The four ex-Hogs who won NBA championships:

Corliss Williamson
Joe Kleine
Scott Hastings
Darrell Walker

Oh, now I see you were joking about the prize. How about dinner at the Oyster Bar instead?

Ding, ding, ding. We have a winner!

Bonus points: what year did they win them and for what teams?

I don’t recall the years, but Hastings and Williamson were with the Detroit Pistons and Kleine and Walker were with the Chicago Bulls.

So how about beer with that dinner?

I forgot to mention that it is too bad New Orleans got knocked out of the playoffs. Walker could have been the first ex-Razorback to win NBA championships as both a player and a coach.

Whit – beer, dinner and dessert it is, courtesy of the Expats. I think there’s a hold on our corporate card, though, so you might want to have some cash on hand when you enter.

It’s sad that I know all this, but Walker was the 12th man on the 1993 Bulls, when Chicago three-peated for the first time, and Kleine was the 12th man on the 1998 Bulls, when they completed their second three-peat. Jerry Krause wisely realized that to win three in a row, he needed a washed-up, Sutton-era Razorback at the end of the bench.

Hastings was the 12th man (sensing a pattern here?) on the 1990 Pistons. Corliss was on the 2004 Detroit squad. He was definitely more than a 12th man, but still a role player.

John was (is??) a Pistons fan, so he might wanna chime in on Scott and Corliss.

I actually don’t remember much about Scott Hastings on the 1990 Pistons, but you’re right that Corliss played a fairly significant role one the 2004 Pistons (he was 6th Man of the Year – the NBA’s version of a backhanded compliment – a couple of years earlier). I might do some more research on that and save the rest of my thoughts for a future post…a good topic to help us get through the upcoming slow season.

-John