Utah Jazz: Livingston takes first step in new career path

Back in the day, 15 years ago this summer, Randy Livingston was all that.

And more.

Much, much more.

"(Jazz general manager) Kevin (O'Connor) said he may have been one of the top two or three players he ever saw play in high school," Jazz coach Jerry Sloan recalled. "He would have been a heck of (an NBA) player."

"Randy Livingston was a great player going into college. Not a good player — a great player," O'Connor added. "I mean, he was (among) the Jason Kidds of the world back then. He was everything a point guard could be, with size, good speed, great mind, (ability to get) the ball anywhere on the court."

Then his knee blew up.

Twice.

First time it happened, the guard tore his anterior cruciate ligament during a July basketball-camp pickup game, even before he took part in his first practice for Louisiana State University, which had to fend off the likes of Duke and North Carolina to keep the New Orleans prep phenom from straying too far from home.

Flash forward.

Kidd is preparing to lead Team USA into the Olympic Games for a second time in his career, one which — before it's done, having come full circle from Dallas to Phoenix and New Jersey and back to Dallas again — will have earned him well in excess of $150 million.

Livingston's tale is that of someone scratching and clawing to hang on, occasional NBA stints scattered among months and months in the minors and nightmarish trips overseas.

It's also one that also finally has come to a close, with the easy-to-like Livingston — whose 12-year pro career includes a short NBA stay in Utah — now observing and assisting the Jazz's Rocky Mountain Revue summer league team as he readies himself for a new career.

"Eventually I want to be a head coach in the NBA," he said during a break this week at the Revue, whose six-day run concludes tonight at Salt Lake Community College. "But I know you have to crawl before you walk. So this is just the first step for me.

"I'm prepared," Livingston added, "to go whatever route it takes to become a head coach."

And it doesn't matter how rocky that road may be, how many obstacles may be in the way. Because if there's one path Livingston knows all too well, it is that which requires overcoming adversity no one should be forced to face.

Prep phenom

The year was 1993, and Livingston was on top of his high school world.

He shared Parade magazine's high school All-America Player of the Year honors with now-Detroit Pistons starter Rasheed Wallace.

One year earlier, as a junior, he had shared the same award with Kidd.