team selected him in the draft. When he finally heard word, his agent told him to grab a flight to Seattle.

“I was just on cloud nine for a couple of weeks,” Stallworth said. “Number one, you got it done. Most people don’t ever get drafted. I was a 6-5 swing player from a little town that a lot of people said was going to get lost in the numbers and not be able to cut it at that level. That’s what it’s all about.”

With his first-grade dream now a reality, Stallworth entered his rookie year with high hopes. But coach Lenny Wilkins, who had originally drafted Stallworth to Seattle, was no longer with the team. Stallworth played two seasons with Seattle and three years with the expansion New Orleans Jazz, who selected him in the dispersal draft in 1974.

Stallworth didn’t want to play in New Orleans with superstar and scoring sensation Pete Maravich, though he made the best of the situation.

“It was nothing that I had wanted to do with my career than to go to an expansion team and play with somebody I know wanted to shoot the ball everytime he touched it,” Stallworth said. “I played against him for two years and no one on that team touched the ball.

“He shot 50 times more than anybody else a game. It was obscene. It was sick. We’d be getting blown out and he’d have three people hanging on him with his arm in a cast because he had been shooting too much, and he’s still putting it up.”

Stallworth lamented the fact he played five seasons with no winning years for seven or eight different coaches, who each had a different philosophy on how to maximize his talents. The pieces just never fit and had Stallworth feeling unsatisfied after a car accident injury ended his career.

“It just wasn’t successfully done the way I envisioned it being done,” Stallworth said. “I didn’t get the juices going every night. I had this vision of the NBA being the epitome of what it’s all about. It didn’t happen that way, and it became more of a job than a game.”

He even didn’t like playing for Bill Russell in Seattle, the Hall of Famer who had a prized career with the Boston Celtics.

“He couldn’t score,” Stallworth said with a smile. “You put him in the gym alone, and he still couldn’t score.”

Despite the adversity, Stallworth remained proud he was one of the chosen few to realize his longtime NBA dream. He enjoyed the camaraderie with his teammates and playing against the best players in the world each night, including 27 of the NBA’s 50 greatest players of all time.

“I got a chance of doing what I dreamed of doing,” Stallworth said. “I survived and that’s it. A lot of people dream about doing something all their lives and never get a chance. Not only did I do it, I did it for a couple of years,” he added with a laugh.

Stallworth posted career averages of 7.7 points (2,403 points in 313 games) and 2.8 rebounds in 17.5 minutes per game while shooting 41.4 percent from the field and 68.6 percent from the free throw line. He had his best year in 1974-75 with the Jazz when he averaged a career-high 9.9 points and 3.4 rebounds in 22.8 minutes per game.

A great long-distance bomber, Stallworth believes he was born too early, prior to the three-point shot being implemented.

“I’ve always believed that it didn’t matter how close you got to the basket as long as the ball went in,” Stallworth said. “I was taking 30-foot jump shots when coaches were jumping and screaming, ‘You’re too far from the basket!’

“Today, that’s part of their offense, and I was doing it in the early 1970s. It just took them a while to understand that. They just added another point for those shots that I was taking.”

This Jayhawk legend talked about the science of shooting the ball.

“To me, you’ve got this rim, this circle,” he said. “You got a sphere, this ball, and you have become accomplished at throwing this sphere in this circle with people on you who were moving at a high rate of speed. That’s a gift, that’s an art. That’s an accomplishment. People talk about the kind of skills you need to accomplish something, you don’t tell me that’s not hand-eye coordination, the ability to judge distance, to judge speed. ... A lot of people can’t walk and drop a piece of paper in a trash can. To me, I had mastered the whole thing of putting it in there.”

Indeed, he did.

Now, instead of shooting jump shots, Stallworth analyzes games for Metro Sports and is a frequent guest on national radio and television. He is also the co-founder of “Can We Talk,” where he uses his skills and lifetime experiences to mentor kids in Lawrence.

After all these years since leaving Kansas in 1972, Stallworth said in 1990 he loved his collegiate experience and proud of the indelible mark he left on KU hoops.

“It meant and it still does mean that it’s a measuring stick I can use to say that I went to a university that had everything I wanted and I believe I’m part of that tradition,” Stallworth said.

 “That means a lot to me, because I have kids (and now grandchildren) that can come see what (my) legacy has left them.”

More From Bud Stallworth

Stallworth had several basketball heroes growing up in Hartselle. He talked about some of them to me.

 “My only vision of other players that were better than me were the professional players like Oscar Robertson, Elgin Baylor,” Stallworth said. “They were doing some of the same things I was doing. I think I saw Earl Monroe play when I was probably in junior high school or going into high school. He was doing some things I couldn’t do. He could do the twist and the shake, and I didn’t have that down pat. But just coming up, running up the floor, jumping in the air, shooting, I had all that. I’ve had that since I was in the seventh, eighth grade. I could run, jump, and shoot the basketball.

