Going into the draft, the Pacers needed a point guard, said Walsh, who was then the team’s general manager. People in Indiana wanted him to take hometown favorite Steve Alford, who had just won an NCAA title at IU. Walsh said he never entertained that thought. He had his mind set on Kevin Johnson, who in high school led the state of California in scoring (32.5 points) and was named the Northern California Player of the Year. “This kid was good,” Walsh said from his Indianapolis home this month. “So if I could have gotten him, I probably would have taken him. But I realized pretty quickly that we weren’t going to get him.”
Tag: Donnie Walsh
Walsh never counted on getting Johnson …
Walsh never counted on getting Johnson in 1987. His research told him Johnson would be gone long before the 11th pick. Walsh started plotting. He went to then-Pacers coach Jack Ramsay. “And I had a tape of Reggie and I said, ‘Jack, I want you to look at this because I don’t know if we’re going to get the kid we were looking for,’” Walsh said. “He watched it that night and he came back in and said, ‘Yeah, I’d take him.’ And I said, ‘So would I,’ and so that’s what we did.”
Scott Agness: Interesting note from …
Scott Agness: Interesting note from Donnie Walsh’s statement on the passing of Jerry Sloan: “He was the first coach I interviewed for our head coaching position with the Pacers but he told me me he had already accepted the position as the head coach for the Jazz” So Walsh hired Jack Ramsay.
Somehow, though Donnie Walsh still …
Somehow, though Donnie Walsh still isn’t exactly sure how, he’s been plopped in the middle of America’s most famous infectious disease doctor’s basketball claim to fame. “I said, ‘How did that happen?’” Walsh said in a phone interview Wednesday. “This has been one of the most out-of-the-blue things I’ve ever been involved in.” Sixty-two years ago, Anthony Fauci took his high school’s 1-16 team onto Walsh’s court — and won.