Name That Hawks Draft Pick

[lethalweapon3]

Hint: Currently an assistant coach for a women's high school team in New Hampshire (his daughter is the head coach). This 3-time NABC All-American shares a name with a popular comedian (that I kinda quoted in an ongoing thread about Marvin). Taken immediately after a guy who Kobe Bryant personally knows as "Uncle Chubby."

~lw3

The answer to the guy the Hawks took in the 8th round back in 1978, one pick after Chubby Cox (whose sister Pam gave birth to Kobe Bryant):

http://www.eagletrib...rts-in-a-Minute

Amherst-Pelham coach Christal Murphy knows how to beat Andover. She was, after all, on the Jillian Danker-led Minnechaug team which beat the Golden Warriors for the 1998 state title.Murphy, who is in her fifth year, took over a team that was 1-19 each of the two previous seasons.

Christal's father/assistant coach is the great Ed Murphy, a three-time All-American at Merrimack.

~lw3

Edited August 6, 2011 by lethalweapon3

[lethalweapon3]

Hint: No earthly idea what the Georgia native is doing now, but he played 33 games in his rookie season for the Hawks (5.8 PPG) before getting waived. The Bulls picked him up off waivers, and he responded by becoming their top-scoring guard, averaging nearly 15 PPG over three seasons while finishing in the top 10 in the NBA in steals.

~lw3

That pic above was the 2002 Louisiana Association of Basketball Coaches' Hall of Fame induction of Wilbur Holland, a Columbus, Georgia native who took his Univ. of New Orleans Privateers to two Division II Final Fours, before being taken by Atlanta in the 3rd round of the 1975 Draft. Within two seasons of getting waived by the Hawks in 1976, Holland would average 16.6 PPG, 3.8 APG, 3.6 RPG, and 2.0 SPG for Chicago. He joined ABA refugee Artis Gilmore to spark the Bulls back into playoff contention in 1977, closing the season with a 20-4 record, only to be turned away in the first round by eventual champion Portland.

~lw3

[lethalweapon3]

Biggest pic I could find, although I will post the link to a video once somebody guesses this one right.

Currently, a corporate account executive and periodic sports announcer for a PBS television station. Gained a very popular nickname in college that rhymed his athletic exploits with his suburban Atlanta upbringing. Wilt Chamberlain was once quoted in a national magazine as saying "he could dunk better than anyone I've ever seen." (do not adjust your screen). Despite playing just 38 games for the Hawks (2.4 PPG in 8.3 minutes per game), he once received a standing ovation at an NBA game from a capacity crowd... at Madison Square Garden. He may have been the last Hawks player ever to have been drafted... into military service!

~lw3

[lethalweapon3]

Goooooooogs!

For those that need a little more Googs in their day...

http://www.nba.com/v...=575&height=324

...here he is just a couple weeks ago repping the Hawks at the Atlanta Tennis championships. Googs' opponent for tennis and H.O.R.S.E. is someone I would never challenge to anything involving endurance. (If the link doesn't work, refresh the page in the new window)

~lw3

Edited August 10, 2011 by lethalweapon3

[lethalweapon3]

Hint: A compensatory pick that the Hawks took ahead of Michael Adams, Arvydas Sabonis, and Spud Webb. Got waived but eventually came back for two very brief stints with the Hawks, the latter journey ending as part of the trade that brought "The Jet" to Atlanta (the first one, not JET). His NBA player-preparatory agency trained Norris Cole this year, and in 2009 co-hosted a celebrity all-star golf tournament in Arizona that featured (among others) Dominique Wilkins, Spud Webb, and Omarosa.

~lw3

Here is an article referencing Sedric Toney, 1985 3rd-round pick, as he was training eventual Miami Heat guard Norris Cole and the undrafted guard David Lighty here in Atlanta, in preparation for the NBA Draft. His company, S.A. Toney and Associates, also co-sponsored this celebrity golf tournament during NBA All-Star weekend in 2009. Toney has also been a color commentator for college hoops games on ESPNU.

He was waived by Atlanta before the 1985-86 season started, then became "Mr. 10-Day" with short mid-season stints annually at Phoenix, New York, and Indiana. Toney was also on the expansion draft pickups for the Charlotte Hornets. The Hawks re-signed him in 1989 and he had his greatest run of 32 games as a bench player, before being shipped with Antoine Carr to acquire Kenny "The Jet" Smith from Sacramento. The lowly Kings let Toney finish the season as a starter alongside Vinny Del Negro, but he would not be resigned as a free agent until a final 10-day contract with Cleveland.