               

“Like Jerry West, he would come down, he’d take stutter steps and pull up and shoot a straight jump shot. I could do that. When I saw Earl Monroe take it between his legs, dribble behind his back, twist and spin, that was a new move that I hadn’t accomplished yet. I got to cut Earl out as one of my favorites because I couldn’t do his thing. His thing to me was more, he was tricking people all the time. I wanted to beat them. I didn’t want to trick them. I just wanted to take over. Elgin Baylor, I liked the way he could hang, take it to the basket. He was about my size at the time. I kind of liked to think I was Elgin Baylor. I’d go out on the playground, do the hang, take people to the hole, shoot jumpers on them, learn all the different English moves you had with the ball. Jerry West, Oscar, those were some people (I emulated). 

               

 “My size limited me,” Stallworth added. “I couldn’t be Wilt Chamberlain; I wasn’t 7-feet. I didn’t like Bill Russell. I wasn’t that kind of player. He couldn’t score,” Stallworth said with a laugh. 

"When you say idolize, I kind of would have thought I had an opportunity to be as great as he (Baylor) did doing what he was doing, plus he was in Ebony magazine and doing a commercial or something.”

Jo Jo White made '65-66 special

It was 50 years ago that KU’s great 1965-66 team marched to to the Midwest Regional finals and nearly beat Texas Western (now UTEP), a team with five black starters which eventually won the national championship that year against all-white Kentucky. Texas Western’s championship revolutionized college basketball recruiting, especially in the South, as now blacks were given an equal opportunity at a scholarship and the American dream.

For Jayhawk Insider’s Feb. 22, 2001 March Madness preview, my editor asked me and another staff writer to pick the best KU basketball team in history. The other writer got first choice and selected the marvelous 34-2 1996-97 team, which was upset by Arizona (eventual national champion) in the Sweet 16.

A KU hoops historian, I weighed my decision on which KU team to pick as the all-time best. I considered the 1952 national champions, the 1971 Final Four team, the 1986 Final Four squad, and the 1966 team. I had gotten to know and interview some of the members of that ‘66 team through my Where are they Now? profiles in Jayhawk Insider, and had become fascinated with Ted Owens’ former squad. The more I thought about it, I decided they were the best team to ever play at Kansas, despite never advancing to the Final Four and winning a national championship.

Here is the story I write that February day in 2001 on the magical 1965-66 Jayhawks.

...

It was perhaps the greatest decision of Ted Owens’ coaching career.

Owens knew the 1965-66 Kansas basketball team was quite good. At 15-3 and ranked No. 9 in the country at semester break, Owens felt his squad could possibly win the Big Eight Conference championship and make some noise in the NCAA Tournament. But with the addition of Jo Jo White (an early high school graduate in 1965 who became eligible at mid-semester in ‘66), Owens thought he had an exceptional team that could win the NCAA championship.

So he inserted the confident freshman from St. Louis, Mo., in the starting lineup against Oklahoma State at home on Feb. 12. White caught the opening tip and immediately made a 20-footer (KU coasted to a 59-38 win).

The making of greatness and the last piece of the puzzle to Forever’s Team had been planted.

White added a lethal dimension of speed, quickness, and offensive and defensive firepower to the lineup, which already included superstar center Walt Wesley, sharp shooting forward Ron Franz, athletic Al Lopes, and the crafty Del Lewis. KU not only won the next seven games, the ‘Hawks annihilated opponents with an astounding 26.4 scoring margin.

Included in this magical journey was a victory over top 10-ranked Nebraska in Allen Fieldhouse on Feb. 26, which had given KU its last defeat (83-75) over a month earlier. White and his teammates shredded the Cornhuskers’ full-court press for a 110-73 blowout. Owens later called this one of the greatest games ever played in Allen Fieldhouse.

KU blew out teams, in large part, with the deadly inside-outside combination of Wesley and White (11.3 points per game). Wesley (20.7 points and 9.3 rebounds per game), one of the top three centers in Jayhawk history, dominated the paint and was a first-team All-American. The dynamic duo guided Kansas to the Big Eight title (first time since 1960) and Midwest Regional finals in Lubbock, Texas, against Texas Western. With the score tied and seconds remaining in the game, KU called timeout. White, who had played just eight games in his college career, insisted on taking the last shot.

His long, rainbow jumper from the left sideline hit nothing but net.

However, KU’s celebration was short lived as the referee, Rudy Marich, waved off the shot and said White stepped on the end line. Kansas wound up losing the game in double overtime, 81-80.

