Arizona Basketball: Top 5 Impressive NBA Seasons for ex-Cats

Wildcats NBA pipeline has brought countless memories for Arizona Basketball fans.

When Lute Olson came to Tucson over 30 years ago, he started a long tradition of helping stock NBA franchises full of talented players. Sean Miller took the baton and has continued this Old Pueblo custom.

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The next time one of your east coast college basketball loving friends comes out west to escape the frigid temperatures, take them down to McKale Center and walk the hallways near the Men’s Basketball offices.

It’s full of pictures and reminders of Arizona Wildcats legends who made the next step in the Association. It also has a pretty nice wall dedicated to Tucson’s favorite Hall of Famer.

When breaking down the top 5 most impressive individual NBA seasons by ex-Cats, the biggest thing considered was the impact that each player had on the league in that particular season.

5. Damon Stoudamire, 1995-96 Toronto Raptors

Toronto Raptors fans were not happy when the team decided to select Damon Stoudamire as the first pick in franchise history in 1995. They had their eye on 1995 Final Four M.O.P. Ed O’Bannon.

Mighty Mouse quickly showed the fans he was worthy to be a top-ten pick. He won the NBA Rookie of the Year Award in 1996 thanks to his 19 points and 9.3 assists per game.

The Raptors struggled in their inaugural season, but thanks to 30 points and 11 assists by Stoudamire, the Raptors gave the Chicago Bulls one of their ten losses during their historic 72 win campaign.

4. Sean Elliott, 1995-96 San Antonio Spurs

The greatest player in Arizona Wildcats history had his best year in the NBA during the same season as Stoudamire’s rookie year.

Sean Elliott reached the All-Star Game for the second time in his career in 1996. In front of the hometown fans, the former Cholla High School standout scored 13 points in the 46th installment of the NBA All-Star Game in San Antonio.

The third overall pick in the 1989 NBA Draft averaged a career-best 20 points a game in the regular season for the Western Conference Midwest Division champs.

David Robinson and Elliott lead the Spurs to the Conference Semifinals before falling in six games to the Utah Jazz.

Elliott would get his ring in 1999 with Steve Kerr as a teammate when the Spurs defeated the Knicks in the Finals.

3. Jason Terry, 2008-09 Dallas Mavericks

What do Bill Walton, James Harden, Kevin McHale and Manu Ginobili all have in common with former Arizona All-American Jason Terry?

They have all won the NBA Sixth Man of the Year Award.

Terry started most of his NBA career until the he became the spark plug off the bench for the Dallas Mavericks during the 2007-08 season, but it was the next season when the league took full notice of what the Jet was accomplishing in Texas.

During his 2008-09 campaign, Terry averaged 19.6 points a game coming off the bench.

He won the sixth man award in a landslide, receiving over 90 percent of the first-place votes.

2. Gilbert Arenas, 2005-06 Washington Wizards

For a three year stretch in the mid-2000’s, Agent Zero took the NBA by storm averaging 27.7 points per game, but his crowning achievement in the Association came in 2005-06.

The three-time NBA All-Star averaged just under 30 points a game that season and was involved in one of the more entertaining playoff series of the decade.

Matched up with LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in the first round of the playoffs, Gilbert Arenas dominated on offense by averaging 34 points a game in the series.

1. Andre Iguodala, 2014-15 Golden State Warriors

When Steve Kerr took over as head coach of the Golden State Warriors last season he had a hard sell for Andre Iguodala when he told him that he was going to come off the bench for the first time in his NBA career.

The strategy worked, and the Warriors found themselves in the Finals for the first time in 40 years. It also helped that Steph Curry and Klay Thompson were in the starting lineup.

Matched up with King James in the Finals, the Warriors found themselves in a 2-1 hole.

Kerr decided to let Iguodala start for the first time all season and the Warriors reeled off three straight with him in the starting lineup.

The Warriors won the title and Iguodala ended up as the NBA Finals MVP after he averaged 16.3 points, four assists, and 5.8 rebounds in the series.

In the Game 6 clincher, he scored 25 points and added five assists and five rebounds.

Next: Top 5 Arizona Wildcats NBA Playoff Moments

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