~lw3

[lethalweapon3]

Hint: Currently directs the Governor's physical fitness council for a state that can probably use the help. In his Hawks debut, the 3rd round pick outscored reigning league MVP Julius Erving with 25 points, and would "geaux" on to start over 50 games with limited minutes in two seasons. Would eventually get traded for "The Garbage Man," and muscle cramps limited his career to just 8 more NBA games after the trade. His jersey hangs next to Pete Maravich's at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.

~lw3

Q&A with Rudy Macklin, 3rd round pick by the Hawks in the 1981 draft, and presently director of the Louisiana Governor's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports:

What is your greatest professional accomplishment?

After suffering the humiliation of slipping to the third round of the NBA draft, my first game as a rookie I outscored my favorite player, Dr, J., Julius Erving, 25-22. I became the "steal" of the draft.

What is the greatest personal or professional obstacle you've overcome? If you started over, what would you do differently?

Starting over after doctors told me I'll never play pro basketball again was extremely difficult. There was nothing I could have done differently because my life change came suddenly and there was no way I could have prepared differently. I went to bed one night a starting swingman in the NBA and woke up working at a bank in Baton Rouge.

Obesity is often described as an epidemic in this country. How serious is the problem in Louisiana?

Obesity is a very serious problem. You see children as young as 11 with grown-up health problems, such as high blood pressure, heart problems and upper respiratory illnesses. You see adults literally eating themselves to death, and their health insurance costs continue to increase, mostly because of obesity. One cannot help but say: "Louisiana, we have a problem."

What's your fondest memory from your LSU basketball days?

When I came to this university in 1976, every major basketball power said I made a mistake signing with a basketball team hanging on to last place in the SEC. There must have been 300 to 500 people in the PMAC each night early on in my career. For me to be a major player in the growth of a national basketball power alongside my teammates, before the best fans in the country, will stay in my mental skies for the rest of my life. I made the right choice.

After becoming a starter for the Hawks late in the 1982-83 season, he was traded to the Knicks for Sly Williams and cash. The injury-riddled Macklin would only play 8 more NBA games after that trade, and the Hawks didn't get much more out of Williams (47 games over 2 seasons).

Macklin put LSU basketball back on the map, becoming its all-time rebounder, second-leading all-time scorer, and leader of its 1981 Final Four team. His jersey retirement at LSU in 2010 follows a rule that allows coaches discretion in temporarily un-retiring any jerseys retired after 2006.

~lw3

[lethalweapon3]

Hint: Before this year, he was the highest Wazzu Cougar ever drafted. The Hawks just missed out on Mike Woodson and Larry Drew and took him instead, ahead of future Hawks assistant Bill Hanzlik and future All-Star Jeff Ruland. Scored over 12.5 PPG for the Hawks in his rookie year, but got traded (for a current NBA player's dad) and never achieved that level of scoring again. Eventually went on to the CBA and won three straight league championships. Lives in Ohio now.

~lw3

"In four years I hope to become a superstar and put Atlanta on the map... not that they are not already" declared Don Collins, the 18th pick in the 1st round of the 1980 draft, and the last Washington State player to be taken in the first round until Klay Thompson in 2011. This was after an 11-day training camp holdout that led to a salary offer above several players picked before him.

After just 47 games (12.7 PPG, 4.0 RPG in a bench role), he would take his map-making talents to D.C., as the Hawks traded Collins to the Bullets for a fellow first-rounder, Wes Matthews, Sr. Matthews was sought by Atlanta to fill the void at point guard after shipping Armond Hill to Seattle. Collins' best season in 1982-83 as a part-time starter with the Bullets (11.8 PPG, 3.2 RPG) was not much better than his rookie stint with the Hawks.

His NBA career essentially over by 1984, waived by Golden State, he would become a legendary scorer in the CBA and USBL, winning three titles behind Coach Bill Musselman, then won several national championships in Limoges, France, becoming known overseas as "The Cobra." On both the CBA's 50th Anniversary Team and the USBL's 20th Anniversary Team, Collins scored 63 points in one CBA game (2nd highest point total all-time) and the same number of points in a USBL game. A French fan of Collins maintains

of Collins and a virtual web shrine.

Following his pro-ball retirement, the Toledo native has lived reclusively with his last known whereabouts in Columbus, Ohio, unable to be reached by WSU alumni or fellow teammates.

