The Startling Scarcity of City 6 NBA Players

By Sean Kennedy (@PhillyFastBreak)

When news broke recently about Jameer Nelson signing with the Dallas Mavericks, more notice was paid in the Philadelphia basketball community than someone like say, Steve Blake, reaching an agreement in free agency. Throughout the years, the former St. Joe’s Hawk has always remained a strong fixture in the minds of Philadelphia basketball fans. No doubt, having led a team to an undefeated regular season and strong tournament run to the Elite 8 will do that for a player.

Still, 10 years later, Nelson seems to evoke stronger ties within his collegiate community than the average NBA veteran and that got me to thinking (a rare occurrence, I know). Fans of collegiate basketball in Philadelphia still identify so much with Nelson because they haven’t been given many other options over the years. Off the top of my head, I could only think of a handful of active players in the NBA who played college ball at a City 6 school. So I decided to look at all such players, and rank them by how effective an NBA career they’ve had to this point. I used win shares (WS) as a rudimentary tool for that purpose; you can find all such data on Basketball Reference.

7. Dionte Christmas (Temple) – 0.3 WS (Best Season: 0.3)

After bouncing around Europe for years, Christmas was finally able to get an NBA look last season with Phoenix. He performed reasonably well in limited action and the Suns brass apparently liked what they saw. Phoenix recently signed Christmas to a 2-year, $1.3M deal, finally providing the hard-working journeyman with a few years security in the big leagues.

6. Lavoy Allen (Temple) – 5.6 WS (Best Season: 2.5)

The former Owl caught on with the hometown Sixers and his true coming out party was a fierce battle with Kevin Garnett in the 2012 playoffs. His performance has tailed off in recent years and Allen was traded to the Pacers along with Evan Turner last season. The Pacers did re-sign him to a 1-year deal worth just under $1M, so he’ll look to prove his worth this season.

5. Dante Cunningham (Villanova) – 13.8 WS (Best Season: 3.5)

Cunningham found a nice niche for himself as a back-up big man with the Timberwolves the last two seasons. Unfortunately, he’s currently dealing with a felony domestic assault charge, and as an unrestricted free agent, his NBA future may be in jeopardy.

4. Rasual Butler (La Salle) – 16.8 WS (Best Season: 4.6)

Butler has bounced around the league, playing for 6 different NBA teams over the course of his career. Still, even at age 35, he found his way into the playoff rotation for the Pacers last season at the expense of Evan Turner. He’s currently an unrestricted free agent so we will see if there are any more years left in store for the old Explorer.

3. Randy Foye (Villanova) – 21.9 WS (Best Season: 4.6)

Foye had the best season of his career last year as a combo guard for the Nuggets, starting nearly every game for Denver. With the acquisition of Arron Afflalo, Foye will likely move back to the bench this season, but his abilities as a three-point specialist alone should keep him in the league for years to come.

2. Jameer Nelson (St. Joseph’s) – 43.0 WS (Best Season: 6.6)

Nelson has carved out an solid NBA career for himself, making an All-Star team and being a key contributor on those Dwight Howard-led Orlando Magic squads that made a Finals appearance. He’s getting a bit long in the tooth at this point, but as the Dallas signing showed, teams still value his services on the court. We’ll see if he can fill the hole at the point guard position left by the trade of Jose Calderon as the Mavericks look to make it back to the playoffs.

1. Kyle Lowry (Villanova) – 41.1 WS (Best Season: 11.7)

Although he’s slightly under Nelson for career win shares, I’m putting the former Wildcat #1 because he’s likely to pass him this season and he had by far a better season last year than Nelson ever had. Lowry is coming off a breakout year with the Raptors, when he was arguably the best point guard in the Eastern Conference in leading Toronto to the playoffs. He recently agreed to a 4-year, $48 million deal to remain with the Raptors, and will look to earn that first All-Star appearance after being snubbed a year ago.

As you can see, there’s only 7 City 6 players even active in the league at this point, with Cunningham and Butler still not locks to be around this upcoming season. There aren’t even any Drexel or Penn players currently in the league, so appreciate that fact the next time Malik Rose brings up his days with the Dragons during a Sixers broadcast. So when guys like Khalif Wyatt or Ronald Roberts, Jr. are fighting to make it as an undrafted free agent, let’s hope for the best. The league needs more Philly guys making it to the big show.