If only fate had been on KU’s side (films later seemed to document that White had not stepped out of bounds), there might be little argument in local barber shops about which Jayhawk team reigns supreme. Texas Western advanced to the Final Four and beat Adolph Rupp’s Kentucky Wildcats (“Rupp’s Runts”) for the national championship, a team KU arguably would have manhandled, given its overwhelming size advantage and talent.

The 1965-66 squad was simply loaded with skilled players, as five members played professional basketball (only the 1996-97 team can claim this distinction). White — arguably the best guard to ever play in the Big Eight — was an NBA All-Star with the Boston Celtics. In addition, Franz (seven years), Riney Lochmann (three years) and Bobby Wilson all played in the ABA.

And then there was “Wonderful Walt” Wesley, who spent 11 years in the NBA and previously held the Cleveland Cavaliers single-game scoring record with 50 points. While the underrated Lewis (10.9 points per game) never played professionally, he made All-Big Eight that season. Lopes, too, did not play pro ball, but he ranked second on the team in scoring (12.4 points per game).

Along with the overwhelming talent, what made this squad even more special and unique was its cohesiveness and unselfishness. The team chemistry was superb with four players averaging in double figures, and the fifth (Franz) averaging 9.6 points. When Owens was wrestling with the decision to activate White at mid-semester, senior co-captain Lochmann made a remarkable sacrifice and actually volunteered to give up his starting position and come off the bench.

And who says nice guys finish last?

Yes, the history books show that White stepped out of bounds against Texas Western and KU (23-4) finished the season ranked No. 4 in the nation. But for many Crimson and Blue followers, the 1965-66 Jayhawks will always be No. 1.

For all time.

Concluding Thoughts:

While the 1965-66 KU team was my choice as the best Jayhawk squad of all time when I wrote this story in 2001, my pick now would obviously be the 2008 national championship team.

Kansas won a school-record 37 games that season to just three losses and had a whopping seven players make the NBA: Brandon Rush, Mario Chalmers, Darrell Arthur, Darnell Jackson, Sherron Collins, Cole Aldrich and Sasha Kaun. Chalmers won two NBA championships with the Miami Heat while Kaun captured an NBA title with the Cleveland Cavaliers in June.

Former KU standout Mark Turgeon bleeds crimson and blue

Head coach Mark Turgeon has led Maryland back to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2003.

And now, Turgeon faces arguably the biggest game of his life when his Terrapins battle his alma mater Kansas tonight at the KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, Kentucky, at approximately 8:40.

The winner advances to the Elite Eight. The loser goes home.

While Turgeon is only focused on this game, as a KU basketball reporter for the past 18 years who's been following Jayhawk hoops since 1973, I can daydream. And I hope “Turg” becomes the successor to Kansas coach Bill Self whenever Self retires from coaching or if he should ever leave for the NBA.

Turgeon has been a winner on almost every level (he went 25-29 as Jacksonville State coach in two seasons during his only losing tenure as head man) beginning with his storied career at Hayden High in Topeka, where the fearless point guard led his team to a 41-1 record his junior and senior years and to a 25-0 mark during his senior campaign, when he averaged 11.5 points and 6.8 assists per game and was named MVP of the Kansas Basketball Classic and Pizza Hut Classic.

At Kansas, Turgeon helped spark the turnaround of KU basketball by becoming the first Jayhawk to appear in four straight NCAA Tournaments. He helped lead Kansas to one regular-season title (1986) and two Big Eight Tournament championships (1984 and 1986) while being a part of the ‘86 Final Four team, when Self served as a graduate assistant.

Turgeon, who served as co-captain during his junior and senior seasons, finished his career third all time at KU in assists (now No. 12 with 437) and also set a freshman record for most assists (138). At just 5-10, 140 pounds, Turgeon served as a true leader for the Jayhawks that 1983-84 season, helping KU to its first NCAA Tournament in three years.

When he wasn’t hooping at Allen Fieldhouse, he brought his act to the JRP basketball courts with teammate Chris Piper and played in some heated and competitive pick-up games. I lived in JRP Hall for four years in college, and Turgeon was a legend at the courts. While the games were intense, he kept it fun and even showed his leadership and future coaching skills by orchestrating the show and inserting players into the games.

After concluding his KU career, Turgeon has embarked on a very successful coaching career with first serving as an assistant at Kansas under Larry Brown and Roy Williams for five years until 1992. He’s held head-coaching stops at Jacksonville State, Wichita State (he guided the Shockers to the Sweet 16 in 1997), Texas A&M and now Maryland.