~lw3

[lethalweapon3]

Whereabouts unknown! Selected by the Hawks one pick before Bobby Jackson. The troubled player and component of an infamous Hawks trade eventually won a CBA championship with the Dakota Wizards and had a momentary run with the Harlem Globetrotters.

Nobody got this one yet? This one is fairly easy IMO.

~lw3

[lethalweapon3]

lethalweapon3, on 25 July 2011 - 11:14 AM, said:

Whereabouts unknown! Selected by the Hawks one pick before Bobby Jackson. The troubled player and component of an infamous Hawks trade eventually won a CBA championship with the Dakota Wizards and had a momentary run with the Harlem Globetrotters.

Here's this answer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ok4MG7BJPA

Ed Gray never quite came into form after his senior season at Cal, cited by alums as perhaps the greatest individual season by a Golden Bears player in its collegiate hoops history (Jason Kidd included). It ended prematurely while scoring 48 points on Washington State, when he landed awkwardly after dunking and broke a bone in his foot.

He struggled throughout his Hawks tenure as an undersized (a shade under 6'3") shooting guard who couldn't transition to the point. Things started out promising with a 14-point effort, in place of injured leading scorer Steve Smith, as the Hawks reached 11-0 in the 1997-98 season, then dropping 20 on Toronto a few games later as a starter. But rookie-year fines surpassing $50,000 for tardiness, missing medical appointments, and the persistent foot injuries hampered matters greatly.

Newspaper article about Gray getting arrested at the height of his NBA-era transgressions. I believe he may have been the first NBA player subject to the league's new collective-bargaining rules regarding marijuana after the post-lockout of 1999. Before being a component of the Isaiah Rider-Jimmy Jackson-Steve Smith offseason trade in 1999, he dropped three 3-pointers and 14 points in the clinching playoff game against Detroit, which would be the last playoff series win for the Hawks for nearly a decade. He never played in an NBA game again after the playoff loss to the Knicks.

Also as a correction, Gray was released before the end of the Dakota Wizards' championship season in 2002, and also played part of the prior season with the Gary Steelheads of the CBA. He is also on the Globetrotters' all-time roster, apparently traveling with them later in 2002, but not for very long. ShamSports notes he signed with the London Towers in 2003, but never played a game, and hasn't been seen in a basketball setting since.

~lw3

Edited August 19, 2011 by lethalweapon3

[lethalweapon3]

(One of these days I'll get around to getting all the answers out there)

(No picture available, but at bottom of Page 39 here: http://www.manhattan...nSpring2008.pdf)

Hint: Currently a chief prosecutor for the Organized Crime/Gangs Strike Force Unit at the U.S. Attorney's Office in Newark, New Jersey. The 6'5" forward actually played in 24 games for the Hawks despite being the 214th player taken in his year of the draft. Since then, he's prosecuted pretty much everything, from mob bosses, to loan sharks, to cyber-theives, to union embezzlers, to a corporate swindler who later tried to steal and sell Coca-Cola's secret formula.

~lw3

"I've lost three cases in 31 years," said Grady O'Malley, current chief of the organized crime/gangs unit in the U.S. Attorney's Office in Newark. "I go into every case expecting to win." However, the big “one that got away,” a trial of the Lucchese crime family, became infamous as the longest criminal trial in U.S. history:

After 21 months, the trial ended in acquittal for all 20 defendants, but in 1993 two of the defendants — Taccetta's brother, Michael, then the acting head of the Lucchese Jersey faction, and Michael Perna, a top lieutenant – confessed to tampering with the jury as part of a guilty plea that included more than a dozen murder conspiracies, extortion and other charges.

Referring to the fix in the 1988 case, O'Malley said, "They acknowledged that they conspired to bribe somebody but our evidence was that they had paid one of the jurors $175,000 to make sure that no verdict came in."

