Missouri has gotten off to a great start this year (1 of 8 teams in the nation who are 4-0), which reminds us of the glory days of Tiger basketball when they won 4 straight Big 8 regular season titles under Coach Norm Stewart from 1980-1983. 1 of the stars of those teams was Steve Stipanovich: 1980 Big 8 Newcomer of the Year, a #2 seed in the 1982 NCAA tourney, and 1st-team All American in 1983. He was drafted 2nd overall by Indiana in the summer of 1983 and was named to the NBA All-Rookie Team in 1984. HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel got to chat with Steve about his NBA career and his athletic family. Today is Steve’s 62nd birthday so let us be the 1st to wish him a happy 1!
At De Smet Jesuit High School you won back-to-back Missouri Class 4A state titles as part of a 60-game winning streak: what did it mean to you to win a pair of titles, and did it just reach a point where your fans expected you to win every time that you stepped onto the court? We had a very good team but were not head and shoulders above everyone else. We had a legendary coach (Rich Grawer) who helped us win a lot of close games. We also had some decent athletes: our power forward from my senior year later played college football, another guy played college baseball, and 1 played college golf.
You played for College Basketball Hall of Fame coach Norm Stewart at Missouri: what made him such a great coach, and what was the most important thing that you ever learned from him? He was a great teacher of the fundamentals: he kept things simple but taught us the basics. He was tough and pushed us very hard to learn how the game should be played.
As a freshman you were named Big 8 Newcomer of the Year: how were you able to make such a smooth transition from high school to college? I was highly recruited out of high school but it was not that smooth: I had some ups and downs. I still needed a lot of work like most big men do but I was willing to work hard and had some great coaches.
In the 1980 NCAA tourney you scored 4 PTS but missed the 2nd half of a 10-PT win over San Jose State due to hyperventilation: were you just too excited after making it to the postseason? No: I think I was just sick with the flu.
In the 1983 Big 8 tourney title game Leroy Combs had 34 PTS/11 REB and made a scoop shot past you at the end of the 1st OT in a 1-PT 2-OT win by Oklahoma State: where does that rank among the most devastating losses of your career? It was a big game against a good team…but was not anywhere close to the most devastating because we were going to make the NCAA tourney anyway. We just woke up the next day and started preparing for the tourney.
You finished your career as both an All-American/Academic All-American: how were you able to balance your work on the court with your work in the classroom? It was very difficult: people do not realize how hard playing a D-1 sport is. You go to practice, eat, and do homework. It forces you to be in a strict routine so you do not have a normal college experience, but the school provided a lot of help/guidance so we could maintain our grades. It raises the baseline very high because you are forced to do so much on a daily basis. When you get into the real world after graduation you know how to work hard, sacrifice, and be part of a team.
You were selected 2nd overall by Indiana in the 1983 NBA draft (1 spot behind Ralph Sampson): did you see that as a validation of your college career, or the realization of a lifelong dream of reaching the NBA, or other? When you are 7’ tall you have a big advantage because teams back then were built around centers. As a little kid growing up in St. Louis all I did was play/watch sports: all of the boys I knew wanted to become pro athletes. It was a stressful time because I was going into a difficult world but lifelong dreams can come true. It gave me a great amount of satisfaction to be among the few pro basketball players in the world.
You only missed 7 games during your 1st 5 years in the pros but due to a degenerative knee condition you had to retire in 1988 with career averages of 13.2 PPG/7.8 RPG: how satisfied are you with your career, and how frustrating was it to not be able to go out on your own terms? It was very frustrating because everyone wants to play as long as they can. I was just starting to come into my own when the Pacers drafted Rik Smits in 1988, which would have allowed me to move to my more natural position of PF. My knee was still hurting at the start of year #6 so I sat out for 2 years and had several knee operations. It was disappointing to not reach my goal of getting 10 years in the league but I was still thankful to play 5 years. If I had gotten hurt in college then it might have been zero years!
Your father Sam played college basketball, your brother Ted was a state shot put champ in high school, and your kids/nephews/nieces play a bunch of different sports: who is the best athlete in the family? I think Ted was: he was heavily recruited out of high school to play football so coaches like Barry Switzer/Tom Osborne were around our house all of the time. He played a little at Colorado and eventually decided that he did not want to do it anymore. I was very coordinated for my size but some of my brother Mike’s kids also played D-1 sports. We are a big sports family so we gravitated toward that as kids.
You eventually became the owner/operator of a coal mine: how did you get into the business, and how do you like it? I have always been involved with heavy equipment. I buy/sell a lot of industrial equipment…and when you own a coal mine it is all about equipment! Power utility companies are my niche.