NCAA Basketball: 25 most mesmerizing players of all time

Larry Johnson “(Grand Ma Ma)”, a native Texan, was a Mickey D’s All-American who originally committed to play at SMU but ended up at Odessa Junior College in Texas for two seasons. He is the only two-time NJCAA player of the year in the history of JUCO.

He would then commit to Jerry Tarkanian and UNLV where he led the Runnin’ Rebels to a 69-6 record, a national championship and to the cusp of an undefeated season. He wore A.C. Slater shirts and white pants off the court and punished the rim with reckless abandon on it.

Johnson was polarizing for many reasons, he was basically everything that then Duke star Christian Laettner was not. Laettner was in Durham, Johnson was in Vegas. Johnson was an undersized power forward, Laettner was the prototype for the time. Texan. New Yorker. Black. White.

Another influence that thrust LJ into the limelight was his coach, Jerry Tarkanian. The legendary Armenian coach was known for taking chances on kids that other programs stayed away from while turning them into productive members of society, along with stars on the court. His clashes with the NCAA are tales of legend, and he even won a lawsuit against the college basketball governing body to the tune of $2.5M.

Of course, the other occurrence that brought the spotlight to UNLV and Johnson was the team’s relationship with Richard “The Fixer” Perry and the infamous “hot tub photo.” Johnson was not in the photo, but, again, he was the leader of those teams.

In 75 career games, he averaged 21.6 points and 11.2 rebounds. He was the #1 overall selection in the 1991 NBA draft and played for the Hornets and Knicks before back problems forced his retirement at the age of 31.