Sean Pearson was a high school star at Nazareth Academy in LaGrange, Ill. The 6-5 swingman was rated the No. 58 best prospect nationally by Bob Gibbons his senior year, while considered one of the top five players in the Chicagoland area. He averaged 24.1 points and 9.0 rebounds per game his senior season while shooting 57 percent from the field, leading Nazareth to a 28-1 record, including 27 straight wins. As a junior, Pearson was MVP of the Lemont (Ill.) Holiday Tournament after scoring 104 points in four games. Pearson, who appeared in the acclaimed movie documentary “Hoop Dreams,” chose KU over Michigan and Marquette.
Pearson took his lethal perimeter jump shot to KU and finished his career as the No. 7 all-time leader in three-point field goals with 117. He had his best year his junior season in 1994-95, averaging a career-high 9.6 points and 3.0 rebounds in 23.5 minutes per game, starting 28 of 31 contests. Pearson, who also made a career-best 41 threes that season, posted career averages of 6.2 points and 2.1 rebounds in 14.2 minutes per game, while shooting 41.6 percent from the field, 31.5 percent from beyond the arc, and 57.6 percent at the charity stripe.
In the 1995-96 Media Guide, it was reported that Pearson was “an underrated small forward who at times can shoot from the perimeter as well as anyone in the Big Eight Conference...Has made great strides in his overall game since his sophomore season, especially on the defensive end...Arguably KU’s most solid performer last January...” Pearson scored a career-high 26 points against Colorado on Jan. 21, 1995, connecting on 6 of 8 three-point field goal attempts.
From the 1995-96 Media Guide:
Favorite Food: Chicken
Least Favorite Food: Fish
Favorite Movie: Crimson Tide
Person I admire the Most: My father
Person in history I would like to converse with: Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X
Favorite Sports Hero: George Gervin
Team I would like to see added to the schedule: Illinois
Best athlete I have played against: Eddie Jones
Ten years from now, I hope to be: Playing basketball
If I were president of the NCAA for a day, I would: Pay the student athletes
When I have time to relax, I: Listen to music
The toughest thing about being an athlete is: The practices
If I have one million dollars, I would: Invest it
My advice to kids is: Study hard
To get psyched up for a game, I: Listen to music
My biggest thrill in sports was: Going to the Final Four
Not many people know this about me, but: I’m shy
I can’t imagine going a week without: Chocolate
Last summer I: Played in the Kansas City Bell League
I chose my jersey number because: I like it
Here is my Where Are They Now? interview with Pearson in 2000. I met with him at the Boys & Girls Club in Lawrence, where he was working at the time as program director and providing a true role model and great example for youth.
“I think it’s a great opportunity for kids,” Pearson said of the Boys & Girls Club.
We had a wonderful talk. I could tell Sean had a great perspective on life and realized there were far more important things than basketball like studying and getting a great education.
“I tell my nephew, ‘You go into the gym and you play basketball for two hours, you got to study for two hours.’ They go hand in hand. A lot of players are starting to realize that just because you can dunk the basketball doesn’t mean a college is going to take you. You got to be able to go to school and make the grades. You got to be able to do both.”
By David Garfield
Sean Pearson calls the experience a defining moment in his life.
Pearson, the former KU basketball player, was just 13 years old and attending the prestigious Five-Star basketball camp. He and approximately 1,700 other campers sat mesmerized while listening to a speech by Rick Pitino (Providence head coach and current coach of the Boston Celtics).
“He had us all stand up, and then made everyone sit down except for one kid,” Pearson said. “He told us out of all of us here, only one person is going to make it to the NBA. ... At that moment, I realized that basketball wasn’t meant for everyone to play professionally. Everyone can play the game, but only a select few can play professionally.”
While Pearson continued attending camps as a youngster, he “just didn’t go to try and play basketball and show the talents I could do. I tried to learn some things.”
Now, at 28, Pearson is putting his basketball dreams aside and using the gifts and lessons he learned from people like Pitino and KU coach Roy Williams and passing them down to impressionable youngsters at the Boys & Girls Club of Lawrence. Pearson has been the club’s program director for the past six months.
“Kids tell me, ‘I’m going to be an NBA or NFL superstar,’” Pearson said. “It’s not that easy. You got to be willing to put forth the effort. And putting forth the effort still doesn’t mean you’re going to get there. There might be somebody better than you at the time, or something else could happen. ... It’s a great goal to have, but you have to be ready to set other goals in between because that goal may not happen.”
