In the last few weeks, the NBA has lost a few interesting characters. The particularly untimely passing was of Wayman Tisdale, the former power forward, who had a decent NBA career after a storied college career. I was actually pretty surprised to see so many nice articles about Tisdale, whose pro career was not great. The near consensus of all the stories I saw was that Tisdale was a great and affable guy, a talented musician, and decent pro (and a great collegian). I thought I’d take a look at Tisdale’s career and see if I could find some nuggets of information that weren’t provided to readers yet.
Tisdale at Oklahoma
When it comes right down to it, Tisdale is famous prinarily for his college career. Tisdale came to Oklahoma as a highly sought after recruit and he had one of the great freshman seasons in 1982-83: 24.5 ppg, .580 FG%, 10.3 rpg. Tisdale followed up with with two more good seasons, though not significantly better than his freshman year and he made All-American all three seasons. I don’t personally remember too many specific highlights from Tisdale’s college career. In doing research, the only article on point was a recent article out of the Lawrence Journal World that remembered Tisdale, somewhat unhappily, for helping to cut down the nets in Kansas after Oklahoma’s conference title clinching win in Lawrence. (It should be noted that that author, Chuck Woodling, has taken some hits for lack of sensitivity for bringing up the incident in the aftermath of Tisdale’s passing. My two cents on this side point is that Woodling’s article didn’t really have much vitriol toward Tisdale but it did lack a little in the perspective and sense of proportion departments. I’m not particularly offended by cutting down the nets but I assume that’s a Kansas/Oklahoma thing).
Before leaving college, however, Tisdale ended up playing on the 1984 Olympic team with Bobby Knight and several future legends (Michael Jordan, Ewing). The time with Knight generated quite a few more stories. Tisdale made the team (over Charles Barkley) and shared the power forward slot with Sam Perkins. Tisdale put up 8.6 ppg, 6.4 rpg and the team coasted to gold. On the way, however, Knight always made it fun for observers, making the casual Tisdale something of a whipping boy.
In Steve Deloshn’s and Mark Heisler’s “Bob Knight: The Unauthorized Biography”, the relationship was examined: “Knight liked the effervescent Tisdale, but Wayman had never been asked to play defense, and Knight bore down on him like a tropical storm. In a practice in San Diego, Tisdale took a charge and Knight stopped the drill, got a marker and wrote the date on the floor….[Tisdale said:] ‘He marked the spot, ‘Wayman Tisdale takes first charge,’ something like that. It was hilarious, man, and it really boosted my confidence. Because before then I thought my name was ‘Hey, butthead.'”
Knight, in his own biography, “My Story”, gave his perspective on Tisdale: “[He] was a great kid to have around–a million-dollar smile, full of effort and enthusiasm….Wayman didn’t always share my feelings about the importance of things like blocking out on rebounds, so in practice I would continually point out how much I wanted him to try doing things my way–point it out loudly, sometimes. In one of our games at Los Angeles, it happened again, and I wasn’t happy. The blockout he missed led to a follow-in basket and a foul, three give-away points, and while the teams were lining up for the free-throw, I shouted, ‘Wayman! Get over here!’ Everbody on our bench, probably in the arena, knew Wayman was going to get an earful. But when he got there, he put one of his big bearlike arms around my shoulder, smiled down at me, and said, ‘Yeah, Coach?’ I just looked at him for a second, and finally said: ‘Wayman…you’ve got to block out.’ And I whacked him on the ass and sent him back out. I turned around, sat down, and [assistant coach C.M.] Newton whispered into my ear, ‘Just couldn’t pull the trigger on ol’ Wayman, could you.'”
Returning to Tisdale’s career, in Tisdale’s three years at Oklahoma, the Sooners made the tournament but had only one real nice run. They lost in the second round in 1982-83 and 1983-84 before losing in the Elite Eight to Memphis in 1984-85. At that point, Tisdale declared for the NBA draft and was drafted by the Pacers second overall, after the Knicks took Patrick Ewing.
