Recalling the 1998 NBA Draft as former Jayhawks Joel Embiid and Andrew Wiggins await their draft fate Thursday night: Embiid and Wiggins have a great chance of becoming just the second pair of Jayhawks to be selected within the top-10 picks of the same draft since Paul Pierce and Raef LaFrentz in '98

Andrew Wiggins has a great chance of being selected No. 1 overall on Thursday night during the NBA Draft in Brooklyn. If so, he’ll become just the second Jayhawk ever picked No. 1 when Danny Manning held that honor in 1988 with the Los Angeles Clippers.

Also, if Joel Embiid gets picked in the top-10, it will mark just the second time in KU history that two former Jayhawks were selected within the top-10 picks in the same draft. That happened in 1998 in Vancouver when Raef LaFrentz went No. 3 to the Denver Nuggets, while Paul Pierce slipped to No. 10 to the Boston Celtics.

(If Embiid does slip past the top five, this reporter expects Boston to gobble him up at No. 6 assuming the Celtics indeed keep the pick).

Phog.net takes a historical look at the 1998 Draft and how the careers of Pierce and LaFrentz turned out.

PAUL PIERCE

Pierce waited anxiously on a rainy night in Vancouver on June 24, 1998 in the Green Room at General Motors Place as pick after pick was announced by NBA Commissioner David Stern. Pierce, who was thought by some observers to go in the top three, eventually was selected by the Boston Celtics at No. 10.

“I am a little disappointed, but it is a situation I had no control over,” Pierce told the media that night. “I guess teams figured they couldn’t use me, or that someone else fit their needs better. We (agent) never had a chance to talk with, or mentioned the Celtics. It’s a big surprise to me to be wearing this hat. If you would have told me a week ago, I would have not believed a word of it, but I am here, this is my situation and I will make the most of it.

“I am going to use this as motivation and show these teams that they passed on a quality player. I just want to go out there next year to let them know that they should have picked me, but I am happy that Pitino (Rick, Celtics coach) felt confident in my ability and gave me a chance.”

Then-Celtics general manager Chris Wallace told ESPN The Magazine in 2002 how Boston got its man.

“There was a chain of events, and if any one of them doesn’t occur, we’re screwed,” Wallace said. “First, Kansas lost to URI in the second round of the NCAAs when Paul didn’t play very well. Then he had so-so workouts. And then the new guys in town showed up — Jason Williams, Robert Traylor and Dirk Nowitzki — and pole-vaulted in the top 10. We had Paul in the top four. The great thing was we had no time to outsmart ourselves. When it was our turn, there wasn’t a decision to make.”

Wallace, who is now the GM of the Memphis Grizzlies and actually a former student at KU in the late 1970s, also spoke to this reporter in 2009 about that draft night. While Wallace thought Pierce could drop, he was still surprised he was there at No. 10.

“It was like we had this lottery ticket lying on the floor," Wallace said. "It was really astounding as the picks started getting closer to 10. I remember telling Rick Pitino after seven that we might get Paul Pierce.  ... Then it just started hitting us (after Milwaukee picked Nowitzki at No. 9), we’re going to get Paul Pierce. Like how was I lucky to pull that off? You don’t ask questions, you take him.”

This set the course for a magical career Pierce had in Beantown for 15 years before being traded to the Brooklyn Nets last season while firmly establishing himself as a future Hall of Famer. He holds numerous Celtics’ records and ranks as the No. 18 scorer in NBA history with 25,031 points.

Pierce led Boston to the 2008 title, where he was named Finals MVP. He is a 10-time NBA All-Star, a member of the All-NBA Second Team in 2009 and a three-time All-NBA Third Team selection (2002, 2003 and 2008). Pierce was also named to the NBAAll-Rookie First Team in 1999 and was the league’s three-point contest winner at the 2010 All-Star game.

He was the NBA regular-season leader in total points in 2002 (2,144) and the regular-season leader in free throws made in 2003 (604).

Pierce continued to amaze at age 35 during his last season in Boston. He became the oldest player in Celtics history to score 40 points in a regulation game when he did so against Cleveland on Dec. 19, 2012 at TD Garden in Boston’s victory. He scored 25 points in the second half and made all seven of his field goals in the final quarter. Pierce shot 13 of 16 from the field, 6 of 8 from beyond the arc, and 10 of 11 at the free throw line.

