Raef LaFrentz made his name in the NBA with shot blocking, three-point shooting

I’ve always been fascinated in how former Jayhawks perform in the NBA, becoming a draft junkie since 1976 when my childhood hero Norm Cook was selected with the No. 16 overall pick in the first round by the Boston Celtics. While Cook’s pro career never panned out, Kansas basketball has turned out some great NBA players in its illustrious history, from the best of the best in pro basketball history as old-timers like Wilt Chamberlain to recently retired superstar Paul Pierce. 

Now, Josh Jackson and Frank Mason have a chance to make their mark in the NBA as their journey starts on June 22 with the NBA Draft — Jackson as a likely top-three pick and Mason a probable second-rounder.

In this series, I rank the top-10 former KU players with the best NBA careers.

No. 10 RAEF LAFRENTZ

Raef LaFrentz was so highly coveted during his memorable senior year at Kansas that many basketball observers predicted he would be the No. 1 pick in the 1998 NBA Draft.

"At this point he's the strong favorite to go Number 1," Boston Celtics general manager Chris Wallace told Sports Illustrated on Dec. 29, 1997. "And it doesn't matter who comes out. It's Raef's position to lose."

LaFrentz was a mobile 6-11 player with a soft shooting touch blessed with a deadly turnaround jumper and great rebounding skills.

Wallace also liked the fact that LaFrentz was a lefthander.

“I just think it adds a little trickery that gives him a small advantage,” Wallace said.

Denver Post columnist Jim Armstrong also was a believer. Armstrong wrote:

“So if the Nuggets get the first pick in the NBA draft, do they take Raef LaFrentz, the safe pick, or Paul Pierce, who’s got some Jordan in him? Big men win games, but showmen sell tickets. At the moment, that’s what the Nuggets’ front office needs to concern itself with.”

LaFrentz didn’t end up going No. 1, but No. 3 to Denver, seven picks ahead of former KU teammate and future Hall of Famer Pierce. After tearing his ACL 12 games into his rookie season, many experts still believed LaFrentz was destined for greatness.

After all, he averaged 13.8 points and 7.6 rebounds per game before the injury, scored in double figures in 10 of 12 games, and posted three double-doubles, including 24 points and 12 rebounds versus the powerhouse Los Angeles Lakers.

“Raef is going to be an All-Star soon,” then-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 or All-Star and never an inside scoring force as he was at Kansas, but did make his mark in Denver with his multidimensional skills as a big man who could spread the floor and shoot three-pointers and block shots with the best in the NBA.

He averaged at least 12.4 points his first three full seasons 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. He ranked No. 6 in the league in blocks in 1999-2000, No. 3 in 2000-01, and No. 2 in 2001-02.

Despite his success, those early years playing for Nuggets’ coach Dan Issel were frustrating.

“I know Dan just wants to get the most out of me as he can. But he tears me down as a person,” LaFrentz once told the Denver Post.

Issel resigned in December 2001 and LaFrentz was later shipped to the Mavericks. After 2002, LaFrentz’s production slipped with more injuries. 

The former KU All-American, though, showed signs of his old form with the Boston Celtics for two years from 2004-06, when he was reunited with Pierce and 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.

Battling knee problems and other injuries, LaFrentz finished his career with two injury-plagued seasons in Portland, and actually did not play at all in 2008-09 after undergoing shoulder surgery. 

Despite never reaching stardom, LaFrentz persevered through adversity and had a very productive NBA career while ranking No. 44 all time with 1.6 blocks per game.

LaFrentz, who retired at age 33 in 2009, started 438 of 563 contests while posting career averages of 10.1 points (5,690) and 6.1 rebounds in 25.8 minutes per game. He shot 46.6 percent from the field, 36.3 percent from beyond the arc, and 71.1 percent at the free throw line. 

In August 2015, LaFrentz was named the No. 21 best player in Denver Nuggets history by Hoopshabit.com. He ranks eighth in Denver annals with 556 blocks, 10th with a three-point percentage of .376, and third with an average of 2.5 blocks per game.

A two-time consensus All-American and Big 12 Player of the Year, LaFrentz joined Tim Duncan and Shaquille O'Neal as the only players in the 1990s to earn first team AP All-America honors twice. He is also the third-leading scorer and second-leading rebounder in KU history, one of just three Jayhawks to be in the top three in both categories with Danny Manning and Nick Collison. LaFrentz also became just the first KU player to average a double-double in 1998 (19.8 ppg, 11.4 rpg) since Roger Brown in 1971 (11.2 ppg, 11.1 rpg).

The school’s career leader in double-doubles (56), his No. 45 jersey was retired in Allen Fieldhouse on Feb. 16, 2003.

Former KU coach Roy Williams often said he recruited the Monona, Iowa, native harder than any other player to Kansas.

“The  bottom line was, I couldn’t say no to coach Williams,” LaFrentz told Sport Magazine in April 1997. “The kind of relationship is something that I thought was special, even in high school.”

LaFrentz talked more about his Iowa and KU roots at his induction into the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame in 2011.

“It all started in a small town of Monona, Iowa, about 12,000 people in northeastern Iowa,” LaFrentz said. “A big thank you to my folks, Ron and Ellen. They tried to instill a work ethic in me. I don’t know if it worked or not, but I worked very hard to make them proud.

“From there, my basketball career as a whole, coach Williams, I owe him a great deal. He came up to Monona, he found me and gave me the opportunity to come to the University of Kansas and be a part of the rich tradition. I was fortunate enough to win a lot of basketball games and play with some great players --Jacque Vaughn, Jerod Haase, Paul Pierce, Scot Pollard, all helped to form my basketball game and form me as a person. Great times at the University of Kansas.”

Williams loved coaching LaFrentz; he called the big man a fiery competitor. Williams relayed a special memory of LaFrentz’s competitive spirit to Sports Illustrated his senior year on Dec. 29, 1997.

"I won't say it's a mean streak because he's not a mean guy, but he's definitely got a competitive streak," Williams said. "I'll give you an example. Last year everyone talked about our senior leadership because we had the best group of seniors you could imagine: Jerod Haase, Scot Pollard, Jacque Vaughn. But we're playing Nebraska at home, and we go into overtime, and Raef just takes over. The players leave my huddle and then huddle up themselves about 10 feet out on the floor, and Raef looks at the seniors and just says, 'Give me the damn ball.' Then he goes out and scores 11 points in overtime, and we win. Now that's a competitor."

Indeed, he was.

"I like beating people," LaFrentz told SI. "I like matching my skills against yours and winning, in whatever we play: cards, board games, basketball. It doesn't matter. I just don't like to let someone beat me." 

LaFrentz said he got his competitive fire from his dad, Ron, a former basketball player at Northern Iowa.

"He's got a mean streak like nobody else.”