In my previous post, Raef LaFrentz cracked the top-10 of the former Jayhawks to have the best NBA career. Now, in this series, I examine another great ex-KU big man who carved out an impressive life in the pros.
NO. 9 DREW GOODEN
As Drew Gooden was posting monster numbers during his junior year at Kansas en route to consensus All-American honors, his dad believed Gooden would soon become an NBA superstar.
“By 2006, he’ll be a household name,” Andrew Gooden Sr. told the San Francisco Chronicle on March 12, 2002. “He’ll be one of the best players in the NBA.”
Gooden never became a “household name” or “one of the best” in the pros, being traded six times and playing on 10 different teams during his nomadic 14-year NBA career. A natural scorer and rebounder who was almost a walking double-double when given minutes, Gooden’s NBA life was both a blessing and a curse. It was a blessing in that he played for so many teams that wanted his services; a curse in that so many teams didn’t want to keep him.
Whatever the case, Gooden produced impressive numbers in the league before retiring in 2016, a long journey beginning with lofty expectations since being drafted by the Memphis Grizzlies with the No. 4 overall pick in 2002, just after leading KU to its first Final Four in nine years.
The 6-10, 250-pound forward was a consistent scorer, averaging in double figures his first 10 seasons in the NBA. Gooden, who was named Rookie of the Month in November 2002 and to the NBA All-Rookie First Team, posted his best stats in his third year in the league in 2004-05 with the Cleveland Cavaliers, when he teamed with LeBron James and averaged 14.4 points and 9.2 rebounds (13th in NBA) in a career-high 30.8 minutes per game while starting 80 of 82 contests.
Gooden became just the second player (Shawn Kemp) in Cavs franchise history to record at least 1,000 points, 750 rebounds, 100 assists, 75 steals and 75 blocks in one season. He also recorded 37 double-doubles (eighth in NBA) while shooting 13-of-13 from the free throw line versus Milwaukee on Jan. 30, 2005, setting career highs in both categories.
He also shined in his first playoff appearance during his rookie season in 2003 with the Orlando Magic, averaging 14.0 points and 12.7 rebounds in seven games. Gooden came up big again in the postseason for the Cavs in the 2007 NBA Finals (they lost to San Antonio), averaging 11.4 points and 8.0 rebounds in 30.3 minutes per game.
Gooden, who averaged 13.7 points (his highest output since 2004-05) and 6.5 rebounds playing center for Milwaukee in his 10th season in 2011-12, reinvented himself launching the most threes of his career (55) while making a career-best 16 for 29.1 percent. He even was selected as March 8, 2012 Player of the Week. However, after such an impressive season, the former KU star only played in 16 games the following year while averaging career lows in points (3.3 ppg) and rebounds (1.9 rpg).
The Bucks then released him in the summer of 2013 using the amnesty clause. For Gooden, he found himself out of the league for the first time in his career.
“I was robbed. I just came arguably off my best year in the NBA and became the 15th man starting the first day of training camp,” Gooden told the Washington Post on April 28, 2015.
“And nobody saw me play the whole season, so when I was amnestied, it was like ‘What the hell can Drew Gooden do right now?’”
Gooden used his time away from the NBA staying in the gym, shooting jumper after jumper, three-pointer after three-pointer to expand his long-distance game.
Washington eventually signed Gooden in 2014 to two 10-day contracts and then to the remainder of the season, where he produced off the bench averaging 8.3 points and 5.2 rebounds in 22 games while shooting 53.1 percent from the field, 41.2 percent from beyond the arc, and a sizzling 88.9 percent at the free throw line.
His numbers dipped during the 2014-15 season with the Wizards, averaging 5.4 points and 4.4 rebounds in 16.9 minutes per game. However, he set new career highs in three-point field goals (23) and three-point attempts (59) while shooting 39.0 percent from beyond the arc.
Gooden then elevated his game in the playoffs, connecting on 7-of-14 three-point attempts against Toronto in 20.5 minutes per game in a four-game sweep during the first round. Gooden wound up playing 10 playoff games and went 12-of-26 from deep for 46.2 percent. This was after Gooden had made just one three in 56 career playoff games entering the 2015 playoffs.
The Wizards rewarded Gooden with a one-year contract worth $3.3 million. Gooden, though, battled injuries and only averaged 2.7 points and 2.8 rebounds in 10.2 minutes per game (30 contests) during his final season.
Gooden, who was originally drafted by the Grizzlies and then-head coach Hubie Brown as a small forward, played power forward and center during his career since leaving Memphis in 2003. He talked about his transformation to ESPN.com’s Scoop Jackson on May 9, 2015.
