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In Jim’s article this morning, he talks about Duke’s visit to Oklahoma in the 1990-91 season and coming away with a tough win.
The Billy Tubbs era may have been the greatest ever for Oklahoma basketball and one of the greatest players in Oklahoma (or Big 8/12 history) was Wayman Tisdale.
Most people are lucky to have one great, world class skill in life. Tisdale had two.
He was good enough in college to be on the 1984 Olympic team with Michael Jordan, Patrick Ewing and other greats. He was the #2 pick in the 1985 draft behind only Ewing. And while Tisdale had a solid pro career, his bigger passion was music.
Tisdale was a superb base player and after basketball wound down, he moved into music full time and became an award-winning artist. He ended up releasing eight albums including one that went to #1 on the contemporary jazz chart.
Very sadly, Tisdale was diagnosed with cancer in 2007 and died in 2009.
His basketball game was smooth and his music smoother. It was a great loss for both worlds.