One-Time NBA All-Stars

Tom Gugliotta, Christian Laettner, Chris Gatling

Re-introducing myself to the NBA in the mid-1990s was a trip. I’d see images of Minnesota Timberwolves star Tom Gugliotta in a Golden State Warriors uniform and wonder when that happened. I wished I’d paid a little more attention to the trade sending Christian Laettner to Atlanta in 1996 instead of giving ‘Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness’ its 1996th listen. I wondered why and how Chris Gatling got to where he was, from team to team, trade to trade. I wondered until I saw Chris Gatling play.

That’s a small forward guarding you!

Each made the 1997 NBA All-Star team, each for the first and final time. By 1999, each were on a different team, Gatling two different teams.

Googs we’ve documented by proxy, another peg in the endless bidding for Chris Webber. Drafted No. 6 in 1992 by the Washington Bullets out of N.C. State, Googs signed a seven-year, $17.5 million deal in the third-to-last summer before rookie scale contracts:

“It’s definitely the longest contract I’ve signed in my 27-year association with the Bullets,” said owner Abe Pollin, who also called the lottery pick from N.C. State “the last piece of the puzzle.”

The 25-win Bullets were led in scoring the previous season by Pervis Ellison.