Name That Hawks Draft Pick... Part III

[Admin]

I cannot participate in this as it's too easy to find the names from the pictures :(

But just looking at the guys and reading the teasers I had no clue who they were.

[Diesel]

Here's some interesting trivia.

We traded AL Wood and Charlie Criss for Freeman Williams. Williams had been the lead scorer for the Clipps putting up 19.3/2/2.

However, Williams would never be that kind of scorer.

So we traded him and John Drew and most importantly 1 Million Dollars for a young prospect name Dominique Wilkins.

[lethalweapon3]

Summary:

Quiz #1 - PSSSHHHRRR was first to get AL WOOD

Quiz #2 - ?

Quiz #3 - ?

Quiz #4 - ?

Quiz #5 - ?

Quiz #6 - ?

Quiz #7 - Diesel was first to get SCOONIE PENN

Quiz #8 - dirtypuppet was first to get TRAVIS HANSEN

Quiz #9 - ?

Quiz #10 - ?

I'm guessing someone will get #9 easily next.

~lw3

[DrReality]

Great stuff. I have no clue

[lethalweapon3]

(Quiz #9)

Hint: This Thrilla was recently in Manila.

~lw3

Robert Guillaume is extremely disappointed that no one yet recognizes #9...

~lw3

[dirtypuppet]

Robert Guillaume is extremely disappointed that no one yet recognizes #9...

~lw3

it seemed too easy, but in saying that, now I'd hate to be wrong.

Is it the string bean Keith Benson?

[lethalweapon3]

it seemed too easy, but in saying that, now I'd hate to be wrong.

Is it the string bean Keith Benson?

ding ding ding! Indeed it is! With the Guillaume clue, I was worried somebody under the age of 25 would start looking for guys named Rafiki.

The pride of Oakland University and Detroit Country Day School (Shane Battier AND JaVale McGee played there, go figure. Chris Webber, too), Benson appeared in summer league and preseason games with the Hawks in 2011 and 2012. He might have made the roster in 2011 but for this Ivan Johnson guy who seemingly dropped out of the sky.

Benson did get 9 minutes of garbage-time burn on a ten-day contract with Golden State in 2011-12. Mostly he's been spending time in the D-League, with the Sioux Falls SkyForce in 2011-12 and with Ivan's old team, the Erie Bayhawks, this season. The Bayhawks bought Kito out in January and he headed to the Philippines, winning games for the Talk 'n Text Tropang Texters in the PBA Commissioner's Cup. The Texters released him a month later when their star Donnell Harvey returned, and he returned to Erie to close out the D-League regular season. We'll see if he gets another summer league callup soon!

~lw3

[lethalweapon3]

(Quiz #2)

Hints: Another of many players who eschewed the Hawks for the bright lights and colored balls of the ABA. Was nicknamed "The Hound" for his defensive aggressiveness. Sports Illustrated once noted he “could complete a pass through a maze. Eyes closed, of course.” Holds the ABA single-game record for steals. Among players taken among the next ten draft picks: Spencer Haywood and Mike Newlin.

~lw3

Ted McClain was much more than a Hound Dog. The Nashville native and pride of Tennessee State University carried the Tigers to the 1970 NCAA Division II Basketball Championship, where he won the MVP award despite his Tigers losing the game. He also once made 24 free throws in a single game. His high school squad went 31-0 during the first year of desegregation in Tennessee high school sports, and the 1966 Pearl High team is still widely considered the greatest in state history (sorry, Station Camp!)

The Tennessee State - Kentucky State rivalry was a bitter one, profiled by SI, including one game in Nashville where KSU accused the referee of being McClain's high school coach, and charged TSU with destroying the videotape evidence of one-sided reffing after barely winning the game. Legendary TSU coach Ed Martin reported that McClain himself was attacked by an ornery KSU fan during the rematch in Kentucky.

The Hawks picked McClain with the 22nd overall pick in 1971, but the call of the emerging ABA league was too strong to pass up.

