Back to the Future: Spawn of the NBA

Some friends marvel that I can enjoy college hoops so much and not give one small damn about the NBA. I've done some soul-searching on this, and come to the realization that 1) I grew up in the Kansas City area, where the hoops scene was actually improved by the departure of the Kings to Sacramento, 2) I actually grew up in Lawrence, KS, so the Jayhawks were guys I'd see walking down the street. I didn't need the NBA, really. But 3) I actually did keep up with the NBA more as a kid, because most of the great names of the day had spent some time in college, so I already knew something about them by the time they became pros.

While I was scouring rosters looking for funny names a while back, I started to notice a trend: lots of familiar names were on college rosters again. I call them Spawn of the NBA. I'd like to thank the other STF writers for helping me to track down a solid list of hoops scions.

One thing that stands out here is that the apples are falling pretty far from the tree in a lot of cases. The more transcendent the father, the more average the son, it seems. Below, we'll compare the college averages of the paterfamilias to the accrued stats of the offspring.

Ralph Sampson (Virginia): 16.9 ppg, 1.2 apg, 11.4 rpg, 3.5 bpg

Ralph Sampson III (Minnesota): 6.5 ppg, 1 apg, 4.6 rpg, 1.6 bpg

Glen Rice (Michigan): 18.2 ppg, 48% 3P, 6.4 rpg, 2.0 apg, 0.3 bpg, 0.8 spg

Glen Rice, Jr. (Georgia Tech): 2.3 ppg, 25% 3P, 2.5 rpg, 1.3 apg, 0.75 bpg, 0.5 spg

Michael Jordan (North Carolina): 17.7 ppg, 44.7% 3P, 5.0 rpg, 1.8 apg, 0.7 bpg, 1.7 spg

Jeff Jordan (Illinois): 1.1 ppg, 33.3% 3P, 0.4 rpg, 0.7 apg, 0.0 bpg, 0.3 spg

Marcus Jordan (Central Florida): 2.6 ppg, 11% 3P, 2.0 rpg, 1.8 apg, 0.6 bpg, 1.8 spg

Mychal Thompson (Minnesota): 20.8 ppg,

Mychel Thompson (Pepperdine): 8.8 ppg, 33.2% 3P, 3.0 rpg, 1.3 apg, 1.6 spg

Klay Thompson (Washington State): 13.7 ppg, 42% 3P, 3.8 rpg, 1.9 apg, 1.7 spg

John Lucas II (Maryland): 18.3 ppg, 3.4 rpg, 2.1 apg,

Jai Lucas (Texas): 8.5 ppg, 1.7 rpg, 2.3 apg (Freshman year at Florida)

Larry Drew (Missouri): 11.8 ppg, 3.7 apg, 1.0 spg

Larry Drew II (North Carolina): 2.1 ppg, 2.5 apg, 0.7 spg

Nate McMillan (Chowan/N.C. State): 8.5 ppg, 5.1 rpg, 6.0 apg, 2.6 spg

Jamelle McMillan (Arizona State): 3.8 ppg, 1.7 rpg, 2.1 apg, 0.9 spg

Detlef Schrempf (Washington): 11.9 ppg, 6.2 rpg, 2.3 apg, 0.6 spg

Alexander Schrempf (UCLA): Freshman walk-on, no stats yet.

Jack Sikma (Illinois Wesleyan): 21.2 ppg, 13.1 rpg (All IWU seemed to take note of)

Luke Sikma (Portland): 6.2 ppg, 6.6 rpg, 1.9 apg, 0.9 bpg, 0.9 spg

Thanks to sharp-eyed reader Avi for reminding me of this tandem:

Anthony Mason (Tennessee State): 18.7 ppg, 8.1 rpg, 2.4 apg, 0.4 bpg, 1.3 spg

Anthony Mason, Jr. (St. John's): 11.6 ppg, 4.9 rpg, 2.0 apg, 0.8 spg (Playing fifth season on medical hardship after missing most of last season)

Also receiving votes: Elston Turner (Ole Miss), Elston Turner, Jr. (Washington); Denzel Washington (Jake Shuttlesworth, Rikers Island Correctional Facility All-Stars), Malcolm Washington (Penn).

Class of 2010

Shawn Kemp, Jr. - Auburn (A trickle becomes a flood on this one, I'm betting)

Juwan Howard, Jr. - Western Michigan

Tim Hardaway, Jr. - Michigan

There's a clear flaw in this quickie examination of father/son tandems. Most of the sons are nowhere near the ends of their college careers yet. And yet, those of us who follow college hoops religously know that if either of Michael Jordan's sons had their father's potential, they would have been hotly pursued by Dad's alma mater. Jai Lucas and Larry Drew II are the most likely to follow in their fathers' footsteps at this point.