BATON ROUGE — Four former LSU men’s basketball players are presently on opening week rosters of National Basketball Association teams as the 2004-05 season gets underway.
Ronald Dupree, All-SEC forward for the Tigers, who finished his career in 2003, is entering his second season in the league after getting picked up during the past season by the Chicago Bulls. Dupree signed with the world champion Detroit Pistons after the 2003-04 season and is now on the team’s squad, although he started year on injured reserve.
The veteran of the group is quite obviously Shaquille O’Neal, the three-time Finals MVP. O’Neal opened up his 13th season in the league and his first with the Miami Heat with a 16 point, five rebound effort in 21 minutes of an easy 100-77 win over the New Jersey Nets. O’Neal, the nation’s top college player in 1991, is with his third NBA team having been the No. 1 pick in the 1992 draft by the Orlando Magic and later rising to prominence has part of the Los Angeles Lakers. He is one of three LSU players to have been selected to the NBA team at 50 several seasons ago.
Speaking of the Nets, the New Jersey team has former LSU forward Jabari Smith on its roster as the season opens, but the veteran of three NBA campaigns is on the team’s injured reserve list. Smith’s last season at LSU was the NCAA Sweet 16 season of 2000.
Rounding out the group is Stromile Swift of the Memphis Grizzlies. Swift, who played his first season in Vancouver before the franchise shifted to Memphis, is in his fifth year with the team and in a 103-91 loss to Washington in the opener, Swift had a solid effort with 15 points and eight rebounds.
The 2004-05 edition of the LSU men’s basketball team opens its exhibition schedule on Tuesday (Nov. 9) at 7 p.m. against EA Sports. The regular season opener is Nov. 19 at 8 p.m. in the nightcap of a first round doubleheader in the LSU Louisiana Classic at the Maravich Center. Season tickets remain on sale at the LSU Athletics Ticket Office.