''When I first came into the league I always asked myself, 'Do I want to be good or do I want to be great?'” Pierce told the Associated Press afterwards. ''Every time I stepped out and worked on my game, that's what I asked myself. I always got here early and worked on my craft as hard as I could because I wanted to be one of the great players.”

While he can still be a force, Pierce had his worst statistical season last year in Brooklyn, averaging 13.5 points, 4.6 rebounds and 2.4 assists in 75 games (68 starts). He has career averages of 21.3 points, 5.9 rebounds and 3.8 assists, while shooting 44.7 percent from the field, 37.0 percent from three-point range, and 82.7 percent at the charity stripe in 36.1 minutes per game.

A consensus first-team All-American at KU after his junior year in 1997-98, Pierce was also the Big Eight Freshman of the Year in 1995-96. The No. 7 all-time leading scorer in Kansas history, Pierce is one of just seven Jayhawks to score more than 700 points in a season.

RAEF LAFRENTZ

As LaFrentz was putting up All-American numbers during his senior season at Kansas, the Denver Post wrote that he could be the No. 1 overall pick months before the June draft.

Celtics’ GM Wallace was also impressed with the 6-11 mobile big man as the draft neared.

“He will be the first or second senior selected in the draft, and he’s the No. 1 power forward prospect,” Wallace said in the 1998 NBA Draft media guide. 

“He can run the court, he can score and he rebounds and blocks shots. He has to get stronger to meet the rigors of the NBA game. While I think he will do quite well in the NBA, I don’t think you’ll see his best basketball at center."

After Pacific’s Michael Olowokandi (big bust) went No. 1 to the Clippers and Arizona point guard Mike Bibby was selected No. 2 by Vancouver, LaFrentz was drafted with great promise as the No. 3 pick by the Denver Nuggets, seven picks ahead of former KU teammate Pierce.

After tearing his ACL 12 games into his rookie season, many observers believed he was still destined for greatness.

“Raef is going to be an All-Star soon,” Nuggets strength and conditioning coach Steve Hess told the Denver Post in August 1999. “He’s never going to have another problem. That’s my belief. Raef is a potential superstar. So he can’t come back and be OK. He has to come back and be unbelievable. There’s a lot of pressure on him. It’s not like any guy coming back from a surgery and if he does good, you’re like, ‘Wow.’

“Raef has to come back and blow everyone’s socks off, so can you imagine going to bed every night and thinking about that? Not only do you have to come back from this rehab, but you have to be unbelievable — and he will be.”

LaFrentz never became a superstar, but did make his mark with Denver with his multidimensional skills as a big man who could shoot three-pointers and block shots with the best in the NBA.

He averaged at least 12.4 points his first three full years in the league, while blocking at least 180 shots per season during that span. In his third full season in 2001-02 playing for both Denver and the Dallas Mavericks, LaFrentz became just the third player in NBA history to record 100 three-pointers (104) and 100 blocks (213) in the same season.

However, the former KU All-American’s production declined after that with injuries. LaFrentz, though, showed signs of his old form with the Boston Celtics for two years from 2004-06, where he averaged 11.1 points and 6.9 rebounds in 2004-05 before playing in all 82 games the following season for the first time in his career and making a career-best 112 threes.

He finished his career with two injury shortened seasons in Portland, retiring at age 31 in 2007-08.

LaFrentz, who played 10 years in the NBA, posted career averages of 10.1 points (5,690), 6.1 rebounds and 1.6 blocks per game.

A two-time consensus All-American and Big 12 Player of the Year, LaFrentz is the third all-time leading scorer and second-leading rebounder in KU history.

Recruiting prep phenom and future Jayhawk All-American Paul Pierce

Roy Williams had already established a California recruiting pipeline in his beginnings as KU head coach, landing such stars as Adonis Jordan, Jacque Vaughn, Jerod Haase and Scot Pollard.

But now he was going after his big prize, an extremely gifted 6-7 small forward from Inglewood High School in Los Angeles named Paul Anthony Pierce who was being recruited by every big-time program in the land.

Pierce, who admired Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan growing up, had come a long way on the prep scene since being cut from the varsity team his freshman year. He barely made the team as a 5-8 sophomore before eventually growing and becoming a McDonald’s All-American and California Gatorade Player of the Year as a senior, when he averaged 24.5 points, 11.5 rebounds, and 4.5 assists per game.

