BATON ROUGE — Five LSU players will be on rosters for the start of the 2006-07 National Basketball Association season and two of them will play against each other Tuesday night in opening night action.
Chicago rookie Tyrus Thomas, a member of last year’s LSU NCAA Final Four team, will make his NBA debut Tuesday against Shaquille O’Neal and the Miami Heat, the defending champions of the league. O’Neal will be entering his 14th season in the NBA after leading the Heat to his fourth NBA championship (three previous with the Los Angeles Lakers). Last season the LSU star from 1989-92 averaged 20 points and 9.2 rebounds for the Heat.
Thomas was the fourth pick of the NBA draft by the Portland Trailblazers and by previous agreement, Chicago and Portland agreed to swap the second and fourth picks in the draft, sending Thomas to Chicago, where he has averaged 9.4 points and 4.4 rebounds in eight preseason games.
The game tips off at 7 p.m. from Miami and will be televised on TNT.
Also on rosters as the teams head for opening games are Brandon Bass, in his second year with the New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets; Ronald Dupree, returning to the Detroit Pistons this season after a year with the Minnesota Timberwolves; and, Stromile Swift, traded back to Memphis after signing as a free agent last year with the Houston Rockets. All three will be with their teams when they begin play on Wednesday.
New Orleans/Oklahoma City will open up Wednesday night in Boston against the Celtics in what will surely be an emotional night following the death over the weekend of the legendary Red Auerbach. Also Milwaukee will be at Detroit and Swift’s Grizzlies will play host to the New York Knicks in other action involving former Tiger players.