Average Joe of the week: The man in the middle Luc Longley

And this week’s lovable Average Joe is…..the man in the middle…..Luc Longley

What do you get when an Australian olympian and an Equestrian star have relations and procreate? Of course you get a 3 time NBA champion who was involved in a four way NBA trade involving 1/3 of the league and a free sprit whose main objective in the NBA was to be the next Bill Walton, primarily off the basketball court.

Lucien James Longley was actually the first Australian to make it to the NBA, paving the way for fellow evolved cave man Andrew Bogut.  Some may argue that it was playing with Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Toni Kukoc and Dennis Rodman that limited him to such an average career stat line. But it was clearly the ginger big man’s feathery touch like Detlef Schrempf that held down his potential to have more robust numbers than his career line of 7.2 ppg and 4.9 rpg over 10 seasons.  On court fights with Chris Webber and Alonzo Mourning were unfortunately not counted as NBA stats back then.

The real highlight of his career was not the three NBA rings he won in Chicago, but came just shy of the 2000-2001 season when he was involved in a four way trade that include most of the league, former stars who should have been wearing a robe and slippers while sipping Ensure, and some players who would ride the pine in the NBA D-League.The big names, if you could call them that by then, would include Glen Rice, Vernon “Mad Max” Maxwell, Horace Grant, Chuck Person, and Patrick Ewing.  That would be like an NFL team announcing a trade tomorrow to acquire Drew Bledsoe, Mark Duper, Vance Johnson, Lorenzo White, and Christian Okoye.  The throw-ins include past NBA legends such as Vladimir Stepania, Lazaro Borrell, and Emmanuel Davis.  You would argue those guys could not even play on the EA Sports All Stars that play UK every preseason.  But the one name that was the sticking piece was, wait for it…. Chris Dudley.  The amount of players involved in this swap meet was greater than Dudley’s career free throw percentage.  I do not even know that many people in real life.  Forget the rousing pre-game introduction, but remember Luc for him being the headline of this famous deal that amounted to absolutely nothing.

Longley’s off the court accolades are just as impressive.  He was stung twice by scorpions while sifting through his cd collection at home one day.  Jeff Kent breaking his wrist washing his truck thought that was over the top.  Rumor has it that he was stung and shocked when he found out someone stole his Waltzing Matilda cd single.  He also separated his shoulder and missed 18 games when he had some difficulties bodysurfing, which seems more like a hang nail after the former incident.

It is with no shock that the he was elected into both the Australian basketball Hall of Fame and the Sport Australia Hall of fame.  The former New Mexico Lobo who averaged a paltry 19.1 ppg and 9.2 rpg his senior year is currently in his second marriage.  With this resume one would have to assume this average Joe will be on his fourth mistress by the time Joakim Noah hangs up his sneakers.  Well done Luc, Bill Walton is more than proud.

This was written by Tom Hamm, the newest member of the BaconSports writing team. If you think that you can come up with great content like this then hit us up and lets talk. We are always looking for new writers.