Williams dearly wanted Pierce to join a quality team returning for the 1995-96 season, which included Vaughn, Haase, Pollard and Raef LaFrentz. The former KU coach talked about his recruiting pitch in his autobiography: “Hard Work: A Life on and off the Court.”

“Recruiting is like putting together a puzzle, and I mean that literally,” Williams wrote. “When we recruited Paul Pierce at Kansas, we had four starters coming back, but we had no small forward. I asked my assistant Steve Robinson to make a little puzzle. He cut pieces out of a cardboard box; there were four corner pieces that represented our four starters and he left the centerpiece missing. We sent Paul the four corner pieces and then two days later, we sent the centerpiece in the shape of a star with Paul’s picture on it and a message that read, You are the missing piece to the puzzle. That’s what Paul turned out to be when we got him. Recruiting is about convincing kids that they are the missing piece that we need to be complete.”

Pierce, who scored 28 points in the McDonald’s All-American game, just two points shy of tying Jordan’s record, was convinced he could be that missing piece. He also told his website (www.paulpierce.net) what sold him on the Jayhawks and coach Williams.

 

"He didn't promise me anything,” Pierce said. "He said, 'You're going to go here, you're going to work just like everybody else, and I'm going to stay on you.’ That was enough for me."

Pierce elaborated on his decision to attend KU in an interview with The Sporting News in 1998.

“I wanted to go somewhere where someone would push me,” he said. “If I went to a team where everything was built around me, I’d probably get lazy and spoiled. I wanted to go to a team that also had a chance to win a national championship, where I’d get good exposure and have a good head coach — somewhere I could learn.”

Pierce averaged 11.9 points per game and claimed Big Eight Freshman of the Year honors in 1996. KU went 29-5 that season, won the Big Eight Championship, and advanced to the Elite Eight.

He improved dramatically his sophomore season (16.3 ppg) before becoming an All-American as a junior (20.4 ppg), when he became the first KU player since Danny Manning to average over 20 points per game. Pierce truly came the go-to player once LaFrentz went down with a broken bone in his right hand in December 1997 and missed six weeks. Pierce averaged 22.5 points and shot 50.8 percent from the field in eight of the nine games without LaFrentz.

Pierce, who received back-to-back Big 12 Tournament MVP awards his sophomore and junior seasons, always came up big in crunch time.

"The bigger the game, the bigger he played," Williams said.

Ryan Robertson, who played with Pierce in the McDonald’s All-American game in 1995 before joining him at KU for three seasons, marveled at Pierce’s skills. 

“Best player I ever played with,” Robertson said in a 2007 interview. “My freshman roommate. Just an absolute hunger for basketball.”

Despite playing just three years, Pierce is the eighth-leading scorer in KU history with 1,768 points (16.4 ppg). He’s gone on to become one of the top scorers in NBA annals with the Boston Celtics and now Brooklyn Nets, and will one day be enshrined in the Hall of Fame.

Recruiting Illinois high school legend and Jayhawk great Rick Suttle

I wrote about my childhood hero Rick Suttle in a previous blog, but now include some candid and interesting information about his recruitment to Kansas. Many thanks to Sam Miranda, the late KU assistant, for sharing these great memories with me during our wonderful interview in 2000.

By David Garfield
Phog.net Senior Writer

Kansas basketball is one of the most storied programs in college basketball history blessed with great players who have displayed their magic in Allen Fieldhouse. But why did some of these former standouts choose Kansas? Who were some of the other schools involved? Who was the key person in their recruitment? All Jayhawk fans love recruiting stories, and so Phog.net will go down memory lane in this series and look at some former KU stars and how they wound up at Mount Oread.

Rick Suttle was turning heads and drawing rave reviews as a 6-10 scoring and rebounding machine at Assumption High School in East St. Louis, Ill., during his senior season in 1971. He averaged a whopping 26.6 points and 15 rebounds per game while dominating competition as a prep All-American.

Mike Kelly, a 6-4 center from Suttle’s rival school at Cahokia High, remembers the impossible task of guarding the big man.

“He ate my lunch and scored 29 against us and left a lasting impression on me,” Kelly wrote in an email. “To us in the St. Louis area, Rick was a giant in stature.”

Roger Morningstar, a native of Dundee, Ill., and future teammate of Suttle at Kansas, heard this “giant” was indeed something special.