The trial was the subject of the Robert Rudolph book “The Boys from New Jersey,” and served as the basis for the Sidney Lumet film starring Vin Diesel, “Find Me Guilty.”

http://www.northjersey.com/news/94802674_Lone_defendant_refuses_deal_in__08_mob_case.html

O’Malley was at the forefront of the prosecution of corporate cybercrimes during the growth of the Internet age.

http://articles.cnn.com/2000-06-27/tech/computer.law.idg_1_legal-system-computer-attacks-technical-issues?_s=PM:TECH

http://www.law.com/jsp/lawtechnologynews/PubArticleFriendlyLTN.jsp?id=900005495067&slreturn=1&hbxlogin=1

He also prosecuted, on a stolen check charge, a man who would later gain local and national notoriety for trying to steal and sell Coca-Cola’s secret formula.

http://books.google.com/books?id=vA4AAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA68&lpg=PA68#v=onepage&q&f=false

He has been active in the prosecution of union-related scams. His most recent big score was the conviction of a postal workers’ union treasurer for embezzlement.

http://www.justice.gov/usao/nj/Press/files/Ventricelli,%20Mark%20and%20Peter%20News%20Release.html

http://www.cliffviewpilot.com/beyond/2403-former-postal-union-official-sent-to-federal-prison-in-embezzlement-scheme

http://www.bretschundler.org/bret05/news/ce050405e.html

Back in the day before all of this, O’Malley was credited as the last basketball player to score a field goal at the old Madison Square Garden, which closed in 1968. The Manhattan graduate was inducted into the Jaspers’ athletic hall of fame in 2007. After the 1969 draft, the 6’5” forward made the roster and, during the Hawks’ second season in Atlanta, provided a modest 2.1 PPG over the course of 24 games.

http://www.mancol.edu/news/news_releases/112007_1.shtml

~lw3

[lethalweapon3]

Hint: Long before the "Microwave" the Pistons had "Instant Heat". And before he was traded to his hometown team, the Hawks had him, drafting him one spot ahead of Downtown Freddie Brown. He averaged 9.2 PPG over two seasons in Atlanta. After getting traded his shooting improved vastly and he became a fan favorite in Motown coming off the bench. Hired and fired by Dave Bing at his steel company. Died in Detroit after complications from a stabbing during an altercation with a drunken accomplice in 2002.

~lw3

It’s a Trapp! Sorry Star Trek, Ole Miss, and Family Guy fans. I’m referring to George Trapp. The 1971 first-rounder (fifth overall) and 6’8” post player shot 37.1% and 43.8% in his first two years in Atlanta. George got a chance to compete in the NBA against his older brother, John Q. Trapp, infamous for his role on the ill-fated 1972-73 Sixers in his final season. George got to his hometown of Detroit (traded for a 1973 first-rounder, which would be Dwight Jones) and his shooting soared to 48.1%, becoming a fixture on a team that returned to playoff contention after a long absence from the postseason.

From a Detroit News article after his passing:

http://basketball.re..._OK_to_be_a_sub

We never called George Trapp "Instant Heat." Everybody else did. It was probably the best nickname for a guy who fired behind-the-head jumpers even before he took his warm-ups off.

He was so hot so often we would have called him the Microwave if there were microwave ovens back then. That name was reserved for Vinnie Johnson, the modern-day George Trapp who played for the Pistons during a more advanced era for home appliances.

He’s referenced in this article as one of several friends/teammates of current Detroit mayor Dave Bing who managed to get “Trump”ed at Bing Steel.

http://sportsillustr...64815/index.htm

After his victory became official, Bing held a brief press conference downstairs at the Doubletree. Somebody asked him if he would reach out to the unions. "It needs to be reciprocal," Bing said. "They have painted me as a bad guy, and somebody who doesn't care about people."

He was miffed. Why would they say that? True, Bing had terminated 16 of the city's 51 union contracts. And he laid off more than 400 people. And he hinted that he was just getting started. But firing people ... what the heck did that have to do with caring about them?

Hadn't these union leaders ever heard of George Trapp? He was one of Bing's Pistons teammates, and after they both retired, Bing hired Trapp to work for one of his auto-parts companies. Trapp wasn't getting his work done. Bing fired him.

What about Campy Russell? He was another friend from Bing's NBA days. Bing hired and fired him too.

Curtis Rowe, same thing: He played most of his career with Bing, went to work for him at Bing Steel, then got fired.

Bing told them all, and dozens of others, when they were hired: Do your work or you're gone. It needs to be reciprocal. If they wanted a free ride, they were on the wrong train.

Here’s an article on his untimely demise:

http://www.wmtw.com/...949/detail.html

George Trapp, 53, died early Monday. Trapp played with the Pistons during the mid-1970s.

Police believe that he and another man got into an altercation following a drunken brawl on Jan. 9.

Before his death, Trapp told police that he and a friend were drinking at a house on Ohio Street in Detroit, that they started fighting, and then the man stabbed Trapp once in the stomach.

