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He's not quite in a league with New Coke,
Waterworld
or, for that matter, Pamela
Anderson Lee. But
7'4" Ralph Sampson makes anyone's short list of notable
busts. As a senior at Harrisonburg (Va.) High, Sampson was
heralded as an amalgam of the game's greatest centers: He
supposedly had Chamberlain's presence, Abdul-Jabbar's touch
and
Russell's defense. "People said I could have gone right from
high school to the NBA, which was virtually unheard of at
the time," he says. Instead Sampson chose to attend
Virginia, where he was a three-time All-America but never
won an NCAA title.
The first pick, by the Houston Rockets, in the 1983 draft,
Sampson was named rookie of the year in '84 and the
All-Star Game MVP in '85, and knocked the Los Angeles Lakers
out of the '86 Western Conference finals with a corkscrew
push shot at the buzzer.
Yet he was never the dominator he was expected to be. His
critics contended that he shunned contact and instead chose
to play like a two guard with a pituitary problem.
"People didn't like me for that," says Sampson,
37, "but I feel that by showing that
big guys could do more than just bang down low, I helped
redefine the center
position."
Even from a man with a colossal wingspan, that's a stretch.
But Sampson was undone less by his playing style than by
his gimpy knees, which were scoped more often than the
aforementioned Lee at a construction site. After missing
only three games in his
first three years, he averaged just 39 games per season for
the rest of his career, which ended with him riding the
bench for the Sacramento Kings in 1990-91. "I can't
help wondering what could have been if I'd been
healthy," he says.
In 1993 Sampson took a job as an assistant coach at James
Madison but left after one season because, he says,
"it wasn't the right situation for me." He's now
CEO of Sampson Enterprises, which includes a licensing
company, a marketing division and a
nonprofit foundation. "I have lofty goals for this
company, and I'm willing to do whatever it takes to be
successful," Sampson says, speaking with a passion
that his former coaches no doubt wish he'd displayed on the
court.
He spends the rest of his time at home in Richmond with his
wife, Aleize, and their kids, Rachel, 10, Ralph III, 8, and
Robert, 5. "Ralph's already
5'2" and wears a men's 9 shoe," says the proud
papa. "No question he'll be better than me."
—by L. Jon WertheimCover photograph by Manny Millan
Issue date: January 26, 1998
Past Editions of Catching Up With...
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