Here's a name we haven't seen in awhile: Chris Washburn popped up at at the It Takes 5ive AAU basketball tournament, being held at Cincinnati. His sons are both Top 100 types and he would like for them to avoid his mistakes. Can't blame him for that.
For anyone who wasn't around at the time, Washburn was probably the most spectacular flameout of all time. A 6-11 big man, Jeff Jones said he was as talented as any big man whoever played in the ACC. True.
He was also the stupidest, at least as far as his choices went. When he declared for the NBA draft, Frank Dascenzo wrote a scathing article for the Durham paper which was headlined "Good Riddance," in big, bold letters.
It was clear to pretty much everyone that his career was going to end badly. Everyone except the Golden State Warriors, that is, where George Karl argued that he was too talented to take a pass on.
The pass came 72 games later. Washburn said he ended up eating out of trash cans before he cleaned himself up (there were rumors when he was in Raleigh that he was already abusing cocaine).
Anyway, good to see that he is still alive and has rebuilt his life.