BATON ROUGE — Six former members of the LSU men’s basketball team, including five from the era of present LSU head coach John Brady, will be on the opening night National Basketball Association rosters for 2007-08.
The league kicked off on Tuesday night but the LSU players and their teams won’t see action until Wednesday night as the teams begin their 82-game regular season schedule.
The veteran of the bunch of former league MVP and member of four championship teams, Shaquille O’Neal, who will lead the Miami Heat in its first game on Thursday night. O’Neal, who played at LSU from 1989-92 and was the two-time SEC Player of the Year and first-team All-American, is in his 16th season in the league. O’Neal was the NBA’s top pick in the 1992 draft.
O’Neal’s Heat team will face off against another team with a former LSU player on the roster as the Detroit Pistons will be the opponent with Ronald Dupree entering his 5th year in the league. Dupree played for the Tigers from 2000-03.
The Memphis Grizzlies will be looking for strong playing time this season from Stromile Swift, a former No. 2 pick in the 2000 NBA draft for the then Vancouver Grizzlies. Swift, whose team faces the defending NBA champion San Antonio Spurs in Memphis Wednesday, is in his 8th season in the league and is second to O’Neal among active LSU players in league seniority.
Brandon Bass, the 2005 SEC Player of the Year starts his third year in the league but his first with the Dallas Mavericks. Bass, who played the previous two seasons for the New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets, is expected to get plenty of minutes after impressing Mavericks officials in summer league play. Bass and the Mavericks travel to Cleveland Wednesday to take on the Cavaliers.
Tyrus Thomas, the 2006 SEC Freshman of the Year and the fourth pick in the draft that year, will open his second season in the league, looking to continue to expand his playing time as the Bulls travel to New Jersey to take on the Nets in another Wednesday contest.
The final LSU player to debut on the NBA court will be rookie Glen Davis, the 2006 SEC Player of the Year, as his new-look Boston Celtics are at home Friday night to meet the Washington Wizards. Davis was a second-round 2007 NBA draft pick of the Celtics.