Hoops Rarity: Indiana All-Star Teammates Playing in Same NBA Finals For First Time
The 2021 NBA Finals begin on Tuesday night, and when the Phoenix Suns and Milwaukee Bucks get together, each with have a former member of the 2007 Indiana All-Star team on their roster.
E'Twaun Moore and Jeff Teague are both backup guards who are still making a good living in the NBA. Moore, who played high school basketball at East Chicago Central and college ball at Purdue, plays for the Suns. Teague, who played at Pike High School in Indianapolis and Wake Forest in college, plays for the Bucks.
Despite the enormous amount of talent that's on an Indiana high school All-Star roster every year, this is an incredible rarity. It has never happened before in the NBA Finals.
Not once.
E'Twaun Moore (left) and Jeff Teague, both former members of the 2007 Indiana All-Star team, have squared off many times in the NBA. They'll do it again this week in the NBA Finals. (USA TODAY Sports)
Moore and Teague are the first Indiana All-Star teammates to meet in the NBA Finals in the same season. There have been other All-Star teammates who have played in the Finals, but not in the same year.
Obviously, it's a very small group of standouts that make Indiana's All-Star team every year, usually a dozen or so at the most. It's even harder to make it to the NBA, let alone play in the NBA Finals. In reviewing NBA Finals rosters for the past 50 years, there's very little overlap between Indiana All-Stars and NBA finalists.
Moore won at state championship at East Chicago Central in 2007, but it was Eric Gordon who won Mr. Basketball that year. Moore had a great career at Purdue and now has played in the NBA for 10 seasons, with five different teams. He's a backup guard for the Suns, and he's played in seven postseason games so far this year. He's averaging 6.6 minutes per game, and 2.4 points.
Teague played at Pike and then had a very good three-year college career at Wake Forest. He's in his 12th NBA season, and has also played for five teams. This is his first NBA Finals appearances as well. Teague has played in 10 of the Bucks' 17 preseason games, and is averaging 6.4 minutes of playing time and 2.3 points.
George Hill (Broad Ripple) and Courtney Lee (Pike) were All-Star teammates in 2004, and they've both played in the NBA Finals, but not in the same year. Hill played in the 2018 Finals with the Cleveland Cavaliers and Lee played in 2009 for the Orlando Magic.
They're the only two All-Stars who have played in the NBA Finals since 2005, when Glenn Robinson (Gary Roosevelt) played for the San Antonio Spurs. There was a nine-year gap prior to that, going all the way back to Shawn Kemp (Concord) in the 1996 Finals with the Seattle Sonics.
A pair of Indiana All-Stars – Larry Bird (Springs Valley) and Jerry Sichting (Martinsville) played together on the Boston Celtics' NBA Finals teams in 1986 and 1987, but they were on different Indiana All-Star squads by a year, Bird in 1974 and Sichting a year later in 1975.
George McGinnis (Indianapolis Washington) played in the 1977 NBA Finals for the Philadelphia 76ers. Steve Downing, his high school teammate and fellow Indiana All-Star in 1969, also played in a final. He was with the Boston Celtics when they beat the Milwaukee Bucks in 1974.
That '74 championship series will be discussed a lot this week because it's the last time the Bucks have been in the NBA Finals. They won it all in 1971, their only title, but haven't been back since losing in 1974.
There were multiple Indiana All-Stars in 1974, with Downing playing for the Celtics and Oscar Robertson (Indiana All-Star, 1956) playing for the Bucks. It really should have been the only NBA Finals with three Indiana All-Stars. Jon McGlocklin, who had an excellent college career at Indiana from 1962-65, was a standout player on the Bucks, too.
But McGlocklin, a star at Franklin High School in 1961, wasn't selected for the All-Star team in one of the bigger snubs in All-Star history.
There's one more Indiana connection between the Bucks and Suns. They both came into the league together in 1968, and their first player selections were former Hoosiers, Dick Van Arsdale for the Suns and McGlocklin for the Bucks.
That 2007 All-Star team was loaded with talent. Moore and Teague are still playing at a high level in the NBA, of course, as is Gordon, who just finished his 13th NBA season. And several others had great college performances and played professionally for a long time.
