Congrats to Josh Powell – NBA World Champion

08-09 Basketball Alums25

With the Los Angeles Lakers winning the NBA title over the Orlando Magic, former NC State forward Josh Powell has his first NBA championship ring.

After playing two seasons for the Wolfpack in 2001-02 and 2002-03, Powell played two seasons overseas in Russia and Italy before making to the NBA. You can click here for a more detailed entry on Powell’s departure from west Raleigh. He spent the 2005-06 season with the Dallas Mavericks, who made it to the NBA Finals before losing to the Miami Heat. After spending the next two seasons with the Indiana Pacers, Golden St Warriors and Los Angeles Clippers, Powell signed with the Lakers and played 60 games, starting 1, and averaged 4.2 points and 2.9 rebounds a game. In the playoffs, Powell played in 14 games, averaging 2.1 points and 1.2 rebounds.

If my research is correct, Josh Powell is the 4th former Wolfpack player to win an NBA championship ring.

Chucky Brown played on the 1995 Houston Rockets championship team, averaging 4.5 points and 3.1 rebounds in 21 playoff games.
chucky_brown

Chuck Nevitt played on the 1985 LA Lakers championship team, averaging 1.4 points and blocking 6 shots in 7 playoff games. Nevitt also played 4 regular season games for the 1991-92 Chicago Bulls team that won the title (I don’t know if he got a ring from the team, although I doubt it).
chuck-nevitt

John Richter (#16) played on the 1960 Boston Celtics championship team, averaging 4.4 points and 3.6 rebounds in 8 playoff games.
celtics_59_60

Congrats to Josh Powell, NBA World Champ!
APTOPIX NBA Finals Lakers Basketball

About WV Wolf

Graduated from NCSU in 1996 with a degree in statistics. Born and inbred in West "By God" Virginia and now live in Raleigh where I spend my time watching the Wolfpack, the Mountaineers and the Carolina Hurricanes as well as making bar graphs for SFN. I'm @wvncsu on the Twitter machine.

08-09 Basketball Alums

25 Responses to Congrats to Josh Powell – NBA World Champion

  1. kyjelly 06/15/2009 at 7:35 AM #

    Wow congrats ! The legacy continues.

  2. Dogbreath 06/15/2009 at 8:04 AM #

    Some legacy. 4 former players have won rings, and the biggest contribution was 4.5 ppg and 3.1 rpg.

    Nevertheless, congratulations to Josh Powell. If Hodge wasn’t such a ballhog, we may have enjoyed his services for a 3rd year and actually won something.

  3. Wulfpack 06/15/2009 at 8:23 AM #

    Congrats to Powell and the LA Lakers! It appears that he and Kobe are close. What an experience for him to play for arguably the greatest coach and with a HOF like Kobe. Hopefully, his role will grow as the team moves forward.

  4. 61Packer 06/15/2009 at 9:46 AM #

    Phil Jackson is arguably the greatest NBA coach? Jackson is one of the NBA’s best, yes, but there’s no argument whatsoever in my mind when it comes to who’s the NBA’s greatest coach of all time- Red Auerbach.

  5. Wulfpack 06/15/2009 at 10:08 AM #

    I’d put Phil ahead of Red. Numbers don’t lie, and he’s had to do it in the era of free agency. He’s done it with not one, but two organizations and all sorts of different personalities.

  6. howlie 06/15/2009 at 10:22 AM #

    For some people, it’s as though they were born on third base, and get to score from someone else’s bloop single [to use the wrong sports analogy].

    Which is all to say–first, congratulations, and second–I hope Josh knows how incredibly fortunate he is, given what COULD have happened. A lot more talented and ‘dues-paid’ players have ended up in dead-end franchises and have not had their hard work pay off. The Pack Nation is happy for Josh (but I really, really, really hate the Lakers).

  7. Alpha Wolf 06/15/2009 at 10:34 AM #

    ^ Well, I am no Yankees fan, but I do root for Andrew Brackman to have a great career up there.

    Rooting for Josh Powell is the same thing.

  8. packalum44 06/15/2009 at 10:40 AM #

    JJ Hickson might be the next one to win.

  9. kyjelly 06/15/2009 at 10:56 AM #

    and JJ will also contribute as much as the rest!

  10. Greywolf 06/15/2009 at 11:00 AM #

    I wonder why Richter didn’t get a ring? Auerbach too cheap? I agree that Auerbach had a huge advantage over Jackson and other coaches who coach or coached in the modern era. Not only free agency, but player attitudes were different in those days. Not many Ron Artests for Auerback to deal with. Jackson my be the better coach, but no one was even on the scale with Auerbach in his day.

    I was working in the Boston Branch of Columbia Record Distributors in the early 60’s and some of the Celtics would come in to pick up LPs the branch manager would trade for tickets. I was scared nearly to death I’d faint being so close to those guys — some of the biggest names in pro basketball.

    Later working for the America’s largest rack-jobber of phonograph records, I met and shook hands with Wilt Chamberlain – the biggest effing hands I had ever saw, before or since. Truly unbelievable. Not even my parents believed me when I told them I bought more records (for resale) than anybody in North America. What a job for a young guy – buying rock and roll for a living. 😉

    Stop here, the rest is just me going down memory lane. I put the courses I took in Recreation and Park Administration to good use. Those psych courses dealing with attention spans helped formulate some of my theories that helped predict lengths of buying cycles for young teens. The math courses made it possible to devise formulas for buying and shipping 45’s. LP cycles were long enough that inventory movement could be used but 45’s had too short a life cycle to use that safer but too late to be of value method. I missed badly on Tony Bennett’s “I left my heart in San Francisco.” Should have known it was an adult niche, not subject to teenie bopper’s whims.

