Twenty-five years later, Bobby Hurley doesn’t need to be reminded. The Arizona State coach knows the date. Dec. 12, 1993. The night his life forever changed.
“That day is always like the worst for me to go through,” said Hurley, in his fourth season with the Sun Devils. “I’ll know when it’s that day. My wife knows, and she’s very understanding of how I might feel.”
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Hurley had just played the 19th game of his rookie season with the Sacramento Kings, all as a starter. In 19 minutes against the Los Angeles Clippers, he had gone scoreless, but posted seven assists in a 112-102 loss. Back then, Sacramento players generally took two ways home from Arco Arena — traveling the freeway or driving the backroads.
Hurley, then 22, took the backroads. About a mile from the arena, the Sacramento point guard was broadsided at a dark intersection by a local house painter driving a station wagon without its headlights on.
Hurley wasn’t wearing a seatbelt. He was thrown nearly 100 feet from his Toyota 4Runner, landing in a drainage ditch, where teammate Mike Peplowski found him. His injuries were life threatening. Hurley suffered collapsed lungs and broken ribs, as well as a severed trachea, fractured shoulder blade, compression back fracture and several other leg and wrist issues.
The upside: Hurley recovered, worked like crazy and — to the amazement of coaches and teammates — returned to the NBA, rejoining the Kings the following season. The down: He never was the same player, which prompts this question: Had he not gotten hurt, what kind of career would Bobby Hurley have had?
The 1993 NBA Draft in Auburn Hills, Mich., was different from what unfolds today. Teams talked openly of their preferred selections, which is why most of the pre-draft drama centered on whether the Orlando Magic would keep No. 1 pick Chris Webber or trade him to the Golden State Warriors, who were expected to take Anfernee Hardaway at No. 3.
The first six picks went as expected: Michigan’s Webber first (yes, he was traded). Then BYU’s Shawn Bradley to Philadelphia; Hardaway to Golden State (then traded to Orlando); Kentucky’s Jamal Mashburn to Dallas; UNLV’s Isaiah Rider to Minnesota; and Indiana’s Calbert Cheaney to Washington.
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On the clock at No. 7: the Sacramento Kings.
“Sacramento, winners of only 25 games last year, they had a ton of games missed with injured players,” TNT’s Bob Neal told a national audience. “They need some physical presence. They also need a good point guard, and a lot of people, including Sacramento, have said right along without any doubt, without any covering it over: ‘We’re going to take Bobby Hurley.”’
Sacramento also considered Vin Baker of Hartford and Rodney Rogers of Wake Forest, but then-general manager Jerry Reynolds thought the Kings had solid forwards in Wayman Tisdale and Lionel Simmons, even if the latter had shaky knees. To him, Hurley — a two-time national champion at Duke and college basketball’s career assists leader — made the most sense. The Kings had an aging point guard, Spud Webb, but more important they hadn’t made the playoffs in seven seasons. They needed someone who could help change the culture. They needed a winner.
“The struggles in Sacramento, man, were always difficult,” said Mitch Richmond, a Hall of Fame guard who had been traded to the franchise in 1991. “I was there seven years, and each one was a struggle. I wish we could’ve gotten five guys in the draft because we were competing in the West, and the West was so strong back then.”
Since Hurley measured just 6-feet, 164 pounds, the Kings had concerns. Everyone did. But they liked his heart. They liked his vision and how he ran a team. Any questions Reynolds had about Hurley’s pro potential were put to rest the previous summer when Hurley practiced against the Dream Team before the 1992 Olympics. As part of a college select team, the point guard at times had given the pros fits in transition.
“If you watched him at Duke and you said, ‘Well, he’s undersized, can that translate to the NBA?”’ said P.J. Carlesimo, a former NBA and college coach who served as an assistant for the Dream Team. “Well, this was one of the clear opportunities to watch him play not against NBA players, but against arguably some of the best players in the history of the NBA. He played against great players for a week in San Diego, and he more than held his own.”
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Hurley just looked at it as a mindset reset: Here we go again. Time to prove myself. It’s how he motivated himself at every level of his basketball life, how he propelled himself past more athletically gifted guards. He started Sacramento’s opener, playing 24 minutes against the Denver Nuggets. On Nov. 19, Hurley posted his first double-double, 11 points and 11 assists in a loss at Minnesota. Five days later he had 15 and seven in a loss to Seattle, but nothing came easy. Over a five-game December stretch, Hurley averaged just 3.8 points, shooting 8 of 30 from the field.
“He came into the league with a lot of hype behind him, being a Duke Blue Devil and having a lot of success in college, so guys were coming after him,” said Walt Williams, a Maryland product who had battled Hurley in the ACC and played beside him in Sacramento. “He would constantly get picked up full court, guys were challenging him. That happens to just about every rookie, but when you have a lot of clout behind you, it magnifies.”
Still, then-coach Garry St. Jean loved the point guard’s intensity.
“Back in those days, you went to the rack, they put you down,” he said. “Stay out of the paint. You’re not coming in here, young fella, and if you do, we’re going to teach you a lesson. And, you know, Bobby had that look. He bounced right back up, red-faced and ready to go. You had to love that as a coach.”
