Sitting at work today, already having gone through every site that I have on my google reader and looking for stuff even more random, I decided to check out Basketball-Reference.com, one of my favorite sites of all time. While there and trying to become unbored, I see the link on the site entitled "Frivolity". I didn't think was a word, but it seemed to be the perfect way to waste the remaining 3 hours. I tinkered around with it, before I decided to search players born in North Dakota. I'm the biggest basketball fan I know and have lived in Bismarck my entire life, so I was shocked to see that there is more to North Dakota people that have went on to the NBA besides the oft heard of Phil Jackson (Williston). Turns out there were two that I really had no reason to ever hear of: Glenn Hansen (Devils Lake, 1976-78) and Duane Klueh (Bottineau, 1949-1951). Both of these guys played sparingly, and in the NBA before I was even born. The third guy is the one that baffled me that I had never heard of him. A big, white clumsy white guy, that grew up right here in North Dakota!
Leslie "Les" Jepsen was a legit 7-footer that went to high school in Bowbells, North Dakota, near the Canadian border, and graduated from there in 1986, the year I was born. At Bowbells, where Jepsen was a Bowbells Eskimo, he averaged 27 points, 18 rebounds, 6 blocks and 3 steals per game. From there, he went to Iowa to be a Hawkeye. After being redshirted his first year with the team, he gradually started getting better. Actually, it took awhile, his first three years with the Hawkeyes, he averaged 2.5 points and 3.1 rebounds a game. His senior year however, he played much better. He averaged 15 points and 10 boards a game, dominating the post while future Chicago Bull B.J. Armstrong was lights out on the perimeter. In fact, according to draft guru Marty Blake, he went from being the 28th best center at the beginning of his senior year to the 5th best by Draft day!
With the 28th overall pick in the 1990 NBA Draft, the Golden State Warriors selected Jepsen. The second rounds first pick, ahead of guys like Toni Kukoc (29th), Jud Buechler (38th), Bimbo Coles (40th), Tony Massenberg (43rd), Antonio Davis (45th), and Cedric Ceballos (48th). Jepsen had a miserable season with Golden State, scoring 28 points in 21 games, adding 16 turnovers. It's not that he was getting the opportunity, however. He made just 11 of his 36 shot attempts, shooting just barely over 30%. For a 7 footer who should be doing most of his work around the rim, that is TERRIBLE. The following offseason, he, along with Mitch Richmond, was traded to the Sacramento Kings for highly touted Billy Owens, who wouldn't sign with Sacramento. That season, he got better, kind of. Though he only had 25 points in 31 games, he was much more efficient. He shot 37.5% from the field, which is still terrible, but much better than his previous season. After that season, he collected two more seasons worth of paychecks with the Kings, but played overseas, where he didn't fare much better.
Nowadays, according to an interview he did with TheDraftReview, Jepsen owns an investment management and real estate company that he operates in Minnesota. My favorite part of their article, and the way I'm going to finish this posting, is this, in response to his greatest off the court accomplishment:
LJ:Back in Iowa City the day after the first Carolina game I drove through Burger King and the chick at the 2nd window said “Hey, your Les Jepsen… You’re a great player!”… that was probably my best moment off the court… outside a Burger King drive-thru window.
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