    Predicting even close to accurate original shipments was a real crap shoot. The Beatles was virgin territory for buying and re-supplying the racks. blah, blah, blah.

  11. backinpack 06/15/2009 at 11:10 AM #

    With fans like some of you, who needs enemies!

    Who other than He-who-should-not-be-named-and-grew-up-a-State-fan, Tim Duncan and James Worthy who were significant contributors to their team’s NBA championship from any of the Big 4 schools? I’m asking seriously after thinking about this for about 90 seconds.

    I think Duke only has 1 championship player (Danny Ferry) and he didn’t even win one until he played with Duncan in San Antonio.

  12. Wulfpack 06/15/2009 at 11:12 AM #

    Rasheed Wallace.

  13. backinpack 06/15/2009 at 11:40 AM #

    Forgot about ‘Sheed.

  14. Wulfpack 06/15/2009 at 11:45 AM #

    Rick Fox with LA.

  15. WV Wolf 06/15/2009 at 12:03 PM #

    Just looking at players who were on the playoff roster from the other Big 4 schools I had found:

    Duke:
    Danny Ferry (2003 Spurs)
    Jeff Mullins (1975 Warriors)

    Wake:
    Tim Duncan (1999, 2003, 2005, 2007 Spurs)
    Dickie Hemric (1957 Celtics)

    Carolina:
    Pete Chilcutt (1995 Rockets)
    Billy Cunningham (1967 76ers)
    Rick Fox (2000, 2001, 2002 Lakers)
    Bobby Jones (1983 76ers)
    Michael Jordan (1991, 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 1998 Bulls)
    Mitch Kupchak (1978 Bullets, 1985 Lakers)
    Bob McAdoo (1982, 1985 Lakers)
    Charlie Scott (1976 Celtics)
    Kenny Smith (1994, 1995 Rockets)
    Rasheed Wallace (2004 Pistons)
    Scott Williams (1991, 1992, 1993 Bulls)
    James Worthy (1985, 1987, 1988 Lakers)

  16. nycfan 06/15/2009 at 12:31 PM #

    ^I think Chilcutt got 2 rings with the Rockets and Kupchak won 2 titles with the Lakers (as a player; as GM he just won one, plus Cunningham has one as a coach, as does Larry Brown). Also, Tommy LaGarde played for the ’79 Sonics team that won an NBA title.

  17. WV Wolf 06/15/2009 at 12:52 PM #

    Chilcutt was not on the 94 Rockets team.

    Like I noted, those are just guys who were on the playoff roster that year. It does not include guys who were hurt or left off the playoff roster and may or may not have gotten a ring.

  18. GAWolf 06/15/2009 at 2:21 PM #

    Congrats to Josh. I always thought he got a bad wrap from the Herb supporters who trashed him just to satisfy their urge to support Herb at all costs. In my opinion… and maybe it’s just my opinion but it is based on some personal information relayed from someone very close to Josh… he made the decision to go pro knowing he would have to go through some developmental years in Europe before having a legitimate chance at the NBA. Theoretically, two more years in college playing the weave and heave would not have prepared him as well for the League as a couple of years banging in the paint over seas. Regardless of whether you agree with that philosophy or not, it’s not completely without merit by any measure. And if nothing else, the proof is in the puddin’… or in this case the ring. Even if he becomes a 4 min a game journeyman, he’s a smart enough kid to make wise use of that kind of money to live a long, happy, wealthy life.

    Congrats, again, to Josh!

  19. backinpack 06/15/2009 at 3:35 PM #

    I don’t think Jeff Mullins got a ring either. I seem to remember quite a fuss about Ferry being the first Dukie to get a ring and how amazing it was that it was so long after he left Durham.

  20. WV Wolf 06/15/2009 at 3:49 PM #

    Considering Jeff Mullins played in all 17 playoff games for the 1975 Golden St Warriors championship team, I certainly hope he got a ring.

  21. Thinkpack17 06/15/2009 at 4:59 PM #

    “With fans like some of you, who needs enemies!”

    Be careful questioning “fandom”. I really don’t understand the rules around here, but I definately know this is one they don’t like.

  22. backinpack 06/15/2009 at 7:17 PM #

    “Considering Jeff Mullins played in all 17 playoff games for the 1975 Golden St Warriors championship team, I certainly hope he got a ring.”
    Then maybe the big deal about Ferry was that he was the first ‘Coach-K’ player to win a title. I just remember that ESPN (and probably Stuart Scott)seemed to make a big deal out of it when Ferry was on that Spurs team.

    While I’m not going to argue that NC State basketball players have played significant roles on NBA Championship teams, there are plenty of programs that don’t have many more — especially ones who have a ‘much better tradition’ over the last 20 years than we do.

  23. NCMike 06/16/2009 at 8:42 AM #

    “I think Chilcutt got 2 rings with the Rockets and Kupchak won 2 titles with the Lakers (as a player; as GM he just won one, plus Cunningham has one as a coach, as does Larry Brown).”

    Actually Kupchak as a player won one with Washington in 1978, and one with the Lakers in 1985. He also won 3 as the GM with the Lakers (5 total in management there) including this year and was responsible for Josh Powell’s acquisition (albeit primarily for salary cap room).

    http://hoopedia.nba.com/index.php?title=Mitch_Kupchak

  24. elvislives 06/16/2009 at 2:41 PM #

    According to Wikipedia, Vinny Del Negro won the Italian championship in 1992 with Benetton Treviso, averaging over 25 points per game that season. Represent.

  25. RabidWolf 06/16/2009 at 4:13 PM #

    I had no idea he had this kind of range…HWSNBN should have let him shoot AND gotten him the ball down low.

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