Indiana Pacers rookie Johnny Furphy is hoping to become the fourth former University of Kansas men’s basketball player in the last four years to win an NBA championship.
Furphy, a 6-foot-9 small forward from Melbourne, Australia, who was taken No. 35 overall in the 2024 NBA Draft after a one-and-done season at KU, has played sparingly in seven playoff games thus far for the Eastern Conference champion Pacers.
Indiana opens its best-of-seven championship series against Western Conference champ Oklahoma City on Thursday night in OKC.
The three Jayhawks to earn NBA title rings the past three seasons: Svi Mykhailiuk (2024, Boston Celtics), Christian Braun (2023, Denver Nuggets) and Andrew Wiggins (2022, Golden State Warriors). Markieff Morris played for the runner-up Dallas Mavericks in 2024.
In all, 16 former Jayhawk players have won NBA titles, including eight players in the Bill Self era: Mykhailiuk, Braun, Wiggins, Morris, Sasha Kaun, Brandon Rush, Mario Chalmers and Wayne Simien.
KU legends Wilt Chamberlain (1972), Jo Jo White (1976) and Paul Pierce (2008) were Jayhawks who were named NBA Finals Most Valuable Players.
Furphy, 20, has yet to score in the playoffs after averaging 2.1 points and 1.4 rebounds per contest in 50 games during the regular season. He logged 7.6 minutes per game in those 50 contests.
Furphy averaged 14.3 points and 9.6 rebounds a game in 10 games for the Pacers’ G-League team located in Noblesville, Indiana. Furphy averaged 9.0 points, 4.9 rebounds and 1.0 assists per game in 33 games during his sole season at KU (23-11).
Furphy played one minute in both Game 5 and Game 6 six of the Eastern Conference Finals against the New York Knicks. He played 14 minutes combined in a pair of games against Cleveland in the conference semifinals. And he played seven minutes combined in three games in the first round vs. Milwaukee.
Furphy is trying to become the eighth Australia native to win an NBA title. The others: Luc Longley, Andrew Gaze, Patty Mills, Aron Baynes, Andrew Bogut, Matthew Dellavedova and Jack White.
“I’m trying to soak this in, trying to understand how significant this is and how rare it is,” Furphy told ESPN as reported by Tara Murphy of Hobsons’ Bay Star Weekly. “I’m trying to enjoy it as much as possible. I love being part of such a great team. This is something I’m going to learn so much from.”
His sister has been in the United States to watch Johnny in the playoffs.
“Everyone knows how good of a team they are,” Furphy said of the OKC Thunder. “I’m excited and we match up well against them, and who knows what will happen.”
He’s not the only former Jayhawk basketball player trying to win a ring this postseason.
Kevin Pritchard, a starter on KU’s 1988 NCAA title team, is president of basketball operations of the Indiana Pacers, credited with bringing former Iowa State standout Tyrese Haliburton to Indy in a trade. And he’s responsible for making the draft day trade with the San Antonio Spurs for Furphy.
Pritchard, who turns 58 in July, has been with the Pacers since 2011 when he was named the team’s director of player personnel. He was promoted to general manager in June 2012. In May 2017, Pritchard became president of basketball operations, while retaining his general manager duties, when Larry Bird resigned.
Pritchard — he played six seasons in the NBA (with Golden State, Boston, Philadelphia, Miami and Washington), also played pro ball in Spain, Italy and Germany. He has also worked for the Portland Trail Blazers (director of player personnel) and San Antonio Spurs where he was a scout.
In February of 2022 Indiana’s Pritchard traded Domantas Sabonis for Haliburton.
“Knowing how the deal turned out, it’s easy to call it a success,” wrote Wes Goldberg of realgm.com. “Haliburton has emerged as one of the premier talents in the league.”
“I will say this: We had one player targeted, and we were able to get him,” Pritchard told Goldberg after acquiring Haliburton. “(We said), ‘We have a point guard of our future.’’’
Goldberg wrote that Indiana’s “team-building strategy (under Pritchard’s direction) is one that takes advantage of a market inefficiency and could become a model for teams going forward.”
Meanwhile, former KU forward Nick Collison will be hoping to earn a ring this postseason with the Thunder. He is special assistant to executive vice president and general manager Sam Presti.
Collison, 44, played for one NBA organization (Seattle SuperSonics moved to OKC) for 14 seasons. His jersey is retired not only at KU (in 2003), but in Oklahoma City (2019). He started his post-playing career as OKC’s basketball operations representative, moving to assistant to the GM before the start of the 2021-22 season.
According to NBA.com, Collison in his role with the team “continues to enhance his front office acumen while working closely with Presti and other key front office personnel on short-term and long-range initiatives and projects for the Thunder across many facets of basketball operations.”
At KU, Collison helped the Jayhawks to back-to-back Final Four appearances in 2002 and 2003. As a senior, Collison averaged 18.5 points and 10 rebounds a game. He was named Big 12 Player of the Year and consensus first-team All-American.
The Thunder’s GM, Presti, is married to former KU basketball manager Shannon O’Connor. By the way, the GMs of both teams, Pritchard and Presti, started their NBA front office careers working under former KU assistant coach R.C. Buford in the scouting department with the San Antonio Spurs.