Hot Rod's Offer
Hot Rod Hundley, who had a banner hung in his name at ESA, Friday night, was one of the first razzle-dazzle players in basketball history. Before Kresimir Cosic, before Pete Maravich and before Jason Williams, there was Hot Rod.
At West Virginia, he was known to throw hook shots from the free throw line (even shoot hook-shot free throws), spin the ball off his finger into the basket and other gimmicks.
Same sort of stuff Maravich would do a decade later at Louisiana State.
I’ve known Hot Rod since 1990 and have known quite a bit about him. What I didn’t know, for some reason, was that he was offered a contract to become the only white player on the Harlem Globetrotters.
Instead, as the No. 1 NBA draft pick in 1957, he ended up with the Minneapolis Lakers.
Hundley went on to say at the dedication of the Hot Rod Hundley Media Center, Friday, that his all-time favorite player was John Stockton. He added that Karl Malone was the game’s greatest power forward.
One other note: In the 20 years I’ve known Hot Rod, I’ve never seen him show a lot of emotion. He laughed, joked and cared a lot, but the dedication ceremony on Friday was the first time I’ve seen him shed tears.
He spoke glowingly of Utah and how he was astounded by the beauty of the snow-capped mountains, low humidity and clean streets when he first flew in from New Orleans.
“I said, ‘This is my kind of place,’” he said.
Hundley owns a home in Phoenix but plans to spend several months this summer in Salt Lake.