Courtesy of the CBA and NBA
BOISE, Idaho — The Continental Basketball Association announced on Monday that Sioux Falls Skyforce guard Randy Livingston has been signed to a 10-day contract by the NBA’s New Orleans Hornets. The call-up is the record-tying fifth career CBA-to-NBA call-up of Livingston’s career (Lloyd Daniels, Henry James, Carl Thomas).
“It was important for us to get a player with experience, savvy, and the intangibles to adapt quickly to an environment,” said Hornets General Manager Jeff Bower. “Randy fits well with those qualities as well as being a terrific player. Given our situation at this very moment we felt he was a person that could come in and help us.”
Livingston, a native of New Orleans (Newman High School), has six years of NBA experience with five different teams and holds career averages of 4.1 points and 2.1 assists in 171 NBA games. He comes to the Hornets from the Sioux Falls Skyforce of the Continental Basketball Association, where he had averaged 14.0 points, 8.2 assists and 5.3 rebounds in 12 games.
He also shot .875 (42-48) from the free-throw line. Livingston posted the season’s first triple-double with a 24-point, 13-rebound, 12-assist performance in a 117-104 win over the Idaho Stampede on Dec. 19.
“We are extremely happy for Randy. He has worked hard, and it is great to see that hard work recognized by a NBA team,” said Skyforce head coach Stacey King. “The Hornets are getting an excellent, well-rounded point guard.”
While at LSU, Livingston played in only 29 games and 868 minutes in the 1994-95 and 1995-96 seasons due to a pair of knee injuries. However, he averaged 13.0 points per game, 7.6 assists, 3.3 rebounds and 2.3 steals. His 151 assists in only 16 games (9.4 apg) of the 1994-95 season ranks seventh in LSU’s single-season assists list.
After two injury-plagued seasons at LSU, the highly touted Livingston was a 1996 second round (42nd overall) NBA draft pick of the Houston Rockets and a fourth round (47th overall) CBA pick of the Florida Beachdogs. After his rookie season with Houston he began the 1997-98 campaign with the Skyforce, receiving his first two CBA-to-NBA call-ups to the Atlanta Hawks on Dec. 9 and Jan. 9.
He returned to Sioux Falls the next season and was called up to the Phoenix Suns on Jan. 22, where he remained through the 1999-00 season. After two games with the Golden State Warriors in 2000-01, Livingston joined the Idaho Stampede, averaging 14.1 ppg and 7.3 apg in 24 games. Last season he posted 11.1 ppg and 7.2 apg in 29 games for the Skyforce and seven with the Gary Steelheads before a March 8 call-up to the Seattle Supersonics, where he finished the season.