Best NBA Player from every Power 5 School

Best NBA player who played for Texas Tech Red Raiders — Tony Battie

Tony Battie never leaped off the screen. The 8.4 points he averaged as a rookie was the highest mark of his career, and he was swiftly traded from Denver to LA, then from LA to Boston before his second season. Battie’s six-year run in Boston was his longest stint in one place.

A strong, forceful 6-foot-11 center, Battie made his contributions on the margins. He played sound, fundamental basketball — rim-running on offense and protecting the rim on defense. He spent the vast majority of his NBA career in a reserve role.

Battie spent three years at Texas Tech, but emerged as an NBA prospect in his junior campaign. He averaged 18.8 points and 11.8 rebounds that season. He left the Red Raiders as the program leader in blocked shots.

Runner-up: Geoff Huston — Huston spent eight years in the NBA, most of it in Cleveland. He averaged 13.2 points per game in his second year, the highest mark of his career. 

Best NBA player who played for UCLA Bruins — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

• 6X NBA Champion
• 6X MVP
• 19X All-Star

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is firmly in the GOAT discussion, and he still holds the record for most points scored in the NBA with 38,387. Famous for his sky-hook, the 7-foot-1 Kareem — known by Lew Alcindor until 1971 — dominated the competition from day one. He was Rookie of the Year in 1970, and also made the All-Star team. In 1971, in just his second season, Kareem paired with Oscar Robertson to deliver a championship to Milwaukee.

In 1975, Kareem requested a trade to Los Angeles or New York, and he ended up with the Lakers. While there he was similarly dominant, delivering five championships to the franchise. He won Finals MVP twice (fourteen years apart, 1971 and 1985) and appeared in 19 All-Star games across his 20-year career. Kareem also has six MVPs and 20 All-NBA nods to his name. Pretty, pretty good.

In his three seasons at UCLA, Kareem — then Alcindor — was essentially untouchable. He won three consecutive NCAA championships from 1967 to 1969, and was named national player of the year three times in a row. He was the No. 1 pick in both the NBA and ABA drafts.

Runner-up: Russell Westbrook — MVP in 2017 and one of his era’s most idiosyncratic stars, Westbrook has both ardent supporters and vicious detractors. Love him or not, the numbers speak too loudly to ignore.