Big East All-Time NBA, Doug Ferguson, Uncategorized

TOP 25 BIG EAST NBA PLAYERS: #20 OTIS THORPE

In the next two months NBE’s ‘The Association’ will celebrate the previous 30 years of the Big East conference by counting down the 25 greatest NBA players from the league since its inception. Note that the list is made up of players who played for the 16 CURRENT schools of the Big East, not necessarily IN the Big East. We hope this trip down memory lane is fun and historically informative to all who read. ENJOY!!!!!!!

#20
Name: Otis Thorpe
College: Providence
NBA Teams: Kansas City Kings (1984-85)
Sacramento Kings (1985-88, 1997-98)
Houston Rockets (1988-95)
Portland Trail Blazers (1995)
Detroit Pistons (1995-97)
Vancouver Grizzlies (1997)
Washington Wizards (1998-99)
Miami Heat (1999-2000)
Charlotte Hornets (2000-01)

We can now finally get to a player who was neither played for the Chicago Bulls nor laced them up for the Fighting Irish. Otis Thorpe on the other hand played his college ball in the smallest state in the union at our favorite little catholic school, Providence College. Thorpe is one of the few players in NBA history that can be considered a true journeyman as well as having his face recognized distinctly with a particular franchise.

Thorpe played for eight teams in his 16 seasons in the NBA, most recognizably though were his six as a Houston Rocket. After being drafted 9th overall by the Kansas City Kings in 1984 he played one season in Kansas City and three more for the franchise after they moved to the capital of California. He then moved on to Houston where he proceeded to personify toughness in the NBA. He was an All-Star reserve in 1992 mainly based upon the respect he had among players and coaches as there were many who had more deserving stats. This is something that isn’t seen too often in today’s NBA which is driven by who has the most eye-popping stats and hair-raising dunks.

Thorpe was the muscle behind the most talented defensive frontcourt in NBA History in playing for the championship 1994 Houston Rockets. In his aging days in the association, his had such a winning reputation that he was used as the bait in some of the most notoriously one-sided ripoffs in the history of trades. Teams thought so much of him that they let it happen 3 times and if he wouldn’t have retired, teams probably would’ve came back for more.

After winning the NBA title in 1994 Thorpe was traded the following season at the deadline to Portland for Clyde Drexler along with some other inconsequential pieces (no offense to my facebook friend Tracy Murray). In a “what could have been” move the VANCOUVER Grizzlies thought they were one tough guy away from becoming a contender when they traded away a first round pick to the Detroit Pistons in 1997 for Thorpe. Five years later the gauge of how wrong they were could be determined by the fact that they had to have that pick pried away from them due to the fact that it had been lottery protected for said five years. Even lottery protection wears away its welcome after five years however and they were forced to give it up in 2003 when the Pistons used it to take Darko Milicic. Although this may have actually been a deal for the Grizzlies on its face when one thinks about it more in depth they realize that any other team besides Detroit that year without a doubt takes Carmelo Anthony and irreversibly changes the fortune of their team. One thing I’m for sure of is that any change of fortune for the Grizzlies would be better than their fortune is now or ever. Later that year, the Kings traded Thorpe along with fellow aging star Mitch Richmond to Washington who, in their rush to get rid of the problematic Chris Webber made the Kings consequential for the first time in their history.

When I tabulated the votes for this list I had one major problem with the voting and Otis Thorpe being number 20 was definitely it. Otherwise I was very proud of the voters. However, Thorpe has numbers that you won’t see out of some of the players in the top five and he is a champion.

Career Accomplishments- 1994 NBA Champion (Houston Rockets)

1992 Western Conference All-Star Team

1,257 career games played (18th all-time)

39,822 minutes played (20th all-time)

Played all 82 games 9 times

17,600 career points (61st all-time)

10,370 career rebounds (31st all-time)

3,446 career offensive rebounds (13th all-time)

54.6% career FG shooting (14th all-time)

4,146 career personal fouls (10th all-time)