Barry Lewis
During the past 40 years, I have picked or assisted in choosing many high school athletic “all-star” teams for Tulsa newspapers, including the All-World honors.
My first of those assignments was the Tulsa Tribune’s All-City boys basketball team in 1986.
It wasn’t difficult to choose a player of the year — Edison’s Kevin Pritchard — yes the same Kevin Pritchard, who is the president of basketball operations for the Indiana Pacers, who are playing the Oklahoma City Thunder in the NBA Finals that started Thursday night with Indiana's 111-110 comeback win.
Long before he was a veteran NBA executive, Kevin Pritchard impressed Barry Lewis when Pritchard was a basketball star at Edison. Plus, what will Broken Arrow football look like under Travis Hill, a successful coach who has turned around other programs. And finally, meet Richard Slicker, the guy who beat out Johnny Bench when the two played high school baseball in Oklahoma.
Thunder star Alex Caruso learned to play defense from his dad, who learned from Eddie Sutton
During a break in the All-City photo shoot at Edison where Tulsa’s best high school players were gathered, my interview with Pritchard shifted into him analyzing many of the area’s notable players. He knew their strengths and weaknesses. I’ve never talked with another high school player who has provided that type of insight.
People are also reading…
“He was like having a coach on the floor,” said his Edison coach, John Phillips, earlier this week. “And he made a good coach out of me.”
That photo shoot came five days after Pritchard’s final game with Edison — a 56-55 loss to Oklahoma City Douglass in the 4A state final that ended with Pritchard swishing a 30-foot shot that didn’t count as it came a split-second after the buzzer.
Pacers Basketball (copy)
Indiana Pacers president of basketball operations Kevin Pritchard was twice the Tulsa World’s metro basketball player of the year. Michael Conroy, AP file
It was nearly a storybook ending to his three years at Edison and in Tulsa. After growing up in Indiana, he spent his freshman year of high school in Kansas and then his father, who was a country music agent who represented Roy Clark and the Judds, was transferred to Tulsa.
In 1983, the Pritchards looked at several high school options, including Jenks, Union and Broken Arrow, before deciding on Edison. During his introductory visit there, Phillips paired him with senior guard Tom Hankins. That began a friendship and basketball relationship that continues today as Hankins plays a big part in the Pacers’ player development as their G-League coach.
What was Phillips’ first impression of Pritchard?
“I knew immediately he could play,” Phillips said. “He didn’t look like a player, he was a skinny kid, only 6-1 then, but I could tell there was something different about him.
“He did everything you would want a basketball player to do. He could play and knew how to play. He could shoot and was deceptively athletic. As a sophomore, he could dunk and that was unusual.”
East Central girls coach Samy Mack played for that Edison team.
“When Kevin first came to Edison, he just looked like a country guy from Kansas,” Mack said. “We called him `Rookie.’ But he never got offended, he was a great guy and great ballplayer. He was not afraid of any challenge and worked hard. He fit right in and we all had great chemistry as a team. He came in and was an ideal teammate.”
Pacers Basketball (copy)
Edison graduate Kevin Pritchard has been the Indiana Pacers’ president of basketball operations since 2017 and been in their front office for 14 years. Darron Cummings, AP file
Pritchard and Hankins were an ideal guard combination. Pritchard could shoot and Phillips said Hankins was “the best passer I’ve ever coached.”
Phillips added, “He could make the easy pass better than anyone and most of those were to Kevin or Samy. A lot more kids were talented than Tom was but he mastered the passing game.”
And their basketball IQ was sky high. Before joining the Pacers in 2019, Hankins’ coaching career included 15 years as an Oral Roberts assistant, three as Southern Illinois’ associate head coach and four as Central Oklahoma’s head coach.
After Hankins and Mack graduated, Pritchard grew to 6-3, became the Eagles’ leader and sometimes was guilty of not shooting enough, especially in the first half of a game. Some of it was a result of teams double- or-triple-teaming him and it also was due to unselfishness.
“He didn’t want them (his teammates) to think he was better than they were,” Phillips said. “He wanted his teammates to score, and that would take the pressure off him in the second half. He was a team player.”
Pritchard, who isn’t doing interviews during the NBA Finals in order to allow his team to be the `focal point,’ was the World’s metro player of the year in 1985 and ‘86, and state player of the year in ‘86. As a junior, he averaged 21.9 points and improved to 22.7 in ‘86. Pritchard also finished as Edison’s career scoring leader with 1,592 points.
While at Edison, he was a highly sought recruit and Kansas coach Larry Brown came away with Pritchard. As a four-year starter at Kansas, his 1,692 points rank 14th on the tradition-rich Jayhawks’ career list.
After being a second-round draft choice by the Golden State Warriors in 1990, he played in parts of four NBA seasons with five teams, and then in the Continental Basketball Association and overseas. In 2002, he led the Kansas City Knights to an American Basketball Association title as coach and general manager, leading to a scouting position with the San Antonio Spurs. In 2004, he joined the Portland Trail Blazers’ front office. Soon after a short stint as interim head coach, he became the NBA’s youngest general manager at age 39 with Portland in 2007.
Pritchard was dismissed as Portland’s GM in 2010, but was hired by the Pacers a year later, was named GM in 2012 and kept those duties when he was named president, succeeding Larry Bird, in 2017.
Pacers New Start Baskertball
Indiana Pacers president of basketball operations Kevin Pritchard walks across the practice court after speaking to the media during a tour of the St. Vincent Center in Indianapolis. The center is a five-story, state-of-the-art practice facility for the Pacers. Darron Cummings, AP file
The Pacers under Pritchard have mirrored the Thunder over the past 13-14 years. After narrow losses in the Eastern Conference finals in 2013 and ‘14, the Pacers missed the ‘15 playoffs, but then qualified for the postseason the next five years, before going through a brief rebuild, and then becoming a title contender over the last two seasons.
“You can see Kevin’s stamp on this team by how they play,” Phillips said. “They’re like Kevin was as a player — unselfish, not caring who scores and gets the accolades. The Pacers and the Thunder are a lot alike.”
In 1988, Pritchard helped an underdog Kansas team break the hearts of basketball fans in Oklahoma as the Jayhawks upset the Sooners in the NCAA title game. Thirty-seven years later at a higher level, his underdog Pacers team is looking for a similar result against the Thunder.
barry.lewis@tulsaworld.com
0 Comments
Get in the game with our Prep Sports Newsletter
Sent weekly directly to your inbox!