Nathan was good but Rod Strickland was better. He actually ended up at Northeast Louisiana University (NLU) in Monroe after leaving Depaul. I happened to graduate high school the same yr as he and I was attending Grambling State while he was at NLU. It was about 30 min. away from NLU. a couple of my guys from college happened to bump into him while visiting NLU's campus and he told them he wasn't attending any classes there either. Just hooping is all that he said he was doing.

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Hoops class is the only class you need if you got NBA talent.

He was born 20 years too early. Nowadays you just take online classes and have someone else do the work.

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I believe that if Nathan stuck around and panned out he would've been better than Strickland.

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It would have been interesting. Strickland could really dominate games. Nathan wasn't as offensively gifted as Strickland but he was a better defender. Better shooter with range but Strickland was a matchup nightmare for guards. I still remember the game against Kansas State with Mitch Richmond. That damn Lon Kruger had seen the roll Strickland was on and came up with I believe to be a triangle and two in order to stop him. It worked too as Depaul lost that tournament game and Strickland went pro.

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I can remember sitting in a Greek coffee shop one night with a friend and we were talking about Strickland. Two fat plainclothes cops were in the next booth and one of the ignoramuses injected himself into our conversation and said, "Rod Strickland has two chances to make it in the NBA- slim and none and none is on vacation." Motherfucker played in the league for 17 seasons. That friend and I still use that sentence whenever we hear someone make a stupid statement about a great athlete.

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Don't take it personally.

yea, Rocket was awesome. I was at that 1987 second round OT thriller vs Mark Jackson and St. John's. To this day that is still the best basketball I've ever seen in person. Was it Rod who missed the free throw on purpose at the end of regulation setting up a Dallas Comegys put back to tie it or do I have the players mixed up in my head?

That was such an amazing weekend in general for a young 16 year old Shakes. My parents let me skip school and go to all the games at Rosemont. I became an LSU fan that weekend from hanging out with their fans and then watching an unknown bench player named Darryl Joe who averaged 8 pts per game go off for over 25 in each of the first two games. Me and my friend then painted our faces in the bathroom red and blue for the DePaul game only to have it run together and turn us purple.

Left the arena that nigth only to find my car dead in the lot cause the day before I had broken the alternator belt taking my 77 camero over jumps at high speeds in a neighborhood cul-d-sac. Apparently cars aren't meant to take 50mph jumps on concrete and get air...unless you are a valet in a Ferrris Buehler movie. Had to take a cab home from Rosemont.


I went again in I think 91 and saw Jason Kidd. Also learned my life long hate for Kansas that weekend after being around their obnoxious fans.

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totally unrelated to Rocket, but related to you and your friend still using that sentence. Back during the Jordan glory years idiots would call up the Score and suggest the Bulls trade 4 or 5 bench players like Levingston, King, Hodges etc for a young Shaq. To this day me one of my friends still refer to any ridiculous one sided trade proposal as a "bench for Shaq" proposal.

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I thought it was but it wasn't. The game against St. Johns was in 87. KState was 88. Mark Jackson came out in 87. The game against St. Johns was crazy. Strickland missed the free throw and there was a scramble for the ball. Strickland got it and layed it in. Depaul came back that game and beat St. Johns.

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loved me some hot rod strickland. silky!!

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

I knew there were other reasons I've liked your thoughts.

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There are only two examples of infinity: The universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the universe.

It was Comegys that missed the free throw on purpose. Edwards grabbed the rebound and threw it to Strickland who cut to the basket for the layup.

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Don't take it personally.

The word in 88 was that Strickland wanted the Bulls to draft him. They took Will Perdue instead. I wanted the Bulls to draft Strickland especially after trading Oakley for Cartwright. The Bulls moved up in the draft and I was sure they were going to draft him. I will never forget that day because it was the same day Tyson dropped Spinks in 90 sec. I was going to watch the fight through the glass outside of a sportsbar. I was too young to get in so we did some kid shit and stood on a wall outside of the joint. I was like 15 at the time. The word was that Jordan didn't care for Strickland and didn't want the Bulls to draft him. I forget where I heard that.

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The black college connect. We are definitely in the minority when it comes to both of those aspects.

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Thanks for that because I'd honestly forgot that.

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DePaul BB history is nothing but heartache. Comegys, Strickland, Edwards...all 1st round picks.

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

I still remember that draft. We all thought it was gonna be Strickland and instead we got that big dope. I'm not surprised if it was Jordan who nixed (no pun intended given where Rod ended up) the Strickland pick. They probably had some run ins in Chicago during that time since the DePaul players were pretty notorious for having an active night life. Lots of people weren't fans of Strickland on and off the court. But, he proved them all wrong and turned in a nice NBA career.

IF that story is true then this might be the earliest example of Jordan's poor drafting skills

The best story about Perdue is how Jordan would call him Will Vanderbilt cause he wasn't good enough to be named after a big10 school. Jordan, not only the GOAT, but also the GOAT when it comes to trash talking.

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How any Chicago sports fan can get all sulky about Jordan being a jerk is beyond me. What fun.

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yea I don't get it either. Everything about that guy was pure awesome.

I think I'm the only person in the world who loved and "got" his HOF induction speech, I thought it was fantastic and finally gave everyone an insight into what drove Jordan to be the greatest competitor in the history of the NBA.

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