BATON ROUGE — LSUsports.net has been catching up with former Tigers playing in the NBA and recently LSU Sports Television Network’s Michael Blevins was in Houston and had the chance to visit with Garrett Temple during the first of his 10-day contracts with the Rockets.
Temple is on the back half of his second 10-day contract and played against his former teammate Marcus Thornton this past Sunday in New Orleans.
Temple held many of the longevity records that Tasmin Mitchell is breaking here at LSU. He was the career minutes leader with 4,432, he started a then school record 131 games and his 134 games played mark is also about to be over taken.
He was the third member of his family to play at LSU joining his father Collis Jr. (1971-75) and older brother Collis III (2000-03). Temple was named to the 2009 Coaches All-SEC Second Team and the All-SEC Defensive Team. He was a three-time Academic SEC honor roll member and in 2008 was named to the All-American Defensive Team by Collegeinsider.com.
Temple signed a free agent contract with the Houston Rockets out of college and played for the team in the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas. One of the last cuts of the Rockets, he was sent to the team’s D-League team in Rio Grande Valley. Temple was averaging 14.9 points, 3.7 rebounds and 3.4 assists in 30 games before getting the call-up to the Rockets.
Temple has played five games with the Rockets, averaging 5.4 points and 1.6 rebounds. He is averaging 14.0 minutes per game.