“I started my first two months in the league as a small forward,” Gooden said. “Back then I was called a 'tweener.' It wasn't called a stretch 4 -- it was a tweener. I wasn't big enough to play in the post and rebound, yet I wasn't fast enough to guard smaller players (and didn’t) have the skills to shoot and be a perimeter player from the outside. So I had committed myself to telling myself, 'Hey, I'm a power forward. I'm going to rebound. I'm going to do the dirty work, rough-nose defense, and if this is how I'm going to play 10-plus years in the NBA, so be it.' I had to take that route. I came in small, as a guy spacing the floor, shooting 3s, coming off pick-and-rolls. I had to develop into a traditional forward when I came in just so I could play 10 years in this league.”
While he never became an All-Star, Gooden still had a very productive and fine NBA career while earning $67,930,972, according to basketballreference.com. He started 500 of 790 games and posted career averages of 11.0 points (8,653) and 7.1 rebounds in 25.7 minutes per game, while shooting 46.2 percent from the field, 25.7 percent from three-point range, and 76.0 percent at the free throw line.
He ranked No. 8 in the NBA in offensive rebounds in 2005-06 and No. 5 in 2006-07, while sixth in defensive rebounds in 2004-05. Gooden ranks No. 53 all time in offensive rebound percentage (10.6), No. 82 in defensive rebound percentage (21.7), and No. 69 in total rebound percentage (16.1).
For all those numbers, he will best be known for playing on 10 different teams. Gooden talked to Bleacher Report in February 2015 about his many travels around the league. His nomadic career all began in Memphis, where he lasted just 51 games as a rookie before his trade to Orlando. Even on draft night in June 2002, Gooden had a notion he wouldn’t be in Memphis for long.
“I came into draft night with the possibility of getting traded,” Gooden said. “[Grizzlies general manager] Jerry West assured me that if I was available with the fourth pick, they were going to draft the best player available—whether it fit the system or not. Coming in, my agent said, ‘Don’t get too comfortable with that hat.’ So even though I had the Grizzlies hat on, there was a possibility I might be getting traded.
“But I stuck it out, went through summer league, played my first couple of months with the Grizzlies. It seemed like it was going to work, [that I could] coexist with the other guys and play small forward. But eventually it didn’t work out. The funny thing is, Jerry West had assured me again, when the trade deadline was coming up, that I wasn’t getting traded. ... That was the only time in my career when I was reassured that I wasn’t getting traded and it happened.”
The trades kept coming over and over again for Gooden.
“After numerous times going through a trade or the time or the window before a trade, I’m kind of numb to the feeling,” he said. “I know it’s a business, and I learned it early in my career.”
Gooden learned to make the best of his opportunities wherever he was traded. A jovial personality, he always got along with his new teammates. And the former Jayhawk star helped his teams win lots of games while keeping an eye on the bigger picture.
“Once it happened once (trade), that was the shock. But like anything else, we’re all human. We’ll be able to adapt to whatever that situation is,” Gooden said. “If you want to play and have goals in this league like I did—I had a goal that I wanted to play multiple years in this league—you suck it up, you keep working hard and the wind will carry you where it needs to carry you, in the direction you need to be.”
In addition to his his hardwood accomplishments, Gooden made a big difference off the court during his career. Gooden, who was listed among professional athletes as "Good Guys in Sports" by The Sporting News on three occasions, opened the Drew Gooden Reading and Learning Center at Cleveland's East End Neighborhood House in September 2005, won the NBA Community Assist Award the next month, and named the Al Lerner Community Service Award winner at the Greater Cleveland Sports Awards in February 2006.
A 2002 consensus first-team All-American and Big 12 Player of the Year at KU, Gooden became just the second Jayhawk (Danny Manning) to amass at least 1,500 points, 900 rebounds, 100 blocks and 100 steals in a career. He ranks 19th on KU’s all-time scoring list (1,526 points), sixth in rebounding and fourth with 44 career double-doubles.
His jersey was retired in Allen Fieldhouse on Jan. 18, 2003. Even more important, after 14 years since leaving KU, Gooden completed his bachelor's degree in communications in December 2016 and participated in graduation ceremonies at Mount Oread in May.
After some early growing pains playing for coach Roy Williams, Gooden became a superstar his junior year in 2001-02, averaging 19.8 points and 11.4 rebounds in leading Kansas to the Final Four. He set a school record with 25 double-doubles that season (now No. 2 behind Thomas Robinson) and tied Raef LaFrentz for most consecutive double-doubles (seven) in KU history.
It was, quite simply, a season for the ages.
“Drew is so emotional at times and can just throw the guys on his back and carry them,” Williams said then. “He had a four-five-six-seven-game, you put a number on it, stretch that was about as good as anybody I've ever had. I think Drew's game has developed each and every season, each and every month of every season.”
And then Williams said this at the time to ESPN The Magazine:
"This guy is the best offensive rebounder I’ve ever seen."
