When Adam Keefe came out of Stanford in 1992, he was viewed as a potential high lottery pick. Then scouts began having second thoughts.
At 6-9, Keefe, a college center, wasn't big enough to play there in the NBA. And he didn't really have all the tools required of a big-time power forward, either.Keefe was drafted 10th, late-lottery, by the Atlanta Hawks, and he embarked on what appeared to be a nice little career as an undistinguished NBA journeyman.
Then, after two seasons, he was traded to the Utah Jazz, who already had Karl Malone anchored at power forward. Keefe's career seemed destined to become even less distinguished. Imagine his surprise when the Jazz informed him he was a small forward.
"I looked at them a little funny when they told me," Keefe said.
A year later, Jazz coach Jerry Sloan is looking like a genius. Keefe, at 220 about 25 pounds lighter than when he showed up from Atlanta, is coming off the bench to split the small-forward position with David Benoit, and he has been the superior contributor.
Going into last weekend, in almost identical minutes, Keefe was outscoring Benoit, 10.4 to 5.3; outrebounding him, 6.5 to 4.1, and outshooting him, 63 percent to 34.
It could be just a matter of time before he moves into the starting lineup, although Sloan may consider him too valuable as a step-up guy off the bench. Sloan said Keefe's switch was more a result of need than of perceptiveness. Out of shape and slowed by a hamstring injury when he arrived from Atlanta, Keefe did not have a productive preseason, and at first he languished on the bench.
But Benoit went down with an ankle injury in December, and Keefe got his chance.
"Adam started playing well and gained more confidence as time went on," Sloan said. "He deserves a lot of credit for not hanging his head. He realized that in order to play in this league he had to be in tremendous shape."
On the Jazz, with their great perimeter shooters John Stockton and Jeff Hornacek, small forward is more of a slashing, rebounding position than on some teams. The weight loss helped Keefe - "It's made me a little quicker, a little faster," he said - but Sloan still credits him with making a major adjustment.
"He's had to guard a lot of smaller people," Sloan said. "He'll get beat some, but he's going to beat some people with the way he runs the floor and works to get open. Plus he goes after every rebound."
Keefe obviously has found a basketball home in Utah, and the change of address has been as important to him as any of the rest of it. In Atlanta, he said, "I felt they didn't place a lot of importance on the things I did. They had several great athletes and they felt they could win by playing those athletes one-on-one against people.
"In Utah it's a different type of basketball. It's much more team-oriented - pick-and-rolls, give-and-goes - and guys make the extra pass."
It's a mentality some NBA teams only wish they had.
FAMILY AFFAIRS: Former Indiana University star and Ex-Golden State Warrior Steve Alford, who coached Manchester (Ind.) College to a 31-1 record and the Division III finals last season, is now at Southwest Missouri. One of his assistants is his father, Sam, who coached him in high school . . . Brent Barry's back-to-back 3-pointers in the stretch helped the Clippers outlast the Grizzlies last Thursday and left him shooting an NBA-best 62 percent (13-for-21) from treyland . . . Brother combos like the Barrys (Brent is a Warrior) are not all that unusual in the NBA, but the Bullets' pair on one team, Mark and Brent Price, is the first since Charles and Caldwell Jones were Bulls in 1984-85 . . . Don Nelson kept his home in Alameda. His original plan, to rent it to the Warriors' Joe Smith, didn't pan out, but Nelson's son, Donny, now a Suns assistant, has rented his Alameda digs to another Warrior rookie, Andrew DeClercq.
For the record, the Bulls on opening night had the heaviest (average weight: 235.36), oldest (29.86 years) and most experienced (6.57 seasons) roster in the league, and the second-tallest (6 feet, 8.29 inches, behind the Jazz's 6-8.50). Figures courtesy of longtime NBA publicist Bill Kreifeldt . . . Knicks guard Derek Harper on his new boss, Don Nelson: "If there's any such thing as a players' coach, Nellie is. He plays to guys' strengths, he involves a lot of people and he gives you the confidence to go out and do what you have to do. I feel very, very confident right now and I give him a lot of the credit for it." Sound familiar? . . . Nelson does still have some qualms about young players, though, which is why he got the Knicks to sign veteran Gary Grant for guard insurance after singing the praises of Charlie Ward . . . Dennis Rodman's injury will force him to miss his lone scheduled return of the season to San Antonio - the Bulls play there this Thursday - which probaby doesn't upset him too much . . . What had been pegged as a blockbuster trade, the one between the Warriors and Toronto, has been a bust so far. B.J. Armstrong has struggled (to put it mildly) here in the early season, and neither Victor Alexander nor Carlos Rogers has impressed the Raptors, who have been offering both of them around . . . Not that 76ers rookie Jerry Stackhouse is confident or anything, but he recently noted aloud: "Nobody has been able to stop me one-on-one. The thing that has surprised me most about the NBA is how easy it has been." Clip and save.