My tribute to former KU standout and NBA player Brian Martin

 

I am still shocked over the death of Brian Martin. I actually didn’t know Brian had passed until I googled his name recently and saw his obituary. I was deeply saddened and devastated. He died on Aug. 15, 2025 at age 62 from complications of a stroke. It seems like just yesterday when I interviewed Brian for our wonderful Where Are They Now? story in 2000. He was full of life, full of great memories, full of funny stories. It was pure joy talking to him. We were Facebook friends until I deleted my account in 2021 after my dad passed. Brian also endorsed me on LinkedIn several years ago. In addition to my interview with him for Where Are They Now?, I talked to Brian in Allen Fieldhouse about his high school rival and former Jayhawk shooting star Ricky Ross. Brian gave me some great insight into Ricky’s high school prowess and his thoughts on why Ricky never played a second in the NBA. Here’s how Brian endorsed me on LinkedIn, which I am forever grateful:

 

"I have been interviewed by David on a couple of occasions and found him to be a professional in every sense of the word. As a writer, he has the ability to make the interview feel like a normal conversation and then portray it perfectly into a story that grabs people's interest. In my experience working with David, he always uses the quotes in the perfect context and always made me feel good about how I was portrayed. I would absolutely work with David again if the opportunity ever presented itself."--Brian Martin, former KU basketball standout and NBA player, on Aug. 27, 2014.

 

That was so kind of Brian to write. We stayed in touch over the years, and when I posted something on Ron Kellogg on LinkedIn over a year ago, Brian wrote something like: “I played with Ronnie for two years at KU. If there was a 3-point line, he would have scored 50.” That might not have been the complete direct quote, but it was something along those lines. Brian was deeply committed to his family, his faith, and loved KU basketball passionately. 

 

Here is what his obit read: 

Brian L. Martin, 62, Business Development with Equity Bank, passed away Friday, August 15, 2025.

Memorial Service will be at 11:00 am, Friday, August 22, 2025, at Ridgepoint Church. Services will be live streamed and available for viewing by clicking the “Watch” button below.

Brian played basketball at KU from 1981-1984. He had a 10 year professional career including the NBA, CBA, and European leagues. He continued to be an avid KU fan. He enjoyed playing golf and taking care of his yard, but his favorite thing was spending time with his family and always supporting them in anything they did.

Brian was a former member of the Wichita Rotary Club and looked forward to his Men’s Bible Study each week. He will be remembered for his generosity, faith, and leadership.

Brian is preceded in death by his parents, Malty and Wanda Sue Martin. He is survived by his wife, Jodi Martin; daughters, Alissa (Erik) Kusnerus, Emily Martin; son, Alex (Shellby) Martin; sister, Debbie Bush; brother, Keith (Janis) Martin; grandchildren, Braylon Martin, Aiden Kusnerus, and Ella Kusnerus.

Memorials have been established with: Victory in the Valley, 3755 East Douglas, Wichita, Kansas 67218 and Children’s Mercy, 2401 Gillham Road, Kansas City, Missouri 64108.

Services in care of Downing & Lahey Mortuary – West Chapel.

My prayers go out to his lovely wife, Jodi, and Brian’s entire family. I feel so bad that I’m late in posting my tribute to Brian, but I just somehow missed the news when he passed. I fondly recall playing in a pickup game with Brian and his college roommate Mark Ewing at Robinson Gym around 1987 or 88 as I recall, somewhere around then. We were all on the same team and I remember Brian at 6-foot-9 leading a fast break and passing to me. I remember he was very humble and kind.

Brian made a profound difference on people’s lives, including mine. Maya Angelou said it best: “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” Brian, I do remember what you said, but above all, I remember how you made me feel good about myself, that I was always very important, you made me feel very special and your spirit lives eternally. Rest in Peace my friend!

 

Here is that wonderful Where Are They Now? story on the great Brian Martin in Jayhawk Insider, who never saw a blocked shot he didn’t like. I know you’re now blocking lots of shots in Heaven and bringing a ton of smiles to people’s faces.

By David Garfield

Brian Martin never dreamed as a child growing up in Wichita that he’d someday play in the NBA, hold Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to one-of-four shooting, eat nachos with Jack Nicholson at The Forum in Los Angeles, or travel around the world playing professional basketball.

But he did.

The former Kansas basketball player never really cared much for the game until his sophomore year in high school, when he grew to 6-foot-5. However, by the summer after his junior year, Martin became a national name at the prestigious Five-Star basketball camp.