Pearson, who previously worked for the Lawrence Parks and Recreation Department, was naturally drawn to the Boys & Girls Club. He said he feels a personal mission to make life better for young people.
“I try to set up after-school programs and give them some rules and boundaries of what they can and cannot do, and kind of just head them in the right direction as they get older,” he said.
The team comedian during his Jayhawk career, Pearson revels in working with children and helping shape the next generation.
“Probably most of my staff tell me I’m the biggest kid that we have here,” Pearson said, smiling. “As long as it makes the kids happy and makes them comfortable about being around me, it’s worth it. I love kids. I think they’re the greatest thing in the world. No matter what kind of day I’m having, if you put me around kids, it just makes it a better day. They’re the future of everything that’s going to happen in this world, and we just have to try and teach them the best way to do things and have fun doing it.”
Pearson certainly had a fun time during his KU career. A high school standout from LaGrange, Ill, he said Kansas was a perfect match for him. Pearson talked about the speculation that he wouldn’t have come to Kansas if Williams had signed Jimmy King, a McDonald’s All-American who chose Michigan and became a part of the famed Fab Five. King and Pearson were both recruited by KU and Michigan.
“It really didn’t matter if Jimmy went to Michigan or he went to Kansas, and I went to the same place,” Pearson said, noting the two played different positions (King was a big guard, while Pearson played primarily small forward). “It seemed like everything was meant for me to come here to KU. I just wanted to be someplace where I felt comfortable with the people. I think if coach Williams could have got both of us, he would have loved it. It just didn’t work out that way.”
A prolific three-point shooter, Pearson wound up his KU career playing in a Final Four, two Sweet 16’s, and an appearance in the Elite Eight. He said going to the Final Four in New Orleans as a freshman in 1993 was his crowning moment as a Jayhawk.
“March Madness is something you really can’t describe,” Pearson said.
And then there was his memorable senior year in 1996, where KU advanced to the Elite Eight. Despite being replaced in the starting lineup that season by frosh sensation Paul Pierce, Pearson enjoyed every minute of his senior campaign.
“It was the (team) closeness we had,” Pearson said. “Everybody thought that could be a problem (losing his starting position), but it wasn’t. Regardless of how much time I was playing, I was still a leader on that team because I was a senior and I had been through things that those players hadn’t been through yet.”
After finishing his KU career, Pearson went back to his old high school in Illinois (Nazareth Academy) and became an assistant coach. He then hooked up with former KU teammate Calvin Rayford and played with the IBA’s North Dakota franchise. Pearson returned to Lawrence in 1998 and worked for the city’s Parks and Recreation department before embarking on another venture with professional basketball last summer with the USBL’s Kansas Cagerz.
Pearson, whose ultimate dream is to be a college basketball coach, is now focusing all his energies on the Boys & Girls Club.
“I feel the Lord had something else for me to do than be an NBA basketball player, and I’m here to do that.”
A Closer Look at Sean Pearson:
Years at KU: 1991-1996 (Pearson sat out the 1991-92 season as a non-qualifier, but eventually had his year reinstated by the NCAA)
Career Notables: Member of 1993 Final Four squad...1994-95 Big Eight All-Improved team..1993-94 Big Eight All-Bench Team...Tied for No. 7 all time with Mike Maddox in NCAA Tournament games played (14)...No. 9 in career three-point field goals (117).
Family: Pearson is engaged to Martha Caldwell and will be married in November.
Education: B.G.S. Psychology, 1997
Since Leaving KU: Pearson served as an assistant varsity basketball coach at his former high school in LaGrange, Ill. (Nazareth Academy) before playing for the IBA’s North Dakota minor league club. He returned to Lawrence in 1998 and worked for the Parks and Recreation department, until playing professionally again last summer with the USBL’s Kansas Cagerz in Salina.
Currently: Pearson is the program director for the Boys & Girls Club of Lawrence.
Hobbies: Watching television and talking and giving encouragement to his nephew David.
Favorite KU Memories: Going to the Final Four his freshman season in 1993...Touring Paris during an exhibition game series his senior year... Final home game. “I miss the fans more than anything.”
On the Jayhawks Today: “They can’t look at what everyone else expects out of them. They’re going to have to go for what they expect out of themselves and what coach Williams expects. Believe in the things he wants them to do, because they’re going to work. We used to say you got to pull the nails out of the floor for coach if you want to win a game, and I think they have to take that into mind.”
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