By Fred J. Demarest
LSUsports.net
The clock ticks down in the waning moments of game one of the Los Angeles Lakers and the Phoenix Suns NBA Western Conference semifinal showdown on Sunday afternoon and former LSU Tiger, now Phoenix Suns guard, Randy Livingston notices teammate Jason Kidd struggling.
Kidd is in his second game back from a broken ankle and limping quite noticeably. Pride makes him continue. Pain makes him limited.
“I know that feeling,” says Livingston. “Ive been there before.”
In a game of cruel twists and ill fates, Livingston has been there and then some. Once the most highly sought after recruit in the nation, the national high school player of the year and one of the most decorated players in the history of Louisiana prep basketball, a rash of injuries cut short his career at LSU. He is the best player Tiger fans never really got a chance to see.
It has been the road less traveled for Livingston. Life is a funny game, it works in funny ways. Stops in Houston and Atlanta in the NBA and Sioux Falls in the CBA have led him to the Phoenix Suns. Signed just prior to the 1999 playoffs, Livingston has rebuilt a name for himself, demonstrating the kind of play that Tiger fans always hoped to see. He can explode to the basket and he can dunk again. Make no mistake, his injuries are now finally behind him.
After Kidd broke his ankle part way through the season, Livingston became the de facto starter at point guard for the Suns. Counted out by many, Livingston saw time in 79 games this season and started the first three games of the opening round of the playoffs as the Suns dethroned defending champion San Antonio.
When Kidd came back from his ankle injury for game four, Livingston returned to the bench. But he had been given his chance and will be again sometime soon.
“You set goals for yourself and you have to be willing to pay the price to achieve them,” says Livingston. “I hoped to achieve some of those goals at LSU but unfortunately I ran into the injury bug. I still havent achieved many of the goals Ive set for myself but Im closer now because I havent given up on what I believed in.”
When former LSU head coach Dale Brown watched Randy Livingston play at Newman High School, he marveled. He said that every time he watched Livingston play he was reminded at just how ugly the game of basketball had become because Livingston made the game look so simple. His natural instincts and explosive first step to the basket were the stuff the championship teams were built upon. Only he never really got his shot at LSU.
On July 4, 1993 in a summer game in Michigan, Livingston tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee. It was a routine play he had made a thousand times before, but when he came down, his future, and that of LSU for that matter, were drastically altered.
Livingston was forced to sit out the 1993-94 season. It would not be the last injury of his career. After a series of injuries and only 29 games over three seasons, Livingston opted to leave the program after the 1995-96 season and test the NBA market while he still had some value left. A second round pick of the Houston Rockets, Livingston spent the 1996-97 season playing alongside Charles Barkley and Hakeem Olajuwon.
Livingston spent part of the next season with the Atlanta Hawks, but a majority of the next two with Sioux Falls of the CBA. Two straight years he led Sioux Falls to the CBA finals. Yet no phone calls from any NBA teams.
“I felt like for two years I was the best point guard in the CBA and yet I couldnt get over the knock that I was prone to injuries or that I was still injured,” says Livingston.
Ready to head to Venezuela to play professionally, he received a call to play for Danny Ainge and the Suns just prior to the start of the 1999 playoffs and the rest is history. After a successful run at the end of the season, the Suns rewarded him with a two-year contract that runs through next season.
Now he calls Kidd, Anfernee “Penny” Hardaway and Kevin Johnson, three of the best guards in recent NBA history, his teammates. Heck, even his new head coach, Scott Skiles, owns the NBA records for assists in a game with 30 while playing for the Orlando Magic in the late 80s and early90s.
“Its been a great situation for me to be able to learn from some of the best guards of this generation,” says Livingston. “To practice and play with Jason Kidd, Penny, Kevin Johnson, its been a great situation. Their dedication has taught me the work ethic I need to be successful in the NBA.”
He still maintains his ties to LSU despite not having the career that he had hoped. He and Lakers center and former LSU great Shaquile ONeal still share the bond of being Tigers despite the fact that the two teams play in the same division and are playing for a spot in the conference finals right now.
“Well see each other and say whats up LSU?” says Livingston. “I loved playing at LSU, I still follow them. If they had beaten Wisconsin and advanced to the Elite Eight, I was all ready to come to Albuquerque to watch them play. I wish it went a little different for me at LSU, but I loved my time there, I never regretted coming there and Ive come a long way since then.”
As far as Livingston has come, however, he wont feel like he is completely back until he gets a chance to shine on his own. Closer to being the player he always knew he would be, he believes that time will come soon.
“Im healthy now. I just want a chance to run a team again one day,” says Livingston. “I think Ill get that chance one day. Its what keeps me going.”