Late Dec. 12, the news of Hurley’s car accident quickly spread. Richmond — who lived about 35 minutes from Arco Arena — already was home when a team official called. Richmond’s response: “Oh, my God. What?” He had just seen the point guard in the locker room.
“I was calling people, my teammates were calling people, we were trying to figure out what was going on,” Richmond said.
Richmond called backup guard Jim Les — who lived near his neighborhood — and told him he would pick him up on the way to University of California-Davis Medical Center.
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“We didn’t have many details,” Les said, “so as we were heading to the hospital we were kind of hopeful that, you know, hey, there was an accident, Bobby was shaken up, maybe there’s some minor injuries, but (he would be fine).”
It didn’t take long to realize that wasn’t the case. At the hospital, a team official informed Richmond and Les that this wasn’t a minor accident. It was life or death. Doctors weren’t sure Hurley would survive the night.
“Mitch and I were really taken aback,” Les said. “We went there thinking the best and left thinking that if the worst happens, this could be devastating.”
St. Jean phoned Hurley’s parents in Jersey City, New Jersey, and in as calm a voice as he could muster, told them they needed to get on the first flight to Sacramento. By the time the Hurleys arrived, their son had spent eight hours in surgery. The good news: Doctors thought he had a chance of pulling through. Years later, the hospital’s head surgeon told the “Washington Post” that most people with similar injuries wouldn’t have survived.
“I’ll tell you one thing — and I’ll take this to the bank — he was one tough son of a gun,” St. Jean said. “Bobby was just a fighter.”
Amazingly, Hurley returned the next season. In Sacramento’s opener, he posted 11 points and five assists in 23 minutes off the bench against the Phoenix Suns. Even so, Reynolds felt uncomfortable.
“Looking back, I think we made a mistake as a franchise of letting him come back as soon as he wanted to,” the former general manager said. “Because people forget: He went through this in late December — and he tried to play summer league in July. That’s ridiculous.”
Hurley had lost 10 pounds during his recovery, and no matter what he tried he couldn’t gain it back. In addition, his left shoulder still bothered him.
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“He didn’t have the same strength, he didn’t have the same quickness,” Williams said. “He wasn’t a big guy from the beginning, but he was smaller when he came back.”
Added Richmond: “He didn’t look like himself.”
At times, the point guard returned to form. On March 3, 1995, Hurley had 14 points and 17 assists in a loss to the Lakers. Two games later he had eight and 11 in a loss to Utah, but as the season unfolded Hurley’s production — and minutes — decreased. He finished his second season with averages of 4.2 points and 3.3 assists. Coming mostly off the bench, he posted similar numbers the next two years. On Feb. 18, 1998, Sacramento traded Hurley to the Vancouver Grizzlies, who were in their third NBA season. He was waived less than a year later, out of the league before his 27th birthday.
“When my career was winding down, I thought maybe my shoulder would get better and I could get back (to his original form), but it just wasn’t happening,” said Hurley, adding that his left shoulder still bothers him today at age 47, especially during stressful times of the season. “It felt like I was just beating my head against the wall.”
And had Hurley not been hurt that late December night?
Reynolds isn’t saying he would’ve become the next John Stockton. That’s not fair, he said. But historically, some of the game’s top guards needed a year or two to develop. Stockton was that way. So, too, were Gary Payton and Steve Nash. With more time, a healthy Hurley might have made similar strides, Reynolds said, eventually establishing himself as one of the game’s top “six or seven” point guards.
“Honestly, I don’t know that Bobby would’ve been a major star, but he wouldn’t have missed,” Reynolds said. “No doubt, he would’ve had a very good career, a 10- to 12-year career. Could he have been better than Ricky Rubio, for (example)? I have absolutely no doubt.”
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Williams said a lot would’ve depended on the point guard’s jump shot. Over five seasons, Hurley made just 27.2 percent of his 3-point attempts. Improvement there could’ve taken him to a higher level.
“He could see the floor, man,” Williams said. “If you added a consistent jump shot to the pro 3-point line, I think he would’ve been a dangerous player.”
Brian Hill coached Hurley in Vancouver during the point guard’s final season. Over 27 games, Hurley averaged 17 minutes coming off the bench. Looking back, Hill thinks Hurley came along at the wrong time. In the 1990s, the NBA was physical. The rules were different. Defenders could hand-check and limit movement. Today’s game is open and fast-paced with tons of pacing, perfect for Hurley’s talents.
“He would really flourish in today’s game with the five-out or four-out, one-in (sets) and with everybody trying to push the ball as much as possible and shoot 3s, the defense unable to put their hands on you on the perimeter,” Hill said. “In today’s game, Bobby would be an outstanding player.”
St. Jean agrees.
“If I was to crystal ball it and look at what Bobby Hurley could do in today’s game, that brings a smile to my face,” he said. “Because he could really run a break. He had vision on the break. Some guys are just blessed with that feel. He had it being around his dad at a young age and being around Coach K at Duke. He had that feel for the game, that thirst, and now here he is coaching at Arizona State, and he’s doing a terrific job.”
(Photo of Bobby Hurley in January 1995: Andy Hayt/NBAE via Getty Images)
