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22
WE MADE thIs GAME
Thurl
Bailey
PersistenCe Pays off
The phrase, persistence pays off, must have
been created just for Thurl Bailey. While
some coaches recognize talent early on and
nurture it, Bailey reveals that he was “cut
twice in junior high in both seventh and eighth grade”
basketball. But he persisted and went on to play junior
varsity basketball as a 10th grader and in his words,
finally “began to blossom” toward the end of his junior
season at Bladensburg High School in Bladensburg,
Md.
The eventual NBRpa legend emerged as the
leading scorer for one of the most beloved college
national championship teams in history, went on to
serve as team captain for the Utah Jazz while scoring
double-digits, and finally closed a storied career in
Greece and Italy. Today, in between spending quality
time with his family, Bailey remains a hoops sage,
keeping his hand in the game as a member of the
NBRpa Board of Directors and working as a Jazz
broadcaster.
“I don’t miss playing, I miss the camaraderie in
the locker room,” said Bailey, now 50 and enjoying
life with wife Sindi and his children. “I enjoy talking
basketball, I enjoy analyzing basketball. every player
that made it to the NBa has a connection and is part of
a brotherhood—even if we didn’t play together, we feel
that connection.”
Standing 6-foot-11, Bailey, who averaged nearly
13 points per game in his 13-season NBa career, still
looks like a basketball hero. While he idolized Julius
erving as a boy, he says he was more into student
government and music , playing both the trombone
and tuba. and his continued interest in music led to
a successful post-NBa recording career as a vocalist.
However, his growing high school success in basketball
let to scholarship offers from several prominent east
Coast programs. But Bailey, whose parents were both
North Carolinians, had a special connection to the
basketball program at North Carolina State.
“I sold raffle tickets to attend a basketball camp
at North Carolina State [while in high school] and I
think the coaching staff saw potential in me and kept
tabs on me, said the ever-persistent Bailey, who built
a bond with then-NC State coach Norm Sloan and his
assistant, ed Biedenbach. “I never forgot that and my
folks never forgot that.”
Bailey signed on with Sloan’s Wolfpack as a high
school senior and played for the leader of NC State’s
1974 national championship squad during his freshman
season of 1979-80. But when Sloan moved on to coach
Florida, Bailey’s life would be forever changed with the
hire of former Iona coach Jim Valvano.
With Bailey leading the way alongside fellow-
Maryland natives Dereck Whittenburg and Sidney
lowe, Valvano built momentum at NC State and
looked poised for a breakout season in 1982-83, his
third year in Raleigh. But with Ralph Sampson still at
Virginia and the dynamic duo of Michael Jordan and
Sam perkins leading defending national champion
North Carolina, the aCC was an absolute bear of a
conference.
led by Bailey’s 16.7 points per game, the Wolfpack
entered the aCC Tournament with a 17-10 record,
firmly perched on the NCaa Tournament bubble.
But NC State rose to the occasion and knocked off
North Carolina and Virginia—ranked No. 5 and No.
2, respectively—en route to winning the aCC and
punching a ticket to the Big Dance. Valvano, however,
had loftier goals and wasn’t afraid to share them with
Bailey and his teammates.
“We weren’t really on anyone’s [NCaa] radar but
Coach V was a great leader, Bailey said. “When he