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This is Wayback Wednesday, your midweek blast from the past! From retrospectives of basketball games and their interesting features, to republished articles and looking at NBA history through the lens of the virtual hardwood, Wednesdays at the NLSC are for going back in time. This week, I’m saluting former NBA player Gary Grant, who celebrated his 61st birthday yesterday.
One telltale sign of a long-time hardcore NBA fan is the ability to recall some of the most obscure players from decades ago. Obviously it’s easy to remember the all-time greats that younger fans who weren’t even born yet have still heard of, and many of the other prominent players from yesteryear also stick in our minds. However, when you grow up obsessed with hoops – watching games, playing video games, collecting trading cards, reading magazines – you also remember the journeymen, deep bench reserves, and that one player who had a six-game stint with your favourite team!
That brings me to Gary Grant. Although I remember dozens of players from the 90s, I’m not inclined to profile all of them in Wayback Wednesday. To that end, Grant is definitely a special case! In addition to popping up in games I watched and becoming a very familiar face in packs of trading cards, he’s also been involved in some of my fondest basketball gaming memories. He also stuck around for more than a decade, which is no minor feat. It’s time to give Gary Grant his due on the real and virtual hardwood alike, so let’s take a look back…way back…
A 6’3″ point guard, Gary Grant was a standout college player at Michigan, and still holds school records in assists and steals. He was selected 15th overall in 1988 by the Seattle Supersonics, but his draft rights were traded to the Los Angeles Clippers for Michael Cage. He started 48 of the 71 games he played as a rookie, averaging 11.9 ppg and a team-high 7.1 apg. Grant’s 20 assists against the Portland Trail Blazers was the most by any player that year. His second season was cut short by an ankle injury, but through 44 games he averaged 13.1 ppg and 10 apg. Grant also had three 20-assist games, tallying his career-high of 21 against both the Sonics and Milwaukee Bucks.
After continuing to start at point guard in 1991 and for most of the 1992 season, Grant lost his spot to Doc Rivers come Playoff time. His second season ended up being the peak of his career, but he continued to post solid numbers in points, assists, and steals as a capable reserve. Grant ultimately spent the first seven years of his career with the Clippers; an almost unthinkable display of consistency and mutual loyalty nowadays, especially for a role player. He missed half of his final season with the Clippers due to offseason knee surgery, and was released in September 1995. Grant then latched on with the New York Knicks, and shared backup point guard duties with Charlie Ward.
Grant played five more seasons, but that was the beginning of the end of his career. His skills and leadership meant that there was still a place for him on an NBA roster, but more so as an insurance policy and a mentor to younger, healthier point guards. After playing 28 games for the Miami Heat in 1997, Grant appeared in just 22 games for the Blazers in 1998, in a stint that began with two 10-day contracts. From 1999 to 2001, he played in just nine games for Portland. This tenure saw Grant thrown into the Shawn Kemp trade in 2000, only to return to the Blazers after the Cavaliers cut him. He was then released in March 2001, and after a season in Greece, Grant retired.
Sadly, it’s not an uncommon tale. Even Kenny Anderson – who reached far greater heights than Gary Grant – likewise became a journeyman who was unceremoniously cut and finished his career overseas. It’s just the way it goes with some veterans, in particular smaller guards whose athleticism and durability has prematurely declined due to injury. Nevertheless, while Gary Grant’s career may not have been spectacular, it was still solid. 13 years in the NBA – six of them as a starter or key reserve – and a double-double average in points and assists along with 2.5 steals at his peak is very respectable. His four 20+ assist games are four more than LeBron James has tallied!
Cherry-picked feats aside, Gary Grant had a longer and more successful career than scores of NBA players. It’s not altogether surprising that I remember him, though by the same token I wouldn’t expect younger fans that aren’t history buffs to ever bring him up. Of course, he’s also memorable to me thanks to an accidental highlight that was spotlighted on the 1994 home video, NBA Rewind. As you can see in the video above, his long lob attempt to Ron Harper in a game against the Sacramento Kings ended up going in for two. As he ran back on defense, Grant jokingly played it off as intentional. His sense of humour about it made the lucky play even more enjoyable.
