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Randy Livingston

After the 1995 operation to his knee, Livingston hoped to rehab near his Alabama surgeon at a slower pace and where “he wouldn’t have had to feel rushed to play basketball.” LSU, however, wanted him back in Baton Rouge. Recalling this time with amazing calm, Livingston recounted, “what really got under my skin was that I had put my career on the line for the program and for the team and everything. And, they didn’t really want to let me do the things that I thought were necessary for me to get healthy and to be able to achieve the things that I wanted to achieve.” Responding to my bewilderment, Livingston expounded, “I guess they wanted to keep their eyes on me,” as rumors circulated of his impending departure from LSU.

Livingston played only six games during the 1995-96 season, was put on a 10-day rest period for a back injury, then entered the 1996 draft, a risky proposition for a guy with merely 22 collegiate games under his belt and an injury-riddled reputation. Rolling the dice, the Houston Rockets gambled on the Louisiana native and drafted him in the second round. The gamble paid off. Livingston played 64 games as a reserve on a Rockets squad that reached the Western Conference Finals and missed only a few games with tendinitis and back spasms.

If Livingston thought Houston was a place to call home, he was wrong. Since the 1997-98 season, Livingston’s record reads like that of a career itinerant. Sioux Falls Skyforce of the Continental Basketball Association, the Atlanta Hawks, the Miami Heat, back to Sioux Falls, then to the Phoenix Suns where this past summer he signed a two year deal.

Last year’s NBA lockout didn’t exactly help Livingston. Because he didn’t have a contract, it was difficult to get a spot on a team once the lockout was over. Believing that Miami would need his services, he went to the Heat training camp with hopes that turned sour when the Heat signed Terry Porter six days into camp.

So, off Livingston went to the CBA where he put together a great 1998-99 campaign leading the Sioux Falls Skyforce to a runner-up finish. A workhorse for Sioux Falls, Livingston averaged 13.7 points, 6.5 assists, and 4.2 rebounds per game. A tenacious, hungry player who rises to the challenge, Livingston elevated his level of play in the CBA playoffs averaging 19.4 points, 7.8 assists and 4.7 rebounds. This feat not only garnered him a second place finish in voting for Finals MVP, but more importantly it dispelled any nagging questions about the health of his knees.