Here's the complete list of 2007 All-Stars:
The 2007 Indiana All-Star team
- ERIC GORDON: A 6-foot-4 guard from North Central High School in Indianapolis, he was named Indiana Mr. Basketball that year. Gordon played one season at Indiana, and has been in the NBA ever since as one of the league's most prolific three-point shooters. He's currently on the Houston Rockets' rostre.
- E'TWAUN MOORE: A 6-foot-3 guard from East Chicago Central. He had an outstanding four-year career at Purdue, and has played in the NBA ever since. He is playing in the NBA Finals with the Phoenix Suns now, his first-ever appearance in the final round.
- JEFF TEAGUE: A 6-foot-1 guard from Pike High School in Indianapolis, he played three college seasons and Wake Forest, and has played for five teams in the NBA, most recently the Milwaukee Bucks. He was an NBA All-Star in 2015, and is playing in the finals with the Bucks.
- JaJUAN JOHNSON: A 6-foot-10 center from Franklin Central High School, Johnson was a teammate with Moore at Purdue and played four years for the Boilermakers. He was the first-round pick of the New Jersey Nets (No. 27 overall) in the 2011 NBA Draft. He has spent most of his professional career overseas, and most recently played for Bayern Munich in Germany.
- ROBBIE HUMMEL: A 6-foot-8 forward from Valparaiso High School, Hummel had a successful yet injury-riddled five-year career at Purdue along with Moore and Johnson. Hummel spent two seasons in the NBA with the Minnesota Timberwolves, and he spent several seasons overseas. He won a gold medal playing for the U.S. in the 3-on-3 world championships, and is now a popular basketball analyst on the Big Ten Network, and others.
- SCOTT MARTIN: Also a 6-foot-8 forward from Valparaiso, Scott Martin played parts of six seasons and Notre Dame, and then played professionally in England and the Czech Republic for five years. Martin is currently coaching at Notre Dame.
MATT HOWARD: A 6-foot-7 center from Connersville High School, Howard had a brilliant college career at Butler, playing in two straight NCAA Tournament championship games. Howard played four seasons at Butler through 2011, and has been playing professionally overseas ever since, most recently in Israel. - ZACH HAHN: A 6-foot-1 guard from New Castle High School, Hahn played on those Butler Final Four teams with Howard, and has been a high school basketball coach at Center Grove for six years. He coached current Indiana star Trayce Jackson-Davis at Center Grove, where he earned the school's first Mr. Basketball award.
- BEN BOTTS: A 6-foot guard from Muncie Central High School who played in two state championship games in high school, Botts played collegiately at Fort Wayne and later coached there, where he was part of a staff that beat Indiana twice, once as the No. 3 team in the country. He is currently an assistant coach at Ball State.
- MIKE BIZOUKAS: A 6-foot-1 guard from Munster High School, he played four years at DePaul, and his final year at Missouri State. He played professionally in Europe for a short time.
- BRYAN BOUCHIE: A 6-foot-10 center from Washington High School, he played at Valparaiso University and then at Evansville. Bryan passed away in 2018. His father, Steve Bouchie, was Mr. Basketball in 1979 and played basketball at Indiana, where he was part of the Hoosiers' 1981 national championship team.
- ESHAUNTE JONES: A 6-foot-4 guard from Fort Wayne North, Jones originally committed to Indiana, but instead went to prep school and later played collegiately at Nebraska and Northern Kentucky. He was a first-team all-conference player in the Atlantic Sun for Northern Kentucky.
- NATE BLANK: A 6-foot-5 forward from Terre Haute North, Blank was the Freshman of the Year in the Atlantic Sun Conference, playing for Gardner-Webb. He played two years there, and then finished his college career by playing two years at the University of Indianapolis.
- CLINT HOPF: A 6-foot-10 center from Forest Park, Hopf played four seasons at the University of Evansville, and won two Class 2A state titles at Forest Park. He might have won a third if he hadn't torn his ACL late in his senior season. It also prevented him from playing in the 2007 All-Star games.
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