“(He was a) legendary Illinois basketball player,” Morningstar said. “He was down just across the river from St. Louis. Those players, northern Illinois and southern Illinois were two different worlds from a basketball standpoint. They’d usually meet somewhere for a state tournament. I knew of Rick, how great he was, but I hadn’t watched him play.”

Sam Miranda, one of the best assistant coaches in KU history who was instrumental in recruiting many key players from the Illinois area during his tenure at Kansas, had certainly watched Suttle play in high school many times.

Miranda, who died in 2009 at age 78, was instrumental in convincing Suttle to choose KU after Suttle had his heart set on Jacksonville, which had just been to the national championship game in 1970.

“The key thing was his mother,” Miranda said in a November 2000 interview. “I went in and started talking to him and his mom when he was a sophomore and was able to gain the confidence of his mother. Finally, in the end, she said, ‘Hey, you’re going to go with Sam. That’s it.’ I recruited him hard for three years. I went to see him over and over.”

The eccentric Suttle, though, wanted to play up the recruiting game even though he had decided to attend KU.

“At the very end in recruiting Rick Suttle, it came down to the last night,” Miranda said. “It was either going to be Kansas, Saint Louis University or Jacksonville. He said, ‘Coach, here is want I want to do. I want you to come in. I’m going to get the Saint Louis coach and I’m going to get the Jacksonville coach, and I want you all to sit in the living room. We’re going to talk and then I’m going to go to the bedroom and I’m going to come out and decide where I’m going to come to school.’

“I said, ‘Rick, that’s fine with me because I know you’re going to come to Kansas, but I’ll be here. But I think you’re going to embarrass some coaches because you’re going to have the Jacksonville coach come all the way from Jacksonville and the Saint Louis coach is going to be there, and I know you’re going to come to Kansas, so it’s going to be a little embarrassing for them.’ He said, ‘Oh no, that’s what I’m going to do.’”

Miranda immediately told Suttle’s mother, Maddie, about his son’s plan.

“She said, ‘He’s not going to do that,’” Miranda recalled. “She kind of put the squelch on that, but that’s what he wanted to do.”

That was just Rick Suttle being Rick Suttle.

 

“He was a good kid down deep, just a little different, but a good person,” Miranda said.

Suttle had a great career and was a “Super Sub” on the 1974 Final Four team. He concluded his last year in 1974-75 as KU went 19-8 and won the Big Eight Championship before falling to Notre Dame in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

Suttle, who paced the Jayhawks with 16.3 points as a sophomore, became a starter again that senior season, leading the squad with 14.6 points per game and earning first-team All-Big Eight honors. He ranks No. 38 in school history in career points (1,156), and is tied for fourth on the single-game blocked shots chart (eight against K-State in 1975). Suttle is also tied for No. 21 on the school’s all-time double-doubles chart with 11.

On and off the court, Suttle kept everybody loose.

“I roomed with Rick. He was funny,” former teammate Dale Greenlee once said. “I can still see Rick. He was late for a practice. To punish him, we had a pregame meal and Rick was supposed to sing his school song as the punishment. He didn’t know his school song. I remember him going, ‘I don’t know it.’ We said, ‘So pick a song.’ He leaves the room and came in singing ‘Hello Dolly.’ Here’s Rick, 6-11. He actually left the room, came in waving a handkerchief like Louis Armstrong. He had us roaring. Probably every one in the room remembers that. Things like that, he was always good for something.” 

Donnie Von Moore agrees. He loved being around his former roommate.

“Rick Suttle was a character. He used to do crazy stuff,” Von Moore once told Rock Chalk Sports Talk. “The things he used to do that had me laughing so hard was the coaches used to come in and check your room for bed checks. Coach Miranda came to the door and said, ‘Where’s Rick?’ I’d say, ‘He’s in the back.’ He would have to go see him. So Rick being Rick, said, ‘Watch this.’ He took off all his clothes and was sitting in the bathroom (by) the mirror. He had all this hair, so he was playing with his hair. Coach comes back and says, ‘Rick, why whenever I come and see you, you never have any clothes on?’ That was just the funniest thing I’d ever seen in my life.”

After concluding his KU career, Suttle was drafted in the seventh round of the NBA Draft by the Los Angeles Lakers before embarking on an extremely long and successful basketball career in Argentina.

At last check, Suttle is now the assistant coach at East St. Louis High School.