“I dove for a loose ball in the all-star game and landed in Bob Hill’s (Kansas assistant coach) lap,” Martin said. “The first time I met Bob Hill, he told me that the coach sitting next to him said, ‘You guys are going to be pretty lucky if you can get that guy out of Kansas.’ He goes, ‘Who is he?’ ‘That’s Brian Martin from Wichita.’”

Martin, who had academic difficulties in high school, actually went to Hutchinson Community College for one year before embarking on his KU career. He was basically a 6-foot-9 role player for three years backing up guys like Kelly Knight and Greg Dreiling. As a senior, however, he noticed some NBA scouts like George Irvine of the Indiana Pacers coming to practice late in the year.

“Coach (Larry) Brown said they were looking at me,” Martin recalled. “It really surprised me.”

After KU lost to Wake Forest in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, Indiana eventually selected Martin in the ninth round of the NBA Draft. He was cut just three days into rookie free-agent camp. However, like his high school coach, Brown, and former KU coach Ted Owens, Irvine saw a raw shot-blocking talent who just needed some seasoning and motivation. He told Martin to go to the CBA and “work on your game and see if you got a chance to play, because I really think you do.”

Martin played for Tampa Bay Thrillers’ coach Eric Musselman, a master motivator whom the ex-Jayhawk called the “most eccentric, different coach I’ve ever played for" (he once gave death threats to an opposing player during the CBA championship).

"He said, ‘You’re not going to play at first, but bide your time, and by the time the playoffs start, you’ll probably be starting,'" Martin remembered.

Sure enough, Martin was in the staring lineup six games before the playoffs began. All he did was help lead the Thrillers to the CBA championship, and wound up as the leading shot blocker and rebounder in the playoffs.

“It must have been the (career) turnaround,” Martin said.

Martin followed his stellar CBA playoffs by making the Seattle Supersonics’ opening-day roster the following season.

“That was obviously a dream come true,” he said.

Martin was with Seattle for a month before being released and sent back to Tampa Bay. And then, the Portland Trail Blazers picked him up in January. Martin, who finished the season in Portland, will never forget playing the Lakers in the Forum. When he first stepped on the court, Martin turned around and saw “Kareem standing right next to me. He’s 7-2, one of the greatest players ever. I thought, ‘This is pretty cool.'"

Martin, who held Jabbar to just one-of-four shooting in the second quarter, was proud the legend “just didn’t go off on me.”

And then there was famous actor and rabid Lakers’ fan Jack Nicholson, who sat eating nachos and drinking a beer next to Martin by the Blazers’ bench. He said, ‘Do you want a nacho?’ I said, ’Sure,’ so I grabbed one of his nachos. He said, ‘Do you want a beer?’ I said, ‘No, I better not do that.’ He gave me that Jack Nicholson smile, which just cracked me up.”

After his stint in the NBA, Martin spent the next two years playing in Spain and Belgium. He returned to the CBA in 1989 and played for three different teams before going back overseas again to Germany for two years. Martin came back to the CBA with Omaha and Fort Wayne before getting burned out and retiring from basketball in 1994.

Martin, who played in two CBA all-star games and led the league in rebounding and blocked shots three years, finally decided to get a “real job” and became a sales representative for an awning company in Denver. He got a better offer in 1997 and moved to Salt Lake City, where he’s been the sales rep and assistant general manager for Allied Awning and Sign the past three years.

After playing basketball so long, Martin admits he initially suffered “quite a shock to the system” entering the “sedentary” business world. This once unknown player from Wichita now has his hoop dreams centered on his 2-year-old son, Alex.

“I miss playing, but it’s been five or six years now,” Martin said. “I kind of joke that he’s my 401K plan. I got him shooting jump shots on a six-foot goal already. I’m working him hard.”

A Closer Look at Brian Martin:

Years at KU: 1981-84

Career Notables: Finished career as fifth-leading shot blocker in school history (83)…only player to block a Wayman Tisdale shot in 1982-83…Career-high 18 points against Ohio State on Dec. 22, 1983.

Education: Martin majored in film studies.

Family:  Martin and his wife, Jodi, have three children (Alissa, 11, Emily, 7, Alex, 2)

Hobbies: Golf

Since Leaving KU: Martin played a year in the CBA with the Tampa Bay before making the NBA in 1985-86 (Seattle and Portland). He spent part of 1986-86 with Tampa Bay, and the rest of his career playing overseas in Belgium, Spain, and Germany and with five different teams in the CBA. Martin also had stints in the USBL, Canadian Basketball League, and Italy. He retired from basketball in 1994, and became a sales representative for an awning company in Denver.