The 6'1" guard's peak pro-year was in 1973-74 in the ABA with Billy Cunningham's Carolina Cougars, where he made the ABA All-Star Game and led the league in steals. The day after Christmas in 1973, he snatched lots of gifts from the stockings of future Hawks coach Kevin Loughery's New York Nets club, amassing a record 12 steals against would-be-Hawk Doctor J and the eventual ABA champs. The Hound would win a title with Doc, Loughery, and the Nets in the ABA's final season of 1975-76, finishing fourth all-time in ABA steals per game. That was one season before winning the ABA title with another future Hawks coach, Hubie Brown, with the Kentucky Colonels.

McClain premiered in the NBA as the leading assist-maker for yet another would-be Hawk, David Thompson, and the 1976-77 Denver Nuggets That team came into its new league winning the Midwest Division before getting upset by the eventual NBA champion Portland Trail Blazers in the conference semis. His NBA career concluded in 1979, after partial stints in Buffalo, Philadelphia, and Phoenix.

I'm not sure of his whereabouts although it appears he's still living. There was a Margaret McClain (spouse of a Ted McClain) who ran the Opportunities Industrialization Center chapter in Nashville back in 2005. Ted McClain was inducted into the metro Nashville school district's sports hall of fame that same year.

~lw3

[lethalweapon3]

(Quiz #3)

Hints: Similar to James Brown (of Fox Sports/CBS Sports fame, drafted by the Hawks in 1973), was devastated about getting cut as a rookie during the preseason by the Hawks, but eventually parlayed his disappointment into a steady media career. Currently a college hoops commentator, motivational speaker, and author of a self-help book for teens. Never got with the Atlanta Hawks but did play for the Atlanta Eagles of the USBL. Played overseas on three continents and the CBA, finishing his career as a champion with the Toshiba Brave Thunders. Among the players taken after him was a college teammate (taken with the very next pick) who would appear in eight times as many NBA games, along with Tony Massenburg, Derek Strong, Tony Smith, Cedric Ceballos, and Antonio Davis. Boasts that his college team, and not the “Fab Five,” introduced to the world the baggy shorts that would quickly become the norm for hoop fashion.

~lw3

"I do think it's revisionist history because they did not start the baggy shorts [trend], we did," insists former ESPN college hoops commentator Stephen Bardo. "The Flyin' Illini did. That was Kendall Gill that started that, that wasn't Jalen Rose. So I know he took credit for that, but I have to remind people that we had baggy shorts before they came on the scene." Bardo and teammate Kendall Gill do give Michigan's Fab Five credit for the black shoes and socks as an accessory, but will remind anyone who'll listen it was their 1989 Final Four squad that busted out the looser and longer style of basketball shorts that is simply, and thankfully, de rigueur today.

The 6-foot-5 guard and 1989 Big Ten defensive player of the year was taken in the second round of the 1990 draft, one pick ahead of fellow Illinois guard Marcus Liberty, who was taken by Denver. While the Nuggets at least got a few seasons out of Liberty, averaging over 9 points per season in 1991-92, Bardo did not make it out of Bob Weiss' training camp and was cut by the Hawks. As Stephen's online bio reads:

He was devastated one night during the preseason when he was called into the coaches’ office to learn he had been cut from the team. In shock, and not once had he given any thought that he would not make it straight to the NBA, Bardo regrouped and played in the CBA (developmental league for the NBA). He soon returned to his winning ways and led his team to Game 7 of the CBA championship, only to lose in the final seconds during his rookie season.

His first stint in the regular season of the NBA amounted to just one rebound and one minute with the Spurs. In between stints with the Quad City Thunder of the CBA (which Bardo liked to call the "Crazy Basketball Association," for the gimmickry teams would try to draw attendees) and the Spurs, Bardo appeared for the Atlanta Eagles of the USBL alongside World B. Free, the elder Wes Matthews, Harold Ellis (currently scouting director for the Magic) and a young undrafted player named Darrell Armstrong. Bardo would get in a half-season with the Mavericks in 1992-93, but was cut before his contract could be guaranteed. His final NBA appearances were in 9 early-season games with the Pistons in 1995-96.