On Monday, Detroit police arrested one of Trapp's friends in connection with his death.

While in the hospital, Trapp had told police that he did not want to press charges. His wound didn't appear to be life-threatening, but then complications set in, police said.

Although Trapp had played with some of the biggest names in basketball including Bob Lanier and Dave Bing, friends said that recently he had fallen on hard times. Witnesses said the fight started over a few dollars.

~lw3

Edited November 7, 2011 by lethalweapon3

[lethalweapon3]

(Hint: This Hawks’ third-round pick, taken one round after Doc Rivers and about 40 picks before Manute Bol, just got out of home confinement this year and is currently on probation, after a 2010 conviction for failure to file a tax return for income from a bar he owns in Storrs, Connecticut. In happier times, the year before, he was coaching a high school hoops team to a state championship. Former three-time winner of the Robert V. Geasey trophy, 3^rd-team All-American, and former MVP of the Copa del Rey de Baloncesto. He got in just seven games in over a month before getting waived, and finding his professional stardom in Madrid.)

~lw3

[lethalweapon3]

Biggest pic I could find, although I will post the link to a video once somebody guesses this one right.

Currently, a corporate account executive and periodic sports announcer for a PBS television station. Gained a very popular nickname in college that rhymed his athletic exploits with his suburban Atlanta upbringing. Wilt Chamberlain was once quoted in a national magazine as saying "he could dunk better than anyone I've ever seen." (do not adjust your screen). Despite playing just 38 games for the Hawks (2.4 PPG in 8.3 minutes per game), he once received a standing ovation at an NBA game from a capacity crowd... at Madison Square Garden. He may have been the last Hawks player ever to have been drafted... into military service!

~lw3

Bigger pic of the man who starred at UGA and whose jumping-jack exploits gave fans cause to dub him "The Elevator from Decatur." Herb White has a bio on Public Broadcasting Atlanta, as a producer/creative consultant for the documentary

"As If We Were Ghosts," on African-American athletes in the South during the path to desegregation:

Herb served as a Senior Account Representative at Georgia Public Broadcasting from 1991 – 2009. In 1993 he and producer Tom Vardase brought high school sports programming to Georgia Public Television. Herb secured funding for the initial season of Prep Sports +, which went on to become the longest-running high school sports show in the country. The duo also worked with the Georgia Athletic Coaches Association to broadcast the GACA Boys and Girls High School All-Star Basketball games on GPTV in 1994 and 1995. The 1994 Girls All-Star Basketball game was the first girls high school event ever broadcast live in Georgia.

In 1997 they negotiated the rights to the GHSA football semi-Finals and finals, which have been the most popular programming in the history of Georgia Public Broadcasting. GPB's high school sports programming has expanded to include the boys and girls basketball championships and the wrestling and cheerleading championships. Herb has raised over four million dollars in corporate funding for high school sports on GPB. He played basketball at Decatur high school, the University of Georgia and with the Atlanta Hawks. It was his experiences growing up in Decatur in the early 1960's that were the genesis for As IF We Were Ghosts. He and his wife Wanda have a home in Decatur.

Herb was not only a roomate to Pistol Pete as a Hawk, but previously was an opponent for what was considered

Maravich's greatest SEC performance, against UGA in 1969.

Much has been made about Georgia's students rushing the floor after basketball games this season. But 35 years ago today, they swarmed the court at Stegeman Coliseum for an opposing team.

Or more specifically, an opposing player.

On March 8, 1969, LSU's Pete Maravich gave what many believe was the greatest individual performance in SEC history. He scored 58 points in a 90-80 double-overtime win over Georgia. But that's only the half of it.

It was when Maravich scored, how he scored and how the game ended that made this night special. Georgia's students certainly seemed to think so. They mobbed Maravich and, some say, carried him off the court.

That image still burns brightly in the mind of Herb White, a player on the '69 Georgia team.

"The way our fans and cheerleaders were dancing around, you would have thought we were LSU," said White, now a sales executive for Georgia Public Broadcasting. "We [the players] were all pretty disgusted."

He would get to know the feeling of being celebrated by opposing fans in just a few years. Sports Illustrated, featuring White in 2001 as the most underrated dunker in history, carried a quote from Wilt the Stilt proclaiming Herb as the greatest dunker he had ever witnessed. Long before Vinsanity, there was...