Currently: Martin is a sales rep and assistant general manager for Allied Awning and Sign in Salt Lake City, Utah (since 1987)

Favorite KU Memories: Having a run-in with Indiana coach Bobby Knight after KU beat the Hoosiers, 71-61, in Madison Square Garden in 1981. “He was fuming and yelling at an official. I said, ‘That’s what you get, coach.’ He turned around and just glared at me. His assistant coach goes, ‘You don’t talk to Bobby Knight that way.’…I’ll never forget that look he (Knight) gave me. I thought he was going to hurt me. It was pretty funny.”

On the Jayhawks Today: “I can see them as a possible Final Four in the next year or two…I’m still proud of the team, and proud to say I played for them.”

Here, Brian talks about his childhood, how he began playing basketball, idolizing Jack Sikma in high school, and then a funny story about signing autographs when he played for the Seattle SuperSonics with Sikma.

"(I attended) Hutchinson Community College (for one year). That was more because of my grades. I just didn’t try hard enough in high school. I needed a year to get myself together. The nice thing about it... I had- gone to KU the first of the year in 1980-81.  We were finding a technicality with my grades. I don’t actually remember the whole thing. If you counted a certain number of hours, I was OK.  But they filled in these other hours that I had missed just barely.  So we appealed that to the NCAA, and so while we were waiting, I was at KU for about a month. They denied the appeal.  I had to go to Hutch. It was nice because coach (Ted) Owens sad, ‘Well, just go down there and get your grades together and come next year. As a matter of act, when I grew up, I didn’t care anything about Kansas or Kansas State. My dad grew up in Oklahoma, so I was always an Oklahoma football fan. We were right on the Arkansas border (Fort Smith, Arkansas), so Oklahoma and Arkansas were the teams I kind of followed when I was a kid. Until I started getting recruited, I didn’t really think anything about it. I grew up in Wichita. We moved there. My mom and dad both grew up in Oklahoma and Arkansas… I didn’t start playing basketball until I was a sophomore in high school. I was always tall. I was 6-foot in the eighth grade. I just never cared to play.  My dad played. He was great; he never pushed us (and said), ‘You got to play’. (I loved) swimming a lot. I was tallest of all the guys around. They said, ‘You got to play basketball. You got to play basketball.’  I started throwing the ball around that summer, kind of throwing it off the backboard and catching and throwing it down and shooting and just playing games with the guys. I started liking it. I tried out for the sophomore team my sophomore year and made it. We won the city championship. It kind of took off from there. I really started liking it. 

"They built Northwest High School in Wichita for my junior year. I went to West High School my sophomore year.  So everybody from that sophomore team went to Northwest. We stayed together. The JV coach at West became the varsity coach at Northwest. He got us going and kept us together. The summer between junior and senior year, he got us on the weights. I think that’s when I probably got serious about it. I went to Five Star basketball camp. I made the all-star game there. I played against against Tim McCormick (Michigan star center and eight-year NBA player), Karl Papke from Wichita, he was there. That’s when I found out that I was actually pretty good. That’ s where most of the colleges saw me. That’s when I started getting recruited.  In fact, I dove for a loose ball in all-star game and landed in Bob Hill’s lap. He had no idea who I was...Bob Hill remembers that, and the coach sitting next to him says, ‘You guys are going to be pretty lucky if you can get that guy out of Kansas. (Hill) goes, ‘Who is he?’ Someone clued him in. ‘That’s Brian Martin, he’s from Wichita. Bob Hill’s like, ‘Wow, I didn’t know who you were.’ I landed right in his his lap diving for a loose ball. Obviously, they made some contact with me. The first time I met Bob Hill, he told me that story. I said, ‘I remember landing in your lap.’ He said, ‘Yeah, I did, too, because I had no idea who you were.’

 

“… I used to always pretend to be Jack Sikma (Hall of Famer and seven-time NBA All-Star) in high school. A teammate of mine in high school loved Seattle, so we ‘d always be Seattle. It was kind of neat. When I was on Seattle’s team, my high school teammate called. He wanted me to get Jack Sikma’s autograph for him. ‘So Jack, do you want to give me your autograph?’ In fact, we were at an exhibition game. We were playing Portland somewhere in Oregon. I don’t remember where. It was a high school gym or small college gym. I always put my sweatpants on, my warm-up pants, and my jersey on to go out and shoot before the game, and an hour before the game or half hour before the game, as I was walking out, all these little kids were coming around wanting my autograph. There were about 30 kids around me and I was signing autographs. All of a sudden, I was in a middle of an autograph, this kid just ripped it out of my hand, and the whole crowd just left. I turned around and Jack Sikma had walked into the gym. They all wanted his autograph. They didn’t know who I was. So he just ripped it right out of my hand. I think I got like the first three letters of my first name in. I was like, here I was feeling pretty special, like I was a stud, and here (Sikma) walks in and puts me in my place.”

