March Feature

"Plastic-man" Stacey Augmon

Stacey Augmon entered the NBA in 1991 as a highly touted defender with spectacular athletic skills. A graduate of the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, he followed up a solid freshman campaign for the Runnin' Rebels with a berth on the 1988 U.S. Olympic team. The youngest member of that squad, he earned a bronze medal at the Seoul Olympics. In his junior year he teamed with Larry Johnson and Greg Anthony to lead UNLV to the school's first NCAA Championship. The following season the trio guided the team back to the NCAA Final Four, and Augmon was chosen as a First-Team All-American by the Associated Press.

The 6-foot-8 swingman was selected in the first round (ninth pick overall) of the 1991 NBA Draft by the Atlanta Hawks. The only rookie to play in all 82 games in 1991-92, Augmon was named to the NBA All-Rookie First Team after averaging 13.3 points, 5.1 rebounds, and a team-leading 1.51 steals. Accustomed to playing small forward in college, Augmon moved to the off guard slot for the Hawks, who had Dominique Wilkins at small forward. Augmon's layup against the Golden State Warriors on March 23, 1995, was the 6-millionth point scored in NBA history.

In his second season Augmon upped his scoring average slightly and boosted his field-goal accuracy by 12 percentage points to .501. He had an up-and-down campaign, however, missing a handful of games at the beginning of the year following arthroscopic knee surgery.

Augmon's solid all-around play in 1993-94 was an important factor in Atlanta's 57-25 season. He finished in the top 20 in both field-goal percentage and steals and teamed with Mookie Blaylock to give the Hawks one of the best defensive backcourts in the NBA. Although he struggled a bit in 1994-95-along with the rest of the Hawks team-Augmon remained a consistent offensive and defensive performer who possessed the ability to change a game with his explosive skills.

Transactions: Selected by the Atlanta Hawks in the first round (ninth pick overall) of the 1991 NBA Draft.

1994-95: The arrival of Steve Smith early in the 1994-95 campaign meant that Augmon was moved to the small forward position for the Atlanta Hawks. He got off to a torrid start, averaging 20.2 points for the month of November, but that proved to be his best stretch of the year. Like most of his teammates, he struggled with his shot, posting a .453 field-goal percentage, the lowest mark of his career and the first time since his rookie season that he had shot below .500. He finished with an average of 13.9 points per outing.

Augmon missed six games during the season because of injury. An ankle sprain sidelined him in mid-March and then again for the final three games of the season. He recorded a career high on January 3 when he victimized the Portland Trail Blazers for 36 points. In early March he pulled down a dozen rebounds against the Detroit Pistons to tie his career high.

The Hawks finished at 42-40 and faced the Indiana Pacers in the first round of the playoffs. Still hobbled by a sprained ankle, Augmon saw only 5 minutes of action in Game 1 and 17 minutes in Game 2. His best postseason outing was Game 3, in which he scored 14 points, grabbed 5 rebounds, and recorded a pair of steals. In postseason play he averaged 7.0 points for the Hawks, who bowed out in three games.

1993-94: With the arrival in Atlanta of Coach Lenny Wilkens, an NBA mastermind known for stressing defense, Augmon predictably enjoyed remarkable success with the Hawks in 1993-94. Long lauded as a brilliant defender, he teamed with point guard Mookie Blaylock to form arguably the league's toughest defensive backcourt. The duo helped the Hawks rank second in the league in steals (915) with the second-best season total in team history. Atlanta trailed only the Seattle SuperSonics (1,053), who missed the all-time NBA record for thefts in a season by six.

For the season, Augmon averaged 14.8 points, 4.8 rebounds, and 2.3 assists while starting each of Atlanta's 82 games. He ranked fourth on the team in scoring, fifth in rebounding, and fifth in assists. He also recorded 149 steals (1.82 per game), ranking second on the Hawks to Blaylock and 16th in the NBA.

Augmon knocked down a season-high 27 points against the Washington Bullets on December 11, snared a career-high 12 rebounds against the Los Angeles Clippers on March 25, and had a career-high 7 steals against the Milwaukee Bucks on November 24.

1992-93: Augmon struggled through a pair of injuries in his sophomore season, the second of which hampered him throughout the second half. He missed the season's first four games after undergoing arthroscopic surgery on his left knee late in the preseason, but he roared back to average 17.5 points per game in November.

Augmon was cruising up until January 22, averaging 16.0 points on .512 shooting from the field, when he collided with New Jersey Nets guard Drazen Petrovic and bruised his left pelvis. The second-year guard returned after missing five games, but he wasn't the same for the rest of the season. He struggled to an average of 12.3 points per game in April, contributing only 6.9 points per contest in Atlanta's final 10 games.

Augmon finished with overall averages of 14.0 points and 3.9 rebounds per game. He shot .501 from the floor, second on the Hawks to Kevin Willis's .506, and ranked second on the team with 91 steals. He scored a season-high 27 points on December 4 at Indiana.

1991-92: Stacey Augmon was honored as the nation's top defensive player in each of his final three seasons at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, and the Associated Press named him a First-Team All-American as a senior. He helped the Runnin' Rebels to the NCAA Championship in 1990 and the NCAA Final Four in 1991.

The 1990-91 UNLV squad became only the fourth college team in history to land three players in the first round of the NBA Draft when Larry Johnson (No. 1), Augmon (No. 9), and Greg Anthony (No. 12) were all drafted in 1991. Another member of that powerhouse UNLV team, George Ackles, was picked in the second round (29th overall) by the Miami Heat.

Augmon was even better than anticipated. He was the only Atlanta player-and the only NBA rookie-to start all 82 games. Known as a defensive specialist in college, Augmon showed a surprising scoring knack in the NBA. He averaged 13.3 points, third best on the team, and finished as Atlanta's steals leader (124) and second-leading rebounder (5.1 rpg). Augmon ranked fourth among rookies in both scoring and assists (2.5 apg), earning a berth on the NBA All-Rookie First Team.

Augmon played small forward in college, but Atlanta Coach Bob Weiss played him at off guard because Dominique Wilkins already occupied the team's small forward slot. Augmon participated in the Slam-Dunk Championship at the 1992 NBA All-Star Weekend in Orlando, finishing eighth. He also made history by scoring the NBA's 6-millionth point on a driving layup against the Golden State Warriors on March 23.


this information was taken without permission until I can create a version with my compiled facts,sorry

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