"There was a white boy who played for Atlanta around 1970," Wilt Chamberlain told the Los Angeles Times a dozen years ago. "Never got off the bench, but in warmups he could dunk better than anyone I've ever seen." Like most hoops fans, Wilt couldn't come up with that white boy's name. But we can. Herb White grew up in Decatur, Ga. By the time he had finished three seasons as a 6'2" forward at Georgia, White owned a regional rep as the Elevator from Decatur.

The Hawks signed him to back up Pete Maravich for the 1970-71 season, which White turned into a personal road show. Pregame he might pitch the ball against the backboard before rising to spear and dunk it, or show off his "elbow hang," in which he stuck first a forearm, then the ball, into the basket.

One night, in front of a full house at Madison Square Garden, White's layup-line levitations so captivated the crowd that he got a standing ovation.

"Compared to the ABA, the NBA back then was a slow-down, straitlaced league," says White, whose pro career ended with an ankle injury after that single season. "But by word of mouth you got to know who the dunkers were, and by the end of the year everyone pretty much agreed that Claude English [of the Portland Trail Blazers] and me were the two best." As it happened, when the Hawks and the Blazers met late in the season, the two men had a chance to settle matters. "He did a one-handed 360," says White. "Now there's a dunk I could do with two balls, and I was ready to pull that one out if I had to. But after I did a 360 two-handed, Claude conceded."

Steve Hummer quoted White in a 2004 AJC article:

“If you are a white leaper, that’s all you’re remembered for. But at least they do remember you,” White said.

Mark Kriegel's bio "Pistol" discussed the race-tainted rift that arose between Maravich and his black Hawk teammates, with "Herbie" caught in the middle:

"Training camp, that's when things started bubbling to the surface," says Herb White, whom the Hawks drafted out of Georgia. "Pete came in and he's trying to force his style of play. He's taking off and hitting guys in the back of the head with passes and taking bad shots. Let's face it: Pete took a lot of shots, and some of them were bad. I thought Richie Guerin was going to hang himself."

White, from nearby Decatur... would himself become a subplot in camp. An eighth-round draft pick without big college stats, he made the team over a black guy from a small college.

"Not because he was white," Guerin said. "Herbie had some talent."

The coach, who would start White five games this season, was more easily convinced than some of the players. The least welcoming of them was Walt Hazzard, a classically trained point guard from UCLA. From the beginning, Hazzard didn't like Herbie.

"You know why you made the team," he said.

As Hazzard had little cause to be concerned with the eleventh man on the team, one can't help but think the real target of his remark was Pete... A typical exhibition might end with Pete scoring a dozen points or so and Lou Hudson about 30. But afterward, dozens of reporters would be gathered in front of the Pistol's locker with only one or two chatting up Sweet Lou. "I don't care how good a guy you are," says White, "that kind of stuff gets to you after a while."

...the Hawks went against type. The black game was advertised as vertical, the provinve of great leapers. But as it turned out, at six-two, Herbie White was easily the best dunker on a team that was now without the services of Joe Caldwell.

...Herbie's high-flying act didn't win him any friends in the locker room. Nor did it help that Herbie and Pete, already pretty good pals, became roomates on the road. "I caught some heat for that," he recalls. "I guess they thought I was on Pete's side all the time." Pete's side. After a while, you had to declare: you were with Pete or the brothers. It was, in the most literal sense, black or white.

Georgia Public Broadcasting sat down with White for an interview earlier this year:

http://bcove.me/e329toue

~lw3

[lethalweapon3]

(Hint: This Hawks’ third-round pick, taken one round after Doc Rivers and about 40 picks before Manute Bol, just got out of home confinement this year and is currently on probation, after a 2010 conviction for failure to file a tax return for income from a bar he owns in Storrs, Connecticut. In happier times, the year before, he was coaching a high school hoops team to a state championship. Former three-time winner of the Robert V. Geasey trophy, 3^rd-team All-American, and former MVP of the Copa del Rey de Baloncesto. He got in just seven games in over a month before getting waived, and finding his professional stardom in Madrid.)

~lw3

U.S. DOJ webpage on the indictment of 1983 3rd rounder and former Villanova star John Pinone. His business partner would make a great Congressman:

http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2010/April/10-tax-464.html

John G. Pinone, Jr., of Glastonbury, Conn., made his initial appearance in district court today on conspiracy and tax charges, the Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced. In March 2010, a grand jury returned a sealed indictment charging Pinone and Francis B. DelMastro, formerly of Tolland, Conn., with conspiracy and willfully filing false tax returns.

