Once upon a time the Warriors couldn’t get out of their own way. They were a laughingstock. And the poster boy of their All-Tear-Your-Hair-Out team was Chris Washburn.
A 6-foot-11 sculpted amalgamation of jaw-dropping physical gifts, Washburn had it all. Except discipline. And desire. And maturity. His 41-game stay at North Carolina State was marred by his appropriation of a stereo that wasn’t his. It took some doing, but the Warriors ignored the flashing red lights and selected him with the third pick in the 1986 draft. Then they handed him a four-year, $3 million contract — all the money in the world 33 years ago.
“We had to take him,” then-Warriors coach George Karl told Sports Illustrated. “But sometimes I wonder if we drafted the kind of player who will always break your heart.”
Ya think?
What followed was a blizzard of missed busses, botched assignments, apparent disinterest and what Karl called “brain-locking.”
“He did great for three weeks in camp,” Karl told SI. “Then it was like somebody got in his head and told him he didn’t have to work anymore.”
Midway through his rookie season, Washburn checked himself into a drug treatment center, citing an undisclosed substance abuse problem. He averaged 3.8 points and 11 minutes in 35 games. Don Nelson was the new Warriors’ general manager in Washburn’s second season. He played just eight games before Nellie traded him to Atlanta.
Washburn played out the season with the Hawks and never saw an NBA floor again. He relapsed and was sent to a rehab center. In June 1989, the NBA banned him for life for drug use.
You want a shock? Julian Washburn, Chris’ son, made his NBA debut last month. A member of the Memphis Grizzlies (he’s on a two-way G-League contract), Julian appears to be everything his dad wasn’t — or vice versa. The NBA handed Chris a virtual blank check. Few saw NBA potential in Julian during his college playing days at UTEP, and when he was bouncing from one organized league to another. But on Jan. 15 he was added to the Memphis roster.
Good stuff from new Grizzlies two-way player Julian Washburn. At age 27, he is on the verge of being active for an NBA game for the first time in his career.
“You never know when your opportunity will come. So don’t give up.” pic.twitter.com/01wf2yE2zX
— David Cobb (@DavidWCobb) January 15, 2019
Five days later he made his NBA debut, playing the final 1:29 of the Grizzlies MLK Day game. At 27, he is five years older than his dad was when he played his last NBA game.
“It didn’t feel real, to be honest,” Julian told the Memphis Commercial Appeal. He has played six games, with 10 points and four steals.
The son, a 6-foot-8 small forward, has scrapped, clawed and persevered — the same qualities that were beyond his dad three decades ago — to get where he is now. He said he and his dad haven’t traded any tips on the NBA.
“It’s something I’m really learning on my own,” he said. “I’m old enough now that I kind of know about basketball.”
Two years ago, when he was playing at UTEP, he talked to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram about his relationship with his father. “It’s in and out, really,” Julian said. “Great guy. Everything’s great about his personality. Just consistency (is lacking) sometimes.
“He was always very big on taking care of my classes. He kept me right in that respect. He always talks about (his life) that he went down the wrong path.”
Chris Washburn was imprisoned from 1991-94 for drug-related offenses. He also admitted he lived in abandoned homes and ate whatever he could forage from garbage cans.
“He’s always saying, ‘I messed it up, so don’t take that path,'” Julian said.
According to the Star-Telegram, Chris Washburn has taken some of his own advice. As of two years ago, he was clean, back in his hometown of Hickory, N.C., and helping take care of his mother.
For 33 years in the Bay Area, Chris Washburn has been a cautionary tale punctuated by punch lines. Maybe it’s time to mute the laugh track.
