[Mormon Red Death]

Originally Posted by SeattleUte

Full disclosure: Vranes is a friend of mine and my brother's brother in law.

But here's the God's honest truth. Vranes was a materially better collegian than Chambers, and Vranes was far from just athleticism. Vranes made the Olympic team, Chambers didn't (back then we fielded an amateur team). Vranes (like Burden) was first team all-American per some major wire services, Chambers was at most honorable mention. Vranes was no. 5 pick in the NBA draft, Chambers was no. 8 overall. Chambers scored 1-2 points a game more their senior year, but Vranes always rebounded better and played both ends of the court better. The honest to God truth is Mormons generally have underappreciated Vranes because he didn't go to BYU (he would have played with Ainge, Fred Roberts, Greg Kite, Devin Durrant, etc.!).

Chambers wound up the better pro, and it's not hard to see why. Vranes was 6-7 and didn't quite have the requisite skills to be an NBA guard. He was a tweener. Chambers was nearly 7 feet and ran the floor like Karl Malone, and developed a solid three point shot. I bet Vranes still rebounded better in the NBA; Chambers was a weak rebounder for a man of his physique. He also had kind of a Kobe Bryant ethos vis-a-vis his team mates. He was kind of a ball hog, even in college. I think one reason he made it bigger in the NBA than Vranes is that he was not nearly as nice a person as Vranes.

The only thing I ever really knew about Vranes (besides stories from my siblings and dad) was that his daughter is smoking hot... well at least she was in high school