According to the indictment, DelMastro and Pinone were the owners of the Civic Pub, a bar located in Storrs, Conn., and operating under the corporate name, Pindel LLC. From 2003 through 2005, DelMastro and Pinone obtained or skimmed cash from the operations of Pindel and neither reported that cash as gross receipts on the tax returns filed on behalf of the company, nor reported it as income on their individual income tax returns for tax years 2003 and 2004.

The indictment further alleges that DelMastro and Pinone kept a set of books called "Weekly Draw Sheets" that included the Pindel’s actual gross receipts, including both the cash deposited into the company’s bank accounts, as well as the cash not deposited. However, DelMastro and Pinone did not provide the Weekly Draw Sheets to the individuals who prepared the returns for Pindel and their individual income tax returns. The total amount of cash alleged to have been skimmed from 2003 through 2005 was $130,050.

The indictment further alleges that DelMastro hid the cash skimmed from Pindel and not deposited into the business bank account in his home in, among other places, the freezer, cereal boxes, empty pasta boxes, coffee cans and pots. Additionally, DelMastro and Pinone attempted to impede a sales and use tax audit of Pindel for calendar years 2003 through 2005 conducted by the Connecticut Department of Revenue Services (DRS) by failing to provide complete and accurate records regarding Pindel’s gross receipts, including the Weekly Draw Sheets.

Despite the potential for up to 11 years in the pokey, DelMastro pleaded guilty on his charges and served 4 months, while Pinone's conviction led to a half-year of home confinement, fines, and probation.

Home confinement allowed Pinone to continue working as head coach at Cromwell High for practices and basketball games. Here he was two years earlier leading the boys to a state title:

Pinone's NBA career lasted about a month. He played 7 games (2.9 PPG) in his rookie season with the Hawks before getting waived. He finished the season in the CBA with the Ohio Mixers, then headed to the

Spanish ACB league.

Here he was in his balding years for Estudiantes. He won the Spanish Cup MVP, leading Estudiantes to the cup title and the Euroleague Final Four in 1992:

~lw3

[TheNorthCydeRises]

lethalweapon3, on 25 July 2011 - 11:14 AM, said:

Whereabouts unknown! Selected by the Hawks one pick before Bobby Jackson. The troubled player and component of an infamous Hawks trade eventually won a CBA championship with the Dakota Wizards and had a momentary run with the Harlem Globetrotters.

Here's this answer:

Ed Gray never quite came into form after his senior season at Cal, cited by alums as perhaps the greatest individual season by a Golden Bears player in its collegiate hoops history (Jason Kidd included). It ended prematurely while scoring 48 points on Washington State, when he landed awkwardly after dunking and broke a bone in his foot.

He struggled throughout his Hawks tenure as an undersized (a shade under 6'3") shooting guard who couldn't transition to the point. Things started out promising with a 14-point effort, in place of injured leading scorer Steve Smith, as the Hawks reached 11-0 in the 1997-98 season, then dropping 20 on Toronto a few games later as a starter. But rookie-year fines surpassing $50,000 for tardiness, missing medical appointments, and the persistent foot injuries hampered matters greatly.

Newspaper article about Gray getting arrested at the height of his NBA-era transgressions. I believe he may have been the first NBA player subject to the league's new collective-bargaining rules regarding marijuana after the post-lockout of 1999. Before being a component of the Isaiah Rider-Jimmy Jackson-Steve Smith offseason trade in 1999, he dropped three 3-pointers and 14 points in the clinching playoff game against Detroit, which would be the last playoff series win for the Hawks for nearly a decade. He never played in an NBA game again after the playoff loss to the Knicks.

Also as a correction, Gray was released before the end of the Dakota Wizards' championship season in 2002, and also played part of the prior season with the Gary Steelheads of the CBA. He is also on the Globetrotters' all-time roster, apparently traveling with them later in 2002, but not for very long. ShamSports notes he signed with the London Towers in 2003, but never played a game, and hasn't been seen in a basketball setting since.

~lw3

I went to school with Ed Gray while he was a freshman at the U. of Tennessee.

That team he played on ( I believe ) was the worst in school history, only winning something like 5 or 6 games that year. As bad as they were, they damn near beat Kentucky in Knoxville in 1994, after beating them at home in 1993. Ed was easily the most talented player on the team, even if his play was hella erratic.