With a deadline deal last night, the Houston Rockets traded former Kentucky Wildcat Derek Anderson to Miami for former Kentucky Wildcat Gerald Fitch. On the surface, it’s a deal of marginal interest.
However, this means that the Houston Rockets now have 3/5 of Kentucky’s starting lineup from the 2002-2003 season on their roster, as Fitch joins fellow backcourt starter Keith Bogans and forward Chuck Hayes.
This is the third time Kentucky has had 3 players from the same college team on an NBA roster together (Boston had Antoine Walker, Ron Mercer and Walter McCarty on one team, and Walker, McCarty and Wayne Turner on another, but those teams were coached by a former Kentucky coach.)
Is collecting players from one college team common and I just haven’t noticed, or is this a strange coincidence?
I can understand Charlotte’s move, because who cares about the Bobcats. It just seems incredibly odd that they’d trade a third UK player for a UK player who played with their other two guys. It was weird enough having Anderson playing alongside Bogans and Chuck, but now it’s even stranger.
NBA teams used to get “territorial” picks so its possible that in the early days of the NBA, you might have found several St. John’s players on the Knicks or other such setups. Teams in Philadelphia were more likely to have Big Five players.
Not quite the OP’s question, but this had only happened once before: The first college teammates drafted by the same team were Todd Day and Lee Mayberry of Arkansas (Milwaukee, 1992).
There are a number of NBA teams that seem to ‘collect’ a disproportionate number of kids from one school, whether by chance or design. The Portland Trail Blazers have Juan Dixon and Steve Blake, both from Maryland. The L.A. Clippers have Elton Brand, Daniel Ewing, and Corey Maggette, all from Duke – and Shaun Livingston, who committed to Duke before going pro out of high school. The Chicago Bulls have Chris Duhon and Luol Deng, both Dukies (and had Jason Williams, before his motorcycle accident). The Memphis Grizzlies have Shane Battier and Dahntay Jones, both Dukies. The Washington Wizards have Brendan Haywood, Jerry Stackhouse, and Antawn Jamison, all North Carolina Tar Heels.
I think what you’re looking for is players in the NBA who were also on the same team in college at the same time. A quick scan through team rosters (and databasebasketball.com) gives me:
Boston:
Raef Lafrentz and Paul Pierce - Kansas
Delonte West and Dwayne Jones - St. Joseph’s
Chicago:
Luol Deng and Chris Duhon - Duke
Denver:
Kenyon Martin and DerMarr Johnson - Cincinnati (99-00)
Kenyon Martin and Ruben Patterson - Cincinnati (96-98)
Houston:
Keith Bogans and Chuck Hayes and Gerald Fitch - Kentucky
Miami:
Antoine Walker and Derek Anderson - Kentucky
New Jersey:
Jason Kidd and Lamond Murray - California
Vince Carter and Jeff McInnis - North Carolina
Portland:
Steve Blake and Juan Dixon - Maryland
Washington:
Antawn Jamison and Brendon Haywood - North Carolina
Bingo. So it looks like at least right now, they’re the only triad. It looks like pairs are fairly common, but I’m willing to bet that more than two is pretty rare. The more I think about it, though, the more impossible to figure out it becomes, because that’s a LOT of players and teams to cross-reference.
Today’s sports section of the Courier-Journal says that the Bogans-Fitch-Hayes combo is indeed the only time three players from the same college roster wound up on the same pro roster.
I think one other time triplets included the aforementioned Juan Dixon and Steve Blake, when they were with the Wizards, for a time had Laron Profit as a Teammate – when they were freshman at Maryland Profit was a Senior there.
Among the doubles the most prominent I can think of is Chris Webber who was traded in his second year to the Washington Bullets, where he was reunited with his college teammate and friend, Juwan Howard. 2 of the Fab Five (if not **THE *, then probably one * of the top two most famous College B-Ball Teams in the decade 1985ish to 1995ish) playing on the same Pro-Team
first and only time knowledge of Bulletts-Wizards lore will ever be useful in the SDGQ
Your cite is technically correct – from you (seeming maybe I am wrong) linking it to my cite it seems like maybe you are using it to implyg what I said was wrong. If so, you are simply taking your cite too literally. What it says:
*10/31/04 Exercised fourth year team option on Jared Jeffries and declined Juan Dixon’s fourth year option. Laron Profit makes Wizards’ last cut. *
But that doesn’t mean to imply both Profit and Dixon weren’t already on the Team and had been so for several years-- they were.
Believe me, I am sure of this. I have bought this knowledge dearly with yearly suffering as I am a long time Wizards fan and have suffered through 2 decades of 30-52 styles seasons.
NBA.com is about as reputable stat site for this as I can think of:
I think one other time triplets included the aforementioned Juan Dixon and Steve Blake, when they were with the Wizards, for a time had Laron Profit as a Teammate – when they were freshman at Maryland Profit was a Senior there.