The Pros
Tisdale came to the Pacers with the hope of being the rock solid power forward to build around. Before he came to Indiana, however, Tisdale had contract problems with management. Wayne Embry negotiated the deal on behalf of the Pacers. He recalled the negotiations in his autobiography “The Inside Game”: “We we walked into the conference room at Ted’s office, we were surprised to be greeted by [agent] Ted [Steinberg] and the entire Tisdale family, along with Paul [Samuels]….I was shocked when Reverend Tisdale, Wayman’s father, told us they were all to participate in the negotiations….I turned to the family and said, ‘Shall we being by reviewing where we are?’ Then Reverend Tisdale spoke. ‘Let us join hands and pray,’ he said, bowing his head. I had never seen anything like this. Believe me, I have no objection to prayer, but I figured the deck was stacked against us when he ended the prayer by saying, ‘Let all go well for Wayman.’….It was one of the calmest negotiations I have ever conducted. I raised my voice only once and was reprimanded by Reverend Tisdale, who said, ‘Now, Wayne, there is no point getting excited, is there?'”
Tisdale was brought in to be the dependable Karl Malone-type power forward that his college numbers suggested he could be (Malone was ironically drafted later in the same draft as Tisdale). Tisdale spent three years in Indiana and was a good scorer and a decent rebounder on a per-minute basis, maxing out at 16.1 ppg, and 7.2 rebs for Indiana. He was not a great defender and did not exhibit the secondary athletic skills (blocks and steals) that indicated a good all around player. Tisdale was considered a good guy but was dogged about staying in shape. Tisdale had a sense of humor about this, and was quoted in the 1988 Pro Basketball Handbook as saying: “I’m forever on a diet but I’ve got to eat to stay alive.”
The Pacers traded him to the Kings in the middle of the 1988-89 season for LaSalle Thompson and Randy Wittman. The trade wasn’t a rejection of Tisdale but it was clear that with young scorers Reggie Miller and Chuck Person, the Pacers needed a more defensive minded power forward. In Sacramento, Tisdale had his best seasons. Tisdale maxed out at 22.3 ppg for the Kings in 1989-90. He had 20.0 ppg in 1990-91 but missed most of the year with a biceps injury. While this was Tisdale’s peak, the per-minute numbers weren’t that far ahead of his work in Indiana, where he averaged 5-7 fewer minutes per game.
When Tisdale returned from injury in 1991-92, his numbers fell to 16.6 ppg. Again, this was not a true indicator of decline in ability as much as it was a reflection of the fact that the Kings had shifted their offense to be geared for newly acquired Mitch Richmond. Tisdale spent the next two years as a 16 ppg man for the Kings. After 1993-94, Tisdale’s contract expired. He was 30 and was still considered a useful player. The Phoenix Suns, built around Charles Barkley and Kevin Johnson, hoped that Tisdale could be a nice piece for their bench and signed him (along with Danny Manning) to get some great depth.
Tisdale received a deal with the Suns. He continued to score and rebound at the same rates as in Sacramento and Indiana but now was down to playing 15-20 mpg and had some of the same defensive and weight issues. In “Breaking the Rules”, Mike Tulumello followed the 1995-96 Suns and summed up Tisdale thusly: “Tisdale’s problems comprised an example of how personal character isn’t always transferable to the sports world. Tisdale, the son of a minister, was universally viewed as a prince of a person. A bright, charming man with other talents–he was a well-regarded bass played who composed jazz tunes, he considered a devoted family man as could be found in the sports world. But on the floor, his considerable ability was perceived internally as far exceeding his desire to excel. His recent saga was the sort that makes sports fans throw up their hands in despair. He had just signed a two-year contract for $7 million, then came into camp in mediocre shape and pulled a muscle almost immediately. He struggled with his weight; at one point he ballooned into the 280s….In addition to all this, because Tisdale had always been slow to react on defense, he needed to be around his career shooting average of 51 percent to have a positive impact.”
By 1996-97, Tisdale was 32 and he had his first poor shooting season of his career (.426% where his previous low was .483%) and his rebounding had also declined from fair to poor. On top of that, he wasn’t healthy and the Suns had morphed into an also-ran. Phoenix severed ties after the season and Tisdale retired at age 33 and concentrated on his family and music career.
In the end, we can see that Tisdale’s size, which was an asset in college, kept him from being a great pro. He was a nice scorer and a competent rebounder. He could not, however, be a regular power forward on a good team because of his inability to defend or block shots. Still, it’s no great disappointment to score 15 ppg as a pro and be a good person to boot. Indeed, pretty much every person who spent time with Wayman considered him to be. It’s only a shame he is gone so young.