 

Danny Manning had impressive NBA career and persevered through three ACL surgeries

Danny Manning, who won a bronze medal with the U.S. Olympic team in the summer of 1988, was expected to make an indelible mark in the NBA after being selected No. 1 in the 1988 June NBA Draft by the Los Angeles Clippers. Immediately after winning the lottery the previous month, L.A. general manager Elgin Baylor proclaimed on national television that Manning was the Clippers’ franchise player, a team searching for greatness and salvation after missing the playoffs for 12 years.

"This is the happiest moment I've had since I've been associated with basketball,” the Hall of Famer Baylor told the Los Angeles Times. “It's a great moment for the L.A. Clippers. My prayers worked. I had everyone praying every day and night. This is terrific."

Manning started from day one for head coach Mike Schuler and averaged 16.7 points and 6.6 rebounds before he tore his ACL after just 26 games.

“The doctors told us that he would never play again and that his career was over,” Manning’s wife, Julie, told Jazz HomeCourt Magazine in 2001.

But Manning defied the odds knowing that his former KU teammate Archie Marshall underwent the same surgery and returned to action. The former KU All-American was a solid player the next two seasons, averaging 16.3 points in 1989-90 and 15.9 points in 1990-91. Still, he was not 100 percent and battled tendinitis in his knee.

Manning’s career underwent a dramatic transformation during the 1991-92 season when he regained his health and his former KU coach Larry Brown replaced Schuler as Clippers’ head coach. With Brown directing the offense Manning’s way, he averaged a career-high 19.3 points per game. He also averaged career bests in rebounds (6.9 rpg), steals (1.65 spg), blocks (1.49 bpg) and field goal percentage (.542, No. 8 in NBA) while finally leading the Clippers to the playoffs.

Manning’s best was yet to come.

The following year in 1992-93, Manning was the talk of the NBA, becoming the first Clipper since Marques Johnson (1986) to play in the All-Star game. He led L.A. in scoring (22.8 ppg) and set a club record for total points with 1,800 as the Clippers advanced to the playoffs again before being ousted in the first round for the second-straight year.

“(Manning’s) the closest thing in this league to Magic Johnson,” New York Knicks coach Pat Riley said.

But Manning and Brown had their problems. It was difficult for Manning to play for the same demanding coach twice in his life, and he insisted on a trade after one game when Brown harped on him for not crashing the boards.

Brown left the Clippers after the season to become the Indiana Pacers head coach, while Manning continued to shine in Los Angeles. He was selected as an All-Star again in 1994 and averaged 23.7 points in 42 games.

However, the Clippers feared they’d lose Manning to free agency next season so shipped the franchise’s all-time leading scorer to Atlanta in February of 1994 for future Hall of Famer Dominique Wilkins. Manning led the Hawks to the best record in the Eastern Conference and paced the team with 20.0 points per game in Atlanta’s first-round playoff loss to Brown’s Pacers.

He then landed in Phoenix the next season in hopes of winning an NBA championship, while selflessly taking a paycut to achieve that dream

As the team’s No. 2 option behind Charles Barkley, Manning was more comfortable in that role and excelled in the Suns’ freewheeling attack. He helped lead Phoenix to the best record in the NBA (36-10) before disaster struck again when Manning tore his right ACL in practice on Feb. 6, 1995. Phoenix was eventually eliminated in the second round of the playoffs.

Danny Schayes, a member of that Suns’ team, believes Phoenix would have won the championship with Manning in the lineup.

“I think so,” Schayes told me. “We were a dominant team that year. But those were the breaks of the game. He had a terrific year for us. It’s certainly a shame that it (injury) happened.”

“He was just a key part of our team,” Schayes added. “He was one of those guys that played every position well. He made everything happen from wherever he was on the court.”

Schayes commented that Manning fit in great with Phoenix's free-flowing offense.

“He was certainly athletic, (but) he was not a guy who relied on his athletic ability to get the job done,” Schayes said. “He was always the guy who thought the game and why he was so good for us is because we played a freelance style, which allowed guys like me and him and Danny Ainge, guys who knew how to play, to really excel together. And those of us who had that same kind of individual style, we could kind of read each other’s thoughts. It was very cool.”

Ten months later, Manning became the first player in NBA history to return to action after blowing out ACL’s in both knees. However, he was never the same and labeled a role player for the first time in his career.