Indeed, it inspired a fondness for Gary Grant that carried over to video games. That highlight became a bit of a meme with my cousin Clinton and I, and it inspired us to acquire Grant to fill out our deep bench in Franchise games in NBA Live 2000 and NBA Live 2001. We also made a point of assigning him every accessory possible – a tradition we had with the 12th man on our various squads – to give him a unique look on the court. I’ll admit to being a bit fonder of the meme, constantly insisting that we add Gary Grant to our roster! With that being said, it was fun to have a bit of silliness to our Franchise games, and as a familiar journeyman, Grant was an ideal candidate.
He was also a very handy player to include in trade proposals. As noted, Grant was well-past his peak and warming the bench by the 2000 season, so he wasn’t rated very highly in video games. His low Overall Rating combined with a small contract meant that you could include him in deals to make them work under the cap; not unlike the couple of times he was traded in real life. If you were trying to pry a star from a CPU team, agreeing to take Grant could tilt the value of the deal in the AI’s favour, making it more likely to accept the offer. Alternatively, he could be that cheap extra player you added to your proposal to make the numbers work as far as salary and roster slots.
In hindsight, that wasn’t exactly respectful. We’d actually wonder out loud “Alright, who’s the worst player on the roster?” as we tried to put together a deal that the CPU would accept, and more than a couple of times, it turned out to be Gary Grant! Again, he’d once been a solid NBA player, but unfortunately by that point he was nearing the end of his career, and both his stats and stock had fallen. Still, it wasn’t intended to be a knock on the real Gary Grant, and he became a memorable part of a few Franchise games. Whenever he was on our roster as the 12th man, we’d find spots to give him a run, and he definitely racked up a handful of assists setting up other bench players.
Moreover, he wasn’t the only player who ended up in the 12th man meme role. In at least one game, former Chicago Bull and three-time champion Scott Williams was the player donning every single accessory on the virtual hardwood. It was just a way of making the players at the end of the bench more fun to use, and adding some levity in between vying for wins and aiming for statistical goals. When it came to Grant, there was the added enjoyment of his blooper from the NBA Rewind tape. It helped him to stand out from other role players, and made the comedy relief role in our games feel apt. Even after all these years, we’ll still reminisce about Grant’s “failed” alley-oop!
As far as his presence in video games, Gary Grant could consistently be found in sim titles set during his time as a starter and key reserve for the Clippers. He’s notably absent from the PC version of NBA Live 96, as he was released on September 29th 1995 and wasn’t signed by the Knicks until November 8th; just a bit too late for the cut-off. Unfortunately, back then it was far rarer for recently-contracted players to appear in the free agents pool, if indeed there was one. Grant is in the PlayStation version of NBA Live 96 however, along with a few other veterans who were missing from the PC release including Terry Cummings, Anthony Bowie, and Ledell Eackles.
You can also find Gary Grant in the PC versions of NBA Live 97, NBA Live 99 (specifically the default rosters), NBA Live 2000, and NBA Live 2001. He was unsigned when NBA Live 98 PC’s rosters were being finalised, having been cut by the Kings – who had acquired him from the Heat – on September 5th. Interestingly, NBA Live 97 PC erroneously lists his school as Dayton instead of Michigan; all other NBA Live titles correctly list the latter. While his ratings declined accordingly throughout the years, he retained solid dribbling, passing, and stealing attributes. This accurately reflected his production Per 36 minutes, and in turn, key skills that he never lost.
This is something that I’ve come to admire in old sim titles. While a rating may be fudged here or there, role players like Gary Grant will have suitably high attributes wherever necessary. I’m not sure if the developers working on the rosters were using Per 36 stats specifically, but they definitely researched players and took minutes into account when devising ratings. Grant’s 3.7 apg in 19.7 mpg in 1994 wasn’t treated the same as Hakeem Olajuwon’s 3.6 apg in 41 mpg, which is the right approach. As much as gamers would complain about the ratings in the original rosters back in the day, looking back I’d have to say there was actually an impressive amount of accuracy.
Between a solid NBA career with some notable performances, an amusing highlight, and a recurring presence in Franchise games, it’s no surprise that Gary Grant is one of the first names that comes to mind when I’m challenged to think of a 90s role player. All memes aside, he was a skilled playmaker and defender who had some bad luck with injuries. Landing on the Clippers in the late 80s wasn’t a stroke of good fortune either! Still, he made it to the big time, and showed he belonged even as a rookie. It was fun to reflect on his achievements, and a reminder that though role players like Grant may be forgotten, they contributed to the deep pools of talent in bygone eras.
