Utah Jazz: Livingston takes first step in new career path

A product of the rough-and-tumble Callioupe Projects area in New Orleans, Livingston parlayed a scholarship uptown to the renowned and private Newman High School — where he rivaled current Indianapolis Colts star quarterback Peyton Manning for popularity, shared the football field with Manning and owned the basketball court on which Manning spent a couple seasons playing behind him.

Livingston would wind up producing three consecutive Louisiana Class 2A state championships for Newman, making art out of dunks and scoring more than 3,000 points while there.

He contemplated declaring for the NBA Draft — which would have been more exception than the rule for a high school player back then — but ultimately opted otherwise.

Livingston instead headed for LSU, where certainly glory days awaited, and eventually so did the NBA, where there were many millions, tens of millions, maybe more than a hundred million, just like Kidd's, to be made.

But that was before the knee exploded.

After reconstructive surgery, Livingston missed his entire freshman season at LSU with a medical redshirt. He played the next season, averaging 14.0 points over 16 games — before the same right joint failed him again, this time because the kneecap had fractured and a patellar tendon had torn during a game against Arkansas. Then he hurt his back during the 1995-96 season, and enough was enough.

To this day, some still book Livingston in the same chapter of LSU sports lore as the legendary ex-Jazz player "Pistol" Pete Maravich — including EA Sports' 2008 NCAA March Madness video game, which ranked Livingston No. 26 on its top-50 list of the all-time best college basketball players, curiously 15 spots higher than Maravich.

But three knee surgeries later, and with just 29 college games to his credit, Livingston decided to do what he could have done prior to all the pain, before so much disappointment.

He declared for the NBA Draft, banged-up body and all.

"When I left school early ... it didn't matter what the trials were, I was prepared to go through it," Livingston said. "And I gave it my best."

Pro career

Though he might have been a top-10 pick in the 1993 draft, Livingston didn't go until the second round — No. 42 overall — when Houston took him in '96 and signed to a one-year, $250,000 deal.

He played in 64 games as a rookie for the Rockets, the knee holding up for all but seven games. But Houston waived him after that first season, and what would follow proved to be more than a decade's worth of physical ailments, mental anguish and truly trying times.