Still, he earned the NBA Sixth Man Award with the Suns in 1998 after averaging 13.5 points and 5.2 rebounds. But Manning suffered heartache when he blew out his knee again near the end of the season. He could have easily retired, but returned to play four and a half more seasons with Phoenix, Milwaukee, Dallas and Detroit.

“He wasn’t ready to quit,” Julie Manning told HomeCourt Magazine. “He was just determined to do it. Besides, basketball is in his blood, he has to do it.”

Without fanfare, his agent Mark Bartelstein of Priority Sports released a statement announcing Manning’s official retirement from the NBA on Sept. 12, 2003.

"It has been a pleasure and a honor to represent Danny Manning,” Bartelstein said. “He exemplifies everything you look for in a professional athlete.”

Manning answered questions that day on nba.com about his playing career. He wrote that his top professional highlight “was winning the Sixth Man Award or being named an All-Star. But probably most of all, it was being able to play for so long after three knee surgeries. ... I was blessed with great doctors, medical staff and trainers. It's just a lot of repetition. You want to get your muscles to fire up like they are supposed to. You need a little stubbornness to get through it all.”

And then Manning gave his farewell:

“Thanks to all my friends for having kind words for me. To my wife and two children for their support. And to the fans, the few Danny Manning fans out there (laughs), I really appreciate all your support.”

Manning retired after 15 years and 883 regular-season games with career averages of 14.0 points and 5.2 rebounds per game, while shooting 51.1 percent from the field. No, certainly not Hall of Fame numbers, but Manning left an indelible mark as one of the greatest competitors in sports history, one of the few athletes to come back from three reconstructive knee surgeries. 

“I give him tons of credit, ” Schayes said. “He still had a great career for undergoing three major knee (surgeries). There aren’t many guys that can say that.”

Ted Juneau, Manning's coach at Lawrence High School and one of his best friends, agrees.

“You blow your knee out three times. I don’t think any of us can really imagine what that’s like,” Juneau told me in 1998. “It speaks a lot about courage and a lot about pride and the work it takes and his ability to do that. That’s probably the one thing that amazes me about him.

“No one understands how hard he worked to be as good as he was,” Juneau added. “People don’t understand the amount of work that he put into being a very good player, and the pride he took in doing that. He has pride in everything he does, and I think he’s always going to be successful because he’s very, very competitive. He doesn’t want to lose. He’s always willing to work very hard to achieve his goals.”

Manning’s career will perhaps be remembered most for his all-around game and versatility. So says Hall of Famer Charles Barkley, Manning’s teammate with Phoenix.

“If you go back and think about his game,” Barkley said, “the biggest advantage he had, he was so versatile. I don’t even know what position (he had). He was one of those guys who didn’t have a position. That’s pretty remarkable to be in that situation. Was he a power forward? Was he a small forward? He was just a very unique player.”

Hall of Famer and TV analyst Bill Walton called Manning “one of the most graceful players of his era.”

He was a “graceful” and “unique player” who never felt comfortable as the go-to scorer. Juneau said it just wasn’t in Manning’s makeup to dominate games consistently with his scoring.

“I think when it’s crunch time, no one wants to win more than he,” Juneau said. “He’ll do what it takes, but he’s not going to ever be someone that demands the attention.”

Lafayette Norwood, the former KU assistant coach under Ted Owens, agrees.

“Danny didn’t take over as a senior in high school here (Lawrence High in 1983-84),” Norwood said. “In fact, with the talent he had, he could have shot even additional shots he didn’t take. But he rather played (team) ball. It takes a special person to play like that. Kids today, you got some kids, coach says shoot the ball, they’ll just shoot it anytime without in regard of his teammates.”  

...

On Nov. 23, 2008 at Sprint Center, Manning was the center of attention and headline act at his College Basketball Hall of Fame induction. Some of his former Jayhawk teammates were here, including Jeff Gueldner, Mike Maddox and Chris Piper.

“We were taking bets on whether he’d show up tonight,” Gueldner cracked about the private Manning. “We thought he might do this thing via teleconference.”

Seriously, Gueldner said:

“I wouldn’t have missed it for the world. Danny is a class act from a players’ standpoint, from a fans’ standpoint.”

Ed Manning, Danny’s dad and assistant coach at Kansas during the Brown era, was overwhelmed with emotion.

“It’s just great,” Ed said with a huge smile. “I’m thrilled to death. I’m happy for him. It’s just a great honor for him to be up there with these super guys. I’m almost lost for words.”

Ask anybody in the basketball “know” about Manning’s pro career, and they usually say the same statement: he likely would have been an NBA Hall of Famer if not for the injuries.

