There used to be a sporting event in Hawaii that was a major proving ground for elite college talent who wanted to show scouts that their skills would translate to the next level and earn them a prime position in the upcoming draft.
However, the event died, gradually losing its relevance as the preferred route to the pros underwent drastic changes, and the pro league withdrew its support, starting its own similar event elsewhere. At the time of his disappearance, Hawaii sports fans largely ignored him. Whatever.
No, good guess, but not the Hula Bowl. All of the above is true about what used to be a must-see for college football stars who wanted to be certified as can’t-miss prospects for success in the NFL.
Today’s topic is the Aloha Classic, one of those annual sporting events that many of us didn’t appreciate enough while we still had it. The NBA pre-draft showcase format for college students only would be ridiculous these days, when attending college is debated as a prerequisite for the highest level of basketball.
But it was certainly legitimate during his 1969-87 run, when careers and fortunes were made and lost in a four-team round-robin tournament that included the top pro prospects for the upcoming NBA Draft, when many, if not Not the majority completed their last year of college eligibility.
More than twice as many NBA scouts and decision makers attended as the 32 players.
Many college superstars who were in their final year, but felt they had nothing to prove, declined the invitation to Hawaii. Georgetown’s Patrick Ewing, taken by the Knicks with the first pick in 1985, is a good example of this.
But a decade earlier, two-time NCAA Player of the Year David Thompson of NC State cemented his No. 1 draft status (in the NBA and its ABA rival) with an MVP performance in the Aloha Classic. “Skywalker” chose the Denver Nuggets of the ABA over the Atlanta Hawks, which didn’t matter in the long run as the leagues merged in 1976.
The Aloha Classic was also where the unsung improved their stock, including some future Hall of Famers.
An undersized UTEP guard named Nate Archibald scored 51 points in one game and 122 in the three-game tournament in 1970. It wasn’t enough to get “Tiny” into the first round, but the Cincinnati Royals took him in the second round. with election number 19.
In his third season, Archibald became the first player to lead the NBA in scoring and assists average. His 34 points per game that year were a record for point guards until James Harden’s 36.1 in 2018-19 (Luka Doncic was close this year with 33.9, and Stephen Curry was seventh with 32.0 in 2020 -twenty-one).
Archibald ended up with the Celtics, where he won his only NBA championship in 1981. That team included another key player and future Hall of Famer who helped his draft at the Aloha Classic: Kevin McHale.
McHale was considered far from a sure thing before he took MVP honors at the 1980 Aloha Classic, averaging 22 points with 11 blocks and 23 rebounds in the three games.
Red Auerbach was among those paying attention, and he performed one of his magic tricks. He somehow pulled off a pre-draft trade in which the Celtics ended up with McHale and veteran center Robert Parish from the Warriors for the No. 1 pick, which left Golden State with Joe Barry Carroll (who, by the way, had skipped the Aloha Classic).
It is one of the most lopsided trades in NBA history.
But, as was the case with the Hula Bowl, the Aloha Classic ultimately became defined more by the players who didn’t play than by those who did.
Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and Isiah Thomas couldn’t anyway, because they turned pro before their senior year. Larry Bird? Auerbach had done something else like Auerbach and secured the rights to Bird before his senior year.
The flip side of that is that in the pre-Internet era, most fans (and many scouts) didn’t know who Joe Dumars, Scottie Pippen and Terry Porter were before they shined at the Aloha Classic, or at least they didn’t know what they could do against other great players. If they had, there would have been upwards of a couple thousand a night at the Blaisdell.
Hawaii’s Bob Nash was the Aloha MVP in 1972 and was selected by the Pistons with the seventh overall pick in the draft a few weeks later. That doesn’t happen if Nash’s last performance before the draft was his 3-for-16 shooting performance in UH’s NCAA Tournament loss to Weber State.
“Shortly after he had an excellent Aloha Classic,” said Red Rocha, in 2001.
Rocha was the coach of Nash’s Fabulous Five and tournament director of the Aloha Classic.
“He knew he had to come so strong. And that is what he did.”
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