BATON ROUGE — Utah Jazz Senior Vice President of Basketball Operation Kevin O’Connor announced that the NBA team has signed point guard and former LSU basketball player Randy Livingston to a contract for the remainder of the 2005 season.
In five games, Livingston has averaged 1.8 points and 2.4 assists as the Jazz’s third-string point guard. The Jazz signed Livingston to a 10-day contract on March 3 and he played in the Jazz’s contest against New Orleans on March 4. Livingston was on a second 10-day contract when he was signed by the team for the remainder of the season.
Prior to joining the Jazz, the New Orleans native played in 40 games for the Sioux Falls Sky Force, averaging 13.2 points, 8.4 assists and 5.1 rebounds in 36.6 minutes per game. Livingston has now played in 182 NBA games in nine seasons dating back to the 1996-97 season.
Originally drafted by the Houston Rockets in the second round (42nd pick overall) in the 1996 NBA draft, Livingston has seen action with the Rockets, Hawks, Suns, Warriors, Sonics, Hornets and Clippers. Livingston played his college ball at LSU after being named the high school player of the year in several polls, but a series of knee injuries cut short his collegiate career.
In his rookie year with the Rockets, Livingston played in 64 games, averaging 15.3 minutes, 3.9 points per game and 2.4 assists per game. In 2000, Phoenix played him 79 times with 15 starts, averaging 4.8 points per game and 2.2 assists per game.
Livingston was injured prior to his freshman season at LSU, sitting out the 1992-93 season before making his debut in the 1993-94 season. That year was highlighted by an 18-assist performance, one shy of the LSU and SEC single-game records, against George Mason. He later in the year dislocated his knee and had to have a second surgery at a time he was leading the nation in assist average. He tried to come back during the 1995-96 season, but eventually left the team in February 1996 to begin full-time rehabilitation of the knee.