“Knee injuries prevented him from probably being a 10-time type All-Star,”KU coach Bill Self said. “He scored (over 12,000) points as a pro and was never healthy. He would (have gone) down as one of the best.

“But to me, collegiately, he does go down as one of the best. We think of Bird, Jordan or Magic and the greatest players of what they accomplished in the pros, but when you break down what they accomplished in college, Danny’s career is up there with all those guys.”

Former NBA player Brad Lohaus thought Manning would be a Hall of Famer, if not for the injuries.

“(That) kind of really curtailed what he could have done,”  Lohaus said. “We had the same agent so I’ve known Danny for a lot of years, one of the great college basketball players ever and he would have been one of the all-time pros but the knees just don’t hold up.

“He had a great NBA career. Compared to his college career, it kind of takes a back seat. But he’s very special. He was really quick. He’s so big, you don’t realize how quick he was. That’s why he was so good. He could handle the ball at 6-10, shoot the ball, smart player. He had it all.”

Former Suns’ teammate A.C. Green said Manning was a joy to play with and the consummate teammate.

“Some guys over the years, you just really enjoy being around,” Green told me in 1999. “He’s kind of one of those off the court guys that you can hang out with because he’s real down to earth, a real person. So I’ve always enjoyed being around Danny, and I really enjoyed playing with him on a daily basis because he’s a battler. He’s got a license to battle and likes to go to work and win games. I have nothing but really admiration for Danny.”

Even today and in recent years, Manning’s name comes up among NBA coaches and fans.

“Manning was a phenomenal player, until his knees took over,” a Suns’ fan posted on azcentral.com in 2009. “It's a shame to think about how great he could've been.”

Manning, though, doesn’t dwell on the past or all the “what-ifs?” He’s at peace with himself.

“I guess at times they’re nice to hear,” Manning said about Brown predicting he’d once become one of the all-time greats.

“But the bottom line is things happen for a reason. I’m very happy with my career. Everybody has obstacles, everybody has journeys that have different turns. I enjoyed my journey. It’s just time for another phase in my life, which is coaching and moving forward.”

Brown always said during Manning’s KU career that he was the “best player I ever been associated with.” 

“He’s what college athletics is all about,” Brown once told the Lawrence Journal-World. “He deserves every single thing he’s gotten.”

Including induction into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame.

“It’s a pretty special thing,” Brown said two months before Manning was enshrined. “If you look at our team (in 1988), you realize how special a player he was because he carried a lot of us. He had a great career with a lot of adversity in the pros.”

“He had a great IQ,” Brown added. “He grew up with his dad, who was a pretty bright basketball player and the ultimate team guy. He taught Danny early on how to respect the game and how to play the right way. For a guy his size, in a lot of ways he played like a guard. 

“Everybody used to compare him to Magic, which is probably the highest compliment you can have. I think when they were doing that, they were talking about the fact how he made players better, just by doing the little things.”

Brown smiled.

“I can’t imagine a college player ever being better than him or accomplishing more than he did,” Brown said. “He’s as good a college player as I ever saw.”

Danny Manning and Larry Brown's "tradeoff" led Jayhawks to national title in 1988

This story talks about a “tradeoff” Danny Manning and KU coach Larry Brown made, which former voice of the Jayhawks Tom Hedrick once told me about. Hedrick said this was a defining moment of the 1988 championship season and led KU to the title. Tom, as nice, genuine and positive a person as you’ll ever meet, always has great stories to share with me. This was one I had never heard, and am very surprised that Manning or his ‘88 teammates have never publicly talked about it. I wrote about this in an article in 2007 regarding a story on Brandon Rush.

I also go into detail about another defining moment that season involving a fight between Manning’s teammates Clint Normore and Mike Masucci in the locker room and Manning failing to break it up, as reported by John Feinstein in his New York Times bestselling 1988 book,  A Season Inside.

...

For Daniel Ricardo Manning, his College Basketball Hall of Fame induction in 2008 was a long time coming since he first arrived on the KU campus in fall of 1984. A great deal had changed since then. He was still the quiet, humble and genuine person he had always been, but now much more confident and at ease with the media.

Manning never asked for fame or adulation. But he’s handled it gracefully his entire basketball career. Not that being the star was ever simple.

“If Danny had his way, he would be able to play the way he does but no one but the other guys (players) would know about it,” his father and then-KU assistant coach Ed Manning told the Washington Post in 1988.

“But that’s not the way life is. Being the best isn’t always easy and it isn’t just playing the game. Danny has to learn that.”

