TAILUN

Tyronn Lue, the only player in Nebraska basketball history to win an NBA Finals championship as a player and coach, and already a member of the Nebraska Basketball Hall of Fame, is having his Husker jersey retired.

虎扑体育9月18日讯

The Nebraska Athletics Department honored Lue during the first quarter of Saturday’s football game against Oregon and announced to the Memorial Stadium crowd it will retire Lue’s jersey on Thursday, Feb. 2, when Nebraska hosts Michigan State in men’s basketball at Pinnacle Bank Arena.

“Tyronn has achieved at the highest level as both a player and a coach and has been a great ambassador for Husker Athletics and the University of Nebraska,” Nebraska Director of Athletics Shawn Eichorst said.

Lue, who coached LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers to the franchise’s first NBA Finals championship in June, also was a member of two NBA Finals championship teams with the Los Angeles Lakers.

Lue, 39, played at Nebraska from 1995-1998 and earned first team All-Big 12 honors his final season. He helped the Huskers win the 1996 NIT championship and led them to the 1998 NCAA Tournament for the program’s third straight postseason appearance. He still ranks among Nebraska’s top 10 players in career points, assists and steals.

“Tyronn’s talent on the basketball court was off the charts,” Nebraska Executive Associate Athletic Director Marc Boehm said. “However, perhaps his greatest attribute is that he’s just a genuine good person who cares about other people. We are honored to add him to an exclusive group.”

Lue becomes the fourth Nebraska men’s basketball player to have his jersey retired. It will hang in the north rafters of Pinnacle Bank Arena next to jerseys of Stuart Lantz, Dave Hoppen and Eric Piatkowski.

“When you get your jersey retired, that’s definitely an honor,” said Lue, who declared for the NBA Draft after his junior season and was a first-round selection of the Denver Nuggets before being traded to the Los Angeles Lakers. “I knew not graduating from the University of Nebraska, even though I got a degree on-line when I first started coaching, not getting my degree from the University of Nebraska, I knew they didn’t (retire jerseys).

“But it’s a great honor, and it’s one of the best honors you can receive as a college basketball player, individually, or high school or NBA. That’s one of the best things that could possibly happen. For them to change the rule for me just really means a lot. It shows me that I mean a lot to the program and what I’ve been able to do since I left the program.”

Lue, a native of Mexico, Missouri, who played at Raytown High School, played 11 NBA seasons with the Los Angeles Lakers, Washington, Orlando, Houston, Atlanta, Dallas and Milwaukee. He served as an assistant coach under Doc Rivers with Boston and the Los Angeles Clippers before joining Cleveland as associate head coach in 2014.

Lue was promoted to head coach on Jan. 22 and became the third coach in NBA history to take over a team in the middle of the season and win a title that same season. He also became the first NBA coach to win his first 10 playoff games, and he coached Cleveland to a 4-3 series victory over Golden State in the NBA Finals, where the Cavaliers became the first team in NBA history to rally from a 3-1 series deficit.

“In my eyes, a guy like Tyronn Lue and what he’s accomplished not only as a player here, but as a professional player and coach, he’s most deserving of this honor,” Nebraska coach Tim Miles said. “He’s represented himself the right way all the time. He’s true to his roots. He still loves Mexico, Missouri, he loves and honors Nebraska and he’s a world champion coach right now.”

Miles said that while some people may forget where they come from and what they’re about, Lue always stayed to true to his hometown, and to Nebraska.

“Tyronn is great to our guys. Every time he gets a chance to talk to him, he does, and that’s such a help right there,” Miles said. “But then having a guy whose jersey you can look at in the rafters and say, ‘Hey, that’s LeBron’s coach,’ is obviously a great deal for our program. It’s more than a status symbol. It’s a statement of, ‘If you’re at Nebraska, you can go anywhere. You can do anything.’ ”

Lue credited both Miles and former coach Doc Sadler for welcoming back former players and making them a part of the program’s future.

“That was really important, especially for me,” Lue said. “I think Erick Strickland and myself and Mikki Moore, we went back more than normal. I know Pike came back a few times. It’s not even about the guys who made it professionally, it’s about the bond that we all have, the bond that we shared, the relations we shared being an athlete at the University of Nebraska.”

Now, having Lue’s legacy on display at Pinnacle Bank Arena can serve as a catalyst for future success.

“They want to keep moving forward and building a program,” Lue said. “It’s a lot better when guys come back. It’s a lot easier to recruit now. It’s been great. I’m very happy they were able to do this.”