Utah Jazz: Disaster of a pick

The year was 1979, and it was the last in which the Jazz — who'll do the same Thursday night — selected 20th overall in the NBA Draft.

That's perhaps a good thing, too, based on how things went then.

Larry Knight, after all, never did play in the NBA.

Not one regular-season game. Not one quarter. Not even a minute.

In fact, he never made it past the preseason.

"He was a nice kid," said Tom Nissalke, who at the time had just been hired to replace Elgin Baylor as head coach of the Jazz.

"He was a so-called defensive specialist, which, translated, meant he couldn't score, I mean, he couldn't shoot the ball at all. It was just a bad pick."

Frank Layden, the Jazz's newly hired general manager that season, made it 30 years ago this Thursday.

And for good reason, Layden suggested: The forward from the Loyola University Chicago was a rebounding machine in college.

"A very nice college player," said Chicago attorney and former NBA agent George Andrews, who watched Knight play at Loyola. "He was a physical guy, a power forward, a double-double guy and didn't get a lot of attention in Chicago his senior year because that was the year Mark Aguirre was a freshman at DePaul.

"He (Knight) was more of a rebounder than a scorer," added Andrews, whose client list included Magic Johnson, Isiah Thomas and former Jazz point guard Rickey Green. "He was physical, but not very athletic."

In December, Knight was one of 11 honored at Loyola for being named to its 1970s All-Decade Team.

As a senior at Loyola he pulled down a whopping 14.3 rebounds per game.

Knight — who couldn't be reached for this story, and who couldn't even be located by Loyola officials for the All-Decade celebration — also averaged 21.5 points in that final season for the Ramblers, which ended with a 37-point, 23-board effort in a win over DePaul.

"Good kid. I thought his credentials were good," Layden said. "He was a terrific college rebounder."

The Jazz were without their own No. 1 overall selection at the time, because it had been shipped to Los Angeles as part of a 1976 compensation package for the signing of Gail Goodrich — allowing the Lakers to land Johnson.

But they did have the No. 20 choice, acquired the previous January as part of a trade that sent forward Truck Robinson to Phoenix.

Using it on Knight was a seemingly sensible call for Layden — even though the next two picks were used, respectively, by New York on Sly Williams, who played 305 NBA games, and by Phoenix on Kyle Macy, who would log 551.

"He (Knight) was a hard worker, a real good college player and a real banger," Layden said.

"But he couldn't cut it with us."

And that, frankly, surprised the retired Jazz coach.