For four years at KU, Brown and Ed Manning pushed him to be the best, to take responsibility for greatness, to live up to his potential, to believe in himself, to become a true leader and dominant player.

The fiery Brown constantly harped and yelled at Manning in practice.

“Danny and Larry probably had pretty much a love, hate relationship,” said Ted Juneau, Manning’s high school coach, one of his best friends, and godfather to his son, Evan.

“Danny’s a pretty sensitive kid, and Larry’s kind of in your face. I think in some ways, that was tough on Danny.”

But like Manning, Brown wanted to be liked. He had a soft side off the hardwood.

“You can be scared of Coach Brown for a while,” Manning told Kansas City Magazine in 1985. “I know I was. But then, you talk to him in his office and you feel like you’re part of his family.

“It’s a special feeling.”

“Special” was a word Brown and other hoops experts used frequently to describe Manning’s game. He was a multidimensional 6-10 forward who could dribble the ball like a point guard, lead the fast break, make wispy passes like Magic Johnson, while kill you in the post with his patented and soft jump hook.

Manning was expected to change the game and revolutionize the forward position.

“He does more than anybody since Bird and Magic,” then-Indiana Pacers scout Tom Newell told Sports Illustrated during Manning’s sophomore year in 1986.

"When he's 24, 25, people will just sit back and marvel at this guy. He's a whole new concept in basketball."

In his first college game against Maryland, Manning showed he could bang with All-American Len Bias and recorded a double-double (12 points and 12 rebounds). Manning finished second on the team in scoring that 1984-85 season at 14.6 points and led the team in rebounding with 7.6 boards per game. He was named Freshman of the Year by Basketball Times and NBC-TV.

As a sophomore, he still didn’t want to step on the toes of KU’s three star seniors — Ron Kellogg, Calvin Thompson and Greg Dreiling — but finally came alive in Big Eight play. Manning averaged 20 points per game in the conference and was selected as a consensus second-team All-American.

His play was making scouts, opposing coaches and writers shake their heads in wonder. The Dallas Morning News wrote this glowing assessment just before Manning played in his first Final Four in March of 1986:

“The game has gotten too good for its own good, one senses. If the sun always shines, then what makes a good day? If everyone can play this game, then where do we find our stars? Thankfully the game has been rescued from its drift toward a conformed excellence. It happens when one attends a Kansas basketball game and beholds an original. It happens when a 6-foot-11, 19-year-old catches the ball, turns towards the basket and shoots. It happens in the basketball world of Danny Manning.”

Unfortunately, in Manning’s worst game of his college career, he scored just four points and fouled out in KU’s loss to Duke in the national semifinals.

Still, it was a magical season for Manning (16.7 ppg, 6.3 rpg), who became the first Jayhawk ever to score more than 1,000 points after his sophomore season.

With Dreiling, Thompson and Kellogg completing their collegiate careers, Manning became KU’s go-to player his junior season, albeit a reluctant star and averaged 23.9 points per game. He was named a consensus first-team All-American and scored 30 points or more nine times, including a career-high 42 versus Southwest Missouri State in the second round of the NCAA tournament.

While KU lost in the Sweet 16 to Georgetown, many Jayhawk fans thought KU could win the national title in Manning’s senior year in 1987-88 with the addition of highly touted junior college transfer Marvin Branch, in addition to talented juco guards Otis Livingston and Lincoln Minor. Basketball Times predicted KU would win it all.

However, Manning’s farewell season began like a nightmare as Kansas struggled with chemistry, injuries and academic problems. KU was 12-8 and seemed headed towards the NIT instead of a national championship. 

Manning and the Jayhawks made a remarkable turnaround with the insertion of sophomore guard Jeff Gueldner in the starting lineup at shooting guard and Kevin Pritchard at point guard after Livingston and Minor didn’t cut it at the point. After losing four straight in late January and early February, KU won nine of its next 11 games entering the NCAA Tournament. 

But the defining moment in KU’s road to the national championship truly happened when former voice of the Jayhawks Tom Hedrick saw Manning at a barbershop in Lawrence on Feb. 1, 1988.

 “Danny didn’t go to the hole until the last 10 games of his senior year,” Hedrick told me. “He did that with a tradeoff. The Jayhawks were 12-8 and 1-5 (1-4) in the conference, and I only said two things to him. I said, ‘How are you coming?’ He said, ‘I can’t wait for the season to end.’ I started to laugh. Then I said, ‘Does it bother Kevin Pritchard that Larry Brown yells at him a lot?’ He said, ‘It bothers him a lot. But I’m going to take care of that.’ So he went to see coach Brown that afternoon and made a tradeoff. He said, ‘OK coach, you quit yelling at Kevin and I’ll go to the hole. I’ll score more. That’s what you want. This is what I want.’ That’s again what a team leader Danny Manning was. Well, it made them a championship team.”