Turgeon’s winning percentage of .600 was the best mark by a Maryland coach in his first two seasons. Turgeon, who is 114-58 in his fifth season at Maryland and 364-217 in 17 seasons overall, led the Terrapins to a school-record 26 wins during the regular season in 2014-15 (28 total wins that year). He’s kept it going this season, guiding Maryland to a 22-3 record before losing five of eight games entering the NCAA Tournament.

But this talented Maryland (27-8) team appears to be on the right track now with two wins in the Big Dance against South Dakota State and Hawaii. While Turgeon hates to play his alma mater in the Sweet 16 (he is 0-6 against KU, all games as Texas A&M head coach), he’s just thrilled to be there and looking forward to the challenge.

The former KU standout doesn’t believe it will be an odd feeling playing the Jayhawks considering he’s faced them six times before as head coach.

“The Kansas thing is not that weird to me anymore or unique,” Turgeon said Wednesday at his press conference. “It was a little bit that way the first time we played. Being at Texas A&M, we played them a lot. You get used to it.

“I'd rather play them in a national championship game than a Sweet 16 game, but here we are so we'll play it. It is what it is. As Bill can tell you when he plays Oklahoma State, which he's done a lot, it's probably not unique or weird to him anymore. He just does it. Kind of the way I feel about this game.”

Turgeon, who was part of Brown's first signing class at KU, then recalled his recruitment to Mount Oread.

“I was down on my knees begging coach Brown to take me,” Turgeon said. “That's what it came down to. Or my dad was doing that. I got very lucky. There was a coaching change (Brown replaced Ted Owens). The coach happened to be 5-11, like me. And thank God they had 15 scholarships back then. Now we only have 13 so I probably wouldn't have been on the team.

“It all worked out, and it was a one-year deal. It's like, ‘hey, you got one shot. If you don't -- doesn't work out, you won't be here next year.’ So it worked out. And I talked to coach Brown this week, and I just -- changed my life, obviously, for the better. So I was very fortunate and played on a lot of great teams, too, so it was a lot of fun.”

Turgeon indeed felt blessed to attend his dream school.

“I recruited KU, went to their camps, go to their games,” he said. “Yeah, I recruited them. So in the end, my high school coach, coach (Ben) Meseke, really helped set up a meeting and I was pretty confident at that age, to say the least, when I met with coach Brown.”

Turgeon, his Hayden teammate, and Meseke went out with Brown for ice cream. That’s when the famous and future Hall of Fame coach asked the “confident” Turgeon with braces why he felt he could play at storied Kansas.

"He said, 'Coach, I'm better than any guard you've got right now,'" Meseke told The Diamondback (Maryland’s student newspaper) recently. "It really made an impression."

Indeed, it did. Brown immediately offered the 18-year-old a scholarship.

And the rest is history.

Not only is Turgeon a proven winner but another big reason I want him to eventually succeed Self as KU head coach is because nobody loves the Jayhawks more than this Topeka native. He grew up idolizing Kansas and dreamed of playing for KU one day, much like former Kansas coach Dick Harp, the only man to play and coach his alma mater in the Final Four.

John Hendel, in his 1991 book, “Kansas Jayhawks: History-Making Basketball,” wrote that Turgeon “used to play mock games pitting Kansas against Notre Dame and took time to imitate the Jayhawks of the time such as Paul Mokeski, Ken Koenigs, and Clint Johnson. He idolized Darnell Valentine."

“I used to be Darnell,” Turgeon said. “I used to try to shoot free throws like Darnell and do everything like Darnell. We had a puppy and we named it D.V.”

It could be several years before the time comes when Self retires or leaves KU, but I can think of nobody more fitting to be the next KU head coach than Mark Turgeon.

Brown feels he’s a coaching gem.

“I love him,” Brown said when Turgeon became the Aggies’ head coach in 2007.

"He's smart enough to figure out what his kids can do, and tailor what he wants to do on their strengths,” Brown added of Turgeon, who was named Big 12 Coach of the year in 2010 and 2011 and is the only coach in Big 12 history with at least 24 wins in each of his four seasons.

“He's worked with Roy, but he's developed his own style. His teams are going to play hard, play unselfish and they are going to guard. I'm a huge fan of Mark Turgeon."

And so is the rest of Jayhawk Nation, although they won’t be pulling for Turgeon tonight against Kansas.

But for Turgeon, he will always bleed crimson and blue.

“I love Kansas,” Turgeon said in January 2009 before he returned to Allen Fieldhouse as head coach for the first time with his Aggies to play KU. “Ever since I was 4 or 5 years old, I’ve loved Allen Fieldhouse. I’ll be fired up. I’m looking forward to it. Kansas fans make me feel better than any fans I’ve ever been around. They’ve been really good to me my whole life.”