The globetrotting phases of Bardo's hoops career took him to France, Italy, Spain, Venezuela and, finally, Japan, where he won a league title with the Toshiba Brave Thunders.

Growing up, Bardo drew inspiration from a poster that adorned the wall in his bedroom. It showed Muhammad Ali with his arms raised and a smile on his face after knocking out Sonny Liston in 1964 for the world heavyweight boxing title.

In 2000, while playing for the Toshiba Brave Thunders of the Japanese Basketball League, Bardo mimicked the poster. As his teammates rushed down the floor to celebrate winning the league championship, Bardo struck the Ali pose.

He has since parlayed his experiences and lessons-learned into an advice guide for teenagers, called "How to Make the League Without Picking Up the Rock," available via Amazon and his website store. He runs his public speaking gigs, including a "Don't Let the Stone Stop You" lecture, through his Bardo Communications PR/marketing outfit that was based here in Atlanta, where the Bardo family resided at least until 2012.

He used his offseasons to build up a sportscasting resume, including commentating for Illinois and local sports reporting for CBS Chicago, and he has been a college hoops color analyst for ESPN broadcasting for the past seven years. Just last month, Bardo joined fellow Hawks draft pick Scoonie Penn over at the Big Ten Network.

~lw3

[lethalweapon3]

Summary:

Quiz #1 - PSSSHHHRRR was first to get AL WOOD

Quiz #2 - TED MCCLAIN

Quiz #3 - STEPHEN BARDO

Quiz #4 - ?

Quiz #5 - ?

Quiz #6 - ?

Quiz #7 - Diesel was first to get SCOONIE PENN

Quiz #8 - dirtypuppet was first to get TRAVIS HANSEN

Quiz #9 - dirtypuppet was first to get KEITH BENSON

Quiz #10 - ?

~lw3

[lethalweapon3]

(Quiz #4... big guy in the middle)

Hints: Drafted in the 1990s, about 5 picks before Byron Russell. Currently an assistant coach for a high school team, featuring his son, in Sacramento that made the state finals in 2012. Played his own high school years in a town called Antelope. Played pro ball for the Thunder… and the Lightning.

~lw3

It's a family affair for these Mannings, too. Rich Manning, mortgage loan officer in the Sacramento area (Twitter address is @7ftloanofficer) and assistant coach at Sheldon High School, averaged 29 points per game as an All-State center for Center High School in Antelope, California. He recently got to watch his son Ryan, a 6-foot-6 forward, sign his Letter of Intent to play at Air Force. Ryan was among a talent-loaded roster that reached California's Division I state finals in 2012 and won its Sacramento-San Joaquin Section title in four straight years.

Rich is not only a proud father, he's an assistant coach – able to watch up-close and help his son develop as a player. The pride masks the agony of a bulging disc in his back.

"He's in terrible pain," Ryan said. "We're close. I'm trying to model my game after his. We watch some of his film from when he played. We talk a lot about the mindset of a game, what I need to do better."

Ryan's little brother Matt is on the come-up as well, and is being coached by his grandfather at the JV level at Sheldon High.

While Ryan's on his way to the Air Force Academy, Rich's NBA career never really took off after playing for Syracuse's Elite Eight squad in 1989 and the University of Washington (pre-Bob Bender years) from 1991 to 1993. The Hawks took the 6-foot-11 center in the second round (40th overall) in the 1993 draft, but he was waived by the Hawks before the start of the 1993-94 season. A similar fate befell Manning the next year with the Jazz. He would manage to play in 55 regular season games with the Vancouver Grizzlies and L.A. Clippers from 1995 to 1997, and even appeared in a few playoff games for the 8th-seeded Clippers in 1997.

When he wasn't in the NBA, Rich Manning spent the early part of his career in the CBA with the Rapid City Thrillers (coached by former Hawk assistant Eric Musselman), the Quad City Thunder, and the Rockford Lightning. He concluded his pro career in the Turkish Basketball League (with Oyak Renault, replacing Mehment Okur) and in Beirut, Lebanon until 2001.

~lw3

Edited June 15, 2013 by lethalweapon3