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Message: [QUOTE="SWC75, post: 1403502, member: 289"] Watching tonight’s second game Of the NBA finals, it occurred to me that with all their Injuries, this could have been a game for Dion Waiters to shine. But he’d been traded away. It made me wonder how many former SU basketball players had played in the NBA finals. Using the Media Guide, (“Orange in the NBA”), and Pro Basketball reference.com, I came up with this list: Billy Gabor was on the 1955 Syracuse Nationals but retired early in the season. Dennis DuVal played 5 minutes for the Washington Bullets, who got swept by the Warriors in the 1975 finals. He scored 2 points, had 1rebound and 1 assists, missing two shots. This all came in Game 3, a 101-109 loss. Fred Saunders was on the 1975-76 Suns but didn’t play in the final series. Marty Byrnes played 1 minute for the Lakers in the 1980 finals again the 76ers. He had no other stats. He played this minute in Game 6, the last game of the series a 123-107 win. Derrick Coleman was on the 2005 Pistons, who lost to the Spurs in the finals but Derrick had retired by then. [MEDIA=youtube]gBzJGckMYO4[/MEDIA] Former Syracuse players in the Super Bowl, (from the SU Media Guide). The year is the year of the season whose championship was being decided, (thus the 2001 Super Bowl is the one where the Patriots beat the Rams in January, 2002). This is players, not coaches. John Mackey 1968, 1970 Larry Csonka 1972, 1973 Ken Clarke 1980 Keith Moody 1980 Art Monk 1983, 1987, 1991, (he was injured in 1982) Mike Charles 1984 Joe Morris 1986 Pat Kelly 1989 Daryl Johnston 1992, 1993, 1995 Kevin Mitchell 1994 Dave Wohlbaugh 1996 Sir Mawn Wilson 1998 Melvin Tuten 1998 John Flannery 1999 Roland Williams 1999, 2002 Qadry Ismael 2000 (They list Quinton Spotswood as being in the 2001 Super Bowl with the Giants but they werren’t in that Super Bowl and neither was Quinton) Tebucky Jones 2001 Donovan McNabb 2004 Dwight Freeney 2006, 2010 Marvin Harrison 2006 Ryan LaCasse 2006 James Mungro 2006 Josh Thomas 2006 David Tyree 2007 (They list Stan Walters has being in the 2008 Super Bowl with the Cincinnati Bengals but neither 60 year old Stan or the Bengals were in that one) Arthur Jones 2012 Jamel McClain 2012 That’s 26 guys who played in 34 Super Bowls, (26 different games) between them. I realize there are many more positions in football and so a greater opportunity for a player from a certain school to play in the Super Bowl than the NBA Finals. But with the degree of success we’ve had in basketball vs. football in the Super Bowl Era, it’s shocking that we’ve never had a single player who was a significant guy for a team that made the NBA Finals. Even our best players, like Dave Bing and Carmelo Anthony, wind up big fish in small ponds. When will we have a big fish in the big pond? [/QUOTE]

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