Texas Basketball: 3 Longhorns who were Michael Jordan foes in NBA

3. Lance Blanks, Shooting Guard

The Texas Ex and former first round pick of the Detroit Pistons in the 1990 NBA Draft, 6-foot-4 shooting guard Lance Blanks was thrown into the fire quickly against Jordan and the Bulls. Blanks got a taste of those great Bulls dynasty teams early on in their run. He joined the Pistons the year after they got their back-to-back titles.

Blanks just joined the Pistons at the wrong time. He played in just 38 games in his rookie season in 1990-91, starting in none of them. Blanks averaged 1.7 points per game, 0.5 rebounds, 0.7 assists, and 0.2 steals, while shooting 42.6 percent from the field and roughly 13 percent from beyond the arc as a rookie.

His numbers would uptick during his second season in the NBA, but he never got a legitimate chance to succeed. And frankly he never consistently proved over a stretch of even a few games in a row that he could handle an increased role in the league. The height of Blanks run in the NBA as a player would only take him so far. He played in one playoff game with the Pistons in 1992, and that was it.

Blanks would play in seven regular season games and no playoff outings against Jordan and the Bulls. He would average less than two points per game in those seven tries, and come away with a record of 1-6. Meanwhile, Jordan would average more than 27 points per game and five assists in those matchups.

The success for Blanks in the NBA would come more often as an executive than as a player. He was the Phoenix Suns general manager for a few years in the early 2010’s and the Cleveland Cavaliers assistant general manager from 2005-2010.