Hedrick calls Manning and Jo Jo White the “two best team players I ever saw here (KU).”  He said Manning put the team first when he had that pivotal conversation with Brown.

Manning could be dominant, but Brown wanted more. After Manning burned Iowa State for 39 points in KU’s 82-72 victory at Allen Fieldhouse on Feb. 13, 1988, the perfectionist Brown wasn’t exactly satisfied.

“A great player would have had 50,” Brown said.

 

John Feinstein, the New York Times bestselling author of his 1988 book, A Season Inside, had full access to Manning and the KU basketball program during the 1987-88 season. He either didn’t know about the “tradeoff” between Manning and Brown regarding Pritchard, or ignorantly failed to mention it.

However, Feinstein wrote about another defining moment that season, which happened when Brown became “furious” at Manning for failing to break up a fight with punches thrown in the locker room after practice between teammates Clint Normore and Mike Masucci, a rumble which came before KU’s crucial 64-63 victory at Kansas State on Feb. 18.

Feinstein wrote that Brown “felt he should have broken the fight up, that his sitting by and just being one of the guys was exactly the reason why he had never become the leader Brown insisted he had to be.”

“You are not one of the guys!” Brown screamed at Manning in his office. “How many godamm times do I have to tell you that?!”

Manning had, indeed, heard that stern message from Brown many times, but the KU coach’s mood soon mellowed as he emotionally talked to Manning about David Thompson, his superstar player when he coached him with the Denver Nuggets.

“He never wanted the responsibility of being the best player,” Brown said. “David wanted to be one of the guys and people protected him. They made things easy for him. Whatever David wanted, he got. Everyone wanted to keep David happy.”

Thompson, who Feinstein wrote that “many who saw him play at North Carolina State still insist that ... (he was) the most gifted basketball player ever, “became a cocaine addict, hurt a knee, and was out of basketball before he turned thirty.”

Feinstein continued: “Brown wasn’t really trying to tell Manning that he was going to end up like David Thompson. The analogy went only so far as the refusal to take responsibility for being the best player."

“The best player has to be the leader, Danny,” Brown said. “It isn’t a matter of choice. By the time you’ve been in the NBA for two years, you’re going to have to be the leader. You won’t have any choice.”

Feinstein reported that “Manning and Brown talked for a while that day. Brown told him not to worry about his statistics, that if he was only the second player chosen in the NBA draft instead of the first he would still be a very wealthy young man. Manning told Brown that he thought a little less yelling would be positive for the team. Each listened to each other. When it was over, each felt better.”

“I’ll tell you what, Danny,” Brown said. “I don’t want to yell so much. You get on the guys sometimes when they mess up in practice and I won’t have to do it. Do it your own way, but do it.”

Manning heeded Brown’s call after that conversation and the one about the “tradeoff” regarding Pritchard. The KU star refused to let his team lose. When the Jayhawks entered the Big Dance, Manning and his teammates were on a mission with help and divine guidance from Fellowship of Christian Athletes president John Erickson.

“We had different people come speak to our team throughout the year,” Manning said. “Coach Erickson would speak (and) coined a little motto for us, ‘Life by an inch is a cinch. Life by the yard is hard.’ That is kind of what we took in the tournament. 

“Survive and advance.”

The Jayhawks kept advancing with Manning leading KU to victories over Xavier, Murray State, Vanderbilt, Kansas State, Duke, and then Oklahoma in the national championship game. Manning averaged 27.2 points during that magical six-game run and finally became the true leader Brown always envisioned.

Brown couldn’t have been more thrilled with Manning’s evolution.

“Danny was a skinny kid the last time we played in the Final Four,” Brown said after the championship game. “He was a man tonight.”

Of course, Manning has great memories of his college swan song against OU, when he had one of the best national title games in history with 31 points and a career-high 18 rebounds. But he has even fonder memories of what transpired afterwards.

“It was just sitting in the locker room and enjoying each other’s company knowing for us seniors it was going to be the last time we were going to be able to hang out with these guys,” Manning said. “You know, give each other a hard time just one last time. That was the best part of the championship for me. It was a good time and a great run for us.”

Aside from the national title, Manning said not one game in particular stands out from his college career.

“I just remember running out from the tunnel,” he said about Allen Fieldhouse. “That’s probably the biggest thing that sticks out, the chills you got and how excited you were to play in the fieldhouse.”